macOS 14 Sonoma on Unsupported Macs Thread

[stephenstud]

Good Morning Everyone

I have a Macbook Pro 8,1 running on OpenCore 1.3.0. After updating Sonoma, I lost wireless. I have run the post install menu a few times with no luck. I have Vmware Fusion running Win 11, with no network issues.
Does anyone know what I did wrong?
Can I fix this, or do I need to wipe?

Thank you for any help.

 

[ElSooz]

Yes... I had it on BBEdit, a text editor and restarted and it reverted to normal. A second app, TeXShop, also showed this behavior, nearly simultaneously. I figured something was going wrong under the hood to affect two apps, and rebooted.

 

[Bmld]

Sometimes restart corresponding app is enough.

Thank, it is what I do ...

 

[Bigwaff]

You are obviously using OCLP to install Sonoma. Based on your screenshot, you also appear to have installed the OS multiple times within the same container (based on the appending of "data - data - data") . All of that being said, the greyed out volume is the sealed system volume which you do not have access to. This is normal and expected w/ the latest macOS APFS disk structure. First, I recommend you read up on APFS containers and volumes to understand how macOS formats disks. Second, if it were me, I'd unwind the multiple OS installs into the same container situation and start over. Boot from your OCLP USB installer and erase the entire internal drive (make sure to select Disk Utility menu View > Show All Devices and select the top most icon in the tree) then install Sonoma clean.

 

[ImpetuousRacer]

How did you do the fresh install please? Did you first reset to last supported OS or is there a way to go straight for Sonoma, even on an unsupported machine?

Follow this guide:

 

[luckyduke23]

Follow this guide:

Thank you...Happy Holidays

 

[tmuller]

I have an Early 2015 MBP 12,1 with a OWC Aura Pro X 480G drive. I installed Sonoma early on and it worked great. And OCLP has worked wonderful up until 1.1.0. When I installed 1.1.0 and patched the boot EFI, my system hanged on boot EVERY TIME, it brought up the apple logo and progress bar, but the progress bar doesn't go much beyond about 2-3% of the line the entire time. This has occurred on all EFI patches up to and including 1.3.0. The root patches all work fine, I have no issue with WIFI, BT or audio/video at all, just the booting issue. I would guess a driver missing / not being loaded but it's not clear to me what it would be.

What I have done to 'fix' this issue temporarily is to have the 1.0.1 boot EFI installed and I root patch to the latest version.

Is there something I am missing here? I know that there was a change from 1.0.1 to 1.1.0:

Remove `-lilubetaall` argument for machines without AppleALC

is that what was making this work for me before and this problem existed all along?

Thanks in advance for any advise / knowledge on what I should do to fix this permanently.

 

[K two]

I have an Early 2015 MBP 12,1 with a OWC Aura Pro X 480G drive. I installed Sonoma early on and it worked great. And OCLP has worked wonderful up until 1.1.0. When I installed 1.1.0 and patched the boot EFI, my system hanged on boot EVERY TIME, it brought up the apple logo and progress bar, but the progress bar doesn't go much beyond about 2-3% of the line the entire time. This has occurred on all EFI patches up to and including 1.3.0. The root patches all work fine, I have no issue with WIFI, BT or audio/video at all, just the booting issue. I would guess a driver missing / not being loaded but it's not clear to me what it would be.

What I have done to 'fix' this issue temporarily is to have the 1.0.1 boot EFI installed and I root patch to the latest version.

Is there something I am missing here? I know that there was a change from 1.0.1 to 1.1.0:

Remove `-lilubetaall` argument for machines without AppleALC

is that what was making this work for me before and this problem existed all along?

Thanks in advance for any advise / knowledge on what I should do to fix this permanently.

The current OCLP release may solve that WindowServer crash on boot?

Release 1.3.0 · dortania/OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher

WARNING: You MUST install this update before upgrading to macOS 14.2 on the following machines: MacBook Air MacBookAir5,x (Mid 2012) MacBookAir6,x (Mid 2013, Early 2014) MacBook Pro MacBookPro...

github.com

 

[K two]

Good Morning Everyone

I have a Macbook Pro 8,1 running on OpenCore 1.3.0. After updating Sonoma, I lost wireless. I have run the post install menu a few times with no luck. I have Vmware Fusion running Win 11, with no network issues.
Does anyone know what I did wrong?
Can I fix this, or do I need to wipe?

Thank you for any help.

Reset NVRAM?

 

[stephenstud]

Reset NVRAM?

I have not tried that... Let me see if I can find out how to do that. I will let you know.

Thank you for the help!!

 

[K two]

I have not tried that... Let me see if I can find out how to do that. I will let you know.

Thank you for the help!!

At boot, hit the space bar and index to the right, select from there.

 

[stephenstud]

At boot, hit the space bar and index to the right, select from there.

I did the "Command-Option-P-R" to reset the NVRAM. It still didn't work though.... BooHoo...lol

 

[0134168]

I did the "Command-Option-P-R" to reset the NVRAM. It still didn't work though.... BooHoo...lol

No, sir. @K two told you to reset the NVRAM once OCLP has booted. Hit the command line and choose "Reset NVRAM".

 

[BuffyzDead]

On a 2017 MacBook Air (7,2), after successfully updating to Sonoma 14.2.1, from Monterey 12.7.2, using OCLP 1.3.0, the entire system seemed stable and reliable.

Then, logged into Apple ID account, to pull in all my iCloud content. Left machine alone so it could sync over the next few hours.

When I next attempted to log in, the following occurred, which I have never seen before.

The login screen blinks on and off continuously, with no response from the keyboard as I attempt to login. Continuously blinking on and of every four to six seconds.

Tried resetting NVRAM several times, and starting in safe mode, …and in both and every occasion, the login screen continues to blink on and off, incessantly, and no keyboard response.

All ears to every suggestion. Thank you

 

[iMac'd]

This thread will be dedicated to the discussion of running macOS 14.0 on unsupported Macs.

---

At the time of writing, we are waiting for Apple to send out macOS 14 Developer Beta 1. It is currently unknown whether or not Apple will release a publicly-downloadable InstallAssistant.

We will be expanding this thread with much more information as the day goes by including known issues as well as patcher support.

macOS Sonoma Compatibility

Spoiler: Macs officially compatible with macOS Sonoma:

• iMac 2019 and later
  • iMac19,x
  • iMac20,x
• Mac Pro 2019 and later
  • MacPro7,1
• iMac Pro 2017
  • iMacPro1,1
• Mac Studio 2022 and later
• MacBook Air 2018 and later
  • MacBookAir8,x
  • MacBookAir9,1
• Mac mini 2018 and later
  • Macmini8,1
• MacBook Pro 2018 and later
  • MacBookPro15,X
  • MacBookPro16,X

Spoiler: Macs potentially capable of being patched to run Sonoma:

An early preview of Sonoma support is now out. Notably, it is currently Metal-only. Supported models (inclusive) for this preview are:

• MacBook8,1 - MacBook10,1 (2015 - 2017 MacBook)
• MacBookAir5,x - MacBookAir7,1 (2012 - 2017 MacBook Air)
• MacBookPro9,x - MacBookPro14,x (2012 - 2017 MacBook Pro)
• Macmini6,x - Macmini7,x (2012 - 2017 Mac mini)
• iMac11,x - iMac18,3 (2009 - 2018 iMac)
  • iMac11,x and 12,x require Metal GPUs
• MacPro3,1 - MacPro6,1 (2008 - 2017 Mac Pro)
  • MacPro3,1 - MacPro5,1 require Metal GPUs
• Xserve2,1 - 3,1 (2008 - 2009 Xserve)
  • Requires Metal GPUs

Please read this fully before downloading anything, or we'll be very disappointed... As usual, this is a beta operating system and a bleeding-edge patcher version. Don't try this if you're not already familiar with OCLP, don't try this if you're not willing to have to deal with any data loss, and especially don't try this if you don't know how to troubleshoot.

Spoiler: Macs that WILL NOT BE SUPPORTED in any capacity:

• 2006-2007 Mac Pros, iMacs, MacBook Pros, and Mac Minis:
  • MacPro1,1
  • MacPro2,1
  • iMac4,1
  • iMac5,x
  • iMac6,1
  • MacBookPro1,1
  • MacBookPro2,1
  • MacBookPro3,1
  • Macmini1,1
  • Macmini2,1
• — The 2007 iMac 7,1 is compatible with Monterey if the CPU is upgraded to a Penryn-based Core 2 Duo, such as a T9300.
  
  
• 2006-2008 MacBooks:
  • MacBook1,1
  • MacBook2,1
  • MacBook3,1
  • MacBook4,1
• 2008 MacBook Air (MacBookAir 1,1)
• All PowerPC-based Macs
• All 68k-based Macs

Spoiler: Newly Unsupported Hardware

An compilation of known new issues has been published on the OCLP Github. It might be enhanced when new beta versions hit the road and more road blocks appear ahead.

Spoiler: Necessary preparations - I do not expect people reading this!

To avoid any frustration or even worse data loss please create and maintain backups on a regular basis. Before performing a major and even bevor doing a minor macOS update create a new backup.

Update the firmware of your Mac and keep it up to date! We do not provide support for not proper managed Macs.

Do not swim ahead of the swarm of macOS users, you have an unsupported Mac, neither Apple nor the OCLP developer team will recover your system. If you nevertheless believe installing beta software with development patchers on unsupported Macs is a great idea you will discover quickly nobody can or will help you. Follow the swarm. Observe posts and read about new problems and do not ask if is is safe - it is not!

Look up Apple support pages how to manage and create multiple parallel macOS installations using APFS volumes. Keep the latest working macOS and create test environments with new test users before messing with your single working Mac. A lot of problems are related to incompatible settings inherited in a decade of macOS updates and from incompatible third party software.

Finally:
Keep the USB installer with OC created with the OCLP app. This is an external recovery option. The internal recovery can be accessed after pressing the space bar on the OC boot picker. Do not disable this picker unless you know how to make it visible, again - by pressing ESC on boot.

Spoiler: Sonoma support

Please read the official announcement on the OCLP Github page. New versions will only be announced on Github.

Please do not ask for fixes, just report issues. This is no on demand service organization.
The main task at hand is reverse engineering macOS Sonoma, not OCLP. So please stop asking questions how OLCP works. The source is open....

Please also keep in mind the first versions of Sonoma may have a lot of new bugs to be fixed in upcoming releases. There is rule of thumb: the third or fourth minor release will mostly most of these bugs. So consider yourself to be an early adopter on the hunt for those nasty bugs. Sometimes it helps to compare with a fully supported system, in case you own one.

Spoiler: About (new) Apple firmware updates

All hardware still supported with Ventura but dropped from Sonoma support will get Apple software and firmware updates until late summer 2025. To apply those (valuable and often necessary firmware) updates you need to install and update Ventura on your system. All firmware upgrades are bundled into the supported macOS Ventura updates, only. Sonoma will not provide those firmware updates, since your Mac is not supported by Apple with Sonoma!

The most easy way to achieve this is having an APFS container (aka volume) in parallel with your new Sonoma installation. No user data needs to be copied in there. Just boot Monterey when you get an Monterey update notification and apply this update.

Note that when booting a supported OS to get firmware updates it must not be booted via OpenCore. Do a PRAM reset on power on and press alt/option to boot directly without OpenCore back into Ventura.

You may drop (delete) this basic Ventura installation after Apple stopped delivering new updates in autumn 2025. You will not get new firmware releases.

(If you read this section after 2025 just prepare your unsupported system by installing once the latest Ventura version released by Apple including all updates to get the latest firmware update installed. You may drop this Ventura installation after this procedure.)

Another method to update the firmware has been described on this site. It requires some system admin technical skills.

Spoiler: About Apple T1 firmware updates

You need to maintain a Ventura installation if there will be any T1 updates until end of 2025. If you wipe the complete disc including the EFI before updating to Sonoma you also delete the T1 firmware image. This will likely disable the T1 functionality on Sonoma. So please check the EFI partition and the Apple subfolder and preserve the contents. This T1 image will only be re-installed when installing Ventura or another Apple supported macOS!

Spoiler: How to migrate user data on patched systems?

Bad news:

TM (time machine) restoring and MA (migration assistant) is broken on root patched systems. Do not try, system will only arrive in an unbootable and uncorrectable state after hours of restoring or transferring data.

There are two ways around this:

1. Use the OCLP USB installer and install Sonoma on top of your current (supported or unsupported) macOS. This will retain your current user data. But create a final TM backup before leaving your supported macOS installation, it will be the only return ticket.

2. Simply use MA or TM before system has been root patched by the OCLP app. This is sometimes difficult to achieve when auto-patching ran before you even reached the login page. You can prevent auto-patching by creating an USB installer manually (createinstallmedia and install OpenCore manually). You can revert patches, too.

Spoiler: How to support the OCLP development?

After many requests, we've finally opened up a way for people to make monetary contributions to OCLP's development, using Open Collective: https://opencollective.com/opencore-legacy-patcher If you appreciate what we do, please considering donating! Your support will help us purchase needed hardware to improve the project.

Thanks!

Spoiler: Things we will never (or very, very unlikely) be able to fix!

Over the years Apple introduced a lot of new software features relying on new hardware. Sometimes because of execution speed and latency induced by older hardware, sometimes because it is really needing new features like WiFi ac, Bluetooth 4.0, 4k HEVC and 4K H.264 support. Another serious threat is the use of modern AVX2 Intel CPU instructions available only on Late 2013 and newer Mac hardware. The Metal rendering framework is in the middle between this, but without any documentation one would have to write device drivers for other GPUs to achieve support. This is beyond this project.

So a lot of features like AirDrop, Universal Control need BT4.0 and WiFi ac, modern Apple and third party apps using the metal framework, recent Adobe software using AVX2 with Ventura+ will simple break your Mac in a way OCLP cannot ever fix it. Even if installing and booting of a recent macOS works fine some or a lot of apps will not work properly.

We had this clearly defined Metal boarder which puts all no upgradable hardware released until late 2011 into the big non-metal camp. Now we have a 2nd group of 2012-2013 Macs including the MacPro6,1 lacking of AVX2 support and a third group of legacy metal system from 2012-2015 either with Nvidia Kepler dGPU, Intel HD4000 and Haswell iGPU with different and difficult to address issues.

The support/installation guide is misleading at best about updates i.e. the front page states:

"Native OTA updates​

Install updates the moment they come out, with native System Preferences support, just like a supported Mac." I spent hours with a (poorly informed "Google Bard" - it should be given membership; probably to read-only) trying to rescue my iMac having followed this simple update guidance.
I won't mention the obvious gross error here but a clue would be that people who a very familiar may neglect to include (as in this case) vital information as it seems self-evident or obvious.

While the OCLP install-info. pages on "Dortania.github.io" all have a link to a "Help us to make this ...." option - all of which come up with advice that only collaborators can comment. I hope that this will get the information through and maybe save many a lot of unnecessary work and anxiety.

 

[iMac'd]

On a 2017 MacBook Air (7,2), after successfully updating to Sonoma 14.2.1, from Monterey 12.7.2, using OCLP 1.3.0, the entire system seemed stable and reliable.

Then, logged into Apple ID account, to pull in all my iCloud content. Left machine alone so it could sync over the next few hours.

When I next attempted to log in, the following occurred, which I have never seen before.

The login screen blinks on and off continuously, with no response from the keyboard as I attempt to login. Continuously blinking on and of every four to six seconds.

Tried resetting NVRAM several times, and starting in safe mode, …and in both and every occasion, the login screen continues to blink on and off, incessantly, and no keyboard response.

All ears to every suggestion. Thank you

Re-set SMC and PRAM, plug in an external keyboard and mouse; I had a washed out looking screen after the same update and was facing trying to uninstall OCLP files from the SSD when I discovered that the "root patcher" was required after "installing a new version" I'd try that again if you get to the App. I think I saw a similar post (maybe yours) either in this site or on the "Discord" OCP Paradise forum.

 

[Dilli]

All went smoothly again. I checked the developer folder in the system and it has nothing inside. Also the root patches got picked up from some backup KDX pkg. So every apple Os update removes the kdx files or it is just one of case?

 

[Bmld]

Thank you...Happy Holidays

Hello , to install a new OS I prefer to create a new volume to keep a live OS and copy document and app(need a 256 SSD or extern SSD). On my Mac I have 3 volumes 2 OS and 1 data ( with document and app) . I can switch if I have a problem with the new w OS. I explain how to do this in this post :https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2346881/post-32325806.

 

[Bmld]

On a 2017 MacBook Air (7,2), after successfully updating to Sonoma 14.2.1, from Monterey 12.7.2, using OCLP 1.3.0, the entire system seemed stable and reliable.

Then, logged into Apple ID account, to pull in all my iCloud content. Left machine alone so it could sync over the next few hours.

When I next attempted to log in, the following occurred, which I have never seen before.

The login screen blinks on and off continuously, with no response from the keyboard as I attempt to login. Continuously blinking on and of every four to six seconds.

Tried resetting NVRAM several times, and starting in safe mode, …and in both and every occasion, the login screen continues to blink on and off, incessantly, and no keyboard response.

All ears to every suggestion. Thank your

Hello, OCPL is very good solution but sometime we have some surprises. To minimise this, do a fresh install of each new OS so try a fresh install of Sonoma on an another volume : I explain here
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2391630/post-32812865
and
https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2346881/post-32325806

 

[stephenstud]

No, sir. @K two told you to reset the NVRAM once OCLP has booted. Hit the command line and choose "Reset NVRAM".

I also tried that too, thank you. I followed these steps, I hope I did it correctly.
Either way, it did not fix it. Thank you for trying...

Reboot, press the option key. Select OpenCore while holding the option key. Release the option key and press the [space] key. select Reset NVRAM

 

[luckyduke23]

Hello , to install a new OS I prefer to create a new volume to keep a live OS and copy document and app(need a 256 SSD or extern SSD). On my Mac I have 3 volumes 2 OS and 1 data ( with document and app) . I can switch if I have a problem with the new w OS. I explain how to do this in this post :https://forums.macrumors.com/thread...unsupported-macs-thread.2346881/post-32325806.

Thanks for the input. But what do you mean by "document and APP"? The native apps come with the OS. So all own (other) apps you locate on that "Data 2" volume?

 

[PropClear]

All went smoothly again. I checked the developer folder in the system and it has nothing inside. Also the root patches got picked up from some backup KDX pkg. So every apple Os update removes the kdx files or it is just one of case?

View attachment 2328766

If your hardware needs the KDK, OCLP will install - check your patcher settings "Remove Unused KDK's" default value.
Peaceful Christmas.

 

[Bmld]

Thanks for the input. But what do you mean by "document and APP"? The native apps come with the OS. So all own (other) apps you locate on that "Data 2" volume?

That right, native app are in application folder but all the other one are in my SSD Data (some app need to work in app folder just one or two). When I boot on Sonoma or Ventura, I use the same app from my ssd Data (it is an external usb ssd, but it is possible to use a third internal volume). For the document, it only the big one like video. All my daily document are on Dropbox and Google drive, so always synchronise when I boot on an OS. I put the an alias data in the docks to access directly to my data app.

iCloud (free account) synchronise only backup,notes, passwords, book, safari, mail so I have always my pref and short access.
Calendar and contacts are synchronized with google account (free account)

Last point : photo a music , I don't use native Photo app but google photo(duplicate on my net drive), synchronise with my mobil without problème. It is possible to use Apple photo, but you have to record the photo bib in the data folder. It is the same for the Music, my music bib is on a net drive and to use it, I modify the music Parameter.

So with this config, I install a fresh OS very fast, and I keep an OS to work.(3D and development tools need some time to work correctly).

 

[luckyduke23]

That right, native app are in application folder but all the other one are in my SSD Data (some app need to work in app folder just one or two). When I boot on Sonoma or Ventura, I use the same app from my ssd Data (it is an external usb ssd, but it is possible to use a third internal volume). For the document, it only the big one like video. All my daily document are on Dropbox and Google drive, so always synchronise when I boot on an OS. I put the an alias data in the docks to access directly to my data app.

Thank you, nice and clean solution. I keep that in mind....

 

[mwidjaya]

I ended up just wiping the machine and doing a fresh install of 14.2.1 and OCLP 1.3.0. So far it's been a couple days and no freezing. Also resolved the monitor issues.

I was also experiencing freezing on 14.2 (and 14.2.1).

On this 2012 MBP 15", that started with 14.0 and was just had OTA(s) done when updates came out.

Could not figure out the random freezing that happens after running for a while. After noticing some posts here about this and solution being wipe/reinstall, I have gone ahead to do same.

Sonoma is looking stable again. Let's see what happens after a few days.

Weird, I can only guess the OTA(s) messed something up and got Sonoma funky.