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BookEmDanno

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2010
266
200
State of ~Aloha!~
I basically have the same question. I tried 2 things. Installed Mojave on a VM on a VMware Fusion. Works on the MB Air Mid 2011, but awfully slow. 2nd option was installing on a USB thumb drive to boot from it from a supported Mac Mini 2012. I got it to work from the same MacMini. But when I tried to boot from the USB on my MBAir mid 2011, it DOES NOT work. Bummer!

So my next option is to wait for Dosdude1's patcher app.

Danno
 

dogslobber

macrumors 601
Oct 19, 2014
4,670
7,808
Apple Campus, Cupertino CA
I basically have the same question. I tried 2 things. Installed Mojave on a VM on a VMware Fusion. Works on the MB Air Mid 2011, but awfully slow. 2nd option was installing on a USB thumb drive to boot from it from a supported Mac Mini 2012. I got it to work from the same MacMini. But when I tried to boot from the USB on my MBAir mid 2011, it DOES NOT work. Bummer!

So my next option is to wait for Dosdude1's patcher app.

Danno
You can copy the supported platform plist from HS to get it to boot. I did that on my iMac 2011 but it uses the basic fb for video by looks of it. Very slow.
 

Retromac2008

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2015
209
36
ok, but why ?

i m ok with it, but i genuinely want to know the HW reason.

what s the problem with sandy bridge ? intel hd 3000 ?
 

Reverend Benny

macrumors 6502a
Apr 28, 2017
773
525
Europe
ID say HD3000, its not a great GPU, the 4000 that followed seem to be a good bit better.
But as I see it, there is no need to get Mojave, High Sierra will be supported for years to come.
 

MBAir2010

macrumors 603
May 30, 2018
6,433
5,922
there
THe powers that be at Apple has a plan by eliminating service on our “old” MacBooks we sheepingly purchase new laptops so they can buy more Yatchs and other riches.
 

windywalks

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2004
586
546
I have an 11" MBA from 2011 which coughs up blood while trying to keep up. It only has 2 GB of RAM mind you, so it doesn't come to me as a surprise it can't keep up. It has become unusable lately. It's a computer my mother uses for office work and she has almost completely shifted to her 12.9" iPad Pro for everything, she even decided to use Pages on the iPad for document editing since the printer at the office supports AirPrint.
 

Retromac2008

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2015
209
36
I have an 11" MBA from 2011 which coughs up blood while trying to keep up. It only has 2 GB of RAM mind you, so it doesn't come to me as a surprise it can't keep up. It has become unusable lately. It's a computer my mother uses for office work and she has almost completely shifted to her 12.9" iPad Pro for everything, she even decided to use Pages on the iPad for document editing since the printer at the office supports AirPrint.

the only problem is your ram. High sierra is just perfect on any 2011 mba with 4gb ram. (and i have new macs for comparison)

with 2gb you should install an older os
 
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windywalks

macrumors 6502a
Mar 12, 2004
586
546
the only problem is your ram. High sierra is just perfect on any 2011 mba with 4gb ram. (and i have new macs for comparison)

with 2gb you should install an older os
Yeah, I figured as much. The processor and iGPU can handle the OS well enough. But the reason Apple doesn't offer Mojave for these systems has to do with the fact that some of them were still offered with 2GB of ram as standard whereas further down the line the 2GB configuration was eschewed for 4GB across the line.
And of course the 3000HD doesn't support Metal, but that's a whole different animal.
 

Retromac2008

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2015
209
36
Yeah, I figured as much. The processor and iGPU can handle the OS well enough. But the reason Apple doesn't offer Mojave for these systems has to do with the fact that some of them were still offered with 2GB of ram as standard whereas further down the line the 2GB configuration was eschewed for 4GB across the line.
And of course the 3000HD doesn't support Metal, but that's a whole different animal.
true, they shipped mbas with 4gb min from 2012.

could be a reason
 

smokesletsgo

macrumors regular
Oct 23, 2013
166
140
top reason is HD3000, which doesn't support Metal. But they could've left OpenGL support, no real changes to the macOS UI anyway... Well, we have some people working on enabling OpenGL, maybe it will be a success and you'll be able to use Mojave on HD3000 which shouldn't perform any worse than on High Sierra tbh.
 

Retromac2008

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 9, 2015
209
36
top reason is HD3000, which doesn't support Metal. But they could've left OpenGL support, no real changes to the macOS UI anyway... Well, we have some people working on enabling OpenGL, maybe it will be a success and you'll be able to use Mojave on HD3000 which shouldn't perform any worse than on High Sierra tbh.
np, i ll just leave this mba on high Sierra forever :)

it s going to be fast forever and fully supported for a lot of years :)
and doesn t bother me for updates every month (no restarts) !


i m just curious about the hw reason, not complaining
 
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FNH15

macrumors 6502a
Apr 19, 2011
816
859
np, i ll just leave this mba on high Sierra forever :)

it s going to be fast forever and fully supported for a lot of years :)
and doesn t bother me for updates every month (no restarts) !


i m just curious about the hw reason, not complaining

The HD3000 does not support the instruction set for Metal. Apple is deprecating OpenGL support, and the tentpole feature of UIKit apps on MacOS only works with Metal apps, so that's why they've dropped support. My iMac is in the same boat as your MBA, so I get wanting to know. :)
 
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BookEmDanno

macrumors 6502
Nov 9, 2010
266
200
State of ~Aloha!~
As for the MBAir mid 2011, I love the portability of the 13" model I have. It's on High Sierra and works fine for me. Only limitation is I do not like is that the ram (came with 4GB) is not upgradeable. I wish to transition this to Mojave, but as of now, it's not compatible.

Regards.
 
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