OpenCore Legacy Patcher

A Python-based project revolving around Acidanthera's OpenCorePkg and Lilu for both running and unlocking features in macOS on supported and unsupported Macs.

Our project's main goal is to breathe new life into Macs no longer supported by Apple, allowing for the installation and usage of macOS Big Sur and newer on machines as old as 2007.

Noteworthy features of OpenCore Legacy Patcher:

• Support for macOS Big Sur, Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma and Sequoia
• Native Over the Air (OTA) System Updates
• Supports Penryn and newer Macs
• Full support for WPA Wi-Fi and Personal Hotspot on BCM943224 and newer wireless chipsets
• System Integrity Protection, FileVault 2, .im4m Secure Boot and Vaulting
• Recovery OS, Safe Mode and Single-user Mode booting on non-native OSes
• Unlocks features such as Sidecar and AirPlay to Mac even on native Macs
• Enables enhanced SATA and NVMe power management on non-Apple storage devices
• Zero firmware patching required (ie. APFS ROM patching)
• Graphics acceleration for both Metal and non-Metal GPUs

Note: Only clean-installs and upgrades are supported. macOS Big Sur installs already patched with other patchers, such as Patched Sur or bigmac, cannot be used due to broken file integrity with APFS snapshots and SIP.

• You can, however, reinstall macOS with this patcher and retain your original data

Note 2: Currently, OpenCore Legacy Patcher officially supports patching to run macOS Big Sur through Sonoma installs. For older OSes, OpenCore may function; however, support is currently not provided from Dortania.

• For macOS Mojave and Catalina support, we recommend the use of dosdude1's patchers

Getting Started

To start using the project, please see our in-depth guide:

• OpenCore Legacy Patcher Guide

Support

This project is offered on an AS-IS basis, we do not guarantee support for any issues that may arise. However, there is a community server with other passionate users and developers that can aid you:

• OpenCore Patcher Paradise Discord Server
  • Keep in mind that the Discord server is maintained by the community, so we ask everyone to be respectful.
  • Please review our docs on how to debug with OpenCore to gather important information to help others with troubleshooting.

Running from source

To run the project from source, see here: Build and run from source

Credits

• Acidanthera
  • OpenCorePkg, as well as many of the core kexts and tools
• DhinakG
  • Main co-author
• Khronokernel
  • Main co-author
• Ausdauersportler
  • iMacs Metal GPUs Upgrade Patch set and documentation
  • Great amounts of help with debugging, and code suggestions
• vit9696
  • Endless amount of help troubleshooting, determining fixes and writing patches
• ASentientBot, EduCovas and ASentientHedgehog
  • Legacy Acceleration Patch set and documentation, Moraea Organization
• cdf
  • Mac Pro on OpenCore Patch set and documentation
  • Innie and NightShiftEnabler
• Syncretic
  • AAAMouSSE, telemetrap and SurPlus
• dosdude1
  • Main author of the original GUI
  • Development of previous patchers, laying out much of what needs to be patched
• parrotgeek1
  • VMM Patch Set
• BarryKN
  • Development of previous patchers, laying out much of what needs to be patched
• mario_bros_tech and the rest of the Unsupported Mac Discord
  • Catalyst that started OpenCore Legacy Patcher
• arter97
  • SimpleMSR to disable firmware throttling in Nehalem+ MacBooks without batteries
• Mr.Macintosh
  • Endless hours helping architect and troubleshoot many portions of the project
• flagers
  • Aid with Nvidia Web Driver research and development
• joevt
  • FixPCIeLinkrate
• Jazzzny
  • Research and various contributions to the project
  • UEFI Legacy XHCI research and development
  • NVIDIA OpenCL research and development
  • MacBook5,2 research and development
    • LegacyKeyboardInjector
  • Pre-Ivy Bridge Aquantia Ethernet Patch
  • Non-Metal Photo Booth Patch for Monterey+
  • GUI and Backend Development
    • Updater UI
    • macOS Downloader UI
    • Downloader UI
    • USB Top Case probing
    • Developer root patching
  • Vaulting implementation
  • macOS 15 3802 Helios Research
  • UEFI bootx64.efi research
  • universal2 build research
  • Various documentation contributions
• Amazing users who've graciously donate hardware:
  • JohnD - 2013 Mac Pro
  • SpiGAndromeda - AMD Vega 64
  • turbomacs - 2014 5k iMac
  • vinaypundith - MacBook7,1
  • ThatStella7922 - 2017 13" MacBook Pro (A1708)
  • zephar - 2008 Mac Pro
  • jazo97 - 2011 15" MacBook Pro
  • And others (reach out if we forgot you!)
• MacRumors and Unsupported Mac Communities
  • Endless testing and reporting issues
• Apple
  • for macOS and many of the kexts, frameworks and other binaries we reimplemented into newer OSes