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macOS Sonoma 14.0 beta 1: early feedback and findings


Hervé

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List of dropped platforms extends to Intel 7th gen. Kaby Lake this year, yet KBL graphics drivers are retained to support ABL graphics (2018 MacBook Air8,1). This is good omen for Kaby Lake platforms of course but especially for Skylake platforms that are able to re-use the same tricks used for Ventura, i.e. fake a KBL iGPU id and call on a KBL framebuffer. At least in this 1st beta version....

 

Bad news on the wireless front: IO80211FamilyLegacy kext is gone and, with it, native support for Broadcom cards based on BCM4350 and BCM4360 chipsets which includes DW1820A and all those Apple BCM94360xxx that we could use up to Ventura. We'll see if this can somehow be addressed through a patch of some sort. Interestingly enough, support for Broadcom Bluetooth appears to remain untouched, at least as far as the BT module of the Apple BCM94360CS2 card is concerned.

 

Meantime, I called on an old TP-Link TL-WN725N v3 Wireless N Nano USB adapter that I had lying around. It's crap (802.11n 150Mbps) but will do for the moment. It's based on Realtek chipset RTL8188EUS (PCI id 0bda:8179).

 

Other than that, nothing to report after just a brief spell with Sonoma 1st beta.

 

Installation on my Skylake Latitude E7270 was pretty much painless: from Ventura, I updated Clover to r5151 (just in case), updated my add-on kexts to latest versions (Lilu & PlugIns mostly) and, in my Ventura Clover config, changed SMBIOS to MBP15,2 (necessary) and added boot arg -lilubetaall (also necessary). I then rebooted Ventura and launched the Sonoma installation package. Upon completion, I found that LAN, audio and external video outputs worked better if I used the combined boot args -lilubeta -wegbeta -alcbeta instead of single boot arg -lilubetaall.

 

NB: Sonoma boots/works the same way if, instead of SMBIOS MBP15,2, I boot it with SMBIOS MBP13,1/MBP14,1 and add -no_compat_check boot arg. Avoid MBP15,1 on Skylake laptops, it prevents external video outputs for instance.

 

E7270_Sonoma_14.0.b1.jpg

 

TP-Link_WN75N_v3_Sonoma.jpg

 

E7270_14.0.b1_SysInfo_PCI.jpg

 

E7270_14.0.b1_SysInfo_USB.jpg

 

E7270_14.0.b1_SysInfo_Bluetooth.jpg

 

Working:

  • graphics acceleration with same KBL settings as in Ventura
  • brightness control
  • HDMI output
  • mini-DP output
  • touchscreen
  • audio (incl. DP/HDMI audio)
  • LAN
  • Apple (Broadcom) BCM94360CS2 Bluetooth but a bit erratic at times (on startup and after wake)
  • touchPad
  • USB ports
  • sleep
  • wake but troublesome if hibernation is disabled so it's best to leave things untouched for the moment
  • SD card reader

Not working:

  • Apple (Broadcom) BCM94360CS2 wireless
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Hi Hervè,

 

just to confirm I was able to install Sonoma onto my Z240 as per signature, using the latest opencore and all necessary kexts.

I just switched SMBIOS from iMac18,1 to 19,1 and set MaxKernel to 22.99.99 for AirportBrcmFixup and NVMEfix.

Bluetooth is working while wifi is broken, as many others inside insanelymac.

 

 

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There's so much non-sense (not to say worse) said and written all over the Hackintosh forums again with this forthcoming new release, I sometimes long for the death of Hackintosh so that it all stops once and for all. Sonoma 1st beta is hardly out that, once again, the weeping divas (who should all have accompanied Silvio Berlusconi's last concubine at his funeral to show their expertise on the matter) are at it! Among them, we find those whose life is being torn apart by Apple because they've lost Wifi with (unreleased) Sonoma, those who cry foul at Apple's renewed attacks against Hackintoshers, those who predict millions of business loss for Apple and those who just speak out of their arse (latter probably being a good summary of all the others)!

 

This time, it's all about Broadcom wireless cards...

 

So what's the situation? Well, it's very simple:

  • Apple has completed its migration to Apple Silicon, the last Intel model (MacPro7,1) has been dropped. So, all those who write about "when Apple complete their migration" need a serious awakening. It's done boys, it's done! And exactly as expected...
  • The last (Intel) Mac platforms that used Broadcom cards based on BCM4350 or BCM4360 are dropped. As such, Apple no longer intends to provide drivers, just as they do for dropped GPUs.

It should come to no surprise to anyone, it's the way Apple has worked for the last... 11 years (remember Mountain Lion in 2012 ?) not to say more (14 years, if we consider the way PPC platforms were dropped in 2009 with the release of Snow Leopard).

 

I've seen here and there so-called Hackintosh experts/gurus writing they believe Apple dropped the Broadcom legacy cards because the platforms supported by Sonoma don't even have Broadcom wireless inside, then that they have Broadcom wireless therefore support for older cards will return. That's a good example of what I mean about people talking out of their arse.

 

Let's recap a few things here:

  • Sonoma 1st beta officially drops 7th gen. Kaby Lake platforms (on top of older ones of course) but, for the moment, retains KBL graphics drivers. Why? Simple: because it's required to support Amber Lake UHD617 graphics of MBA8,1.
  • Sonoma 1st beta drops Broadcom legacy 802.11ac wireless chipsets that Ventura still supported through IO80211FamilyLegacy kext: 14e4:43ba, 14e4:43a3 and 14e4:43a0, i.e. BCM43602, BCM4350 and BCM4360. Big Sur had already dropped support for the last 802.11bgn cards that Apple had retained up to Catalina. Supporting those older 802.11ac chipsets through a kext bearing the name "legacy" since macOS Monterey should have been quite an obvious hint in itself as far as what the future held...
  • Sonoma 1st beta supports only the following Broadcom chipsets: 14e4:43dc, 14e4:4464, 14e4:4488, 14e4:4425, 14e4:4433 and 14e4:4434, i.e. BCM4355 (802.11ac), BCM4364 (802.11ac), BCM4377b (802.11ac), BCM4378 (802.11ax), BCM4387 (802.11ax) and BCM4388 (802.11ax). Afaik, all those are provided as specific SOCs to Apple by Broadcom, i.e. chips to be soldered on Apple motherboards and not available on add-on mini-PCIe/M.2 cards.
  • https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/Broadcom
  • With regards to the wireless chipsets fitted to Intel Mac platforms supported by Sonoma, it's as follows:
    • 2018 Mac mini8,1 -> BCM4364 (pci14e4,4464)
    • 2018/2019 MacBookAir8,x -> BCM4355 (pci14e4,43dc)
    • 2020 MacBookAir9,1 -> BCM4377b (pci14e4,4488)
    • 2018/2019 MacBookPro15,x -> BCM4364 (pci14e4,4464)
    • 2019/2020 MacBookPro16,x -> BCM4364 (pci14e4,4464)
    • 2019 iMac19,x -> BCM4364 (pci14e4,4464)
    • 2020 iMac20,x -> BCM4364 (pci14e4,4464)
    • 2017 iMacPro1,1 -> BCM4355 (pci14e4,43dc)
    • 2019 MacPro7,1 -> BCM4364 (pci14e4,4464)

Let's hope the weeping divas and would-be experts/gurus can put 2 and 2 together...

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