macOS 10.12 Sierra Unsupported Macs Thread

[axd1152]

I have

I done it now, but a lot of information - my native language are not english its german
Have anyone installed the released version of sierra on a MBP late 2008 15" (MacBookPro5,1) and could say if its works well with this hardware?

late 2008 13 inch macbook, works perfect.
[doublepost=1475205538][/doublepost]Ok, I need your help guys. So whoever out there with 5,1 13 inch late 2008 aluminium macbook, have you replaced your wifi/bluetooth adaptors to get airplay, continuty, hand off, newly introduced in sierra same buffer for all devices working?

As I've found out here https://github.com/dokterdok/Continuity-Activation-Tool/ the compatibility chart says that you can replace the apator in the 15 inch model for 2008 year, which as I understand indirectly implies that no hardware replacement can be found for the 13 inch model. I seem not to be able to find any info on replacing adaptop for 13 inch model for newer one. That is why I wanted to know if there is any way around this using usb dongle.

What are my options?
I've found this 2-in-1 wifi+bluetooth card on ebay that is indicated to be Mac Os compatible. But I am not sure if that will work.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/150Mbps-USB...469492?hash=item25c09041f4:g:-G4AAOSwbsBXkcml

Do you think this will work to get all the new features to work on my old machine? I've installed Sierra on it, as well as installed 6gb ram and 256gb ssd. So, it's still a strong machine for me, but I really want to be able to use airplay, continuty, hand off, newly introduced in sierra same buffer for all devices.

I thought I would ask that question in this thread since a lot of people with 5,1 macbooks are here. After having installed the Sierra on my machine using this guide, I literally don't see much point in having the newest OS without all the bells. The only doubtful advantage that I got by installing Sierra is the siri, since all other goods are not working without newer wifi/bluetooth adaptors.

 

[d4gli]

for all macbook late 08 5,1 user:

just upgraded my book to 8gb RAM (2x 4GB) and sierra runs like a whole new book... In fact with SSD and 4GB it runs okay and almost smooth, but the longer you work, that slower it'll become. With just upgraded 8GB RAM it runs really fast, no speedballs anymore. I suggest everyone to upgrade at least to SSD and 8GB RAM.

 

[mohammad]

Will automatic OS updates work for mac OS Sierra when I install it manually through the instructions provided on my MacbookPro Late 2008? Will there be any limitations?

 

[d4gli]

Yep will work with @foxlet's AUS... Just apply settings and you're done

 

[mohammad]

Yep will work with @foxlet's AUS... Just apply settings and you're done

sorry as this my be a silly question, but what is fox let's AUS? can you refer me to it please.

 

[awang]

This really sucks... they barely change the OS that they release every year, and it's all to screw over existing Mac users. They've just ruled out both my laptop and desktop. I still have lots of time before El Capitan is 'obsolete,' but it's still very annoying. It's also very annoying that my 4,1 and MacBook Pro (and others') will now have to be treated like 1,1/2,1 Mac Pros, in that these machines will now have to receive workarounds for the latest "macOS." What a shame. They've spiffed-up iOS, yet Mac OS (no, I am NOT calling it "macOS") is a lame duck. Anyway, I wonder if Apple has actually made a comeback, or if they'll continue ruining things like iTunes and iWork. The new iOS looks more promising than what they've recently been doing, but it's Apple-under-Tim-Cook after all.

Exactly, what they did is to eliminate the too smooth bug on older devices, they are doing this kind of things really aggressive, they rewritten the mouse and keyboard driver, remove PPTP,

 

[foxlet]

Hi All,

I'm abit confuse here...am on 10.12 on my MacBook pro ( unsupported) . I have download and use foxlet AUS tool and I go to the apps store, seems like there's no update available. can someone confirm with me is there any update?

There has not been any final updates published by Apple for Sierra yet, so you won't see anything unless you're planning to use potentially unstable Beta software (seed branch).

 

[d4gli]

sorry as this my be a silly question, but what is fox let's AUS? can you refer me to it please.

http://swdist.furcode.co/bin/AUSEnabler.zip

 

[foxlet]

sorry as this my be a silly question, but what is fox let's AUS? can you refer me to it please.

You can find out more here.

 

[swamprock]

I can verify that this particular Broadcom 94322 card does work with Sierra on the iMac8,1, if anyone is looking for a low-cost solution to the wi-fi issue (around $5 US):

http://www.ebay.com/itm/111988677835

 

[JoSch]

I had to do a clean install of my Macpro anyway, so I used an USB stick with Dosdude1's install patch.
I used this stick already to successfully install Sierra on my Late 2008 Macbook (5,1). That worked great.
What doesn't work so great was Sierra on the 3,1.
It runs some minutes, then freezes and after a while the Mac reboots. The crash reports states, that a CPU was not responding (not servicing some interrupt). Since, I was still configuring the Mac, I have not much load at this time.
After some fiddling, I installed El Capitan, so I have no logs at the moment.
I had never such a problem with El Capitan or Win10, even under heavy load.
My configuration is as follows:
- Dual E5462
- A Mac edition HD5770
- non-patched GTX 750Ti (which at the time of the crashes wasn't enabled)
- APPLE BROADCOM BCM94360CD (http://www.osxwifi.com/apple-broadc...th-4-0-with-adapter-for-macpro-2008-2007-2006)

Anyone else having this problem?
Anyone with a idea, what the problem could be?

 

[seb.wagner]

Any suggestions on how to patch a recovery partition on a MacBook Pro 5,5 (13" mid 2009) after upgrading to Sierra?

I did an upgrade, not a clean install, and had to turn off file vault encryption to do so. Unfortunately, I only did the recommended patches upon completion of the installation process. Since I turned file vault back on afterwards, I can no longer use the usb stick post install patches, since it doesn't recognize my encrypted hard drive as a proper target. Starting the post install script from within my fully booted macOS Sierra doesn't do the trick, either - it says that my volume doesn't appear to contain a valid recovery partition (which it does, I checked via diskutil).

 

[fischersd]

I have late 2008 13 inch macbook, works perfect.
I thought I would ask that question in this thread since a lot of people with 5,1 macbooks are here. After having installed the Sierra on my machine using this guide, I literally don't see much point in having the newest OS without all the bells. The only doubtful advantage that I got by installing Sierra is the siri, since all other goods are not working without newer wifi/bluetooth adaptors.

Ok, so the adapter you have in the network / bluetooth card you have in that MacBook should actually be the same as this one https://www.amazon.com/BroadCom-MacBook-UniBody-BCM94322USA-607-4144-/dp/B00H41HADS/.

That means that you have the Broadcom 4322 chipset - so you have 80211b/g/n and BT 2.1. So, the only thing you actually need to get continuity working is a USB BT adapter that supports BLE (bluetooth low energy) 4.0

You will NOT be able to get the Auto Unlock feature working with that system (at least, no-one's found a way to get that feature working with USB adapters yet).

You could buy the adapter you posted, but it's not going to give you any faster networking than you have now....in fact, it would likely be slower.

 

[amateur12]

Sorry to bother everyone if this request for information is a repetition. I've tried to use dosdude's application several times. Every step goes great. I then cannot boot from the USB on which Sierra was installed. The Apple screen appears, followed by a white rectangle which doesn't do anything. The only choice which appears after this attempt to boot from the USB is that of restarting.
Am working on a 2009 MacPro running the latest version of El Capitan.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts.

 

[MisterBiro]

You can find out more here.

@foxlet What is different about the the sucatalog files hosted on your site versus the ones supplied by Apple?

I updated the SU catalog to point at the latest official 'dev' sucatalog from here:

https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

and I get no updates available. However, if I update SU catalog to point at here:

http://swdist.furcode.co/index-10.1...n-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

I have the option to install 10.12.1 beta.

In case this was an issue with Apple's server disliking my iMac9,1 I manually downloaded both files from above and hosted them on a local web server.

Unfortunately, even doing this I get the same results. The Furcode catalog offers an update, but the official Apple catalog doesn't.

The both contain references to the update ( line ~78082 for the Apple catalog and line ~78182 for the Furcode catalog) but it's only available when using one.

There are 100's of differences between the two files, I'm guessing because the Furcode one is dated 2016-09-27 and the Apple one is 2016-09-30 (although maybe this is just the generated date?)

Are you making changes on your side to the catalog before you make it available? If you're not, what happens if you update to the latest catalog?

 

[foxlet]

@foxlet What is different about the the sucatalog files hosted on your site versus the ones supplied by Apple?

I updated the SU catalog to point at the latest official 'dev' sucatalog from here:

https://swscan.apple.com/content/ca...ion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz

and I get no updates available. However, if I update SU catalog to point at here:

http://swdist.furcode.co/index-10.1...n-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog

I have the option to install 10.12.1 beta.

In case this was an issue with Apple's server disliking my iMac9,1 I manually downloaded both files from above and hosted them on a local web server.

Unfortunately, even doing this I get the same results. The Furcode catalog offers an update, but the official Apple catalog doesn't.

The both contain references to the update ( line ~78082 for the Apple catalog and line ~78182 for the Furcode catalog) but it's only available when using one.

There are 100's of differences between the two files, I'm guessing because the Furcode one is dated 2016-09-27 and the Apple one is 2016-09-30 (although maybe this is just the generated date?)

Are you making changes on your side to the catalog before you make it available? If you're not, what happens if you update to the latest catalog?

The catalog is only one of many components that run in order to make updates available (AUS is not a straight mirror/rehost of Apple's server, and has modifications to allow the unsupported Macs, as SoftwareUpdate runs checks that are independent of the server). Re-hosting the catalog will only lead to them pointing back at Apple's and my servers respectively, which explains the results you saw.

The date is used in autopush functionality, and for the client to decide whether to sync or not (it changes based on the delay schedule).

 

[thewebgal]

Exactly, what they did is to eliminate the too smooth bug on older devices, they are doing this kind of things really aggressive, they rewritten the mouse and keyboard driver, remove PPTP,

Dunno about that - I have a 2009 mac Pro - was 4,1. I installed a SSD back in Jan just to keep it useful. A bit later I pulled the Xeon 2.66 Quad-core processor card and installed a 3.33 GHz 6-Core Xeon processor card (via an eBay vendor). After all that, I installed more and faster ram.

I read through the long thread here, then I did DosDude's NVRAM patch so my 2009 mac Pro now shows as MacPro 5,1 I upgraded the wifi card when I read that was required. And over the last month or so, I stepped through the various beta releases one by one, and now have the final public release - its running fine.
Like me, you may need to spend some money to make your machine capable -
but why are you sure you are dead-ended?

 

[MisterBiro]

The catalog is only one of many components that run in order to make updates available (AUS is not a straight mirror/rehost of Apple's server, and has modifications to allow the unsupported Macs, as SoftwareUpdate runs checks that are independent of the server). Re-hosting the catalog will only lead to them pointing back at Apple's and my servers respectively, which explains the results you saw.

The date is used in autopush functionality, and for the client to decide whether to sync or not (it changes based on the delay schedule).

Aha, interesting. I now see what you did.

Edit: When I got back last night I also made some modifications and this works for me now as well. Of course, I just changed it to work for the iMac, but still quite interesting.

 

[morooster]

How did you manage to install Sierra? I've tried but my Mac Pro 3,1 but the installation just freezes and restarts after a couple minutes.. I followed the @dosdude1's guide..

Not sure If it's due to the Software Raid or another issue..View attachment 660618

It's probably your video card. I have a similar card in my 3,1 and had the same issue. Boot into El Capitan and copy everything with "Radeon" in the name from /System/Library/Extensions on your El Capitan boot drive to /System/Library/Extensions on the USB drive where you installed the update patch. After that, just reboot and try the install again. That's all it took for mine, hopefully it will work for you too. (I don't have software RAID, so can't say about that.)

 

[lortloaf]

hey there, i have a late 2008 mbp (5.1) however i seem to be having difficulty.

i ran the patcher, i took a super, duper long time but it completed without errors (at least, it gave no errors and said complete. i did not sit and watch it for 3 hours) but when trying to boot from the usb, the apple appears, the loading bar loads.. and then the laptop just powers off.

i tried searching this forum.. but the search result previews are really unhelpful/unclear. most of them were talking about the beta and others about virtual machines. i couldn't find anything specific about the actual release version of sierra.

can anyone point me in any direction? for now i am gonna try another usb stick in case it is just that.

 

[foxlet]

hey there, i have a late 2008 mbp (5.1) however i seem to be having difficulty.

i ran the patcher, i took a super, duper long time but it completed without errors (at least, it gave no errors and said complete. i did not sit and watch it for 3 hours) but when trying to boot from the usb, the apple appears, the loading bar loads.. and then the laptop just powers off.

i tried searching this forum.. but the search result previews are really unhelpful/unclear. most of them were talking about the beta and others about virtual machines. i couldn't find anything specific about the actual release version of sierra.

can anyone point me in any direction? for now i am gonna try another usb stick in case it is just that.

In the cases where people encounter issues, the following steps would help to find the bugs:

1. Hold Command + V when selecting the USB drive to boot (it will force verbose mode) as to show system messages during startup. On a crash or reboot, the system will turn off automatically, so a video would probably help to capture the messages in question.
2. Saving the installer log (Apple Menu -> Window -> Installer Log) to a file in the case that the installer errors out, or taking a picture, can also help to determine issues when the system is already writing packages to disk.

The most likely situation is that macOS is running a consistency check on the USB drive's filesystem, fails the check, and shuts down to prevent a bad boot. Slow USB drives, or improperly written ones, can cause this to happen.

 

[lortloaf]

typically, just using another usb drive worked fine. thanks for the tips anywho

edit: aha. "macOS could not be installed on your computer" error. that is all it says, no reason why, just that. and now my El Capitan install is gone (files etc still there, i guess it just removed el capitan details from the boot record or w/e)

i don't urgently need my mbp or anything, but uh, haha. is there any magic i can put into the terminal (can launch terminal from the macos installer, before trying to install) that might help? i'll take a picture of the error and attach it if it spits it at me again.

error: http://i.imgur.com/V13yAqT.jpg

 

[Frodotg]

Ok, so I follow dosdude1 advice and bought a WiFi/Bluetooth card from a Late 2009/Early 2010 MacBook to my Mac mini Early 2009. The dimensions of the card is very different as said before. It's about half of the size of the original and the holes are in different locations. So I cut a piece of hard plastic, same size as original card and made the three holes. Fixed the new card on this plastic piece with double sided tape, installed this assembly and reconnect the antennas and the flat cable. Everything works and now I will try it under Sierra.

It's not possible to fix the card on just one of the holes because the flat cable is a bit rigid and can't be mounted ahead of it's original position. The bluetooth antenna takes a little trouble but I could fix it.

I'm on the way to buy a compatible card, so, it's working with Sierra??? Anyway to change for another compatible card with the 802.11ac??? Do you have noticed a little graphic glitch when you move the screen from side to side??? It's a little line up side of the monitor.

Greetings!!!

 

[axd1152]

Ok, so the adapter you have in the network / bluetooth card you have in that MacBook should actually be the same as this one https://www.amazon.com/BroadCom-MacBook-UniBody-BCM94322USA-607-4144-/dp/B00H41HADS/.

That means that you have the Broadcom 4322 chipset - so you have 80211b/g/n and BT 2.1. So, the only thing you actually need to get continuity working is a USB BT adapter that supports BLE (bluetooth low energy) 4.0

You will NOT be able to get the Auto Unlock feature working with that system (at least, no-one's found a way to get that feature working with USB adapters yet).

You could buy the adapter you posted, but it's not going to give you any faster networking than you have now....in fact, it would likely be slower.

Thank you for you reply. I thought I needed to have my wifi updated as well. I remember there was some requirement for wifi as well to get some of the new features to work. Can't find that now. Do you know what were the requirements?
If it's just bluetooth that needs to be updated, i'll just get this cheaper dongle:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GMYLE-Bluet...201181?hash=item4628dbc11d:g:v9wAAOSwT5tWMxtH

 

[fischersd]

Thank you for you reply. I thought I needed to have my wifi updated as well. I remember there was some requirement for wifi as well to get some of the new features to work. Can't find that now. Do you know what were the requirements?
If it's just bluetooth that needs to be updated, i'll just get this cheaper dongle:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/GMYLE-Bluet...201181?hash=item4628dbc11d:g:v9wAAOSwT5tWMxtH

Unlocking with Apple Watch ("Auto Unlock") requires the support of the 802.11v feature "time of flight" which is only supported by the newer Broadcom Wifi cards, which also support 802.11AC.
The "rub" is that you won't get that feature working with a USB adapter - as these aren't seen by MacOS as native network adapters. You need to have an internal NIC that supports the feature for it to work.
For Continuity / Handoff, you only need wifi that works under Sierra and BT 4.0 - then you use the CAT tool to patch your system.

Oh...and in case it wasn't obvious - disable your internal BT adapter before you plug in the USB one (having two of them running will only cause issues).