OpenCore Legacy Patcher worth doing?

[AlexMaximus]

By older, you mean this one should work: https://www.amazon.com/Belkin-Ultra-Slim-Desktop-USB-7-Port/dp/B00SOXN1I8/

right ?

The way how I minimize the risk to make sure hardware works on older Macs is to use only those view brands that have somehow an official third party license or are designed with Apple in mind. These are usually OWC, Sonnet, Satechi, Lacie, Startech, Belkin and a view other ones. It often comes down to to a particular controller chip that is needed to work with Apple default drivers. Chances are high it will work with the one you picked above.

 

[Peter Franks]

They're probably going mental due to MRT (which has been a thing since El Capitan) sucking ram in excess of available, and then caching on a rotational drive (which heats it up). Go to Applications > Utilities > Activity Monitor, and see what's gobbling CPU and memory. (I put the Monitor on the dock, very useful, like Task Manager on a PC.) Also go to System Preferences > Users, and see what's auto-launching at login/startup. Also examine the contents of the two Library > Launch daemon folders.

Adobe CS6, Logic9, FCP7, most utilities, most games, most shareware. Well over half of all Mac software. And it runs like greased lightning on HFS+ MacOSes on intel chips. For instance, a janky old 2007 blackback iMac with 3gb ram and a 250gb rotational running El Capitan launches CS6 Photoshop Extended in three seconds.

Thank you. It's usually the photo app indexing, don't notice spotlight, unless it's probably under a different name.
Google and any Chrome browser is off the scale, How many 'helpers' do they need? Sometimes there are a ridiculous amount in the list. 8GB memory and 2.3 i5 is what this is, with the SSD which initially was great on Snow Leopard... simpler times. Fan was a bit rubbish then too and came on for like every video online

'Photos Agent' always listed as using 'significant energy' which is mad because I never open or use it

 

[Fishrrman]

Peter Franks -

I've seen your postings before, from some years' back.
I'm thinking that you DO NOT want to be fooling with OCLP.

I'm also thinking that with a 2011 MBP, well...
... it's time for a replacement.
Something new (or at least "somewhat newer").

That's my advice and I'm sticking to it.

 

[Peter Franks]

Peter Franks -

I've seen your postings before, from some years' back.
I'm thinking that you DO NOT want to be fooling with OCLP.

I'm also thinking that with a 2011 MBP, well...
... it's time for a replacement.
Something new (or at least "somewhat newer").

That's my advice and I'm sticking to it.

Yes I started this thread in January, and you are correct, but Mng answered it this week who I'm responding to, as they did go into some detail, and yes you're correct, however my money goes on iPhones, and not MBP... still, Wrong I know, what can I tell ya.

 

[Minghold]

Thank you. It's usually the photo app indexing, don't notice spotlight, unless it's probably under a different name.
Google and any Chrome browser is off the scale, How many 'helpers' do they need? Sometimes there are a ridiculous amount in the list. 8GB memory and 2.3 i5 is what this is, with the SSD which initially was great on Snow Leopard... simpler times. Fan was a bit rubbish then too and came on for like every video online

'Photos Agent' always listed as using 'significant energy' which is mad because I never open or use it

Get your pictures (and music, and messages) out of Apple's clutches; use 3rd-party organizers, or install Retroactive, and with it allow Aperture to run in Mojave. Uninatall Google Chrome and install Chromium-legacy. Search around for the Terminal command to kill report-crash (Chrome browsers infamously throw that into an infinite loop). Install MacsFanControl (set laptops to Battery Max). Install the following extensions onto ALL web-browsers: uBlock Origin, Adblocker Ultimate, FB Purity.

 

[Peter Franks]

Get your pictures (and music, and messages) out of Apple's clutches; use 3rd-party organizers, or install Retroactive, and with it allow Aperture to run in Mojave. Uninatall Google Chrome and install Chromium-legacy. Search around for the Terminal command to kill report-crash (Chrome browsers infamously throw that into an infinite loop). Install MacsFanControl (set laptops to Battery Max). Install the following extensions onto ALL web-browsers: uBlock Origin, Adblocker Ultimate, FB Purity.

Thank you!!

 

[Minghold]

Peter Franks -I've seen your postings before, from some years' back.
I'm thinking that you DO NOT want to be fooling with OCLP.

Agreed. Here's a snippet from a recent conversation elsewhere:

What's hard-to-reverse about an OCLP/APFS installation btw? You simply erase the drive and install something else as I've done several times.​

​

B.S. Magnet beat me to it: “Sir, this is a Starbucks…” --The average Mac owner (in another thread, I previously estimated at least 90% based upon examination of machines turned in to recyclers) no longer know how to even display their drives on the desktop, as Apple has hidden them by default since the early California OSes.​

It's not hard for smart people like you and me, because guys like us have piles of spare externals laying around and generally know what the eff we're doing. But the average user who runs OCLP even once is going to have that bootloader pop-up greeting him permanently thereafter, and if he decides he hates the glacial performance of a 32bit-killing APFS OS and wishes to revert, then setting up an external, Migrating to it, booting from it, wiping the internal, and then cloning back to it.... ...well, because he's average, he'll end up bricking his system at some step along the way, and my phone will start nagging me after midnight because I was an idiot and forgot to turn it off.​

I'm also thinking that with a 2011 MBP, well...
... it's time for a replacement.
Something new (or at least "somewhat newer").

That's my advice and I'm sticking to it.

Put in one of these, then Mojave/HFS+ in a generous-sized first partition. Install Parallels for Mac, then explore various Linux and Windows distros in Parallels.

 

[Peter Franks]

Agreed. Here's a snippet from a recent conversation elsewhere:

What's hard-to-reverse about an OCLP/APFS installation btw? You simply erase the drive and install something else as I've done several times.​

​

B.S. Magnet beat me to it: “Sir, this is a Starbucks…” --The average Mac owner (in another thread, I previously estimated at least 90% based upon examination of machines turned in to recyclers) no longer know how to even display their drives on the desktop, as Apple has hidden them by default since the early California OSes.​

It's not hard for smart people like you and me, because guys like us have piles of spare externals laying around and generally know what the eff we're doing. But the average user who runs OCLP even once is going to have that bootloader pop-up greeting him permanently thereafter, and if he decides he hates the glacial performance of a 32bit-killing APFS OS and wishes to revert, then setting up an external, Migrating to it, booting from it, wiping the internal, and then cloning back to it.... ...well, because he's average, he'll end up bricking his system at some step along the way, and my phone will start nagging me after midnight because I was an idiot and forgot to turn it off.​

Put in one of these, then Mojave/HFS+ in a generous-sized first partition. Install Parallels for Mac, then explore various Linux and Windows distros in Parallels.

I've got a 500 Samsung SSD, but now regret not getting the 1TB

 

[Minghold]

I've got a 500 Samsung SSD, but now regret not getting the 1TB

My main machine is a 2013 27" i7 iMac running a 500gb SSD internal with an old 2TB rotational external. I have CCC5 set up to clone the internal to a 500gb partition on the external once a day, to a second 500gb partition once a week, and a third once per month. (IOW, I have three bootable backups.) The last 500gb is for downloading spillover.

 

[one1]

IDK if it is worth a new thread with this one going so well, but I have a question on OCLP.

I'd like to run Sonoma or Sequoia on my 15" 2017 MBP. Is this for me and will either install with OCLP?

 

[Peter Franks]

My main machine is a 2013 27" i7 iMac running a 500gb SSD internal with an old 2TB rotational external. I have CCC5 set up to clone the internal to a 500gb partition on the external once a day, to a second 500gb partition once a week, and a third once per month. (IOW, I have three bootable backups.) The last 500gb is for downloading spillover.

because you know what you're doing! I still like the USBs and the fact I have the disc drive, and know that a newer MBP is the answer... but mortgage and council tax both 4 times what they were 18 months ago, so I battle on! Thanks again.

 

[Peter Franks]

IDK if it is worth a new thread with this one going so well, but I have a question on OCLP.

I'd like to run Sonoma or Sequoia on my 15" 2017 MBP. Is this for me and will either install with OCLP?

2017 that's gotta be a much more doable option than my old 2011, I'm sure someone on this thread will deffo guide you on that.

 

[Minghold]

I'd like to run Sonoma or Sequoia on my 15" 2017 MBP. Is this for me and will either install with OCLP?

Well, you think you do, and there certainly is a crowd-and-a-half around desirous of convincing you to.

Don't, because it's a one-way trip (into slugville) for the "privilege" of running 2024 Adobe bloatware that is 95% identical to the 2016 cc version that ran fine on El Capitan. One-way because, unless you're very experience with creating bootable external clones, you may not be able to easily restore the OS you had previously. (This is why nothing-really-wrong=with-them 2017 27" iMacs with rotational drives get turned into recyclers, where I pick them up for sometimes under a hundred bucks.)

(The fastest machine I currently own is a 2019 i9 screamer with a 1tb SSD, and I run Mojave/HFS+ on it. Photoshop CS6 Entended launch-time is one-half second. In Mojave, I have Waterfox and Chromium-legacy for modern browsers, and have Parallels 18 to instead any number of Windows or Linux versions in hypervirtualization, --And I'm probably going to sell that machine because I don't render graphics or need or desire bleeding-edge subscription-model suites, and it's therefore overkill when the exact same OS configuration runs perfectly fine on a 2012 imac, or even a pokey spinner-drive'd 4gb 2009 silverkey 15" MBP with a DosDude1 tweak.

 

[Shawn2571]

Yeah it works great, just follow the instructions. I used it on 2013 macbook and a 2013 imac with zero issues

 

[eRondeau]

I’ve got a half-dozen older Macs running OCLP flawlessly, albeit with various MacOS versions. These include a Late-2012 27” iMac; a Late-2012 Mac Mini; a Mid-2011 Mac Mini; a 2013 MacBook Air; a 2011 MacBook Air; a 2009 15” MacBook Pro; and a 2008 Aluminum MacBook. (Don’t worry Apple, I’ve got an M4 Mac Mini, an M1 Mac Mini, and an M3 iMac too…) Gotta say, the developers behind OCLP are absolute geniuses as the overall quality of the app and installation process is as good as anything on the MacOS platform. No regrets installing it!

 

[Minghold]

Fair warning: If you have a 2008-2019 iMac or MacMini with a rotational or Fusion drive, and are running an OS higher than Mojave (via OCLP, or other means), you are severely diminishing the lifespan of the drive, as well as taking a major performance hit. Grab hold of a utility named DriveDX, and it'll show you the damage to your drive. Apple knows the carnage APFS is doing to non-pure SSD systems, btlw; it's part of their planned-obsolescence. This wear is particularly acute in the 2012-2015 high-end models with 121gbSSD/3TBhdd Fusion drives, where APFS wears both sides of the software-joined mechanism at an accelerated rate compared to HFS+.

Unless you are absolutely committed to the lastest subscription-model software, Mojave/HFS+ is the best final OS for machines designed not to be taken apart. (When debloated, with all of SIP, MRT, ReportCrash, iWidget syncing, Spotlight Indexing, System Update, and drive-encryption turned off, a so-equipped intel-era Mac is subjectively faster, often much faster at most common tasks than a more recent machine running the latest porky OS. (Obviously GPU tasks, such a rendering, will be faster on the silicons.)

 

[Aoligei]

Just a curiosity...
Is it worth using OCLP on an early 2011 i5 13" MBP running Sierra. Would you bother going up to a later OS?

I have:

2009-2012 MacBook Pro 13" and 15"
Retina 2012-2015 MacBook Pro 13" and15" (Late 2013 15")
MacBook 2015-2017
MacBook Air 2013 and 2015.

For any unibody MacBook Pro (with exception of 2012), I don't think running Sonoma or Sequoia bring any tangible benefits compare with Ventura. Ventura seems runs pretty well on unibody MacBook Pros. We are talking about almost decade and half old computers, hiccup on modern computer task are unavoidable. However, system seems running stable.

Macs with Intel Core processors and minimum 8GB RAM and SSD runs Sequoia fairly well. Although you probably not getting whole lots of new features.

In generally, OCLP is a hack and if you aren't prepared to solve problems, you should avoid of doing so. You should also aware that any OS updates could potentially break your system or at minimum you will need reinstall root patch with each software updates.

Is OCLP worth it? I think so, at least you can use newer and updated OS on old Macs. I mean if you have a laptop that runs well and meet your need, OCLP will certainly help you run updated OS.

 

[Aoligei]

2017 that's gotta be a much more doable option than my old 2011, I'm sure someone on this thread will deffo guide you on that.

2011 MacBook Pro 13 inch with Core i5 is on a slower side. It takes 16GB of RAM, so I think it is more important to upgrade the RAM to 16GB.

I got 2011 MacBook Pro 15 inch with Core i7 processor (with AMD graphic card disabled), Ventura runs fine on it.

 

[Minghold]

Fair warning: If you have a 2008-2019 iMac or MacMini with a rotational or Fusion drive, and are running an OS higher than Mojave (via OCLP, or other means), you are severely diminishing the lifespan of the drive, as well as taking a major performance hit. Grab hold of a utility named DriveDX, and it'll show you the damage to your drive. Apple knows the carnage APFS is doing to non-pure SSD systems, btlw; it's part of their planned-obsolescence. This wear is particularly acute in the 2012-2015 high-end models with 121gbSSD/3TBhdd Fusion drives, where APFS wears both sides of the software-joined mechanism at an accelerated rate compared to HFS+.

Unless you are absolutely committed to the lastest subscription-model software, Mojave/HFS+ is the best final OS for machines designed not to be taken apart. (When debloated, with all of SIP, MRT, ReportCrash, iWidget syncing, Spotlight Indexing, System Update, and drive-encryption turned off, a so-equipped intel-era Mac is subjectively faster, often much faster at most common tasks than a more recent machine running the latest porky OS. (Obviously GPU tasks, such a rendering, will be faster on the silicons.)