I just looked at this thread again and see that I had promised to report back. I have made a few posts about the process since this one:
Sonoma installer won’t boot without 🚫
A fools errand? Trying to transfer user from Sonoma to Ventura
Another go at it: Update OCLP Aluminum MacBook with Ventura to Sonoma
An attempt to install Sonoma (via OpenCore Legacy Patcher—OCLP) directly failed. I got the large 🚫 symbol on the screen during the later stages of the installation process.
I was wondering, whether I would fare better, if the installation USB drive were generated on the MacBook itself. The problem was that the SSD I put inside never had a version of macOS (Mac OS X, OS X) on it that got it working. So I first installed Lion on it with the help of a USB drive installer. I then found out that OCLP requires High Sierra to work. I therefore had to find a way to install High Sierra. That’s where
dosdude1’s instruction and patch came in.
Finally, with High Sierra running I made another copy of a OCLP USB drive containing the Sonoma installer. The process went fine at first, only to end with the black screen with the 🚫 symbol on it. Obviously this was not the route to take.
With the OS installation on the boot drive hosed now, I started over: Lion, High Sierra, OCLP… This time I kept it to Ventura. Making the USB installer for Ventura worked, and Ventura installed just fine. Ventura offers the upgrade to Sonoma right in Settings → General → Software Update. OCLP (1.5.0) now recognizes the attempt to jump major versions of macOS and proactively installs (with my okay) patches readying the machine for that version. I tried that but got 🚫 again.
I went back to square one and this time stopped at Ventura. I still would like to find a way to get it to Sonoma that works. I have a Photos library from a Sonoma account that I would like the user account on the MacBook to be able to use. Photos library don’t downgrade.
Maybe someone seeing this saga has some advice on tricks to use to get the MacBook to run Sonoma. I will try it.