macOS 14 Sonoma on Unsupported Macs Thread

[chris1111]

View attachment 2214656 Atheros WiFi is also working

I have 6 old Atheros Wifi card in my drawer I can't wait to test this

 

[Larsvonhier]

The real challenge here is getting non-Metal acceleration and 3802 based Metal GPUs.
Oh, and also a proper WiFi fix since this one I've found is not a good approach.

But does look promising anyways!

Yes, I´m aware of that, thanks also to the post/tweet from Mykola.
On day 3 after beta release a lot more already works than we got during the first days with Ventura. This is made possible due to the good and thorough work that the devs have put into the current state of OCLP. Hopefully the new metal compiler / LLVM issues can be solved...
(I post those little early success stories to give others an impression which machines have shown to boot Sonoma).

 

[Larsvonhier]

New additions (see page #1), tested here on two of my old machines:
MacBook 4,1 (yes, I know...)
MacBook 5,2

 

[cab_007]

I attempted to perform an OTA upgrade from 13.5 to Sonoma beta onto a second volume on my internal SSD (volume that I test updates on since going to Ventura), it looked to have installed ok but midstream install reboot, I received a "this volume is corrupt, restore" message. I guess we shouldn't attempt to do an in-place upgrade at this time. I will acquire an external USB drive (SD cards don't work) and give it another try.

 

[Macschrauber]

Another success on MP5,1

also the Dumper works

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

New additions (see page #1), tested here on two of my old machines:
MacBook 4,1 (yes, I know...)
MacBook 5,2

Dude. The 4,1? I had one that I intentionally would test stuff on in an attempt to kill it. (I was in college and my parents said if it died, they’d help me get a newer one.) I call it the undead MacBook because it now resides with its third owner and is alive and well!

 

[erikkfi]

I'm still continually amazed these machines work at all given how old they are and the fact that Mojave was the last supported OS.

It’s almost as if there’s no need to discontinue support for them.

 

[jgleigh]

It’s almost as if there’s no need to discontinue support for them.

I thought that until I booted up my Mac Studio...hardly used the Mac Pro 5,1 since.

 

[mikiotty]

Another success on MP5,1

also the Dumper works

View attachment 2214786

Which GPU are you using?

 

[coolio2004]

dont know whats wrong for you ? it also work here on my HP 840 G4
Try differant usb port ?
On this laptop I use a TRENDnet N150 Micro USB adapter

View attachment 2214706

I use the same device within Ventura and had never a problem.

 

[Macschrauber]

Which GPU are you using?

Kepler with efi uga bootloader in the gpu firmware, no driver yet so very slow gui.

Most important for me was that the Dumper works and the motivation to install the beta so early.

 

[OnawaAfrica]

Boots on the 14,2 MBP from 2017. Only WiFi and Touch ID fail and that about it. I'm sure if you have space, make a separate partition and it's easy.

same here touch id doesnt work on 2016 15" MBP, maybe they changed something in touchID framework

 

[Larsvonhier]

Dude. The 4,1? I had one that I intentionally would test stuff on in an attempt to kill it. (I was in college and my parents said if it died, they’d help me get a newer one.) I call it the undead MacBook because it now resides with its third owner and is alive and well!

Yes, the infamous 4,1.
It's not too shabby hardware-wise with a "fast" Penny C2D and up to 6GB of usable RAM. Equipped with SSD instead of spinning drive it's (almost) usable still. Main handicap is the x3100 intel graphics where there will be no acceleration drivers any more. My goal would be to have frame buffer back again (up to Big Sur it worked).

 

[roysterdoyster]

C2D again, this time the MacBook Pro 4,1 (in my case with 6GB RAM, 17" glossy LED backlit screen), boots Sonoma just fine. Sound works, backlight control works (!), mouse&keyboard work (so USB1.1 seems fine). Wifi & BT do not work (despite having a previously air-drop and handoff capable replacement module in the miniPCIe slot).
Oh wow, and just while typing this I noticed that the old iSight camera also works with FaceTime. Frame buffer shows all of the 512MB of the 8600MGT. No GPU accel, though - as to be expected at this time.

So, @roysterdoyster, here we might have an extra life with our machines!

Awesome, @Larsvonhier!

 

[roysterdoyster]

The real challenge here is getting non-Metal acceleration and 3802 based Metal GPUs.
Oh, and also a proper WiFi fix since this one I've found is not a good approach.

But does look promising anyways!

This is fantastic, great appreciation from my side. MBP4,1 Early 2008.

 

[Longplays]

2023 macOS 14 Sonoma drops support for these 14nm Intel Macs.

• 2017 iMac
• 2017 MacBook
• 2017 MacBook Pro

But 2022 macOS 13 Ventura will continue its Security Updates for the above for at most another 2 years.

It ends as late as 2025. I'd replace them with a late 2025 Mac M4 2nm.

With so many features in macOS one could argue it has feature bloat so Security Updates would be nice.

This shortening of support from 10 years to 8 years may be the norm going forward for Intel Macs.

 

[MacRumors3590]

Just an update on my cMP 5,1 using 0.6.8n

 

[Adamscomputerrepair]

Just an update on my cMP 5,1 using 0.6.8n
View attachment 2215110

Yeah that’s the same issue we Nvidia users ran into. Apparently AMD works fine, but I’m not buying a graphics card just to beta test.

 

[xryn5]

same here touch id doesnt work on 2016 15" MBP, maybe they changed something in touchID framework

Did TouchID work for you for Ventura? I think they just dropped T1 Security frameworks.

 

[TehFalcon]

I didn't use any root patches all I did was spoof the OpenCore boot USB to think it was a 15,2 instead of 14,2 and it worked. Again, only touchID and WiFi don't work. I made an install disk with createinstallmedia and then used OCLP to patch the USB.

Ah, no wifi is a dealbreaker. I’ll have to wait!

 

[maxevens]

View attachment 2213960

Have you installed it with OCLP?

 

[Macschrauber]

Yeah that’s the same issue we Nvidia users ran into. Apparently AMD works fine, but I’m not buying a graphics card just to beta test.

You shouldn't run Post Install Patches with OCLP068n right now.

I did as I put my SSD with Kepler generated OS 14 into my main machine with a RX560.

That run but no screen, could connect by screen sharing and it was usable. Run Post Install Patches and it crashed after booting.

Can't re-install it with that box as the installmedia stick was giving no graphics as well with the RX560. Was working but no screen sharing of course, got Caps Lock LED and keys worked to turn the machine off.

Just trying to re-install OS 14 via the installer app, not the booted stick.

If that fails also I need to re-create the OS14 SSD in another machine with Kepler.

Safe Boot does not bring 14 back, also.

So: don't do Post Install Patches _now_ with 068n on MP5,1 with Polaris.

 

[Larsvonhier]

Can report that MacBook Air 2,1 (C2D, 1.83 / 2.13GHz and only 2GB RAM) is also Sonoma-bootable!
Trackpad/kbd (USB1.1), sound, backlight control and framebuffer on board already, rest of peripherals awaiting first patches eagerly ;-)

 

[Macdctr]

Ah, no wifi is a dealbreaker. I’ll have to wait!

I ran into this issue with one of my 2015 13-inch MBP laptops and bt/wifi was not working and post install root patches crashed my mac so I reinstalled Ventura 13.5 and will stay with this OS on all my main macs until it is confirmed there is an OCLP version that supports 2015 macs.

For now I'm using my 2015 11-inch i7/8GB as my test mule for Sonoma OS14. I installed Sonoma beta w/ OCLP 0.6.7 on it but did not do the post install root patches. It runs and I can do some work on it but it doesn't have bt/wifi available and does not have the right graphics drivers installed. Just reporting what I have.

Yes, I realize I should not be running Sonoma at this time. That is why my main macs are on Ventura

 

[RBSX1]

iMac12,1 and OCLP 0.6.8n
After Root patch the system crash in less of two minutes of use, but works WiFi and framebuffer. Bluetooth is reconized but not show any device to connect. So until my GPU with Metal support arrives, I will keep testing on my hackintosh