First of all, thank you Todd for the great work! I was able to install on my 5,1. Everything works, except Continuity... it was working just fine under High Sierra using the Continuity Activation Tool Also, worked when I upgraded to Catalina (except Apple Watch was not able to unlock). However, Continuity does not work at all under Big Sur (nor am I even able to run the Continuity Activation Tool)

Any chance Continuity would work?

Thank you!

Hello
I stumbled upon your work and got a little excited....
I did an overhaul a few years back to get Mojave working. I would like to install BigSur but have a few questions/concerns:

• Can I install from mojave --> bigsure ?
• I currently boot from my PCIe NVMe drive, will this still work ?
• Does bootcamp support work if I upgraded ?
• Do I need to use one of my OEM cards for the boot screen? (can my GT210 be used along side my Vega II ?)
• I see the mention of v1.1 BigMac requirements... UPDATED: I see I read incorrectly, so following v1.x for now but v2.x is out now (If I read that correctly).... Is there a step by step guide for using v2.x? Or do we still need to start with version 1.x steps and work upwards?

Here is a list of stats on my current MacPro (and if you need a tester, I might be able to help with that).

PCIe NVMe drives (macOS + Win10)

Bluetooth upgraded (4.2)

WiFi upgraded (combo w/bluetooth)

Video card upgraded (Metal + uses power upgrade kit)
**Saw a video where a user temporarily used his old radeon card for the boot screen... I have this and also a nvidia GT210 (both are mac pro oem cards)

Tried twice to dl BM02ac_wifi.dmg and failed both times

Hi I am trying to is the bigmac software to instal Big Sur on my mac pro 3,1 with 24GB Ram, AMD 7950 GPU.

Once the installer does the first install, my mac boots and then keeps re-booting.

The software is installed but it does not get out of the loop.

I'm having problems booting the USB installer, it does not boot to the installer anymore

Any ideas what I can do?

It was all going well until choosing the install destination running 11.0.1 and the 11.1 installer refused to install on that.
Does this method only work from Catalina to Big Sur?

Since 11.2 is already out, can it be used with bigmac 2 alpha 1?

Thanks!

Hi there and many thanks for your work. I recently installed 11.1 on my 5,1 macpro using bigmac 1.1. I ran the preinstall.sh, installed and restarted. I did not run postinstall.sh as the last time I did it I ended up with an endless boot-kernelpanic loop. Without running postinstall.sh the macpro runs perfectly (I'd daresay better than catalina). However, since the wifi driver is not patched, I cannot have location services. is there a way to patch only the wifi drivers without applying the rest of the patches?

Thanks for your time and your work!
V

I have a Mac Pro 3,1 and I can boot BMO2 with my oem gt120, but is SLOWWWWW. I have 2 pc metal cards I have used successfully before, but they won't give me video output. They are a GT630 HP and a GT710 MSi. Any clue?

Update: I was just able to flash the GT630 with a macOS vBios and it boots into Big Sur. However, Big Sur seems sluggish, overall.

3.1 High Sierra
When I runned bigmac.sh system resolved name of disk like isk2

Mac Pro (Early 2008)
2.8 GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon
32GB RAM
AMD Radeon HD 7950 2GB
Running macOS Catalina v10.15.7

Ran bigmac.sh and created the installer, and consistently get a kernel panic booting it. Tried three separate drives, same issue every time. Also tried booting the drive directly in a SATA bay, and off the EFI shell (from dosdude's Catalina Patcher's APFS support for MacPro 3,1):

panic(cpu 2 caller 0xffffff8002befa76): Kernel trap at 0xffffff8003203c3b, type 14=page fault, registers:
CR0: 0x000000008001003b, CR2: 0x00000000000000d0, CR3: 0x0000000006a59000, CR4: 0x00000000000026e0
RAX: 0x0000000000000000, RBX: 0xffffff9378761240, RCX: 0x0000000000000000, RDX: 0x0000000001000000
RSP: 0xffffffa0ef08bde0, RBP: 0xffffffa0ef08be10, RSI: 0xffffff9378ceb9f0, RDI: 0x0000000000000000
R8: 0x00000000000000c7, R9: 0x0000000000000003, R10: 0x0000000000000001, R11: 0x0000000000000080
R12: 0xffffff93789b8800, R13: 0xffffff8003a134c0, R14: 0xffffff9378969a10, R15: 0xffffff937874a810
RFL: 0x0000000000010246, RIP: 0xffffff8003203c3b, CS: 0x0000000000000008, SS: 0x0000000000000000
Fault CR2: 0x00000000000000d0, Error code: 0x0000000000000000, Fault CPU: 0x2, PL: 0, VF: 1

Backtrace (CPU 2), Frame : Return Address
0xffffffa0ef08b800 : 0xffffff8002abc66d
0xffffffa0ef08b850 : 0xffffff8002bff073
0xffffffa0ef08b890 : 0xffffff8002bef6aa
0xffffffa0ef08b8e0 : 0xffffff8002a61a2f
0xffffffa0ef08b900 : 0xffffff8002abbf0d
0xffffffa0ef08ba20 : 0xffffff8002abc1f8
0xffffffa0ef08ba90 : 0xffffff80032bee1a
0xffffffa0ef08bb00 : 0xffffff8002befa76
0xffffffa0ef08bc80 : 0xffffff8002bef75d
0xffffffa0ef08bcd0 : 0xffffff8002a61a2f
0xffffffa0ef08bcf0 : 0xffffff8003203c3b
0xffffffa0ef08be10 : 0xffffff80031fc13c
0xffffffa0ef08be60 : 0xffffff80031f98a0
0xffffffa0ef08beb0 : 0xffffff8003206d78
0xffffffa0ef08bee0 : 0xffffff80031f92b2
0xffffffa0ef08bf30 : 0xffffff8003216b5e
0xffffffa0ef08bf70 : 0xffffff8003216146
0xffffffa0ef08bfa0 : 0xffffff8002a6113e

Process name corresponding to current thread: kernel_task
Boot args: -no_compat_check -v root-dmg=file:///BaseSystem/BaseSystem.dmg

Mac OS version:
Not yet set

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 20.1.0: Sat Oct 31 00:07:11 PDT 2020; root:xnu-7195.50.7~2/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 84C6DC45-6B02-335F-9439-5D2A9BC385A4
KernelCache slide: 0x0000000002800000
KernelCache base: 0xffffff8002a00000
Kernel slide: 0x0000000002810000
Kernel text base: 0xffffff8002a10000
__HIB text base: 0xffffff8002900000
System model name: MacPro3,1 (Mac-F42C88C8)
System shutdown begun: NO
Panic diags file unavailable, panic occurred prior to initialization
Hibernation exit count: 0

System uptime in nanoseconds: 5511131192
Last Sleep: absolute base_tsc base_nano
Uptime : 0x0000000149682926
Sleep : 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000 0x0000000000000000
Wake : 0x0000000000000000 0x000000442924fb51 0x0000000000000000
last started kext at 3296019829: >usb.IOUSBHostHIDDevice 1.2 (addr 0xffffff8005998000, size 40960)
loaded kexts:

CSRHIDTransitionDriver 8.0.1f5
!AFileSystemDriver 3.0.1
|SCSITaskUserClient 436.40.6
@filesystems.tmpfs 1
@filesystems.hfs.kext 556.41.1
@BootCache 40
@!AFSCompression.!AFSCompressionTypeZlib 1.0.0
@!AFSCompression.!AFSCompressionTypeDataless 1.0.0d1
@filesystems.apfs 1677.50.1
!AAHCIPort 346
!A!I8254XEthernet 3.1.5
@private.KextAudit 1.0
!AACPIButtons 6.1
!ARTC 2.0
!AHPET 1.8
!ASMBIOS 2.1
!A!ICPUPowerManagementClient 222.0.0
!AACPIEC 6.1
!AAPIC 1.7
@!ASystemPolicy 2.0.0
@nke.applicationfirewall 310
|IOKitRegistryCompatibility 1
|EndpointSecurity 1
!A!ICPUPowerManagement 222.0.0
usb.IOUSBHostHIDDevice 1.2
usb.!UHub 1.2
usb.cdc 5.0.0
usb.networking 5.0.0
usb.!UHostCompositeDevice 1.2
!ABSDKextStarter 3
|IOSurface 289.3
|IOSkywalk!F 1
mDNSOffloadUserClient 1.0.1b8
@filesystems.hfs.encodings.kext 1
!AXsanScheme 3
|IOAHCIBlock!S 332
|IOAHCI!F 294
usb.!UXHCIPCI 1.2
usb.!UXHCI 1.2
usb.!UEHCIPCI 1.2
usb.!UUHCIPCI 1.2
usb.!UUHCI 1.2
usb.!UEHCI 1.2
usb.!UHostPacketFilter 1.0
|IOUSB!F 900.4.2
!AEFINVRAM 2.1
!AEFIRuntime 2.1
|IOSMBus!F 1.1
|IOHID!F 2.0.0
$!AImage4 3.0.0
|IOTimeSync!F 900.11
|IONetworking!F 3.4
DiskImages 493.0.0
|IO!B!F 8.0.1f5
|IOReport!F 47
|IO!BPacketLogger 8.0.1f5
$quarantine 4
$sandbox 300.0
@kext.!AMatch 1.0.0d1
|CoreAnalytics!F 1
!ASSE 1.0
!AKeyStore 2
!UTDM 511.40.9
|IOUSBMass!SDriver 184.40.6
|IOSCSIBlockCommandsDevice 436.40.6
|IO!S!F 2.1
|IOSCSIArchitectureModel!F 436.40.6
!AMobileFileIntegrity 1.0.5
@kext.CoreTrust 1
!AFDEKeyStore 28.30
!AEffaceable!S 1.0
!ACredentialManager 1.0
KernelRelayHost 1
|IOUSBHost!F 1.2
!UHostMergeProperties 1.2
usb.!UCommon 1.0
!ABusPower!C 1.0
!ASEPManager 1.0.1
IOSlaveProcessor 1
!AACPIPlatform 6.1
!ASMC 3.1.9
|IOPCI!F 2.9
|IOACPI!F 1.4
watchdog 1
@kec.pthread 1
@kec.corecrypto 1.0
@kec.Libm 1

/Volumes/bigmac/preinstall.sh. I Installed To Bootable Usb Booted to Bigmac Went Into Termanal Will Not Work When I Try This Using 2009 Mac Pro tower 5.1 Thanks

I've been using Catalina on my Mac Pro 2010, everything works fine except I need to take the NVME SSD system drive out, and plug another officially supported mac to update the system.

I've just updated to Big Sur thanks for your script, Everything went so smooth, so I'm wondering the system update support OOB or not?

If not, is there any recommended way to update the system?

Thank you

Hi, I have tried to make a fresh install into a separate partition.
After the first installtion, macOS 11.11 start to loop at every boot, so I restart my macOS 10.15.7 to execute the postinstall.sh

The postinstall.sh start, ask me the disk and, ater hit return, it start to install the patched packages.
When come to the snapshot delete it fail with this message:

📸 Attempting to delete snapshot =>
xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx
Deleting APFS Snapshot xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx "com.apple.os.update-xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx" from APFS Volume disk4s5
Started APFS operation
Error: -69863: Insufficient privileges
OS Major version unrecognized

The problem appear even if I execute the snapshot delete manually
This problem never happen with the preivous bigmac 1.0 and macOS 11.0.1

Any idea on how can I solve?

Thanks
Thanks

Hi, it is possible to integrate a patch to enable Night Shift?

Thanks

Tried Alpha 2 on NVME with a new partition.

Boots into recovery. Brings up the recovery menu including BigMac 2.0 icon. Click it / continue and it does nothing.

Does not work. Also you have no instructions on the 2.0 UI or help.

Hi,
After I started the BigSur installer app, it copies to the installation media but once it restarts to continue installation it gets into restart loop. Plz help!

I already had Big Sur 11.0 on my Mac pro 5,1 2009 (GTX 680) for a month now.

Using a Late 2013 iMac, my USB 3.0 2TB external (WD mains-powered) Time Machine HDD would disconnect constantly (and silently) while backing up when connected directly... This did not happen if connected via a combo USB3/2 hub (in the USB 2.0 port). Backups were excruciatingly slow using this method, but reliable. NOTE: the late 2013 iMac only has USB 3.0 ports...

I tried everything in my power to get this working under USB 3.0, including third-party and WD software to adjust sleep values etc., but nothing worked. Tried everything suggested like resetting SMC etc etc... multiple full system reinstalls... no luck whatsoever.

I switched to a 2TB Seagate Expansion Portable Drive HDD (which had about 3x faster transfers anyway, and was self-powered) and it has run without a hitch for years. Actually, it inspired me to purchase 3 more Expansion Portable Drives from Seagate, including a 5TB model.

It appears that the WD issue was ENTIRELY due to driver/firmware conflicts with Apple's driver/firmware... and was never solved. The same may be true with your disconnecting thumbdrives on USB 3.0 as well 👍

Why are there dozens of commits made every day? Is it still an unstable item?

Hi there

I installed macos 11.2 on my 5,1 mac pro via the alpha 2 route and all is working fine with the exception of the mac pro's wifi (original card), which was patched after installation with your post install tool. Any ideas?

Thanks!

Whenever the preinstall.sh is executed within Terminal on macOS Mojave 10.14.1 (Mac Pro 4,1 Early 2009), it shows this error (about 4 times) after the Software Version check.

/Users/myusernamehere/preinstall.sh: line 53: [: ==: unary operator expected

After replacing the single brackets [ ] with double single brackets [[ ]] in line 53 in the preinstall.sh, the issue no longer appears. Could you implement that in the .sh file if it does not cause any issues on any other version of macOS? I have not tried this modification on any other version on macOS.

or will it delay a few days for 11.2 Final?

Hello, this patch works with iMac Late 2009 and Macbook Air 2010? Thank you!

After having many issues with even getting the usb installer to load, i finally realised i had to remove my bluetooth card.

Once i removed the bluetooth card the installer booted, but i had no kb/mouse because of the usb 1.1 issue. So i recreated the installer with single user mode, after that i was able to use mouse and keyboard.

I installed Big Sur to a spare HDD first before my main SSD in case anything went wrong but it all went very smoothly including the post install patches. So i then decided to back up my main SSD and install a clean install of big sur onto it.

Most of the install went smoothly once again except for the post install patches, the big mac program crashes as soon as i press apply to install the patches. I thought maybe the post install might've corrupted slightly so i tried patching the big sur install on the HDD again and that was a success. So I don't know if there is something going wrong with the post install and SSDs or if maybe that Big Sur install on the SSD had something wrong with it.

Hi!
I just installed mac os 11.2 using bigmac 2 on my mac pro 2008.
I wiped my external hard drive and recreated the install disk for 11.2 using bigmac2.
Then I booted into the install disk and did the preinstall patches and then started the installer, this is already much better then bigmac 1.1, because it would usually not start the install app after doing the preinstall patches while booted into the installer drive. (I had to run the preinstall script on my catalina install, and then run the install mac os big sur.app from there)
The installation went fine and I cut off the boot loop after the third boot.

When booting back in to the install drive and trying to apply the post install patches, I could not get it to work.
When I clicked on "patch disk" it would say "starting" or something like that and then the application (Bigmac2) would just quit/crash.

I have manually made another volumes on the install drive called bigmac and copied the whole contents of the bigmac-master folder from bigmac 1.1 on there.
I then booted into the installer and applied the post install patches from terminal, like you would do with bigmac 1.1.
After that the system booted and I applied the patches using the bigmac2 app again, just to be sure.

Everything works fine now and 11.2 works well on my mac pro.
I just wanted to share this for future improvement of this awesome tool!

is this patcher compatible with the release candidate 11.0.1? I do not have access to the developer preview builds

Hello, I don't have a MacPro, but I fixed the BigSur Legacy USB Injector that consists of replacing two patched kext :

• remove LegacyUSBInjector.kext (to avoid redundancy)
• use the attached AppleUSBHostMergeProperties.kext (USB IOKit from parrotgeek1 merged into the BigSur Info plist through Syncretic tips)
• use the attached IOHIDFamily.kext (BigSur binary patched through ASentientBot Catalina earlier single user mode fix method)
• copy and replace AppleUSBHostMergeProperties.kext to the APFS System BigSur path: /System/Library/Extensions/IOUSBHostFamily.kext/Contents/Plugins/
• replace IOHIDFamily.kext to the APFS System BigSur path: /System/Library/Extensions/
• chown and chmod recursively both replaced kext
• rebuild with kmutil the KernelCollections for both System and Boot Kernel Extensions
• use kcditto to copy the updated BootKernelExtensions.kc to the APFS BigSur Preboot
• make a new snapshot with updated APFS BigSur System Volume changes

Download here: BigSur Legacy USB patches

Worked great! But WiFi does not work on my Mac Pro now. The interface wouldn't turn on. When I turn it off and try to re-add it, WiFi is not listed as an option. Otherwise, very straightforward and works well. Thanks!

Hi,

where is the macOS Big Sur 11.2 download location created by the Alpha 2 GUI?

Thanks

When installing can you upgrade to the latest version of big Sur when it comes out

I wanted to let you know that I successfully created the install media using your bigmac2 xcode project you currently have up. I know it isn't even in alpha yet, but I wanted to let you know the USB 1.1 fix you added worked great for me. Some things I noticed, just to let you know:

• Booting from C key did not work for me
• After installation I could not apply post install stuff. In order to achieve the post install patches I had to use the patches from bigmacv1.1 from a separate usb stick. Then, for good measure, I booted into the OS (now that it was booting) and ran the scripts again from the bigmac2 app; which worked great from the main OS but not the install environment.

Just FYI, I did this upgrade from the DOSDude1 Catalina patcher Installed as the OS. In other words this was an upgrade not a clean install.

Again, Thanks for your hard work!

Hello, @StarPlayrX. Creating the patcher on my MacBook Pro for use on my Mac Pro 3,1 When I run your first script (on STep 9) in Terminal (sudo asr -s ~/Downloads/BMO2* -er -t dragDiskHere), I get this error: "/Users/ac/dragDiskHere" is not a volume
Could not validate target - No such file or directory. Please advise. Thank you.

I follow these steps for a MacPro 3,1:

    Open Terminal. Execute csrutil disable.
    While you are there set some boot args: nvram boot-args="-no_compat_check".
    add -v if you want verbose boot like so: nvram boot-args="-v -no_compat_check".
    These steps will be automated in bigmac2, but it is good to have a supported disk for emergencies.
Boot screen. If you don't have a boot screen, support will not be provided. I'll leave that adventure up to you. Hint: Use two USB drives and remove all internal drives. Then either install the USB drive is possible or clone it to the internal drive using Apple Software Restore. I my shoot a video on this.
Download APFS ROM patcher by dosdude1. Then enter password: apfs and follow the instructions.
Your GPU must support Metal. I highly recommend this GPU: Radeon RX 580 8 GB Mac Edition on eBay for $299
1 external USB SSD or hard drive. Fast flash drives might work. Slow thumb drivers are not supported.
For the actual installation, an SSD or hard drive with 60GB or greater. 256GB recommended.

How to boot a USB (Requires a Video Card with a Mac Boot ROM)

Be sure your Mac Pro can boot APFS volumes directly. There is an APFS ROM Patch for Mac Pro 3,1s.
Be sure to disable System Integrity Protection as soon as possible (csrutil disable ; csrutil authenticated-root disable).
Plug a USB 2.0 keyboard and pointing device directly into your Mac Pro's USB 2.0 ports.
Plug the bootable installer into your Mac Pro.
Press and hold the Option (Alt) ⌥ key immediately after turning on or restarting your Mac Pro.
Release the Option key when you see a gray boot screen showing your bootable volumes.
Select the volume containing the bootable installer. Then click the up arrow or press Return.
**Fails here ->** Choose your language, if prompted.
Open the Terminal.
Execute cd /Volumes/bigmac; .preinstall.sh, and quit Terminal.
Select Install macOS Big Sur from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

But at ** fails here**
I get the following screen indicating no USB 1 .0 drivers so I cannot proceed to:
Open the Terminal.
Execute cd /Volumes/bigmac; .preinstall.sh, and quit Terminal.
Select Install macOS Big Sur from the Utilities window, then click Continue and follow the onscreen instructions.

Any way around this?

Hello,
Last time I installed big sur on my 3,1 was with the pre-alpha releases. My legacy hardware (usb 1.1) worked in the install environment at the time. I am seeing it doesn't anymore? Is this correct? I am also seeing posts about 11.2 not installing properly, is this confirmed? I am getting a little concerned about what some others have put up on here.

What would be your suggested install procedure for us 3,1 folks at this time for 11.2?

I tried to install BS on a (flashed) 5,1 early 2009. Everything is fine (csrutil disabled, preinstall OK), the installer is running until the last 12 minutes, then it quits with a cornel panic (I tried several times). I got a Nvidia GeForce GTX 780 card it this Mac, could that be reason? This card supports Metal. Does BigMac only work with Metal AMD Cards? Or what can I have done wrong? Thanx for your support.

I have created the installer successfully and booted just fine. I know there is a mouse and keyboard issue. I am connected through a usb 2 hub using a wired Mac keyboard and mouse. I am still unable to get any response from them in the installer. Any tips?

Hi, Just updated to 11.1
RX580 has no boot screen, I couldn't boot into the installer usb drive, so I replaced it with the old HD5750, apply ./preinstall and run installer, everything runs so well

Thank you again for your guide

I have a 2009 5,1 Dual MacPro. It only has the original Bluetooth.
Will I have to upgrade it to BT 4.0 and WiFi (BCM94360CD) for Big Sur?

Hi, thank you for your work with BigMac.
I don't know if this is the correct place to write you, however I'm a graphic designer with coding experience.
If you need help to build the GUI , for the general icons and graphics, please count on me!

Hi,

I created an installer for bigmac2 on an external hard drive using my MacBook to be used on my Mac Pro 3,1.

When I try to boot from the external hard drive using the option key the apple logo will appear and then about a minute later the loading bar will appear, however a few seconds after the loading bar appears the mac will reboot.

I tried unplugging all other drives so it can only boot from the external hard drive, but when i do that the mac just gets into a boot loop with the same issue.

First, thank you for this great work! I wanted to install Big Sur on my Mac Pro 5,1.

1. I downloaded macOS via clicking on "Download macOS"
2. As I clicked on "Create Installer Disk", I've chosen my APFS formatted Samsung Fit USB Flash Drive and clicked on "Erase".
3. It took only 1 minute until the message "The Big Mac 2.0 installation disk has been completed." appeared. After clicking on "Boot the bigmac2 Installer" nothing happened.
4. I took a look on my Samsung Fit but didn't find any data/files on it. I've done the process for 3 times, always with the same result.

MY CONFIG:

Mac Pro 5,1
macOS 10.13.6
BT 4 dongle
802.11n WiFi
Radeon RX 560
No Boot Screen

What I've done wrong?
Thanks in advance for your help!

First I want give a BIG thank you for your simplicity script.

I've using the JHFS+ method on my the same mac running on latest Catalina. I just run the preinstall script, and after 3 boots, the welcome screen shows. So I've skipped the postscript script, and everything works fine!

Not installing anymore tried making it work from dos dude Catalina patcher why does it have to be open core been trying for day Keep getting a bunch crash codes

Got the boot disk created OK BUT now when trying to select as Startup disk seeing this:

TL;DR: Success has eluded me but I thought I should write up my experience to help others attempting to do this; it seems to me that the first four issues below easily took a day in total to troubleshoot in tedious detail, and aren’t documented in one place. In the end I am stuck in an infinite loop with console messages of the form “apfs_get_firmlink_target_vnode:2007: vnode_lookipat(xxxxxxxx) failed with error 2”,

Pre-installation status:
MacPro 3,1
24GB RAM
Kingston HyperX Predator AHCI PCIe SSD
Nvidia GTX 680 2Gb
Apple Cinema Display 30”
Apple Keyboard A1243 (via Cinema Display hub)
Logitech MX Master 2S with unifying receiver (via keyboard hub)
MacOS Mojave installed via dosdude1 Mojave Patcher

Goal: Install Big Sur 11.2 on a new APFS volume on the same SSD, retaining the legacy Mojave volume as-is for now.

Issues and resolutions:

1. BigMac alpha 2 installer downloaded MacOS Big Sur 11.2 and other files, no problem, and said it successfully completed install to a target USB flash disk, however that disk failed to boot. Turns out that BigMac alpha 2 did not seem to write anything to the bigmac volume on the disk (there are file not found script errors in the console logs) - it takes the time expected but there’s nothing on the disk and it does not indicate an error condition. I tried this a few times with no luck. Hey, it's an alpha build, so fair enough.
   Fix: Fell back to trying bigmac 1.1. Ran bigmac.sh. I checked the flash disk and found the volumes had been created and the Big Sur installer installed, but the bigmac volume itself was empty. Manually copied bigmac 1.1 files onto the flash disk bigmac volume.

2. Option-booted successfully into the Install Big Sur volume on the flash disk. Flashing pictures of Magic Mouse and Magic Keyboard appear, no mouse or keyboard response.
   I checked the BigMac github issue forums and found there is no support for USB 1.1 in the Big Sur installer, and I have never even seen a native USB2 keyboard. However StarPlayrX made a comment on another post about booting single user, then exiting, to force USB1.1 support. Astoundingly, this works but interactive timing is tricky.
   I found holding Command-S down as I used the mouse to select the installer volume in the option-boot screen worked the best - I don’t let go until I get the single user shell prompt (tedious, but reliable). Using this method my experience was that you have to have mouse activity during the installer boot (ie after you press exit) for it to be detected (maybe it’s a power management thing). So I moved the mouse a bit between exiting the single user shell and when the installer appears. Doing all this results in a working mouse and keyboard, even though these devices are USB chained from the cinema display.
   Fix: Later, after initial interactive testing, I found that setting a bootarg of “-s” by editing preinstall.sh gave me more predictability and reliability, consistently enabling USB 1.1 without having to sit watching the display forever.

3. Successfully ran through the installer, selecting a fresh AFPS volume on the Predator SSD. Installer began doing its thing so I went to bed, expecting it to be finished in the morning or at least in the infinite loop associated with MacPro3,1 installs as documented. No luck. Grey blank screen.
   Thought I had patched the boot ROM, but hadn’t - meaning Mojave was booting through dosdude1’s software EFI boot helper. This caused the system to hang with a blank grey screen after Big Sur installer rebooted. I eventually realised this was because the installer RAM drive bootstrap would be setting the startup disk to an APFS volume that could not be booted natively by the original Mac Pro 3,1 ROM.
   Fix: Installed dosdude1’s APFS ROM Patcher, which works like a dream.

4. Finally, the installer was able to do its thing and, as documented, the MacPro ended up in an infinite kernel panic boot loop. (It runs through too fast to read what the last messages are before it panics and I'm not sure where, if anywhere, console logs are written). However, neither postinstall.sh from BigMac 1.1 (in recovery terminal) or running BigMac 2 alpha 2 (when booted from another disk) were able to cure this and make the partition bootable. It dawned on me that MacOS 11.2 is newer than the 11.1 release that BigMac was last released for. Could it be that BigMac 1.1/2a2 is reasonably not yet capable of patching 11.2?
   Fix: I had no choice but to find out, deleted the Big Sur target APFS volume and started again from scratch.

5. Now I had another problem: BigMac 2 offers no control as to which version of Big Sur it downloads and uses to create a boot disk. So I couldn’t use the 2.0a2 app or the bigmac.sh 1.1 script to regenerate the USB flash disk, because they now only download Big Sur 11.2.
   Fix: Instead I downloaded 11.1 and manually did what the script normally does, recreating the JHFS+ partitions, manually running createinstallmedia, and executing the rest of the commands from bigmac.sh.

6. After resolving all of these problems, I ended up in the predicted infinite kernel panic boot loop. I option-booted into the BigSur installer again, launched the Terminal, ran postinstall.sh on the target volume, held my breath and hit return to reboot…. to an infinite loop of scrolling console messages of the form “apfs_get_firmlink_target_vnode:2007: vnode_lookipat(xxxxxxxx) failed with error 2”, apparently for each of the launchd services over and over again. Screenshot attached.
   Fix: none. I'm beaten at this point.
   

7. Time to revert to last known good state…. but alarmingly my original Mojave volume no longer appeared in the option-boot screen.
   Fix: I was able to get back to square one by choosing to boot the first “EFI boot” volume that appears, then subsequently setting the startup disk in Mojave. Not sure what is going on there, but this works.

This comedy of errors isn’t a total loss - I had used the dosdude1 Mojave patcher before Colin released his APFS ROM Patcher so I had no idea it existed. Discovering and successfully installing this alone was worth the pain, but I sure would like to get Big Sur booted.

My conclusion tonight is that I’m either doing something very stupid/nonstandard, or that BigMac isn’t quite ready for primetime. When it is, it will be amazing and certainly worth paying for given the hassle and time this process consumes plus the amazing payoff it offers. StarPlayrX is a worthy successor to dosdude1.

Would be super happy if anybody out there can shed some light on what is going wrong; thanks in advance.

I get the flashing BT Magic Mouse and Keyboard icons at first part of the USB install phase and cannot therefore start terminal and the preinstall.sh.
Is there no USB1.1 support in the alpha1 and alpha2 installers?

Hello!

I tried using the createinstallmedia approach using a Mac Pro 3,1 that has been firmware patched using the dosdude1 APFS ROM Patcher tool. I confirmed that the firmware patch is working correctly beforehand by booting into an APFS Catalina install without using the software-based EFI Boot option. When I try the Big Sur installer, I'm able to boot the installer without a problem, run the preinstall script without a problem, and create a new APFS disk without a problem. However, when I try to select the newly created APFS disk in the installer, I get an error reading "Your Mac needs a firmware update in order to install to this volume. Please select a Mac OS Extended (Journaled) volume instead".

Do you have any advise on bypassing this problem? Or alternatively, is a better approach to just go with JHFS+ and then convert to APFS post-install?

Thanks!

Hi, I was hopeful that you would share a little more about how you got this working on your rig. Been using a Quadro K5000 in mine, but I assume at some point the NVIDIAs won't be supported anymore. Trying to keep running until there are good Apple Silicon options greater than 16G memory.

Which RX580 are you using? What flash package did you use?

Is there an easy way to update to 11.1? Anyone tried this yet?

I did a PRAM reset to try and fix an audio issue and I can't boot to my Big Sur SSD. I can't boot to my installer that I made either. Running Pre-boot from Mojave or Post Boot from recovery doesn't help. When I attempt to boot the installer or the Big Sur SSD I get a circle with a cross right away. When attempting to start from scratch I can't install Big Sur from Mojave. Any suggestions? Thanks!

We are looking to see if it's possible to patch the latest install. You can thank Adobe for this one.