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Older OS X Versions. MacOS Sierra (10.12) MacRumors attracts a broad audience of both consumers and professionals interested in the latest technologies and products. We also boast an active community focused on purchasing decisions and technical aspects of the iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Mac platforms. Aug 12, 2021 Install Macos 10.15 Catalina On An Unsupported Mac MacOS Big Sur 11.0 and later allows management of legacy system extensions for both Intel-based Mac computers and Mac computers with Apple silicon. How to manage legacy system extensions Kernel extensions that use previously deprecated and unsupported KPIs no longer load by default. Select the drive or section you want to install macOS High Sierra on and click Erase, then select Mac OS Extended (Journaled) or APFS. When you format the entire disk, make sure you select the GUID markup. Use APFS for 2009 models and later, will work, as on macOS High Sierra.

1. Dosdude1 High Sierra Patcher
2. Dosdude1 High Sierra

While the yearly major macOS update system is free to install, it is still limited to Macs that Apple deems compatible, and every year a generation of Macs essentially becomes obsolete. This is despite the fact that Apple is eager to emphasize that macOS is a widely compatible operating system.

As it happens, there are still people with close to ten-year-old Apple desktop computers still in use on a daily basis, likely performing a range of lighter tasks.

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Which Macs Don't Support High Sierra

For some reason Apple doesn't want to allow these Macs to run one of its latest operating systems, namely macOS 10.13 High Sierra. This leaves the following Macs on macOS 10.11 El Capitan:

• MacBook Pro – late-2009 or earlier models
• MacBook – late-2008 or earlier models
• MacBook Air – 2009 or earlier models
• iMac – late-2008 or earlier models
• Mac Mini – 2009 or earlier models
• Mac Pro – 2009 or earlier models.

These machines are considered obsolete and vintage by Apple. The company defines vintage products as those that have not been manufactured for more than five years but less than seven years ago. Obsolete products are those discontinued more than seven years ago.

How To Install macOS High Sierra on Unsupported Macs

Though Apple doesn't support the above hardware officially, someone has thought about sharing the love for these older machines. A developer known as DOSDude1 has written a patch that works on Macs with the Penryn architecture. Using this still imposes certain limitations, but at least makes it possible to install macOS High Sierra on the following Macs:

• Early-2008 or newer Mac Pro, iMac, or MacBook Pro (MacPro 3,1 and 4,1, iMac 8,1 and 9,1, MacBook Pro 4,1, 5,1, 5,2, 5,3, 5,4, and 5,5).
• Late-2008 or newer MacBook Air or Aluminum Unibody MacBook (MacBook Air 2,1, MacBook 5,1).
• Early-2009 or newer Mac Mini or white MacBook (Mac Mini 3,1, MacBook 5,2)
• Early-2008 or newer Xserve (Xserve 2,1, Xserve 3,1).

If you happen to own any of the Penryn Macs mentioned above, the macOS High Sierra Patch Tool written by DOSDude1 will make running the latest software possible. But remember, with High Sierra you will also migrate to the Apple File System, and it is highly recommended that you first disable SIP because it may prevent the patch from working at all.

Installing the operating system on any of these Macs will require some technical knowledge, so it is not recommended for novice users. Also, a backup of your data is always a good idea in case anything goes wrong.

While there is a full step-by-step tutorial and video tutorial available on DOSDude1's website, it’s good to get a summary of the basics, which start with downloading the macOS High Sierra Installer app from the Mac App Store:

1. Format a USB drive as Mac OS Extended (Journaled) via Disk Utility.
2. Open the macOS High Sierra Patcher tool, navigate to the High Sierra Installer App, then select your pen drive and click “Start Operation”.
3. Boot from the USB drive by holding down the option key after reboot.
4. Install macOS normally, reboot back on the installer drive, and then open the “macOS Post Install” application.
5. From the options, select the Mac model you own. This step is important, because it contains the optimal patch for that specific model.
6. Click the “Patch” button, and after the process has finished, click “Reboot”.

The Reason Not To Install macOS High Sierra on an Unsupported Mac

As you may have already experienced with other types of officially unsupported machines, the probability of having issues is much higher. The same applies in this case, too, since the macOS High Sierra Patcher will render your iMac 8.1 Broadcom Wi-Fi chip useless for certain models.

Macs that use the Broadcom BCM4321 Wi-Fi module will not have functional Wi-Fi when running High Sierra. Another issue that has been highlighted by the developer is that the trackpad in the MacBook 5,2 isn't fully supported in this version of OS.

These are just a few of the possible issues that could arise, and this is before even mentioning the various potential software errors that you can run into by using out-of-date hardware. Without getting the proper knowledge beforehand, you'll need to revert back to the previous state of the Mac, which won't be an easy process, especially not without a Time Machine backup.

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With macOS Sierra, Apple has once again raised the bar on which Macs can install and run the newest version of the Mac OS. But as sometimes has happened in the past, there are workarounds that make it possible to install Sierra on some unsupported Macs.

A huge thank you to Collin Mistr for developing and sharing his macOS Sierra Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs. Mistr is a member of our Low End Mac group on Facebook, and he’s been sharing this tool ever since he figured out how to install the first public beta of Sierra. Several members of our group have used the tool and shared their results.

Apple Requirements for macOS Sierra

Your Mac must have at least 2 GB of memory and 8.8 GB of available storage space. You must also be running Mac OS X 10.7 Lion or later. (For those still on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, you can upgrade to OS X 10.11 El Capitan for free and then install macOS Sierra.)

Dosdude1 High Sierra Patcher

• Late 2009 iMac or newer
• Late 2009 MacBook or newer
• Mid 2010 MacBook Pro or newer
• Mid 2010 Mac Pro or newer
• Mid 2010 Mac mini or newer
• Late 2010 MacBook Air or newer

All Macs introduced in the past six years are supported, as well as the consumer MacBooks and iMacs from late 2009, which are almost 7 years old. The official macOS Sierra installer will refuse to install on anything older.

Real Hardware Requirements for macOS Sierra

Again, your Mac needs at least 2 GB of RAM and 8 GB of available storage, and you’ll need a USB drive (thumb drive or hard drive) at least 8 GB in size. You will also need a Mac with an Intel Penryn Core 2 Duo or later CPU, since Sierra requires SSE4.1 – and older versions of the Core 2 Duo, such as Merom, and older Xeon chips (used in the Mac Pro) don’t have it.

mac OS Sierra Patcher Tool for Unsupported Macs supports the followining:

• Early 2008 Mac Pro or newer
• Early 2008 iMac or newer
• Early 2008 MacBook Pro or newer
• Late 2008 MacBook Air or newer
• Early 2009 MacBook White or newer

Where Apple only supports some Late 2009 and Mid 2010 Macs, Mistr’s patch supports all Early 2009 Macs, some Late 2008 Macs, and even some Early 2008 Macs. We have a full list of Macs that can unofficially install Sierra using using the Unsupported Sierra tag. We will also be updating these profiles with #unsupportedsierra as time permits.

You Can Install It, But…

That’s a lot more low-end support than Apple offers, so what’s the catch?

There has been an issue with some of the Apple AirPort hardware in older Macs, but other than that, it’s pretty much clear sailing. The AirPort support depends on which WiFi module your Mac uses. If it is not the Broadcaom BCM4321, you’re set.

Other issues include the trackpad in the 2009 MacBooks and loss of volume control on the Early 2008 iMac. Details below.

Unsupported Devices

• The Broadcom BCM4321 WiFi module used in many older Macs is not supported. You will need to replace it with a compatible module or use a USB WiFi dongle. Models that may have this module include:
  • Early 2008 Mac Pro (MacPro3,1)
  • Early 2009 and Mid 2009 MacBook (MacBook5,2)
  • Early 2008 and Late 2008 MacBook Pro (MacBookPro4,1) but the 15″ Late 2008 MacBook Prois supported
  • Early 2008 iMac (iMac8,1)
  • Early 2009 and Late 2009 Mac mini (Macmini3,1)
  • Late 2008 and Mid 2009 MacBook Air (MacBookAir2,1).
• The trackpad in the Early 2009 and Mid 2009 MacBooks is not fully supported. Sierra sees it as a standard mouse; you cannot change the trackpad orientation settings.
• Some Early 2008 iMacs have an audio issue that will not let you adjust sound volume.

Real World macOS Sierra Requirements

Memory

Sure, you can install and run macOS Sierra on a 2 GB Mac, but you’re not likely to be happy with system performance. You have a couple browsers running or several tabs in one browser, and that amount of memory will really hobble performance.

Heck, I find 3 GB on my 2.0 GHz 2007 Mac mini with OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard barely adequate. Then again, I often have 3-4 browsers running, many open tabs, and some additional apps.

Dosdude1 High Sierra

My 2.0 GHz Late 2008 Aluminum MacBook has been running OS X 10.9 Mavericks and 10.11 El Capitan decently with 4 GB of memory, and that should be adequate for most users. Power users, however, will want at least 8 GB of memory.

A Fast Drive

Nothing will make your aging Mac seem fast like a Solid State Drive (SSD). Where hard drives are limited in how fast they can read data off a spinning platter, SSDs have no such limitation. Speed is almost completely limited by the speed of the SATA connection in your older Mac. Macs with 1.5 Mbps SATA will seem very fast with an SSD, those with 3.0 Mbps SATA will seem wicked fast, and those with 6.0 Mbps SATA will seem insanely fast.

SSDs have become very affordable over the past year. I have 256 GB and 480 GB SSDs in my Mac mini and MacBook respectively, and they made a world of difference.

If you need really high capacity or are on a very tight budget, look into newer 7200 rpm hard drives to replace your older hard drives. Newer drives tend to be faster and have larger data buffers, which boosts performance.

A third option if hybrid hard drives, which are part hard drive and part SSD. The drive itself manages which files are on the SSD and which remain on the hard drive platters, much like Apple’s Fusion Drive. I have tried hybrid, and while it was nicer than a straight hard drive, it doesn’t compare with a full fledged SSD. For some users in some applications, though, it might be a perfect mix of hard drive capacity and sometime SSD throughput.

In Closing

We Mac geeks have had a long history of hacking Mac OS X to run on unsupported hardware – starting with OS X 10.2. The biggest success was probably the unsupported installer hack for OS X 10.5 Leopard, allowing easy installation on Macs with G4 CPUs below the official 867 MHz threshold.

Collin Mistr’s patch is the same kind of thing for macOS Sierra. If your Mac is not supported by Apple but is by Mistr’s patch, give it a try. I think you’ll like it.

Keywords: #macossierra #unsupportedmacs #unsupportedsierra

Short link: https://goo.gl/InL5NS

searchword: unsupportedsierra