Install macOS Monterey 12 (OpenCore Patcher) on unsupported Macs

Introduce a,

This article applies to both macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey, and can be seen as an updated version of my earlier article.

This section covers the system requirements of macOS Monterey and unsupported Mac models that can be supported with OpenCore Patcher, as well as the pros and cons of the OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

Introduction to macOS Monterey

macOS Monterey

All the amazing performances,

Say hello to everyone.

From connecting, sharing and creating, it feels completely new. FaceTime calls are new, and everyone likes them. Safari gets a makeover for you to explore. General control and quick instructions, create a new and powerful way of working. Focus mode, do things without interruption.

Launched October 26, 2021.

Some features overview:

• Photos, messages, and more updates share features in iOS and iPadOS 15
• Universal Controls: Allows you to control other Apple devices from your Mac in an amazing way
• From iOS devices AirPlay to Macs
• A shortcut application introduced as an alternative to “autoaction”
• Safari has been redesigned with new UI, TAB groups, and Web extensions on all devices

2. MacOS Monterey hardware requirements

• MacBook 2016 and beyond
• MacBook Air 2015 and later models
• MacBook Pro 2015 and later models
• Mac Mini 2014 And Future Models
• IMac at the end of 2015 and later models
• IMac Pro 2017 and later models
• Mac Pro 2013 and later Models

3. What is OpenCore

This is a sophisticated boot loader for injecting and patching data in memory, not on disk. This means we can get a near-native experience on many unsupported Macs with Metal Gpus. This includes many of the desired features of other patches, such as:

• System Integrity Protection (SIP), FileVault 2,. Im4m Start and store securely
• Native OTA OS DELTA update on all Macs
• Recovery OS, secure mode, and single user mode boot
• WPA Wifi and personal hotspot support

While OpenCore is familiar to many PC users in the Hackintosh community, it has been designed to be Mac and PC neutral, ensuring it can be easily used by both platforms. The OpenCore Legacy Patcher helps automate the process and makes running OpenCore much easier.

Patch warning: The Boot Camp function will be limited, the installation based on the traditional MBR will not be shown in OpenCore, and due to CPU limitations, only certain models support UEFI Windows 10, see Installing UEFI Windows 10

4. Supported macOS

For operating system support, the following are available:

The goal of this article is to install macOS Big Sur and macOS Monterey on the following unsupported Mac models.

5. Supported Mac models

Any hardware that supports SSE4.1 CPUS and 64-bit firmware can run on this patch. To check your hardware model, run the following command on the appropriate machine on your terminal:

system_profiler SPHardwareDataType | grep 'Model Identifier'
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The following table lists all features currently supported and not supported by the patch:

• MacBook
• MacBook Air
• MacBook Pro
• Mac mini
• iMac
• Mac Pro
• Xserve

MacBook

MacBook Air

MacBook Pro

Mac mini

iMac

• For iMac10, 1 through iMac12, x, we highly recommend users upgrade the GPU to a Metal supported model. See here for more information: iMac late 2009 to mid-2011 Graphics Card Upgrade Guide

Mac Pro

Xserve

6. Advantages and disadvantages of OpenCore Legacy Patcher

For OpenCore Legacy Patcher, we recommend that users review the table below to understand the advantages and disadvantages compared to other patches. Each has a positive and negative side, and we believe transparency is of the utmost importance when tinkering with another user’s machine. There should be no gray areas that might mislead the user.

• Note: Patched Sur (already 404) and micropatcher Automator are iteration products of BarryKN/big-sur-Micropatcher, so they have many of the same benefits and limitations. Official Patched Sur is used for this comparison, but the project home page is no longer accessible, so micropatcher is used here.

Two, installation preparation

1. Download the latest Opencore-Legacy-Patcher

   There are 4 releases:

   • OpenCore- patcher-gui-offline. app: a graphical interface app containing all the files required to run the program, recommended!!
   • OpenCore- patcher-gui. app: graphical interface app.
   • OpenCore- patcher-tui-offline. app: Terminal command line interface, including Offline files.
   • OpenCore- patcher-tui: Terminal COMMAND line interface.

   Standby: baidu network backup link: pan.baidu.com/s/1F8mQT9Af… Extraction code: KB8N

   Once downloaded, please drag OpenCore-Patcher. App to the Applications directory.

2. Download the macOS Monterey

   Once downloaded, open the image and drag the “Install macOS Monterey” App to (or automatically install it to) Applications.

   MacOS Big Sur is also supported.

3. USB storage device 16 GB or higher

   Can be a U disk, or even an SD card, of course, the best is SSD mobile hard disk, capacity of 16G or more.

Build and install

1. Create boot media

   Prepare a USB flash drive of 16 GB or higher (or another USB storage device, hereinafter referred to as USB flash drive), choose Utilities > Disk Tools, select the USB flash drive, and click Erase. The format is as follows:

   • Mac OS X extensions (logging);
   • GUID partition diagram;
   • Partition name: sysin

   Open Terminal and run the following command:

   sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Monterey.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/sysin
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   Enter the current user password (sudo password) as prompted, press Y to confirm, and wait for a few minutes.

   After the volume is created, the volume name is automatically changed to Install\ macOS\ Monterey

   MacOS Big Sur 11 is also supported. You have prepared the macOS Big Sur image, open terminal, and run the following command:

   sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Big\ Sur.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/sysin
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2. OpenCore Patcher set

   Open OpenCore Patcher, click “Settings”, and check “Verbose” to output details for troubleshooting during boot system installation.

   

   Generally, it runs on the Mac to be installed (or the target Mac). You can also create installation media for another Mac. Click “Settings” and select the corresponding model from the drop-down list, as shown in the figure:

   

   Here, the model is represented by “model identifier”. You can click on the system menu bar  > “About this machine” and click “System Report…” on the “Overview” TAB. In this case, open System Info and you can see Model ID.

3. Build and Install OpenCore

   

   Click “Build and Install OpenCore” on the main screen of OpenCore-Patcher, and click “Build OpenCore” on the screen that appears.

   After the Build is successful, click “Install OpenCore” as shown in the picture.

   

   If the default partition is Disk0, the USB storage device is usually Disk1. If there are two disks or multiple USB storage devices, disk4 is listed. In this example, disk4 is a USB SSD.

   

   The EFI partition selection interface appears, click.

   

4. Start OpenCore and macOS

   Now reboot the Mac, hold down the Option key until the Boot selection screen appears, select the EFI Boot entry with the OpenCore icon (holding down the Control key will make it the default Boot Option, which can be ignored, and the task will resolve the default Boot issue after installation).

   

   You have loaded OpenCore and the following OpenCore Picker screen appears:

   

   In this example, select Install macOS Big Sur (or Install macOS Monterey) and after detailed character output, the normal macOS installation screen will be launched.

   See: How to Install macOS Big Sur 11 on Mac and Virtual Machine (also available on Monterey).

   Note that before installation, please select “Disk Tool”, erase the entire disk and install again. While it is possible to install an upgrade, these models are usually older, the upgrade lag is more obvious, and some unknown problems may occur.

   MacBookPro11,3 Note: When starting macOS Monterey, you need to start into safe mode if the speedup patch is not already installed. Otherwise, you will experience a black screen due to the lack of Nvidia drivers.

   • Start safe mode by holding Shift+Enter while selecting macOS Monterey from the startup menu of OpenCore Legacy Patcher.

4. Post-installation tasks

1. Download OpenCore Legacy Patcher again

   Now you have logged in to the newly installed system and downloaded OpenCore Legacy Patcher again.

2. Install OpenCore into the built-in storage

   Now OpenCore is installed in THE EFI partition of USB storage, unplug the USB storage will not be able to start normally, we need to install OpenCore into the EFI partition of Mac built-in storage, so as to start normally without USB storage. The steps are similar to “Build and install OpenCore” above.

   Run OpenCore Patcher and click Settings to change Settings as needed;

   Click “Build and Install OpenCore” and “Build OpenCore” again. When “Install OpenCore” select built-in storage (usually disk0) and select EFI partition.

   Restart and hold Option, then select the internal EFI partition, the OpenCore Picker (OpenCore startup selection screen) will appear, and start the system normally again.

3. Seamless startup without Verbose or OpenCore Picker

   Run OpenCore Patcher and click “Settings” to set it as follows:

   

   “Build and Install OpenCore” again as above 2 for the Settings to take effect.

   To display the OpenCore selector now, you simply hold down the “ESC” key when you click EFI startup, and then release the “ESC” key when you see the cursor arrow in the upper left corner.

4. Enabling SIP (generally ignored)

   For many users, SIP is enabled at build time by default. For Intel HD 4000 users, you may have noticed that SIP is partially disabled. This is to ensure full compatibility with macOS Monterey and allow it to boot seamlessly with older operating systems. But for users who do not intend to start Monterey, you can re-enable it under settings-SIP Settings.

   Note: SIP cannot be enabled in Big Sur for non-metal Gpus because the Root Patch has been Post installed.

   To enable the SIP

   SIP Reduction (Root patch)

   SIP is disabled

   If you are unsure whether you should enable SIP, leave it as is.

   Systems that have run Post Install Root Patch cannot enable SIP without breaking the current installation.

5. Run “Post Install Root Patch”.

   For users using unsupported GPU/wifi cards, you need to run the Post Install Root Volume patch to restore functionality.

   Click “Post Install Root Patch” in OpenCore-Patcher to list the functions that need to be patched.

   

   Click “Start Root Patching” to Start the fix (if you don’t need to fix it, the button is grayed out).

   After the patch is successfully repaired, the system is prompted to restart for the patch to take effect.

   Supports the following gpus and wireless nics:

   Unsupported GPUs in macOS Big Sur

   • Nvidia:
     • Tesla (8000 – 300 series)
   • AMD:
     • TeraScale (2000 – 6000 series)
   • Intel:
     • Iron Lake
     • Sandy Bridge (2000 – 3000 series)

   Unsupported GPUs in macOS Monterey

   • Nvidia:
     • Tesla (8000 – 300 series)
     • Kepler (600 – 800 series)
   • AMD:
     • TeraScale (2000 – 6000 series)
   • Intel:
     • Iron Lake
     • Sandy Bridge (2000 – 3000 series)
     • Ivy Bridge (4000 series)

   Unsupported Wireless Cards in macOS Monterey

   • Broadcom:
     • BCM94328
     • BCM94322
   • Atheros

Fifth, solve the problem of legacy acceleration

The product team has summarized some common problems and their solutions. If you encounter any problems, please click the link below.

• The broken background blurs
• Download older non-Metal applications
• Unable to scale
• Unable to grant special permissions to applications (such as camera access to zoom)
• The keyboard backlight isn’t working
• Photo and map apps are badly distorted
• Unable to press ‘Finish’ while editing sidebar widgets
• AMD/ATI in macOS 11.3 and later wake up from sleep with severe distortion
• Unable to switch Gpus on 2011 15″ and 17″ MacBook Pro
• Unstable colors on ATI TeraScale 2 GPU (HD5000/HD6000)
• Unable to allow Safari extension
• Unable to log in on the 2011 15-inch and 17-inch MacBook Pro

How to update the system version

According to the project description, the application of this patch can support OTA system update (system preference setting – software update), which is not recommended by the author. The performance of old Mac was originally a problem, so the upgrade will aggravate the system lag, and upgrade abnormalities are unknown.

If you need an update, you need to repeat the steps above and reinstall the macOS Monterey image with the new version, but in the steps, do not erase the partition, directly select the original partition to install, the system will be automatically upgraded.

For ordinary users, if there is no problem in using a large version, there is no need to consider upgrading the small version. Generally, the smoothness and functions of X. 5 version will be relatively perfect, and the subsequent security fixes are mostly required.

Please visit the project home page: OpenCore-Legacy-Patcher