MBP 9.1 OpenCore -> upgrade to BigSur natively

[webdepp]

Hey Guys

I run opencore successfully on a cMP 5.1 and upgraded natively from Catalina to BigSur.

Till now there was no need to install OC on my MacBook Pro, but Apple recently dropped the 9.1 from the supported devices to run BigSur and so I'm kind of forced to use OC again.
I was wondering if anyone else tried this already and made a config.plist for a MacBook Pro yet. Will start to mess around next week to get the update the "native" way ...

 

[m4f1050]

Hey Guys

I run opencore successfully on a cMP 5.1 and upgraded natively from Catalina to BigSur.

Till now there was no need to install OC on my MacBook Pro, but Apple recently dropped the 9.1 from the supported devices to run BigSur and so I'm kind of forced to use OC again.
I was wondering if anyone else tried this already and made a config.plist for a MacBook Pro yet. Will start to mess around next week to get the update the "native" way ...

I'm trying to do this, following this thread...

macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

This thread will be used to discuss advancements in getting macOS 11.0 Big Sur running on unsupported Macs. --- Compatibility List: --- FAQ: Q: What does unsupported mean for my old Mac? A: Three problems: Apple locks you out from running the stock installer of Big Sur and as...

forums.macrumors.com

I tried installing OC on my macOS Catalina 10.15.7 on MBP 9,1 but got black screen. Had to remove drive and plug it on USB adapter on my MP and remove BOOT & OC folders from EFI of my MBP drive to remove it.

 

[Alexis Noel]

I followed the 1st post on OpenCore on the Mac Pro thread, turned VMM off, turned GOP render off, hid bootpicker, and turn boot screen black to match apples new products.
I have no issues running Big Sur on my MBP 9,2. Some people reported issues with WiFi, however I don’t have that issue thanks to this modded AC + BT4.2 airport created from a 2015 MBP. (Edit: It is actually from a 2015/2017 iMac)

 

[m4f1050]

I followed the 1st post on OpenCore on the Mac Pro thread, turned VMM off, turned GOP render off, hid bootpicker, and turn boot screen black to match apples new products.
I have no issues running Big Sur on my MBP 9,2. Some people reported issues with WiFi, however I don’t have that issue thanks to this modded AC + BT4.2 airport created from a 2015 MBP.
View attachment 1675505

Can you post the config.plist please? And you did an upgrade, it showed up on "software upgrade" and not a fresh install, correct?

I tried to install OpenCore 0.6.3 like I did on my cMP 5,1 and got a black screen, no video.

 

[Alexis Noel]

Can you post the config.plist please? And you did an upgrade, it showed up on "software upgrade" and not a fresh install, correct?

I tried to install OpenCore 0.6.3 like I did on my cMP 5,1 and got a black screen, no video.

Nothing special with my config.plist here. You might have to follow the cMP one that lets you use legacy wifi airport cards as I heard people had issues with their wifi/BT on OC'ing older MacBooks. I don't since I have the modded airport card from https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/802-11ac-and-bt-4-2-are-here-for-unibody-mbps.2171056/

Yeah it showed up as software upgrade. A lot of people referred to getting OC on a USB, however I put a back up drive in my MBP and my main SSD that I'll be using on a SATA to USB adapter. I added OC on on my SSD and then did the software upgrade to Big Sur, picking that SSD as the volume to install to.

Once I got Big Sur and edited my config.plist to the way I wanted and reboot to confirm that it was working, I shut it down and swapped the drives to have my mind drive, with OC and Big Sur, in my MBP and then rebooted again to confirm one more time that it is still working.

 

[m4f1050]

I actually got it working. I had the wrong config.plist the first time I installed it. Only issue I have now is that it's using the Intel HD 4000 and not my nVidia GT650M. Will take a look at that later. Still haven't booted into Big Sur, I started the upgrade (after doing a CCC on a USB drive just in case) it's been like 15-30 mins into the upgrade.

Thanks for your info, went in and manually updated the config.plist from the 1st post of OpenCore thread.

EDIT:

Update went smooth.
It even runs cooler than Catalina.
Used to run in the 80's and 90's sometimes reaching 100, now it's at 60.
Under grahpics, it now shows both under Big Sur, both say switching supported.
Both say metal supported, but how do I test this to see if it's not just a cosmetic change to allow Big Sur to work?
Only thing is Wi-Fi, like you stated, but there is NO WAY I am paying $149 for a Wi-Fi card.
There has to be some sort of patched kext to get the existing Wi-Fi to work...

 

[Alexis Noel]

Used to run in the 80's and 90's sometimes reaching 100, now it's at 60.

Yeah same thing with my XFX Radeon RX 580 Black Edition, would run 80-100 and now it runs at 60. Synthetic benchmarks also show a performance improvement, albeit only about 5 - 10%

Only thing is Wi-Fi, like you stated, but there is NO WAY I am paying $149 for a Wi-Fi card.
There has to be some sort of patched kext to get the existing Wi-Fi to work...

The Facebook Opencore group has this config.plist to work the legacy wifi card in the Mac Pro, not 100% if it'll work with MacBook Pro.

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

Both say metal supported, but how do I test this to see if it's not just a cosmetic change to allow Big Sur to work?

Not entirely certain. ?

 

[m4f1050]

Yeah same thing with my XFX Radeon RX 580 Black Edition, would run 80-100 and now it runs at 60. Synthetic benchmarks also show a performance improvement, albeit only about 5 - 10%


The Facebook Opencore group has this config.plist to work the legacy wifi card in the Mac Pro, not 100% if it'll work with MacBook Pro.

Log into Facebook

Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

www.facebook.com

Not entirely certain. ?

I will definitely try to inject the IO80211 kexts on this zip and report back.

EDIT: That was a No-Go on the 80211 kexts... What I noticed was it only had the Mojave kexts referenced on the config.plist, let me try to reference the Catalina one..

UPDATE:

SUCCESS!
IO80211Catalina.kext and the adequate config.plist entry in Kernel to inject it worked.
Looks like it's a Broadcom 4360.

Got a fully working MacBook Pro (mid 2012) non-Retina.

*Attached OC 0.6.3 with config.plist and IO80211Catalina.kext

 

[Quackers]

I actually got it working. I had the wrong config.plist the first time I installed it. Only issue I have now is that it's using the Intel HD 4000 and not my nVidia GT650M. Will take a look at that later. Still haven't booted into Big Sur, I started the upgrade (after doing a CCC on a USB drive just in case) it's been like 15-30 mins into the upgrade.

Thanks for your info, went in and manually updated the config.plist from the 1st post of OpenCore thread.

EDIT:

Update went smooth.
It even runs cooler than Catalina.
Used to run in the 80's and 90's sometimes reaching 100, now it's at 60.
Under grahpics, it now shows both under Big Sur, both say switching supported.
Both say metal supported, but how do I test this to see if it's not just a cosmetic change to allow Big Sur to work?
Only thing is Wi-Fi, like you stated, but there is NO WAY I am paying $149 for a Wi-Fi card.
There has to be some sort of patched kext to get the existing Wi-Fi to work...

Try something like Google earth. When I use that it switches to the GT650M

 

[m4f1050]

Try something like Google earth. When I use that it switches to the GT650M

Actually, I remembered I had Minecraft and ran that, and in Activity Monitor it has Graphics Card - Yes/No and minecraft/java had a Yes and I noticed it went up to 76 C so all is good on the graphics switching. I didn't try playing but I am sure it would have gotten a bit hotter.

 

[Quackers]

On mine if you go to the Apple and select About this Mac it'll show you which chip is currently in use.
Normally it'll say Intel HD 4000 and when things are more intense that will say Nvidia GT650M

 

[m4f1050]

On mine if you go to the Apple and select About this Mac it'll show you which chip is currently in use.
Normally it'll say Intel HD 4000 and when things are more intense that will say Nvidia GT650M

Interesting! I see it on mine too. But when I booted and went to About This Mac it showed both of them... Hmmm...

 

[Quackers]

Interesting! I see it on mine too. But when I booted and went to About This Mac it showed both of them... Hmmm...

OOh!

 

[m4f1050]

Cool, it will use both cards if it needs to....

 

[Alexis Noel]

I will definitely try to inject the IO80211 kexts on this zip and report back.

EDIT: That was a No-Go on the 80211 kexts... What I noticed was it only had the Mojave kexts referenced on the config.plist, let me try to reference the Catalina one..

UPDATE:

SUCCESS!
IO80211Catalina.kext and the adequate config.plist entry in Kernel to inject it worked.
Looks like it's a Broadcom 4360.

Got a fully working MacBook Pro (mid 2012) non-Retina.

*Attached OC 0.6.3 with config.plist and IO80211Catalina.kext

Did you get handoff/continuity and Apple Watch unlock enabled and working?

 

[m4f1050]

Did you get handoff/continuity and Apple Watch unlock enabled and working?

I don't have an iPhone or iWatch, I'm an Android user when it comes to phones, love the root and control I have with my Android phones. But on desktops I have both Mac and PC.

Is there anything you need me to test between Mac Pro and MacBook Pro? Not sure if it compares, since those features you mentioned are mainly for iPhone/iWatch, logging in Apple ID pretty much does the Mac <-> MacBook integration...

 

[klangvaledave]

I followed the 1st post on OpenCore on the Mac Pro thread, turned VMM off, turned GOP render off, hid bootpicker, and turn boot screen black to match apples new products.
I have no issues running Big Sur on my MBP 9,2. Some people reported issues with WiFi, however I don’t have that issue thanks to this modded AC + BT4.2 airport created from a 2015 MBP. (Edit: It is actually from a 2015/2017 iMac)
View attachment 1675505

@Alexis Noel I have the MBP 9,1 and had the AC+BT4.2 installed a month ago but have zero knowledge in patching.

Can kindly guide me to the post that details the patching steps and what modification to the steps which is different since the AC+BT4.2 is used instead of the stock WiFi+BT4.0?

 

[klangvaledave]

As a noob on patching, I'm wondering anyone could enlighten on the pros and cons of the below tools for MBP 9,1:
OpenCore
Barry K Nathan's Micropatcher or BenSova Patched-Sur GUI overlay of it
Jack Luke M's BigSurFixes

 

[m4f1050]

As a noob on patching, I'm wondering anyone could enlighten on the pros and cons of the below tools for MBP 9,1:
OpenCore
Barry K Nathan's Micropatcher or BenSova Patched-Sur GUI overlay of it
Jack Luke M's BigSurFixes

I'm using it on both my MacPro 5,1 and MacBook Pro 9,1. It enabled them to upgrade to Big Sur and possibly other upgrades and also enable legacy Wi-Fi on MBP9,1 with a kext injection included in zip file I uploaded. If you have the kext, you can inject it on boot, there are instructions in the OpenCore thread, but I thought the reason to switch to the AC+BT4.2 was because there were drivers for it on Big Sur? So far I haven't had any issues, besides the Wi-Fi not connecting automatically, which I just noticed, but that's not OpenCore's fault, I believe it's the kext, and I believe there are workarounds I still haven't tried them out yet. All I do is (sometimes I have to first turn off Wi-Fi, turn it back on and then) select my network then it connects to my network. Definitely not good if you remote into your laptop and restart it, but then again, the laptop is meant to be portable allowing you to take it with you and not have to remote into it?

 

[klangvaledave]

I'm using it on both my MacPro 5,1 and MacBook Pro 9,1. It enabled them to upgrade to Big Sur and possibly other upgrades and also enable legacy Wi-Fi on MBP9,1 with a kext injection included in zip file I uploaded. If you have the kext, you can inject it on boot, there are instructions in the OpenCore thread, but I thought the reason to switch to the AC+BT4.2 was because there were drivers for it on Big Sur? So far I haven't had any issues, besides the Wi-Fi not connecting automatically, which I just noticed, but that's not OpenCore's fault, I believe it's the kext, and I believe there are workarounds I still haven't tried them out yet. All I do is (sometimes I have to first turn off Wi-Fi, turn it back on and then) select my network then it connects to my network. Definitely not good if you remote into your laptop and restart it, but then again, the laptop is meant to be portable allowing you to take it with you and not have to remote into it?

Thks for enlightening. Part of the reason to upgrade to AC+BT4.2 was because it was available and yes to overcome the driver compatibility later with post-Catalina OS.

Is it feasible, say if a large enough HDD (say 2TB) is used but partitioned into two:
1. holds the working OS as a backup
2. the other partition where Bigsur will be installed.

I want hold off to doing away the DVD which I still use for media burning for the second HDD/SSD unless I really have to.

 

[m4f1050]

Well, after using it for a while, I came to the conclusion that I want to ditch Big Sur and stay on Catalina. One feature I used that Big Sur broke is AirPlay+ Extend Display. I can no longer use my other macs as extended displays. I can only mirror. When I start my vacation I'll jump into restoring Catalina and ditching Big Sur. It's not mature enough or they removed too many nice features...

 

[stschulze]

Nichts besonderes mit meiner config.plist hier. Möglicherweise müssen Sie dem cMP folgen, mit dem Sie ältere WLAN-Flughafenkarten verwenden können, da ich gehört habe, dass Leute Probleme mit ihrem WLAN / BT beim OCing älterer MacBooks hatten. Ich nicht, da ich die modifizierte Flughafenkarte von https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/802-11ac-and-bt-4-2-are-here-for-unibody-mbps.2171056/ habe.

Ja, es zeigte sich als Software-Upgrade. Viele Leute haben davon gesprochen, OC auf einen USB-Stick zu bekommen, aber ich habe ein Backup-Laufwerk in meinen MBP und meine Haupt-SSD gesteckt, die ich auf einem SATA-zu-USB-Adapter verwenden werde. Ich habe OC auf meiner SSD hinzugefügt und dann das Software-Upgrade auf Big Sur durchgeführt, wobei ich diese SSD als Volume für die Installation ausgewählt habe.

Nachdem ich Big Sur erhalten und meine config.plist wie gewünscht bearbeitet und neu gestartet hatte, um zu bestätigen, dass es funktioniert, habe ich es heruntergefahren und die Laufwerke ausgetauscht, um mein Mind-Laufwerk mit OC und Big Sur in meinem MBP und dann zu haben Neustart erneut, um noch einmal zu bestätigen, dass es noch funktioniert.

your zip will not extract ....can you post your actual OC 0.6.5 config please? regards

 

[kencu]

I have been using this version of OpenCore 0.6.3 from Post #8 as well without troubles for the past week or so.

I installed OpenCore on a SDHC card, so I could remove it if needed, and added a BigSur partition to my internal SSD. It is currently running BigSur 11.2.

I migrated the data from my previous Catalina partition, but I kept the Catalina partition for now while I see what might come of this. So far it seems perfect, to be honest. Can't find a thing wrong. GarageBand updated (whereas it was stuck on Catalina at the last version, and kept coming up with a request to update that it could not complete).

Next I planned to upgrade this setup to OpenCore 0.6.6 (just because, not because there is anything wrong now), and then try to get the full version of the Picker going again.

Once I get to that point, I'll probably copy the EFI to the internal SSD, remove the SDHC card, and hopefully that will be it until whatever comes after BigSur...

 

[jbdamiano]

Hello


I tried to use Opencore-legacy-patcher to configure the opencore EFI and to be able to do an online upgrade directly without creating an USB key. The last point is working correctly but now my MBP9,1 when I close the lip, and reopen it a couple of minute later, the screen remains black, and I have to to an hard reboot.

Who else are using Opencore-legacy-patcher in MBP9,1 ?

With the config.plist put here I have no issue like that.

 

[stschulze]

my macbook pro 9,2 with OCLP v0.0.10

OpenCore auf MacBookPro9,2 mit Big Sur einsetzen

Hallo Leute, ich habe ein MacBookPro9,2 mit Catalina laufen und möchte auch hier mittels OpenCore 0.6.5 ein BigSur aufsetzen. Bei meinem MacPro5,1 hat das super funktioniert. Hat jemand Erfahrungen mit OpenCore auf dem MacBookPro ? Gibt es bereits fertige Anleitungen bzw. Pakete? Auf...

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