Update Directly to macOS Monterey

[Richdem]

Has anyone successfully upgraded straight to Monterey from Catalina using clover?

If I were you I would consider switching to Opencore as others have said. The initial setup takes a while. I followed a great tutorial by Chris Titus. Once I created my Opencore USB stick I installed Catalina and it went without a hitch. While I was messing around I then changed my model identifier to one that supports Big Sur, downloaded it and installed it without doing anything else other than that. It was super simple with Opencore.

Still intrigued I again changed my model identifier to one that supports my hardware and Monterey, downloaded it and created a new USB installer using the exact same Opencore EFI and bang 30 minutes later had Monterey installed. Everything worked out of the box on My Lenovo M83 SFF. All I did after that was sort my USB ports out and haven't touched anything since. Had an Apple software update that ran straight from the Software Update and it installed perfectly.

If you can spare the time to learn Opencore it is definitely worth it

 

[Hugo7]

Upgraded from BigSur 11.5 to Monterey 12.6. From OS download to installation, less than 30mins.

Day1

Initially, I had my Clover mindset and tried to use a previous config.plist with new kexts and OC 4.7. Didn't work.

Day2

I revisited Dortania's excellent guide (which I used last year for Mojave to BigSur transition), correctly rebuilt the config.plist file and reboots proceeded without a hitch.

The OpenCore guidelines are so comprehensive with explanations for every parameter you may or may not need to tweak. I just couldn't imagine going back to the black magic of Clover

Huge thanks to the TonyMac and OpenCore community. My Skylake build (starting on HighSierra) lives on.

 

[exquirentibus]

I'm starting to dig into OpenCore in earnest (Obviously the way to go!!). I'm still on Catalina using Clover.

If I get a thumb drive EFI with OpenCore installed to boot my Catalina main NVMe - can that same EFI (possibly with a few minimal changes?) be used on the Monterey Install USB I generated a few days ago to perform a New virgin install of Monterey?

I'd then import a Carbon Copy Catalina bootable SSD into Monterey to get all my programs and setups?

Testing my EFI by seeing if it will boot Catalina seems like a Much faster way to get it Right instead of trying a lengthy Monterey install with an untested EFI?

 

[Hugo7]

I'm starting to dig into OpenCore in earnest (Obviously the way to go!!). I'm still on Catalina using Clover.

If I get a thumb drive EFI with OpenCore installed to boot my Catalina main NVMe - can that same EFI (possibly with a few minimal changes?) be used on the Monterey Install USB I generated a few days ago to perform a New virgin install of Monterey?

I'd then import a Carbon Copy Catalina bootable SSD into Monterey to get all my programs and setups?

Testing my EFI by seeing if it will boot Catalina seems like a Much faster way to get it Right instead of trying a lengthy Monterey install with an untested EFI?

I tried to do something similar (see Day1 note above) by just updating the kernel extensions, and it didn't work. Funny thing is that given I already had OC experience from a previous upgrade, revisiting Dortania's excellent guide and preparing a new EFI took less than an hour.

You're quite a few OS versions (i.e. Catalina) behind Monterey so a direct upgrade may not be feasible (I don't know for sure). Quite a lot has changed in terms of the OS and what's needed for an OC-compatible EFI. Anyway, it doesn't hurt to start with your current setup and get comfortable with OC. Good luck.

 

[teosoft]

Upgraded from Big Sur / OpenCore 0.6.9 to OpenCore 0.8.5 / Monterey in place, without any issues. Used OCAuxiliary Tools app, which made upgrade to OpenCore a breeze.

GitHub - ic005k/OCAuxiliaryTools: Cross-platform GUI management tools for OpenCore（OCAT）

Cross-platform GUI management tools for OpenCore（OCAT） - ic005k/OCAuxiliaryTools

github.com

User's Guide:

OC-Little-Translated/D_Updating_OpenCore/README.md at main · 5T33Z0/OC-Little-Translated

ACPI Hotpatches and Guides for the OpenCore Bootmanager. Enhance and fine-tune your system by adding devices and enabling additional features not covered in the OpenCore Install Guide. - 5T33Z0/OC-...

github.com

I have no affiliation with either tool or developer(s).
Just liked how easy it was to upgrade.

 

[exquirentibus]

I was hoping to get my working Catalina 10.15.x moved over to OpenCore from Clover and then upgrade to Monterey.

I got a working EFI for OpenCore 0.8.5 from a member with an identical motherboard and graphics card, so .. no worries I thought lol ??

I replaced all the serials etc in config.plist.

The OpenCore thumb drive I created with Only the OpenCore EFI sees the Catalina partition. I cleared NVRAM and don't have any kexts installed on MacOS (only on the boot EFI).

When I tell OpenCore to boot from the working Catalina partition, even with the -v boot arg .. it does .. Nothing?

No text, no changes, Nothing .. no sign of life whatsoever?

Is there some obvious OpenCore beginner mistake I'm making so that it's Not really trying to boot my Catalina partition?

Or should I just make an OpenCore Monterey install and see how that goes - and then import from a Catalina Carbon Copy?

Perplexing? I really expected to see .. Something??