macOS 12 Monterey on Unsupported Macs Thread

[Argyboy]

Hi folks. Since Catalina is getting a bit old now, I was considering upgrading my MacBook Pro 2012 Unibody (13 inch, i5, 8GB RAM) to Monterey via OpenCore. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with running Monterey on these machines, and if so, what the performance is like?

Catalina is nice and snappy on this machine and I don't want to end up with this MacBook being totally bogged down running an OS that it's not capable of. Appreciate any advice, thanks!

 

[prog99]

Hi folks. Since Catalina is getting a bit old now, I was considering upgrading my MacBook Pro 2012 Unibody (13 inch, i5, 8GB RAM) to Monterey via OpenCore. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with running Monterey on these machines, and if so, what the performance is like?

Catalina is nice and snappy on this machine and I don't want to end up with this MacBook being totally bogged down running an OS that it's not capable of. Appreciate any advice, thanks!

Yes, works fine. I’m running docker on mine amongst other things.
I’ve an i7 model with dual ssds and 16gb ram.

 

[E__F__]

Hi folks. Since Catalina is getting a bit old now, I was considering upgrading my MacBook Pro 2012 Unibody (13 inch, i5, 8GB RAM) to Monterey via OpenCore. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with running Monterey on these machines, and if so, what the performance is like?

Catalina is nice and snappy on this machine and I don't want to end up with this MacBook being totally bogged down running an OS that it's not capable of. Appreciate any advice, thanks!

I'm running Monterey on a Late 2008 2.93ghz dual core MBP with 8gb ram and an SSD. It runs everything smooth but temps jump up pretty quickly being a dual core so I have iStat Menues with a custom fan curve. It gets louder but works. It's a secondary tinkering machine so not super concerned about performance but my guess is you wouldn't have any issues with it. To me it seems to run just as well as Catalina on this machine.

 

[Argyboy]

Thank you very much!

 

[Faline]

MY OLD iMAC mid 2010 GOT STUCK >___> I installed Montery and also Windows 11 very successfully with Mr.Macintosh's great and very accurate instructions. Thanks a lot for them! My Mac is HW-upgraded: it contains Xeon CPU, 1 TB HDD+ 1TB SSD + 1TB SSD (instead of CD-ROM) +24GB RAM. It worked flawlessly until the "experiment" with OCLP, new installations and my further actions. It seems I made a serious mistake by doing a sector-by-sector backup copy of the whole system - ftom SSD to internal HDD (by Paragon HDM 16 ). After that first I got Windows SSD never booting again. Monterey booted normally and I was a fool to apply First aid for the disks and that was it. For my iMac...

Luckily I have Time Machine backups on external HDD (FireWired). I keep also the U-disk with OCLP prepared during the procedure of Monterey intallatioon. To resolve the issue I decided to clean install previous High Sierra from internet (Command+Opt+R) because no other options worked to boot from ANY internal or external EFI drives - the computer does not respond to Enter key or mouse click to start the process of further booting, though it readily responds to Opt key on reboot or after shutdown using power button. Several times i activated OSx reinstall via Internet but after initial steps of clean HighSierra installation the computer rebooted with chime and hang dumb with white screen. At that the following is very peculiar for for me: the internal disks were Cleaned totally with Disk Utility provided from internet at system reinstall, but the computer would always show up only the two options on the boot-up menu = Efi boot (blue icon of OCLP) + Mac Os Installer. How come!? They should not exist anymore as they are cleaned already! I can move with the keyboard arrow key between the options as lonf as I want but none of the options would work as soon as I press Enter: the computer hangs. The computer would always stop responding to the mouse and keyboard (etiher BT or wired). Power down and reboot - loop again. Trying to use the previously prepared EFI OCLP U- disk is also a failure since the computer does not want to start anything after choosing any of the options.
I am bewilderd now and feel very unhappy with the experiment and the mistakes I did . Is there any way to revive my old beloved device now? Seems I have to uninstall OCore and reset NVRAM? Correct?

 

[hwojtek]

MY OLD iMAC mid 2010 GOT STUCK >___> I installed Montery and also Windows 11 very successfully with Mr.Macintosh's great and very accurate instructions.

Why not ask Mr.Macintosh for another "great instruction"?
You did a sector copy, which means you had two disks that were identical in their identification data, but located on two different buses. No wonder no operating system has any idea on which bus should it locate data, when both buses provide identical information.

the internal disks were Cleaned totally with Disk Utility provided from internet at system reinstall, but the computer would always show up only the two options on the boot-up menu = Efi boot (blue icon of OCLP) + Mac Os Installer. How come!? They should not exist anymore as they are cleaned already!

No. You cleaned the visible partitions, not repartitioned the disk (which would eradicate the OC EFI). And you were not able to, since you were in Recovery.
This is the difference in the "View" menu of Disk Utility:

What you did erase:

What you should've erased:

Is there any way to revive my old beloved device now? Please help, folks.

Create an USB installer of High Sierra. Boot it, wipe the disks, not the partitions, install OS, install OC, reboot, install unsupported OS as per instructions in the first post. Unless, of course, you want to follow the bright instructions of Mr. Macintosh.

 

[mwidjaya]

Why not ask Mr.Macintosh for another "great instruction"?

Haha.

The trouble is people just blindly follow steps without understanding.

Need to read the official guide (sometimes multiple reads) to get a good understanding.

 

[Faline]

What you should've erased:

View attachment 2131173


Yes, I undestood that initially and could not manage internal drivers properly the way you advise. I've erased to the extent the Recovery permitted = with the exception of a small partition (268MB) on internal HDD under Recovery. The DskUtlty says the small first Partition cannot be deleted...Internal error..

Still, I cannot understand how will I Boot from USB with High Sierra installer if my Mac would not boot anything on this unfortunate moment as I complained.
Thus, there is no method to wipe the HDD totally and correctly?
*Next time I will follow original instructions since I feel you all do not tend to approve Mr.Macintosch's popular videos (why..?).
My name is Vyacheslav.

 

[Faline]

I tried to uninstall Open Core first. "Git" command is not found in Terminal under Recovery. Otherwise how can I uninstall without the siggested MountEfI script? Please give a hint so that I can proceed with resolving my problem.

 

[macpro_mid2014]

Still, I cannot understand how will I Boot from USB with High Sierra installer if my Mac would not boot anything on this unfortunate moment as I complained.
Thus, there is no method to wipe the HDD totally and correctly?
*Next time I will follow original instructions since I feel you all do not tend to approve Mr.Macintosch's popular videos (why..?).
My name is Vyacheslav.

Do a PRAM reset and when it boots, hold the OPTION key so you can select the USB with High Sierra. Then follow the recommendation given by @hwojtek

 

[mwidjaya]

Seems I have to uninstall OCore and reset NVRAM? Correct?

You were on right track.

1. Reset NVRAM.

Reset NVRAM on your Mac – Apple Support (AU)

If one or more settings stored in NVRAM aren't working as expected on an Intel-based Mac, resetting NVRAM may help.

support.apple.com

2. Option boot to your USB stick (Monterey) installer. Run disk utility, erase entire disk (device level).

3. Now you can reboot and start from scratch. Depends, if you want to install High Sierra (supported) or OCLP Monterey. In any case, read the guide and understand before plunging ahead.

since I feel you all do not tend to approve Mr.Macintosch's popular videos (why..?).

It lowers the entry barrier and people without adequate skills/knowledge get themselves into trouble and don't know how to get themselves out of it.

 

[hwojtek]

I feel you all do not tend to approve Mr.Macintosch's popular videos (why..?)

It's tasteless to monetize every information one has just read on a forum, where OC developers and hundreds of people provide free, in-depth support. Even worse, he does not understand how it works. Copypasting monkey.

 

[Faline]

Thank you all guyes for the additional information on my trouble fixing and your other attitude. Now I'm involved...
By the way, after NVRAM (PRAM ) reset the Mac proceeded High Sierra install without U-stick = seems the necessary files have been downloaded already through Internet on my previous "Cmd+D" attempts. I simply decided to strictly follow the recommendation on the site on how to uninstall Open Core . Resetting NVRAM was positioned for the second step.
With all your wise expert advice everything started to go smoothly with my old pal. I'm very grateful for your lending hands, dear friends. 🤝

 

[mwidjaya]

I simply decided to strictly follow the recommendation on the site on how to uninstall Open Core . Resetting NVRAM was positioned for the second step.

You refer to guide's page (as below) and follow the steps, right?

That would have been ok, provided you could boot up normally. Since you could not, reset NVRAM has to come first.

Do you see now that good understanding is important, rather than just following steps?

 

[amaze1499]

Hi folks. Since Catalina is getting a bit old now, I was considering upgrading my MacBook Pro 2012 Unibody (13 inch, i5, 8GB RAM) to Monterey via OpenCore. Just wondering if anyone has any experience with running Monterey on these machines, and if so, what the performance is like?

Catalina is nice and snappy on this machine and I don't want to end up with this MacBook being totally bogged down running an OS that it's not capable of. Appreciate any advice, thanks!

Seemingly you got the same machine than I do. This MPB runs the latest Ventura build without any issues. If you dont have any limitations in terms of software requirements for any of the previous MacOS', why not moving to 13.1 instead? For the worst case always have Time Machine backups at hand, however, I never needed them in my case.

 

[Argyboy]

Seemingly you got the same machine than I do. This MPB runs the latest Ventura build without any issues. If you dont have any limitations in terms of software requirements for any of the previous MacOS', why not moving to 13.1 instead? For the worst case always have Time Machine backups at hand, however, I never needed them in my case.

Might consider that. I'm guessing that an upgrade to 16GB RAM would help quite a bit in terms of speed, so I might address that before any upgrades. I don't use this machine for any specialist software, I just prefer to use a supported OS when I can. Catalina is getting a bit old now and doesn't receive security patches anymore. Thanks for your reply!

 

[Faline]

You refer to guide's page (as below) and follow the steps, right?

That would have been ok, provided you could boot up normally. Since you could not, reset NVRAM has to come first.

Do you see now that good understanding is important, rather than just following steps? --------------

Right, and I totally agree with you.
A lot of people, though, would want to achieve quick results easily. That's why they apply mostly to YouTube sources first looking for video "steps". I am among them, to be honest. And if some extra time availabel I am not against drowning into the essencies of the searched subject. That would add up much to remember the methods of similar troubles resolving in the future.
Now to finalize my system recoveries I would ask if it is possible to revive Windows booting, which still exists being installed in EFI on a separate internal SSD? Any link to follow to read about that possibility or is there some valuable advice in the sleeve?

 

[hwojtek]

Now to finalize my system recoveries I would ask if it is possible to revive Windows booting

Three failed boots and it will start automatic repairs (which will most probably fail). Further restart will allow you to fix booting (advanced repair options).

 

[Faline]

Three failed boots and it will start automatic repairs (which will most probably fail). Further restart will allow you to fix booting (advanced repair options).

No, I know that, but my case is that the existing bootable disk (defined from inside High Sierra as a bootable Windows disk and choosable for a next booting in System Settings) would not boot with "No bootable device.." message in large draft letters. How to fight this? - I'm asking. This disk booted fine before I brought a mess to the well-functioning system.

 

[hwojtek]

Open Core does not support legacy Windows (Bootcamp Windows is considered such). If your Windows is visible in System Preferences, it will not start through OC. You may try starting with alt pressed and picking Windows in Apple bootpicker, instead of OC bootpicker. For Windows to appear in the latter, you need to reinstall as GPT Windows (again, follow the OpenCore guide here), as I don't think you are ready to venture the extremely tricky Legacy → GPT Windows conversion.

 

[Faline]

But I HAD installed Windows 11 as GPT Windows (not legacy BIOS-MBR installation as normally required by Bootcamp Assistant). And it booted from outside the OC. The possibility never appeared in Monterey in System Settings. Now it appears in High Sierra with no booting perspectives - same as from Apple bootpicker.
Some time before I read the tricky instructions on converting Windows Legacy to GPT. Yes, I was not so desparate to try it immediately but I successfully utilized a mix of simple approaches suggested in videos from YouTube (the source being disliked by the team here) and the OC site method (how to install Win 10 on unsupported) .
I applied a USB WIn 11 install approach on unsupported devices (with mac's T2) from one source and followed advices from OC guide on Win10 installation. The result was positive at first attempt.
Now I am looking for the possibility to save time not to reinstall Win11 from scratch hoping to revive visibility of the existing GPT Windows on internal disk in Apple bootpicker screen at least. Still, I suspect there exists some work around.

 

[mwidjaya]

Still, I suspect there exists some work around.

So you did reset NVRAM, did get to installing High Sierra but did not erase entire disk w/ disk utility.

So old EFI was never erased; is a mess of leftover Windows and fresh install High Sierra. And Windows partition is still there.

Maybe you should search YouTube for a video guide to unscramble this mess, LOL.

You see how it makes no sense for someone here to waste their time to help on this, right?

 

[Faline]

Yes, friend, I understand I should better calm down now (and get lost). The sarcastic remark is quite reasonable and very justified. Looking for a simple low-level solution for my case is really a hard time-consuming task.
Well, I receive a good lesson, of course.
Be that as it may as soon as I resolve may I post a resulting message about how I fixed, If it's of any interest for anyone here and would be relevant in the thread.

 

[hwojtek]

Well, I receive a good lesson, of course.

You did, so there is no need to rant over it again. As I see it (and I've been there with my experiments a couple of times) - reinstalling Windows with OC is a simpler and faster solution in the end of the day.

 

[sashkin_bro]

hello everyone) after installing macOS monterey on an imac 2011 with an i5 2400s 16 oz processor and a replaced amd fire pro m5100 video card, I noticed problems with video playback, in browsers and on video sites the video works without problems, but the video saved on the computer itself slows down tried different formats and mp4, mov slows down even in 1080, maybe someone can help? Opencore version tui 0.4.6 version Monterey 12.6.2