macOS 11 Big Sur on Unsupported Macs Thread

[KennyW]

Big Sur in my iMac 2010 with iMac micropatcher:



Thanks to all the developers, esp. Ausdauersportler, in making it feasible in iMacs 2009-2011.

 

[bpearson85]

Hi All, I took a dive into OpenCore last week in an attempt to fix OTA updates while running Big Sur beta on a 2012 9,1 Macbook Pro. I previously used the dosdude patcher to successfully upgrade this machine to Big Sur 11.1 and was trying to find a solution to the lack of OTA updates. While going via the OpenCore route, I seem to have done more harm than good.

I downloaded the Opencore code, created a USB flash drive, booted to that on the mac and created both the Opencore configuration for this machine as well as installed it. I did this via the Opencore boot menu. In the process, the changes appear to have caused a conflict with whatever it wrote onto the machine's firmware.

I did a full erase and install of the built-in SSD and I am now successfully running Catalina on the same machine without issues. My erase and install sufficiently cleaned the hard drive, but obviously there could still be opencore changes present on the machine's logic board. The patched big sur installer will no longer run- and when trying to boot to the patched USB installer I receive the "Prohibited" sign.

In short my question is this- is there an easy way to remove any configuration changes that Opencore made to my machine (not just the hard drive)? If not, is there a way to re-flash the firmware with the original EFI boot firmware that would have been on my machine prior to attempting to go the OpenCore route?

Lesson learned on my end..... thanks!

 

[electricimp123]

Did you get night shift working?

Didn’t try it, didn’t install it

 

[webg3]

Hi All, I took a dive into OpenCore last week in an attempt to fix OTA updates while running Big Sur beta on a 2012 9,1 Macbook Pro. I previously used the dosdude patcher to successfully upgrade this machine to Big Sur 11.1 and was trying to find a solution to the lack of OTA updates. While going via the OpenCore route, I seem to have done more harm than good.

I downloaded the Opencore code, created a USB flash drive, booted to that on the mac and created both the Opencore configuration for this machine as well as installed it. I did this via the Opencore boot menu. In the process, the changes appear to have caused a conflict with whatever it wrote onto the machine's firmware.

I did a full erase and install of the built-in SSD and I am now successfully running Catalina on the same machine without issues. My erase and install sufficiently cleaned the hard drive, but obviously there could still be opencore changes present on the machine's logic board. The patched big sur installer will no longer run- and when trying to boot to the patched USB installer I receive the "Prohibited" sign.

In short my question is this- is there an easy way to remove any configuration changes that Opencore made to my machine (not just the hard drive)? If not, is there a way to re-flash the firmware with the original EFI boot firmware that would have been on my machine prior to attempting to go the OpenCore route?

Lesson learned on my end..... thanks!

system EFI (hidden), open this. delete folder Apple

 

[fineMechanical]

I wanted to report positive results after attempting the Big Sur 11.2 upgrade on a 2011 21.5 iMac. I used option #7 from the first page.

MicropatcherAutomator - this is another frontend using the micropatcher backend. The GUI makes it more comfortable to create the USB installer and follow the installation and patch process. It supports macOS 10.11 and later to create a bootable installer - so it closes a gap for a users starting with systems having older macOS versions currently installed (option 5 starts with Catalina, only).

I have been able to install Big Sur on a 2011 iMac. This machine has been upgraded with an Nvidia K1100m GPU card and the Broadcom bcm94360cd BT 4.0 & WiFi upgrade.

The patcher worked very well with the user-friendly interface and simple instructions. At the place and time where the computer is installing Big Sur, it goes into another boot screen that I can not see as my GPU upgrade has caused me to lose a portion of the boot/loading screen. So after about 1 hour of watching the black screen and hearing the computer still running, and assuming it had finished. I simply turned it off with the back power button. Held Option key while restarting and booted from the Big Sur partition. Voilà! Big Sur loads up and asks for all the usual basic settings, like country, language, etc. Loaded up well and then but still needed a few patches apparently as the sound was initially unadjustable for example. Rebooted and ran the suggested patcher program and now all appears to almost be probably as good as it can get.

Drawbacks and changes I have noticed overall with the hardware GPU and OS upgrade are:

Must use Mac Fan Control permanently as my fans will run full speed because the GPU temprature sensor somehow does not work with the K1100m upgrade.
Screen brightness is unadjustable (but not much of an issue)
Sleep mode does not work the way it used to, have to turn on and off without use of sleep mode. ??Fixable??
A second monitor hooked up through the Thunderbolt 1 to D.P. connection works in High Sierra but not Big Sur.
Apple TV movie library does not want to play or download

Other than that all normal computer processes seem to be working perfectly. The App store was usable, Final Cut Pro after limited testing seems to work perfectly as well as Microsoft Word and Excel.

Thank you all who have worked to help make this possible.

 

[ggyenyen]

The metal family NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M (rMBP mid-2012, 10,1) works perfectly on Big Sur 11.2 (20D64).

My stupid then. But I was lead to believe all Nvidia gpu”s were dropped by Apple.

 

[SinceApple2C]

Deleted

 

[Bmju]

Hi All, I took a dive into OpenCore last week in an attempt to fix OTA updates while running Big Sur beta on a 2012 9,1 Macbook Pro. I previously used the dosdude patcher to successfully upgrade this machine to Big Sur 11.1 and was trying to find a solution to the lack of OTA updates. While going via the OpenCore route, I seem to have done more harm than good.

I downloaded the Opencore code, created a USB flash drive, booted to that on the mac and created both the Opencore configuration for this machine as well as installed it. I did this via the Opencore boot menu. In the process, the changes appear to have caused a conflict with whatever it wrote onto the machine's firmware.

I did a full erase and install of the built-in SSD and I am now successfully running Catalina on the same machine without issues. My erase and install sufficiently cleaned the hard drive, but obviously there could still be opencore changes present on the machine's logic board. The patched big sur installer will no longer run- and when trying to boot to the patched USB installer I receive the "Prohibited" sign.

In short my question is this- is there an easy way to remove any configuration changes that Opencore made to my machine (not just the hard drive)? If not, is there a way to re-flash the firmware with the original EFI boot firmware that would have been on my machine prior to attempting to go the OpenCore route?

Lesson learned on my end..... thanks!

@bpearson85 - You are strongly recommended NOT to post the same message on more than one thread, because people can't keep track of the conversation about your issue, if it's happening in more than one place!

This is actually the better thread for your question, but I saw your message (and, for anyone's info if interested, replied to you) on the other thread, before seeing you've posted here too!

 

[internetzel]

I wanted to report positive results after attempting the Big Sur 11.2 upgrade on a 2011 21.5 iMac. I used option #7 from the first page.

MicropatcherAutomator - this is another frontend using the micropatcher backend. The GUI makes it more comfortable to create the USB installer and follow the installation and patch process. It supports macOS 10.11 and later to create a bootable installer - so it closes a gap for a users starting with systems having older macOS versions currently installed (option 5 starts with Catalina, only).

I have been able to install Big Sur on a 2011 iMac. This machine has been upgraded with an Nvidia K1100m GPU card and the Broadcom bcm94360cd BT 4.0 & WiFi upgrade.

View attachment 1727260

The patcher worked very well with the user-friendly interface and simple instructions. At the place and time where the computer is installing Big Sur, it goes into another boot screen that I can not see as my GPU upgrade has caused me to lose a portion of the boot/loading screen. So after about 1 hour of watching the black screen and hearing the computer still running, and assuming it had finished. I simply turned it off with the back power button. Held Option key while restarting and booted from the Big Sur partition. Voilà! Big Sur loads up and asks for all the usual basic settings, like country, language, etc. Loaded up well and then but still needed a few patches apparently as the sound was initially unadjustable for example. Rebooted and ran the suggested patcher program and now all appears to almost be probably as good as it can get.

Drawbacks and changes I have noticed overall with the hardware GPU and OS upgrade are:

Must use Mac Fan Control permanently as my fans will run full speed because the GPU temprature sensor somehow does not work with the K1100m upgrade.
Screen brightness is unadjustable (but not much of an issue)
Sleep mode does not work the way it used to, have to turn on and off without use of sleep mode. ??Fixable??
A second monitor hooked up through the Thunderbolt 1 to D.P. connection works in High Sierra but not Big Sur.
Apple TV movie library does not want to play or download

Other than that all normal computer processes seem to be working perfectly. The App store was usable, Final Cut Pro after limited testing seems to work perfectly as well as Microsoft Word and Excel.

Thank you all who have worked to help make this possible.

There's another thread dealing with your problems here.
The fans running full speed means that there's at least one thermal sensor not working. That might even be the hard drive thermal sensor.
Depending on which sensor doesn't report valid values CPU and GPU speed will be throttled permanently.
You cannot read values for every sensor using the popular tools, as is the case for Apple's hard drive sensor (the tools will show the hard drive temperature value reported by the drive via the S.M.A.R.T protocol, but that value is not used by Apple hard- and software for controlling fan speeds).

 

[Bmju]

I have just updated my MacBookPro10,2 to Big Sur 11.3 beta 1 (20E5172i) using ... @cdf's method from the thread OpenCore on the Mac Pro!

If you've upgraded your hardware to be 100% Big Sur compatible, then this only requires their basic, clean OC config plus their 'hybridization' (i.e. board-id spoofing) settings. If e.g. you had a machine similar to mine, but without an upgraded Wi-Fi card, you'd need to know how to add the Broadcom Wi-Fi patch to your OC config too.

Only in the last couple of days I have realised:

a) What a lovely, clean, minimal OC config @cdf (and collaborators including @TECK) have been developing over there
b) How much of what they are doing is 100% applicable not just to the Mac Pro!

 

[vvapple]

I have an iMac 27" (iMac13,2 - late 2012) with Fusion drive. Clean installed Big Sur back in the days of beta 6 and never ever had any issues with it. Never experienced any slowness or whatever it performs just as good or even better then Catalina. So from my expierence with (clean install) Fusion drive there is no issues and you do not have to split it up.

When I first tried Big Sur it was on a seperate volume on the Fusion drive and that was running on the HDD part, so then Big Sur was considerably slower. But that is comparing SSD vs HDD performance off course and has nothing to do that it is a Fusion drive.

what method did you use for installing?

 

[Alain13]

what method did you use for installing?

I use the Micropatcher method since day one. Only the first time (which was beta 6 months ago) I used Disk Utility (booted from the patched USB drive) to clean the whole Fusion drive before installing Big Sur on it.

 

[andrey_russian]

Big Sur in my iMac 2011 with iMac micropatcher:

 

[Allistah]

@Ausdauersportler, I've been using Barry's micro patcher for 11.0 and 11.1. I have a 2011 27" iMac (12,2) with a K4100M and a BCM943602CDP for WiFi/BT.

Is it recommended that I use your new micro patcher for this machine? Can I install over what I have now or do I need to flatten the OS and do a fresh install?

Also, am I correct in what I read in one of your prior posts that this would then let me do OTA installs going forward after I get to 11.2 with this install?

Thanks for your contributions - really appreciate it!

 

[marcel151]

Do I have to do the procedure of creating an USB Stick and installing Big Sur Updates every time when using Micropatcher? Since 11.2.1 is out.

 

[buckrock]

Do I have to do the procedure of creating an USB Stick and installing Big Sur Updates every time when using Micropatcher? Since 11.2.1 is out.

That is what I do. You do need the full installer too. BTW, I don't see 11.2.1's full installer in the software update catalog. What is the build number?

 

[Ausdauersportler]

Some funny news:

Apple has fixed the issue with Arrandale/Lynnfield/Clarkdale CPU based systems like MacBookPro6.x, iMac11,x with Big Sur Release 11.2.

You can boot now (the micropatched) USB installer and the installed Big Sur without using a OpenCore @khronokernel patch. @KennyW found out this by chance while installing Big Sur and using the install-setvars.sh utility (instead of OC) which should not have worked.... but it did.

Writing from an iMac11,3 running OCLP and Big Sur 11.2 without the @khronokernel SSDT-CPBG.aml patch enabled. Now waiting for the 11.2.1 update. Ups, it is still there! 20D74

 

[Allistah]

Some funny news:

Apple has fixed the issue with Arrandale/Lynnfield/Clarkdale CPU based systems like MacBookPro6.x, iMac11,x with Big Sur Release 11.2.

You can boot now (the micropatched) USB installer and the installed Big Sur without using a OpenCore @khronokernel patch. @KennyW found out this by chance while installing Big Sur and using the install-setvars.sh utility (instead of OC) which should not have worked.... but it did.

Writing from an iMac11,3 running OCLP and Big Sur 11.2 without the @khronokernel SSDT-CPBG.aml patch enabled. Now waiting for the 11.2.1 update. Ups, it is still there! 20D74

View attachment 1727733

So if this is the case, then would that mean the the Barry's Micropatcher would still work then? I'm wondering if your Micropatcher with OC that would enable OTA updates would still be the better route to go from 11.1.

 

[Ausdauersportler]

So if this is the case, then would that mean the the Barry's Micropatcher would still work then? I'm wondering if your Micropatcher with OC that would enable OTA updates would still be the better route to go from 11.1.

The micropatcher has never stopped working on iMac 2011 - unfortunately the last original version supplied by @Barry K. Nathan is still buggy if (and only if) used with iMac 2011. My advice, use my fork!

Long story short:

• The micropatcher is a save bet as long as Apple does not stop delivering full installers. Download and install and patch and there we are.
• The iMac forks of micropatcher/MicropatcherAutomator are currently the only solutions to get the iMac 2011 fully installed and patched and ready to sleep. Using OpenCore on top on an iMac 2011 does only offer/show full installers (as long as offered by Apple), no delta upgrades as the 11.2.1 right now. Patching aka modifying the system volume blocks offering delta upgrades. @jackluke wrote this in a comment with his OC-USB loader.
• OCLP can be used with iMac 2009 and 2010 if one is willing to (currently) sacrifice ethernet and sound (does not work, although kexts are supplied). I have a BT sound box and a working BT/WiFi combo. No need for both missing parts right now. The OCLP does not really work for the iMac 2011 (right now)! I will work on it!
• When Apple stops delivering the full installers the only way I see (right now for the iMac 2011) is installing freshly the latest full installer to get an unmodified system volume, enable OC to see and get (delta) OTA updates, install the latest OTA, micropatch the system and wait until a new delta upgrade comes up. Sounds weird, but we are in the universe of now unsupported Macs. Welcome!

I assume only a quarter of the message will be heard...

 

[buckrock]

The micropatcher has never stopped working on iMac 2011 - unfortunately the last original version supplied by @Barry K. Nathan is still buggy if (and only if) used with iMac 2011. My advice, use my fork!

Long story short:

• The micropatcher is a save bet as long as Apple does not stop delivering full installers. Download and install and patch and there we are.
• The iMac forks of micropatcher/MicropatcherAutomator are currently the only solutions to get the iMac 2011 fully installed and patched and ready to sleep. Using OpenCore on top on an iMac 2011 does only offer/show full installers (as long as offered by Apple), no delta upgrades as the 11.2.1 right now. Patching aka modifying the system volume blocks offering delta upgrades. @jackluke wrote this in a comment with his OC-USB loader.
• OCLP can be used with iMac 2009 and 2010 if one is willing to (currently) sacrifice ethernet and sound (does not work, although kexts are supplied). I have a BT sound box and a working BT/WiFi combo. No need for both missing parts right now. The OCLP does not really work for the iMac 2011 (right now)! I will work on it!
• When Apple stops delivering the full installers the only way I see (right now for the iMac 2011) is installing freshly the latest full installer to get an unmodified system volume, enable OC to see and get (delta) OTA updates, install the latest OTA, micropatch the system and wait until a new delta upgrade comes up. Sounds weird, but we are in the universe of now unsupported Macs. Welcome!

I assume only a quarter of the message will be heard...

I have been using BarryKN's micropatcher for all of my BS installs (starting way back with beta 3 I think) on my rMBP mid-2012, wifi 802.11ac upgraded. It should be simple to switch to your micropatcher dev-v0.5.4. I am assuming I can still use the install-setvars.sh -e as described in Step 7? Just checking to make sure! Thanks.

 

[buckrock]

It seems that Big Sur 11.3 beta is available as an InstallAssistant.pkg; 12.38GB download.

http://swcdn.apple.com/content/down...j4siym3d0yvfgaauy2qdv8fn/InstallAssistant.pkg

The sucatalog info is:

1. macOS Big Sur Beta 11.3 (20E5172i)
   - 071-02793 - Added 2021-02-04 21:12:13

.
Apologies if this was already listed. Also, I'm not sure if this beta has the CVE-2021-3156 Heap-Based Buffer Overflow in Sudo bug patched. MrMacintosh says it is updated to sudo version 1.9.5p2 in the new BS 11.2.1 update.

Interesting that 20E5172i only appears in the 'public' version of the sucatalog and not in the developer!

 

[Ausdauersportler]

I have been using BarryKN's micropatcher for all of my BS installs (starting way back with beta 3 I think) on my rMBP mid-2012, wifi 802.11ac upgraded. It should be simple to switch to your micropatcher dev-v0.5.4. I am assuming I can still use the install-setvars.sh -e as described in Step 7? Just checking to make sure! Thanks.

Hello!

I have just added features and hope this left everything else intact.

If your system has not been patched there will be absolutely no difference at all, if there was a patch applied it should be applied in the same way now.

Nevertheless your system may be a fitting candidate for OCLP, too?

The Beta is out for a few days ...

 

[Allistah]

The micropatcher has never stopped working on iMac 2011 - unfortunately the last original version supplied by @Barry K. Nathan is still buggy if (and only if) used with iMac 2011. My advice, use my fork!

Long story short:

• The micropatcher is a save bet as long as Apple does not stop delivering full installers. Download and install and patch and there we are.
• The iMac forks of micropatcher/MicropatcherAutomator are currently the only solutions to get the iMac 2011 fully installed and patched and ready to sleep. Using OpenCore on top on an iMac 2011 does only offer/show full installers (as long as offered by Apple), no delta upgrades as the 11.2.1 right now. Patching aka modifying the system volume blocks offering delta upgrades. @jackluke wrote this in a comment with his OC-USB loader.
• OCLP can be used with iMac 2009 and 2010 if one is willing to (currently) sacrifice ethernet and sound (does not work, although kexts are supplied). I have a BT sound box and a working BT/WiFi combo. No need for both missing parts right now. The OCLP does not really work for the iMac 2011 (right now)! I will work on it!
• When Apple stops delivering the full installers the only way I see (right now for the iMac 2011) is installing freshly the latest full installer to get an unmodified system volume, enable OC to see and get (delta) OTA updates, install the latest OTA, micropatch the system and wait until a new delta upgrade comes up. Sounds weird, but we are in the universe of now unsupported Macs. Welcome!

I assume only a quarter of the message will be heard...

Btw, I read all of this multiple times and am trying to make sure I fully understand it. From this, I've concluded that I can use the Barry's micro patcher if I'd like. I actually submitted a pull request to him to fix an issue on my machine so I actually use that branch when I installed 11.1. I assume I can do the exact same thing on 11.2.

If I use your fork, what would be different than Barry's Micropatcher? You have a link to your fork that you'd recommend?

 

[slim0287]

Anyone have the direct download link for macOS 11.2.1? It came out recently and I'd like to upgrade.

 

[webg3]

OpenCore 0.6.7 update OTA working 11.2.1

MacBook Air 11" 2012 4GB RAM

non interaction. OK