macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[viettanium]

Hi, found this and tested with my MacBook Pro mid 2012 non retina and it WORKS!
Follow the instructions very carefully.
WFI working with handoff, etc.

GitHub - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher: A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs

A primitive USB patcher for installing macOS Big Sur on unsupported Macs - barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher

github.com

Follow this guide and...
Successfully installed on my Mac mini Late 2012 with Fusion Drive inside, I created USB Stick and install on my SSD external drive, no touch on my Fusion Drive.
Now I have dual boot macOS 10.15 (internal Fusion Drive) and macOS 11 Big Sur (external USB SSD Drive)
Full Wi-Fi and Graphics working!

 

[PixelmonGalaxy]

I made a relatively simple guide on how to get wi-fi working on your unsupported macs ?
Also here is the said "link in the description":

File on MEGA

mega.nz

 

[vincenzo79]

Hi everyone, thanks for the excellent work you are doing. But what happens when there are updates?

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Killing spindump and Spotlight processes makes Big Sur much faster also on Core 2 Duo 4% CPU IDLE instead of 100% I stop them after boot with a bash script that also unmount unwanted volumes.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Hi everyone, thanks for the excellent work you are doing. But what happens when there are updates?

You must reinstall System + Apps from scratch until the dosdude1 automatic patch will be released. There are procedures to update from current betas, but are not easy or reliable.

Devi reinstallare tutto da capo, sistema e applicazioni, fino a che non verrà rilasciata la patch automatica di dosdude1. Ci sono procedure per aggiornare dalla beta attuale, ma non son né semplici né affidabili.

 

[ghost82]

Hi @jackluke
Sorry to bother you with my question, it may appear ot, since I'm running Big Sur in a vm and not in a real unsupported mac, however I found several steps in this thread useful for my issues, and the following question should be however appropriate for real mac too.

I read about 40 pages of this thread and from what I understood you were able to install beta 1, disable SIP, disable authenticated root and unlock / for read and write.
After enabling again (still in beta 1) authenticated root you were not able to seal the system again, as you could always read and write in /.
Then you upgraded to beta 2 and this resulted in a sealed system again.

I'm in near the same situation, starting from beta 2, I disabled SIP and authenticated root and installed filed in /System (to make my wifi dongle to work as installing in /Library doesn't work).
After this, from recovery, I needed to tag an empty string snapshot to boot:
/System/Library/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_systemsnapshot -v /Volumes/MacOsVolumeName -r ""
and delete all the other snapshot (I had 2, com.apple.os.update-MSUPrepareUpdate and com.apple.os.update-carachtersAndNumbers).
Without deleting these snapshots my modifications didn't apply.

I enabled again SIP ad authenticated root and I'm now able to boot with modifications and wifi dongle is working as expected.

Now the question:
is there a method to seal the system again?
With SIP and authenticated root enabled if I try to mount / with -uw I now have failed with 77; with a sealed system you should have failed with 66.
How to have back the failed with 66 error?
I'm not sure if it's possible...

Thanks!

 

[jackluke]

Fixing BigSur "error 77" is enough easy, just boot from macOS Recovery and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

for "mount error 77" is just required nvram csr-active-config=w%00%00%00

after simply boot BigSur with single user mode and type: mount -uw / , or in normal booting sudo mount -uw /

On my beta 2 had these snapshots : com.apple.os.update-UUIDlettersnumbers

but these kind of snapshots are made after the use of " --bootefi --create snapshot" otherwise they have only a "date time" naming.

I don't know how to seal again the BigSur system, maybe with tmutil localsnapshot

or reinstalling BigSur , or using this: /System/Library/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_sealvolume

 

[GSXB]

beta 2 installed with parrotgeeks method to create the usb
then used this install method

a few sound issues but apart from that all working
cMP 4.1/5.1

 

[jhowarth]

Hi @jackluke
Sorry to bother you with my question, it may appear ot, since I'm running Big Sur in a vm and not in a real unsupported mac, however I found several steps in this thread useful for my issues, and the following question should be however appropriate for real mac too.

I read about 40 pages of this thread and from what I understood you were able to install beta 1, disable SIP, disable authenticated root and unlock / for read and write.
After enabling again (still in beta 1) authenticated root you were not able to seal the system again, as you could always read and write in /.
Then you upgraded to beta 2 and this resulted in a sealed system again.

I'm in near the same situation, starting from beta 2, I disabled SIP and authenticated root and installed filed in /System (to make my wifi dongle to work as installing in /Library doesn't work).
After this, from recovery, I needed to tag an empty string snapshot to boot:
/System/Library/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_systemsnapshot -v /Volumes/MacOsVolumeName -r ""
and delete all the other snapshot (I had 2, com.apple.os.update-MSUPrepareUpdate and com.apple.os.update-carachtersAndNumbers).
Without deleting these snapshots my modifications didn't apply.

I enabled again SIP ad authenticated root and I'm now able to boot with modifications and wifi dongle is working as expected.

Now the question:
is there a method to seal the system again?
With SIP and authenticated root enabled if I try to mount / with -uw I now have failed with 77; with a sealed system you should have failed with 66.
How to have back the failed with 66 error?
I'm not sure if it's possible...

Thanks!

When you tagged the snapshots for deletion, were you booted from the Recovery partition of the installed disk or from the usb installer? I have tried two different external usb drives with beta 2 installed and keep seeing the same behavior. From the terminal under a normal boot of Big Sur, 'diskutil list' shows an AFPS container of APFS Snapshot type for the sixth partition at identifier disk3s5s1 and the name com.apple.update-MSUPrepareUpdate. However from a recovery terminal boot, 'diskutil list' shows this same sixth partition as disk5s6, as container type APFS and named as Update. This prevents the tagging the sixth partition from the recovery terminal since the OS doesn't see it as a snapshot. Is no one else running into this problem? FYI, this was tested on a supported machine.

 

[ghost82]

Thank you for your reply, yes I know how to get aware of the error 77, but I'm trying the opposite, from error 77 to error 66 again (seal the volume).
I will try your suggestions and report back.

 

[jhowarth]

Fixing BigSur "error 77" is enough easy, just boot from macOS Recovery and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

for "mount error 77" is just required nvram csr-active-config=w%00%00%00

after simply boot BigSur with single user mode and type: mount -uw / , or in normal booting sudo mount -uw /

On my beta 2 had these snapshots : com.apple.os.update-UUIDlettersnumbers

but these kind of snapshots are made after the use of " --bootefi --create snapshot" otherwise they have only a "date time" naming.

I don't know how to seal again the BigSur system, maybe with tmutil localsnapshot

or reinstalling BigSur , or using this: /System/Library/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_sealvolume

Do you actually see the snapshot partition show up when booted under recovery as an 'APFS Snapshot' container? I have tried two separate external usb drives (one HD and one SSD) where a normal boot shows 'APFS Snapshot' for the sixth partition from 'diskutil list'. However, when booted from the recovery or usb install media, 'diskutil list' from the terminal shows this sixth partition as a standard 'APFS' one which prevents tagging it for removal.

ps I wonder if the updated Big Sur saavy bootrom are inhibiting the snapshot from appearing as one under recovery to prevent tagging it for removal?

 

[ghost82]

When you tagged the snapshots for deletion, were you booted from the Recovery partition of the installed disk or from the usb installer?

I did all from recovery where mac os is installed, no installation usb/disk (important, if running opencore - which I'm doing - even in an unsupported mac make sure that variable csr-active-config is empty in the config.plist, otherwise the terminal in recovery will reply with a "this commands must be run from recovery").
I can't see any diskXsYsZ, after I deleted snapshots they were not created again.

By the way, for a case, on my first installation of beta 1 I though it hanged after booting from Preboot and I forced a shutdown at "Forcing CS_RUNTIME for entitlement: com.apple.rootless.restricted-block-devices": I booted again from the mac os volume that was created and installation ended successfully; forcing the shutdown prevented the volume to be sealed and I was able to run sudo mount -uw / without disabling authenticated-root.
So the volume seal should happen because of com.apple.rootless.restricted-block-devices.

/System/Library/Filesystems/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_sealvolume

mmm... I haven't that executable at that path..

 

[jhowarth]

I did all from recovery where mac os is installed, no installation usb/disk.
I can't see any diskXsYsZ, after I deleted snapshots they were not created again.

By the way, for a case, on my first installation of beta 1 I though it hanged after booting from Preboot and I forced a shutdown at "Forcing CS_RUNTIME for entitlement: com.apple.rootless.restricted-block-devices": I booted again from the mac os volume that was created and installation ended successfully; forcing the shutdown prevented the volume to be sealed and I was able to run sudo mount -uw / without disabling authenticated-root.

What I am seeing under the recovery volume on a supported machine is that the snapshot no longer appears as APFS Snapshot container type but as the simple APFS container type which makes it impossible to tag for removal.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Carbon Copy Cloner 5.1,20 Beta 2 fails cloning BS. Also if it shows ALL OK, the backup starts booting then hard disk never completes loading. For testing purposes we need to find a way to clone working installations, so we can try to achieve acceleration and optimizations. Time Machine completes the task but I don't know if it works

 

[jhowarth]

Carbon Copy Cloner 5.20 Beta 2 fails cloning BS. Also if it shows ALL OK, the backup starts booting then hard disk never completes loading. For testing purposes we need to find a way to clone working installations, so we can try to achieve acceleration and optimizations. Time Machine completes the task but I don't know if it works

That should come as no surprise as the author clearly states that it only supports data-only backups and that he is working with Apple to enhance it to support full clones.

 

[RogueB]

Hello to all,

I installed BigSur beta2 on iMac 13,2, which was dropped from the “list” of BigSur supported machines.

I used barrykn "https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher" to create USB stick containing BigSur beta 2 installer. Followed directions as “per listed website” and booted into BigSur Beta 2 without issues.
WiFi works, but as others have noted, it can’t connect to hidden networks; that’s not an issue, just an observation.
Noted problem with Menu Bar Clock, but was able to format the clock via terminal commands found here:
https://www.tech-otaku.com/mac/sett...-for-the-macos-menu-bar-clock-using-terminal/

Not all commands, listed on that site work, but month, day and digital clock with seconds is viable.

This Ivy-Bridge Machine currently runs very well .

Unfotunately, that’s not the case with my MacBook Pro 5,2 (C2D Penryn).

I used Hax3.app to install BigSur Beta2 onto a separate partition, after executing the “nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_out _of_my_way=1” from Catalina Installer USB stick.

The installation starts, goes to “about 6 minutes remaining” point (on progress bar), then reboots to gray screen with apple logo and a progress bar; the latter goes full length, but stalls.

I repeated the install process, (after total partition wipe) but, after auto-reboot from “6 minutes remaining point”( on progress bar), I booted into single-user mode. The process stalled at a “request” from USB controller for power. The request is repeated through several lines, then system stalls; the only “way out” is pressing power button to shut down.
Seems legacy USB Injector (?) did not load, leaving all USB powered “functions” unavailable.

Oddly, I was able to install BigSur Beta1 through the above procedure, and it would allow the setup until the log-in widow appeared. I know there is a fix for that (decrease transparency), but I opted to try to install Beta2.

Thank you, to all the individuals who are working to make BigSur viable on the “abandoned macs.”

 

[Bravo2zero]

Carbon Copy Cloner 5.1,20 Beta 2 fails cloning BS. Also if it shows ALL OK, the backup starts booting then hard disk never completes loading. For testing purposes we need to find a way to clone working installations, so we can try to achieve acceleration and optimizations. Time Machine completes the task but I don't know if it works

Been there and done all that , apples disk utility can't even do a clone of BS like it use to on other OSX. I even tried another clone tool ( i forget brand but was apple format ) with the same effect.

 

[Alex-Microsmeta]

Been there and done all that , apples disk utility can't even do a clone of BS like it use to on other OSX. I even tried another clone tool ( i forget brand but was apple format ) with the same effect.

And Catalina don't recognize BS partition... calling it Update. Will be vey hard to make a fully functional vintage mac

 

[Maclinux]

Hello to all,

I installed BigSur beta2 on iMac 13,2, which was dropped from the “list” of BigSur supported machines.

I used barrykn "https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher" to create USB stick containing BigSur beta 2 installer. Followed directions as “per listed website” and booted into BigSur Beta 2 without issues.
WiFi works, but as others have noted, it can’t connect to hidden networks; that’s not an issue, just an observation.
Noted problem with Menu Bar Clock, but was able to format the clock via terminal commands found here:
https://www.tech-otaku.com/mac/sett...-for-the-macos-menu-bar-clock-using-terminal/

Not all commands, listed on that site work, but month, day and digital clock with seconds is viable.

This Ivy-Bridge Machine currently runs very well .

Unfotunately, that’s not the case with my MacBook Pro 5,2 (C2D Penryn).

I used Hax3.app to install BigSur Beta2 onto a separate partition, after executing the “nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_out _of_my_way=1” from Catalina Installer USB stick.

The installation starts, goes to “about 6 minutes remaining” point (on progress bar), then reboots to gray screen with apple logo and a progress bar; the latter goes full length, but stalls.

I repeated the install process, (after total partition wipe) but, after auto-reboot from “6 minutes remaining point”( on progress bar), I booted into single-user mode. The process stalled at a “request” from USB controller for power. The request is repeated through several lines, then system stalls; the only “way out” is pressing power button to shut down.
Seems legacy USB Injector (?) did not load, leaving all USB powered “functions” unavailable.

Oddly, I was able to install BigSur Beta1 through the above procedure, and it would allow the setup until the log-in widow appeared. I know there is a fix for that (decrease transparency), but I opted to try to install Beta2.

Thank you, to all the individuals who are working to make BigSur viable on the “abandoned macs.”

Your solution for Menu Bar Clock has worked perfectly for me.

Thank you very much.

 

[moosethegoose2213]

2012 Retina 15" confirmed with WiFi (probably been done already)

 

[jhowarth]

Hello to all,

I installed BigSur beta2 on iMac 13,2, which was dropped from the “list” of BigSur supported machines.

I used barrykn "https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher" to create USB stick containing BigSur beta 2 installer. Followed directions as “per listed website” and booted into BigSur Beta 2 without issues.
WiFi works, but as others have noted, it can’t connect to hidden networks; that’s not an issue, just an observation.
Noted problem with Menu Bar Clock, but was able to format the clock via terminal commands found here:
https://www.tech-otaku.com/mac/sett...-for-the-macos-menu-bar-clock-using-terminal/

Not all commands, listed on that site work, but month, day and digital clock with seconds is viable.

This Ivy-Bridge Machine currently runs very well .

Unfotunately, that’s not the case with my MacBook Pro 5,2 (C2D Penryn).

I used Hax3.app to install BigSur Beta2 onto a separate partition, after executing the “nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_out _of_my_way=1” from Catalina Installer USB stick.

The installation starts, goes to “about 6 minutes remaining” point (on progress bar), then reboots to gray screen with apple logo and a progress bar; the latter goes full length, but stalls.

I repeated the install process, (after total partition wipe) but, after auto-reboot from “6 minutes remaining point”( on progress bar), I booted into single-user mode. The process stalled at a “request” from USB controller for power. The request is repeated through several lines, then system stalls; the only “way out” is pressing power button to shut down.
Seems legacy USB Injector (?) did not load, leaving all USB powered “functions” unavailable.

Oddly, I was able to install BigSur Beta1 through the above procedure, and it would allow the setup until the log-in widow appeared. I know there is a fix for that (decrease transparency), but I opted to try to install Beta2.

Thank you, to all the individuals who are working to make BigSur viable on the “abandoned macs.”

I see no evidence of barryk's micropatcher attempting to insert the legacy usb support into the process. Someone is going to have to rebuild the the internal dmg's in the installer to have that support.

 

[haralds]

Has anybody tried the VMware Tech Preview on older (unsupported) hardware? On my first try on a Mac Pro 5,1 I ran into virtualization issues. It requires virtualization features on Big Sur not support by Westmere-EP (Intel-EPT and XSAVE.) Oddly they do not require this on Catalina. Workstation has the same issue on Windows but has a VMX workaround.
VMware 11.5.5 does not work either.
However, I just got Parallels to work. Might have to switch.

## Later
Parallels appears serviceable. It needs its extension, but Big Sur still supports it with a reboot.

 

[hvds]

Hello to all,

I installed BigSur beta2 on iMac 13,2, which was dropped from the “list” of BigSur supported machines.

I used barrykn "https://github.com/barrykn/big-sur-micropatcher" to create USB stick containing BigSur beta 2 installer. Followed directions as “per listed website” and booted into BigSur Beta 2 without issues.
WiFi works, but as others have noted, it can’t connect to hidden networks; that’s not an issue, just an observation.
Noted problem with Menu Bar Clock, but was able to format the clock via terminal commands found here:
https://www.tech-otaku.com/mac/sett...-for-the-macos-menu-bar-clock-using-terminal/

Not all commands, listed on that site work, but month, day and digital clock with seconds is viable.

This Ivy-Bridge Machine currently runs very well .

Unfotunately, that’s not the case with my MacBook Pro 5,2 (C2D Penryn).

I used Hax3.app to install BigSur Beta2 onto a separate partition, after executing the “nvram boot-args=“-no_compat_check amfi_get_out_out _of_my_way=1” from Catalina Installer USB stick.

The installation starts, goes to “about 6 minutes remaining” point (on progress bar), then reboots to gray screen with apple logo and a progress bar; the latter goes full length, but stalls.

I repeated the install process, (after total partition wipe) but, after auto-reboot from “6 minutes remaining point”( on progress bar), I booted into single-user mode. The process stalled at a “request” from USB controller for power. The request is repeated through several lines, then system stalls; the only “way out” is pressing power button to shut down.
Seems legacy USB Injector (?) did not load, leaving all USB powered “functions” unavailable.

Oddly, I was able to install BigSur Beta1 through the above procedure, and it would allow the setup until the log-in widow appeared. I know there is a fix for that (decrease transparency), but I opted to try to install Beta2.

Thank you, to all the individuals who are working to make BigSur viable on the “abandoned macs.”

As for the MBP5,2, I have an equivalent machine, and could install with Hax3.app, both beta 1 and beta 2 - but only to internal disk, NOT to one connected via USB. When on USB, I observed the same symptom as you did.
Is yours on USB?

For Catalina, jackluke had made an OpenCore loader which injects legacy USB into the (OTA) installation process on USB disks. The same doesn't work (yet?) for BS. Legacy USB can be injected into the installed system though.

So unfortunately I had to hook my BS testing disk on SATA for installation of BS. Afterwards, it can live on USB for further installation steps (patches), booting and running. I used jackluke's prelinkedkernel fix4.command and can run BS on MBP5,2 (slowly without acceleration, but good enough for testing. Photos 6.0 crashes.)

 

[TimothyR734]

And Catalina don't recognize BS partition... calling it Update. Will be vey hard to make a fully functional vintage mac

[automerge]1594667151[/automerge]
It is listed macOS Big Sur - data I think only the update appears and the Big Sir-data is hidden to try to prevent us from tampering with the OS

 

[jhowarth]

Fixing BigSur "error 77" is enough easy, just boot from macOS Recovery and type: csrutil disable ; reboot

for "mount error 77" is just required nvram csr-active-config=w%00%00%00

after simply boot BigSur with single user mode and type: mount -uw / , or in normal booting sudo mount -uw /

On my beta 2 had these snapshots : com.apple.os.update-UUIDlettersnumbers

but these kind of snapshots are made after the use of " --bootefi --create snapshot" otherwise they have only a "date time" naming.

I don't know how to seal again the BigSur system, maybe with tmutil localsnapshot

or reinstalling BigSur , or using this: /System/Library/apfs.fs/Contents/Resources/apfs_sealvolume

Jackluke, how did you prune off your snapshots? Did you do it while booted from the same Big Sur snapshot? My understanding is that once tagged for removal, 'unmount -uw /' should work upon reboot even without deleting the snapshot. However that didn't work on my unsupported machine.