BIG SUR 11.1 (BETA) UPGRADE REPORT - GIGABYTE X299X DESIGNARE 10G
With all the reports of people unable to install Big Sur on X299 MBs, I thought I'd try an upgrade myself and report back, for the record and in case it's of any help to anyone with problems.
SUMMARY: I was able to upgrade a Catalina 10.15.7 install to Big Sur 11.1 Beta with no problems or incidents.
TIMING: The total install took approximately 1 hour, which breaks down as follows:
- 15 minutes (approx; I didn't time it): In Catalina, starting the Big Sur update process, leading to first reboot
- + 20 minutes: Time until second reboot
- + 4 minutes: Time until third reboot
- + 8 minutes: Time until fourth reboot
- + 11 minutes: Time until login screen appeared
- = 58 minutes total upgrade time
METHOD:
- I first backed up my existing Catalina 10.15.7 install to a secondary SSD.
- I made the backup using SuperDuper!, which is macOS backup software capable of making fully bootable backups
- An alternative that also works well is Carbon Copy Cloner.
- FYI while both these tools are capable of making fully bootable backups of Catalina, they're not yet capable of making bootable Big Sur copies, due to the filesystem changes.
- After the backup was done, I copied my current EFI folder to the EFI partition of the second SSD, so it was OpenCore bootable.
- Before booting, I made the following minor changes to my OpenCore config.plist:
- I disabled AirportItlwm.kext, as I know it requires a different version for Big Sur
- I set DisableLinkeditJettison to true, as I've read this helps Big Sur
- I removed all other SSD/NVMe drives.
- I booted directly from the Catalina 10.15.7 install, using its copy of my OpenCore config.
- I opted in to beta updates by running the following terminal command: sudo /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/Seeding.framework/Versions/A/Resources/seedutil enroll DeveloperSeed
- I then started the update process from System Preferences -> Software Update.
I've described all this because I noted that a lot of the people who are having problems installing Big Sur seem to be trying a fresh install? At least that's the impression I got, looking at the screenshots from users like
@rustEswan .
I haven't done a fresh install of macOS for 5+ years. I always do an upgrade over an existing install, because I have years worth of applications and settings and I prefer to update in place rather than try the "restore from backup" method. Also, I've never had any problems applying backups in place (I've been doing it since High Sierra), so I see no need to use any other method.
However I always do it on a copy of my main SSD. So if the upgrade fails or isn't bootable, I can carry on with my main SSD/NVMe drive and try the upgrade on a new copy sometime later.
So I'd be interested to know whether the users who have had all these problems are only trying a fresh Big Sur install, or whether any of them have tried an in-place upgrade to Big Sur from Catalina? If you have a spare SSD/NVMe drive, you can test this by cloning your existing drive onto the second drive.
MY OPENCORE 0.6.3 EFI (Gigabyte X299X Designare 10G) - MacPro 7,1 SMBIOS
I've attached the EFI I used for upgrading to Big Sur and booting it, in case this of any help to anyone.
I've not finished refining the EFI. I plan to make the USB.kext like lolflatsix has described, and I hope to reduce the number of SSDTs I'm using and use DeviceProperties instead.
But I can confirm that this EFI is working fine for me on both Catalina and Big Sur. So maybe it might help someone to look at it when working on their own problems.
Note that in config.plist I have removed my PlatformInfo details and replaced these with
CHANGEME.
The EFI is using DEBUG versions of OpenCore and all Acidanthera kexts. OpenCore is configured for debug logging via
Target = 65 (to disk, but not to screen.) The kexts are not configured for debug logging, but this can be added via boot-args.
The EFI has SIP disabled. This seems to be useful in Big Sur. For example, I was surprised to find that Little Snitch 4.6 still seemed to be fully working after my first Big Sur boot. I assume this must be because SIP is disabled. I had expected to have to either upgrade to Little Snitch 5, or else specifically allow the Little Snitch 4.6 kext to load via
spctl kext-consent add MLZF7K7B5R. But in fact it's working fine.