macOS Tahoe 26 on Unsupported Macs Discussion

[jshayya0184]

macOS Tahoe is officially the last macOS to support Intel Macs, as confirmed by Apple. This will be quite a long thread, I'm sure. The official minimum requirements are as follows:

Current state: Tahoe has successfully booted on some Hackintosh models, see here for more:

Spoiler: Links

https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1l7qb4g/macos_tahoe_on_acer_predator_g3571

https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1l8ii33/dell_latitude_5300_2in1_macos_tahoe

https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1l7pu0e/macos_26_tahoe_success_on_dual_core_i3_10110u

https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/1l7x6rd/tahoe

So the T2 chip doesn't seem to be required. I've yet to get Tahoe to boot on my MBA7,2, but I'll wait for a statement from the OCLP devs before I try to do anything more.
Assumption correct: See post #56 - got a MP5,1 booting a fresh installation of Tahoe.


Here´s a confirmed list of Macs that have shown Tahoe boot capability / successful login to Finder
so far (keep in mind that there are no patches available until OCLP dev team (or individuals) release anything for macOS26. Mileage of oob-supported hardware will vary also at the moment.

* MacBook Pro 4,1 (2008, 17" Core2Duo, 8600M GT GPU)
* MacBook Pro 8,2 (2011, i7, iGPU) / note: due to USB 2 issue no mouse/kbd input yet
* Mac Pro 3,1 (2008, single CPU or 2nd CPU disabled by OC EFI, Nvidia Kepler based GPUs)
* Mac Pro 4,1 (2009, flashed to 5,1, Nvidia Kepler based GPUs)
* Mac Pro 5,1 (2010, Nvidia Kepler based GPUs)

 

[redheeler]

Ah the T2 being required is a challenge I hadn't thought of before. Could this mean none of the pre-T2 Macs will be able to run it?

 

[padams35]

OCLP managed to patch their way through the T1 chip, but IIRC they only finished patching T1 issues earlier this year while the first T1s (Late 2016) were cut from Ventura back in 2022. That was almost three years for R&D.

Probably easier to disable a software check for missing hardware than to bypass working hardware checking software, but this may take a long while.

 

[redheeler]

OCLP managed to patch their way through the T1 chip, but IIRC they only finished patching T1 issues earlier this year while the first T1s (Late 2016) were cut from Ventura back in 2022. That was almost three years for R&D.

Good to know. I suspect the challenge this year will be getting it to run on non-T2 Macs. Macs like the 2018 Mac mini and 2020 MacBook Air with T2 should be easier I'd think.

Although, if MacOS can still run in a VM environment with no T2, maybe not. Someone please confirm!

 

[jshayya0184]

Good to know. I suspect the challenge this year will be getting it to run on non-T2 Macs. Macs like the 2018 Mac mini and 2020 MacBook Air with T2 should be easier I'd think.

Although, if MacOS can still run in a VM environment with no T2, maybe not. Someone please confirm!

I'm planning on downloading the beta tomorrow, and testing it both in a VM, and natively on my 7,2 MBA. I'll report back once I do.

 

[Macdctr]

I just learned of the new MacOS and am interested in seeing if this will install cleanly onto my 2017 12-inch i7 MacBook. I plan to give this a try using the current version of OCLP and see what happens. I will report my findings once done . . .

 

[TMRJIJ]

Hopefully with Graphics Acceleration…

 

[TehFalcon]

iMac Pro support was dropped even though it has a T2..

 

[JPack]

iMac Pro support was dropped even though it has a T2..

It already received 7 years of major updates since launch. Macs almost never get more than that.

No different from MacBook Pro 15.4-inch.

 

[nathansz]

yes it can be done

already running on intel pc's

 

[jshayya0184]

Just tried booting the Tahoe installer natively on my 2017 Air, and I'm met with this error:

 

[nathansz]

Hopefully with Graphics Acceleration…

View attachment 2517980

it doesn't look much better with hardware acceleration

the finder sidebar is an abomination that should never have gotten past rough sketch stage

 

[amaze1499]

Just tried booting the Tahoe installer natively on my 2017 Air, and I'm met with this error:View attachment 2518364

You did not apply any root patches?

 

[Larsvonhier]

Installer boot for Tahoe successful on MP5,1 (stick prepared with MrMacintosh pkg, extracted to install.app and treated with OCLP 2.4.0 to write to USB stick.

Needs intermediate step USB 3 card though while booting from it.

Sequence: Boot OC EFI, select USB stick installer, boot verbose and wait for "waiting for boot volume" error or crossed halt icon appears. Then unplug USB stick from USB 2 and reconnect on the fly to USB 3.
Booting resumes (!) and after a while the install menu appears (or the missing mouse/kbd blink sequece - then replug the mouse / kbd also to USB 3).

Needless to say: Result of the installation will be at least dubious and no current patches are expected to work any miracle ;-)

Update: 2nd boot/install stage now running, leaving "17min. to complete"

Update2: Setup assistant fired up with blue blurry Tahoe wallpaper. Cannot set new user due to crash and restart.
Tried to migrate a previous user instead, now crashes during reboot phase to complete migration.

...so close to the Finder now - almost in reach ;-)
Will try this on a i7 machine. Suspect heavy usage of AVX 2 commands somewhere on the process!

 

[Larsvonhier]

Just tried booting the Tahoe installer natively on my 2017 Air, and I'm met with this error:View attachment 2518364

Have you booted an OC EFI suitable to your machine?

 

[alphascorp]

Hi everyone,

Yeah, one more year for Intel Macs!

I updated my various themes for OC on GitHub with icons and wallpapers (Light/Dark) from macOS Tahoe :

(3D_Squared, 3D_Rounded, Full_OS_3D_BSDrive-OC-Themes, 3D_BSDrive and Apple-OC-Themes)



I've also updated the HDD, External drive and SSD icons for macOS Tahoe like this.

Enjoy!

 

[Lucky736]

Was pretty disappointed to see the 2019 15" wasn't supported. Very odd.

 

[Sven G]

MacBookPro11,3, with a USB flash drive installer with macOS 26 Tahoe Developer Beta 1 and OCLP 2.4.0: initially it boots from the flash drive, with a normal progress bar, but then suddenly stops at a prohibited sign (a circle with a line across it); so it is currently impossible to do a clean install: maybe it is because this Intel Mac lacks the T2 chip…?

 

[Sven G]

… In the meantime, macOS 26 Tahoe Developer Beta 1 works perfectly as a virtual machine on Apple Silicon; here, in Parallels Desktop 20.3.2, on an M3 MacBook Air:

KB Parallels: Installing macOS Tahoe virtual machine on a Mac running Sequoia

However, there are a few extra steps to be taken to accommodate for the changes between macOS's so that the virtual machine can run on a Sequoia host.

kb.parallels.com

 

[SilverSpooned]

This makes me glad I didn't decide to get an older intel Mac, as I like having the latest OS.

 

[jshayya0184]

Have you booted an OC EFI suitable to your machine?

I believe so, though I'll double check.

 

[sinbad21]

MacBookPro11,3, with a USB flash drive installer with macOS 26 Tahoe Developer Beta 1 and OCLP 2.4.0: initially it boots from the flash drive, with a normal progress bar, but then suddenly stops at a prohibited sign (a circle with a line across it); so it is currently impossible to do a clean install: maybe it is because this Intel Mac lacks the T2 chip…?

Something similar on my MBP 9,1.

 

[mib01]

API Metal 4 will be a challenge as mentioned

Waiting for the work of the OCLP team, if it runs well on the Macbook Pro 15" 2017 I will be happy, as it will end Intel support in style

 

[Larsvonhier]

Something similar on my MBP 9,1.

Nope, see #14.
USB drive is disconnected during boot - currently only USB 3 works as a remedy. Of course not easily feasible on MacBooks as it is with PCIe slots in a Mac Pro.
Nothing to do with T2 (which is also not present in Mac Pro).

Same happens here on my MacBook Air 4,2 and MacBook 6,1.

 

[Nermal]

API Metal 4 will be a challenge as mentioned

I suspect it'll be a complete no-go: even the supported Intel Macs are limited to Metal 3.