I have some workarounds for these features as well but they'll most be effective on Mac Pros
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macOS 10.12 Sierra Unsupported Macs Thread
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It feels like they just drew a line in the sand and decided to support from late 2009 forward. There doesn't appear to be any other technical reason for which devices are supported and those that aren't.
For nearly a decade we've seen very little architectural change. That combined with a slowing pace of increasing processing power compared to decades past, and we just don't see "obsolete hardware" as quickly as we used to and even old systems are "hackable".
As to the previous comparisons with Windows 10 on very old hardware: I am running Win 10 on an 11-12 year old Toshiba Satellite laptop, an M115 with a 1.6 GHz Core Duo (not Core 2 Duo) CPU and less than 256MB of VRAM (dual booted with Ubuntu). And it runs surprisingly well for a lot of things (even YouTube video is decent). So yeah, when hardware progress is slowing and the underlying architecture isn't changing much you can still do this. What will ultimately drive this old laptop to end-of-life is its 32-bitness.
The difference is that Microsoft is not (for the most part) a company selling devices to run the software, they are selling software (despite giving Windows 10 away to almost everyone). They have less of a vested interest in creating artificial "time bombs" to stop capable machines from running it. And yet, when MS decides to no longer develop anything to run on 32 bit architectures, yeah, game over for my old Toshiba, but it's 11-12 years or more and it's an understandable decision based on actual hardware (not age) considerations.
No worries…. Can't see anything of significancy benefit in Sierra from my point of view. Mountain Lion running on my early 2009 Mac Mini is fine for me, and is likely to remain so for a couple or three years.
Sorry, I was too busy wondering what you will all do with obsolete hardware. I mean, you won't get Siri so you have to junk your $5,000 computer, right?
I'd be fine with Mountain Lion if not for the loss of security updates. I've considered rolling my early 2009 Mini back to Mavericks but it's going to lose security updates soon as well.
You don't understand that once you loose software support than things become incompatible and issues arise. There is no technical reason to drop these macs. Just apple showing what a bunch of bloody hypocrites they are.
Anyone else figured out how to get Sierra on the 2009 MacBook Pros? It's really crappy of Apple to support the 2009 MacBook with a slower processor and the same GPU then the 2009 Pros like mine. The mid-2009 MacBook Pro 13" has the SAME EXACT specs as the late 2009 MacBook.
Anyway, I have tried editing the supported machines plist file and replacing the Boot.efi file from an ElCap install and have gotten it to boot about 5/8ths of the way but then it switches to a prohibited sign (already better then just getting a straight up prohibited when selected from the boot manager). Any one have any other ideas I should try?
Anyway, I have tried editing the supported machines plist file and replacing the Boot.efi file from an ElCap install and have gotten it to boot about 5/8ths of the way but then it switches to a prohibited sign (already better then just getting a straight up prohibited when selected from the boot manager). Any one have any other ideas I should try?
What happens if you install via firewire or install in a different mac and move the HDD over?
Same thing. I did it with a USB SSD actually, replaced the same files, and got just as far.
So I replaced the Sierra Boot.efi files and got just as far so the Boot.efi seems to be OK with the unsupported 09's at least.
i'm really not knowledgeable about these things, but what does that mean for getting it working on older machines? Is it a kext issue or something causing the prohibition sign?
The boot.efi working sounds good though... considering I remember all the issues with 10.8 and unsupported macs with the boot.efi.
That's what I am still trying to figure out. I fixed all the kexts with my machine's board ID and model ID, no dice though. I'm not really good at this kinda stuff either, but I know enough that I decided to take a crack at it. I'm more of hardware guy honestly.
What Boot.efi did you replace the original with. Did you edit the OSInstall.mpkg?
I replaced the original Sierra Boot.efi with an ElCap Installer one. I later switched it back to stock Sierra wondering if that might be the issue. Didn't change anything. I didn't edit the OSInstall.mpkg but I did replace it with the one from ElCap.
EDIT: It appears people have been able to get the 3,1 MacPros running Sierra. Seems it was easier then the MacBook Pros.
I don't think the Boot.efi and OSInstall.mpkg are interchangeable with El Capitan. The Bootloader specifically changes with every OS a few lines in OSInstall.mpkg are added to address things like new features which if not there could cause the installer to fail.
I'm not partially knowledgeable about editing the bootloader and install packages. I would appreciate a little guidance if you don't mind.
EDIT: Thinking about it, I installed a fully untouched copy onto an SSD, and yes I did mess with the Boot.efis but switched them back. Still having the same problem.
[doublepost=1465877885][/doublepost]Ok hopefully this helps a little bit. I restarted into Verbose mode and the last thing(s) the machine spit out was this:
I'm sticking with ElCap for now (until I can find a used Mac Mini from '10 or a MBP also from '10 so i can use Sierra)
This is from my guide for modifying the installer for Yosemite on a MacPro1,1/2,1. This will likely work for Sierra as well.
- You will need to add two board ID's to the OSInstall.mpkg Distribution file. To do this you will need to install the Flat Package Editor which can be found on
https://developer.apple.com/downloads/index.action. You will need to login and then search for "Auxiliary Tools”. - Download the “Late July 2012” dmg
- Once downloaded, mount the DMG and right click PackageMaker then show the contents.
- Browse to the /Contents/Resource folder and you will see the Flat Package Editor there. Copy that to your Utilities folder.
- Once you have the Flat Package Editor, use it to open the OSInstall.mpkg found on the installer drive at System/Installation/Packages.
- Click and drag the Distribution file to the desktop.
- Open up the TextEdit app and go to its preferences and uncheck “Smart Quotes”.
- Now open the distribution file using TextEdit app.
- Scroll down a little bit until you see "var platformSupportValues=[..."
- That is followed by a bunch of board ID's. For the Mac Pro 1,1 and 2,1 you will need to add "Mac-F4208DC8","Mac-F4208DA9". Add them to the end of the list.
- If you are not using a Mac Pro then you will need to get your board ID by entering this command in terminal: ioreg -lp IOService | grep board-id
- Make sure that you follow the same syntax as the other entries and make sure that you have only opening quote marks around what you type in. You may have to copy and paste the quote marks from an existing entry. If your closing quote after the boardID looks italic then it will not work.
- Save the edited Distribution file.
- In the Flat Package Editor window with the Distribution file highlighted click delete.
- Now drag the edited Distribution file into the window and save the package file.
- Also in the Packages folder you will need to modify the InstallableMachines.plist file with the same to above board IDs again following the syntax.
- Finally you have to modify the PlatformSupport.plist located in the System/Library/CoreServices folder, again adding the two board IDs in the correct syntax.
Will test with my MacBook5,2 as soon as the Sierra download completes.
It should. His guide is missing the Kernel Folder which was require for El Capitan though (might not be needed). Find the Kernel then put it in a new 'Kernel' folder in the root of your patched Installer.