Macos On Unsupported Mac

Posted : admin | On 17-09-2021

Update 2019-05-02: For those of you who want to install macOS 10.14 on an unsupported Mac,check this post.

I have a MacBook Mid 2007 (more technically named MacBook2,1) that officially can not be upgraded beyond Mac OS X 10.7 (Lion). It is however possible to install Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) on it with quite good success and not too much effort.

I want to first write what does not work:

How to install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac models? Step 1: Create a Backup; Step 2: Download Big Sur Patcher File; Step 3: Open the macOS Big Sur Patcher file. Step 4: Insert USB Drive. Step 5: Install macOS Bir Sur on Unsupported Mac; Install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac: Some common errors and their fix. Wi-fi still not working; 2. Jun 09, 2021 How to Install macOS Monterey on Unsupported Mac Pro An EliteMacx86 Exclusive Guide - This guide covers a clean installation of macOS Monterey on Unsupported Mac Pro, unofficially. The guide supports Mac Pro3,1, Mac Pro4,1 and MacPro5,1. Overview Recently, Apple announced their new macOS. When the operation completes, boot your target unsupported Mac off the USB drive you just created by holding down the Option key while turning on the machine, and selecting the drive. Note: Only perform steps 5 and 6 if you intend to do a clean install. Containg a previous version of OS X, and it'll do an in-place upgrade.

  1. Sleep mode – not working at all – leave on or shut down
  2. The build-in web camera – “works” but not as it did in 10.7, I think
  3. YouTube-video (etc), works occationally (now worse than in 10.7, my experience)

I suggest you read the user comments to this post. A few helpful readers have shared their experiences.

What you need:

  1. A USB Memory, 8GB or larger
  2. Mac OS X Mavericks (i had the install/upgrade Application that I had myself
    downloaded on another Mac, from App Store, when I upgraded it from 10.8 to
    10.9. I always keep these for possible future use.)
  3. SFOTT: I used version 1.4.4 which is currently the latest stable
  4. Audio/Video-drivers from (not here anymore, se comments below).
    Warning, this is one of these horrible download pages where you don’t know
    where to click to get the right thing, and what gives you spyware. You
    should get the file mac-mini-mavericks.7z. Discard anything else without
    opening. The 7z-file can be opened with StuffitExpander, that already
    comes with Maverick

Making a bootable USB-drive
You first need to use SFOTT to create your bootable USB-drive (it is called “key” in SFOTT). You simply double-click on SFOTT on a Mac where you both have your Mavericks Install App and your USB-drive. SFOTT is a self guiding menu-driven application. It will take some time to make all the settings in SFOTT (it took me perhaps 15 minutes), but it was self-explanatory and not very difficult. Use the autorun mode to create the drive.

Recovery Scenario
When you install a Mac OS upgrade there is a risk your Mavericks system will not boot. When upgrading from 10.9.0 to 10.9.5 like I did, it will not boot. My impression (after reading different sources) is that this recovery is needed when upgrading from 10.9.0 (or 10.9.1 / 10.9.2) but not later. Nobody knows about 10.9.6 of course, because it is not out. Minor upgrades to applications or security upgrades should not cause need to recovery.

When Mavericks fails to start you need to “re-Patch” using SFOTT. I installed Mavericks on a separate partition, side-by-side with Lion, so when Mavericks failed to start my computer automatically started Lion instead and I could run SFOTT in Lion to re-Patch my Mavericks system.

If you can not do side-by-side you can start from your SFOTT-key (which you still have) and instead of installing Maverick you start the Terminal application. Find the SFOTT.app on the key, and find SFOTT.sh inside SFOTT.app. Run SFOTT.sh and you can re-Patch your broken Mavericks system. I did the entire procedure on my working Mavericks just to test it, and it seems fine.

There is if course no true guarantee that a future Apple upgrade will not break everything completely.

Installing Mavericks
Installation of Mavericks from the USB-drive is very standard. To start the computer from the USB-drive, hold down the “alt”-key (not Apple-key, not ctrl-key) while starting the computer. Choose SFOTT and proceed normally. After about an hour you should have a clean 10.9.0 Mavericks with network/wifi working. Video will work, but with problems (try Safari, and you will see), and Audio will not work.

Upgrade Mavericks
I used App Store to upgrade Mavericks to 10.9.5. That works just fine, until Mavericks fails to start (I ended up in my old Lion system on a reboot, if you have no other system installed your computer with probably just not start). This is where you need to recover your system using SFOTT.

Fixing Audio and Video
The 7z-file I referred to above contains Audio and Video drivers. You run the application “Kext Utility” and the you drag the contents of the folder Extensions into the Kext Utility, and it will install the drivers. There is a folder with “optional wifi drivers”, I have not installed those because wifi has been fine all the time for me.

Upgrade Unsupported Mac

The MacBook2,1 has Intel GMA950 Video, and there are no supported 64-bit-drivers for Mavericks. The drivers I suggest you to install are supposed to be drivers from a public beta of 10.6 (Snow Leopard) that Apple once released. They seem to work quite fine for me though. And not installing them is worse.

I suggest you upgrade to 10.9.5 before fixing Audio and Video. I guess a later Apple-upgrade could break Audio and Video and require you to reinstall drivers.

Problems booting the SFOTT key
I first created the SFOTT key using the SFOTT beta (that is also supposed to work with Yosemite), and I used System Preferences/Startup Disk (in Lion) to start the installion. This failed and my computer just started up in Lion.

I then created the SFOTT key using 1.4.4, AND i restarted the computer holding down the alt-key. This worked. This key also later worked when I used System Preferences/Startup Disk (in Mavericks) to choose startup drive.

Driver Problems
There are open source Audio drivers called VoodooHDA. I installed those ones with success, but audio volume was low. I tried to fix with no success. Later I found the drivers I referred to above and that I recommend.

I found another download for what was supposed to be the same Video Drivers. But the Kext-utility did not work, and I installed the drivers by copying them directly into /System/Library/Extensions and this gave me a broken unbootable system. I don’t know what went wrong, but I recommend the drivers I linked to.

Video/YouTube Performance
Some videos seem to play perfectly, others dont. I had problems with 10.7 too.

Background and about SFOTT
There are several Apple computers that can run 10.7, that have a 64-bit processor, but that can not officially run 10.8 or later. There are a few issues:

  1. Video Drivers – and in the case of my MacBook2,1 the unofficial ones mentioned
    above may be good enough
  2. 32 bit EFI. Even though the computer has a 64 bit processor, the EFI, the
    software that runs before the Installer/Operating system, is 32 bit, and not
    capable of starting a 64-bit system.
  3. Mavericks does not believe it can run on this hardware.

As I understand it SFOTT installs a little program that 32 bit EFI is capable of starting, and that in turn is capable of staring a 64 bit system. Also, SFOTT patches a few files so Mavericks feels comfortable running on the unsupported hardware.

You can do all of this on your own without SFOTT. SFOTT “just” makes this reasonably easy.

There are plenty of forums, tools and information about running Mac OS X on unsupported hardware (also non-Apple-hardware: a Hackintosh). Those forums of course focus a lot on problems people have.

Yosemite
It is supposed to be possible to install Yosemite in a similar way. SFOTT has a beta release for Yosemite. For my purposes going to Mavericks gave me virtually all advantages of an upgrade (supported version of OS X, able to install latest Xcode, etc).

Conclusion
In the beginning of 2015, it is not that hard to install Mavericks on a MacBook Mid 2007, with a quite good result. I have pointed out the tools and downloads you need and that will work.

macOS 11 Big Sur is an advanced Macintosh operating system that you can install on your Mac. It has got tons of new features to enhance the user experience, like making safari browser 50% faster, new features of messages, Air Pods improvements, new-design sidebar in mail and photos, widgets in the notification bar, and many more.

Apple announced this new software on 22 June at WWDC. And this time, Apple did a big challenge and released the macOS 11 Big Sur along with iOS 14, iPadOS 14, tvOS 14, and watchOS 7. Meanwhile, Apple highlighted all the new features, changes, and improvements to the current software. You can download this new operating system from various sources now. Unfortunately, some Macs can't receive macOS 11 Big Sur update and they can't install the new operating system. In this article, we will discuss how to install macOS 11 Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac with easy steps.

Part 1: Official List of Big Sur Supported Mac Models

macOS 11 Big Sur Developer Beta is available to download. But you have to check your Mac compatibility first. If you have the below-listed Macs then you don't have to install macOS 11 Big Sur as these models will receive an update for macOS Big Sur automatically.

  • MacBook 2015 and later
  • MacBook Air and Pro Late 2013 and later
  • Mac mini 2014 and later
  • iMac 2014 and later
  • iMac Pro 2017 and later (all models)
  • Mac Pro 2013 and later

Part 2: Unsupported Mac Models of Big Sur (Not Eligible for Direct Upgrade)

On the other hand, if you have the below-listed Mac computers then you can install macOS Big Sur on those models as they are unsupported officially. You have to do some hacks to let Big Sur running on unsupported Macs.

  • MacBook Air 2012
  • MacBook Pro 2012 and Early 2013 MacBook Pro
  • 2012 Mac Mini
  • 2012 and 2013 iMac

Part 3: How to Install macOS Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac

Before the installation, make sure that you take a backup of your Mac on an external hard disk as you will lose all your data when you install the new operating system. There are several backup software like Time Machine, iCloud, Dropbox, and many more. Once you have taken a backup follow the instructions below to install macOS Big Sur on your unsupported Mac.

Step 1: First you need to download two files from the links below to complete the macOS 11 Big Sur installation on your unsupported Mac.

  • macOS Big Sur PKG installer: https://developer.apple.com/macos/
  • macOS Big Sur PKG install hack: https://forums.macrumors.com/simple-installer-hack-zip.926156/

Step 2: After you have downloaded these two files, unzip the hack and copy the hax.dylib file and then paste it to home folder.

Step 3: Click on Install Assistant.pkg to install required contents to your Mac. Make sure that you have enough space on your hard disk as the file will take 20.1 MB size on your computer.

Macos Catalina On Unsupported Mac

Step 4: Now go ahead and tap on the Install button to install the software on the disk 'Macintosh SSD'. Once you click the 'Install' button then it will ask you to enter your password. Next, click the 'Install Software' button.

Step 5: Next, you have to boot your computer into Recovery mode. You can do that by pressing Command + R immediately on startup until Recovery option appears. In case if you have no recovery partition, you can press down Command + Option +R to get into Internet Recovery. After that, go to Utilities -> Terminal and type 'csrutil disable', followed by pressing the Enter button on your keyboard.

Step 6: Type the following two commands in the terminal. Once you apply the first command, type your login password, and then input the second command.

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.security.libraryvalidation.plist DisableLibraryValidation -bool true

launchctl setenv DYLD_INSERT_LIBRARIES $PWD/Hax.dylib

Step 7: Next, run the macOS 11 Big Sur installer app that you installed from InstallAssistant.pkg a while ago. Now click on the 'Continue' button and follow the instructions to complete the installation process.

Step 8: The installation will take about 30 minutes approximately. Once the installation is successful you will see the macOS 11 Big Sur wallpaper on your Mac screen. That's it, you have installed macOS Big Sur on your unsupported Mac successfully.

Follow the above-mentioned method to install macOS 11 Big Sur on unsupported Mac devices. The method is quite easy; you just have to focus on the command line and other installation procedures.

Part 4: Alternative Method to Install Big Sur on an Unsupported Mac

Mac os 12 rumor

The above tutorial is for users who still have access to their device. However, if your Mac is unable to boot into Desktop or you are using a Hackintosh, then you should follow the alternative method instead. In this part, we will show you how to create a macOS Big Sugr bootable USB on a Windows PC and install macOS Big Sur on unsupported Mac by using that bootable media.

Step 1: Make a full backup of important files on your Mac.

Step 2: Download a copy of UUByte DMG Editor and follow the instructions to install it on your Windows PC.

Step 3: Insert a USB flash drive into PC and open UUByte DMG Editor. Now, click the Burn tab to get into the new window.

Step 4: You will see three options on Burn windows. Please import macOS Big Sur DMG file into the program and choose the USB drive name. You can also set a new name for that USB drive. And this is optional.

Step 5: Once the setting process is completed, just click 'Burn' button located at the bottom to start burning dmg file to USB on your PC. You should wait about 10 minutes for this task.

Step 6: Plug Big Sur bootable USB on your Mac and press Power + Option combine keys to open Startup Manager. At this stage, you are able to select a booting device. Click on the USB drive and start Big Sur installation process.

Macos On Unsupported Mac

This part is mainly for Windows users who want to install Big Sur on an unsupported Mac. The most important step is to create a bootable USB drive.

Troubleshooting:

If your system is showing any error message while installing the macOS Big Sur you can try these methods to fix it.

  • Restart your Computer and continue with the installation.
  • Make sure that your Mac’s date and time is correct.
  • Check your Hard Drive to see that you have enough free space to carry out the installation.
  • Make sure that the version of macOS Big Sur is up to date including the macOs installer
  • Run first aid on your startup disk before installing macOS Big Sur to check any system files are damaged or not.

Summary

You can see that it is not hard to install macOS Big Sur on an Supported Mac. Make sure that you key in the right command lines which are mentioned above, as typing a wrong command can harm your system. Enjoy the great features that come with the macOS Big Sur on your unsupported device!