Opencore Legacy Patcher vs. Migration Assistant

[tandemtwins]

I've been trying to learn a little bit about OCLP and what consequenses I might encounter down the road if I use it.

First... Time Machine backups. Should I use a separate external HDD for backups after installing OCLP, and keeping the one with the last "clean" (non-OCLP) backup available in case I ever need to fall back to the non-OCLP setup? Does Time Machine work like it's supposed to when OCLP is present?

Second... and this is the one that concerns me the most... when I finally give in and buy a new Macbook Pro and want to run Migration Assistant... will having OCLP on the system mess things up, or will Migration Assistant treat those files like older OS files and not move them to the new machine?

Thanks...

Macbook Pro mid-2012, 10.1

 

[Insidious]

Bumping because I want to know as well. Do Time Machine backups work in OCLP? I thought I read somewhere that it doesn't, and that's concerning if true.

 

[avz]

Migration Assistant is usually only transferring your account info, system settings, files and apps. When you are restoring the whole macOS from the Time Machine it will transfer all the OCLP post install root patches as well that you might not want on your new Mac. I guess the key is to understand the difference between the Migration Assistant and "going back in time" by doing a full system restore with Time Machine.

 

[DarkPremiumCho]

1. You don't need a new backup drive. Say if you did the OCLP patch on April 2, just restore the April 1's (or any backup before that) Time Machine backup, if you need to fall back to the non-OCLP setup.
2. Time Machine works like it's supposed to when OCLP is present.
3. Kinda complicated. It depends on how your OCLP is set:

• If your OCLP is set to only patch the SMBIOS Model (About This Mac things), your EFI partition and NVRAM get modified. This will not affect your backup as EFI and NVRAM aren't getting backed-up by Time Machine. It's safe to use Migrate Assistant.
• If your OCLP is set to patch graphics, wireless, etc, it will disable SIP and modify your main partition. The changes will be included in the Time Machine. However, you can uncheck all system related options during the migration and you should be fine.

But hey, why not set up as a new Mac and manually move your content as it's the cleanest way? There are plenty of New Mac Setup blog posts online and you can follow one that suits your needs.

 

[Insidious]

I just tested Migration Assistant on a new APFS volume using an OCLP Time Machine backup and it worked great. It did place a deletable folder on the desktop with a system and library directory of things that I assume was leftover OCLP files.

 

[AlixSPQR]

I'll be using Time Machine with OCLP from now on. I hope not to need it, but it would be helpful.

 

[joseterra]

Hello everyone opencore legacy for catalina root patched on unsupported mac (specifically a macbook air 11'' 2011) doesn't allow restore from time machine! This is probably explained by what DarkPremiumCho reports..but, is there a way to solve it?
Of course, if you use Time Machine Backup as your migration assistant, the process works. If, on the other hand, you try a restore from a TM backup, the process ends regularly, but the mac does not start and remains stuck on the apple..
TM backup "feels" the patched root and prevents the restore?
Probably, booting from usb with legacy opencore for the post-install process would fix it..but, I wonder if anyone solved it..
I do not exclude, however, that it is a problem not common to all..

 

[Fishrrman]

joseterra wrote:
"If, on the other hand, you try a restore from a TM backup, the process ends regularly, but the mac does not start and remains stuck on the apple.."

Would it make a difference if you created a cloned backup using either:
- SuperDuper
or
- CarbonCopyCloner

... and then restored from the cloned backups?

???

 

[joseterra]

With carbon cloner, I cloned the partition without troubles. It was also possible to clone from windows 10 (bootcamp) by using r-drive the Catalina partition. I have troubles only with time machine restoring.
I suppose that the patched root files in the catalina partition are copied by Time machine backup and when you try the restore, they make your macos unbootable. As I told before, but I haven't tried it yet, a post-installation procedure should probably be done with opencore legacy install usb, after restoring with time machine.
Time machine is very useful, so that's a shame, but it's not an absolute problem if you have other cloning/backup software or if you have W10 in bootcamp, as you can proceed with the recovery with other systems than time machine. However, if it gets to the bottom of the problem, it would be very helpful. Also, as I said, I don't know if it's just my problem and of the macbook air of mine!

 

[iqmac]

joseterra wrote:
"If, on the other hand, you try a restore from a TM backup, the process ends regularly, but the mac does not start and remains stuck on the apple.."

Would it make a difference if you created a cloned backup using either:
- SuperDuper
or
- CarbonCopyCloner

... and then restored from the cloned backups?

???

As an FYI, SuperDuper doesn't support OCLP, you can't make a clone of an OCLP MacOS and then restore it fully. I spoke with the folk at SuperDuper and they have no intention of supporting OCLP. It was a while ago but I tried it, and either SuperDuper failed at start of backup, our it failed trying to restore.

 

[iqmac]

With carbon cloner, I cloned the partition without troubles. It was also possible to clone from windows 10 (bootcamp) by using r-drive the Catalina partition. I have troubles only with time machine restoring.
I suppose that the patched root files in the catalina partition are copied by Time machine backup and when you try the restore, they make your macos unbootable. As I told before, but I haven't tried it yet, a post-installation procedure should probably be done with opencore legacy install usb, after restoring with time machine.
Time machine is very useful, so that's a shame, but it's not an absolute problem if you have other cloning/backup software or if you have W10 in bootcamp, as you can proceed with the recovery with other systems than time machine. However, if it gets to the bottom of the problem, it would be very helpful. Also, as I said, I don't know if it's just my problem and of the macbook air of mine!

Are you saying with CC one can do a full clone of an OCLP MacOS drive and restore it and it works without any fiddling about?