macOS Tahoe 26.0 beta 1: early feedback and findings

[Hervé]

List of dropped platforms for this last Intel-compatible macOS version extends to 8th gen. Coffee Lake Macs and 10th gen. Ice Lake MacBookAir9,1.

 

Surprisingly, good news again for Skylake platforms, given that KBL graphics drivers are again retained. As such, SKL graphics remain supported through the same patches used for Ventura, Sonoma and Sequoia. On the wireless front, OCLP patcher will need to be updated for Tahoe so that legacy Broadcom cards are supported again.

 

Users will notice a very different graphics design, from the Finder's bar to the shape & look of the Windows and the file icons. And kexts for USB ports mapping won't work but patched ACPI table SSDT-UIAC does so use that meantime. It can easily be generated with tools such as Hackintool for instance.

 

Installation on my Skylake Latitude E7270 was fairly straightforward once I had the right commit of Clover r5162: from Sequoia, I updated Clover to attached version revised to boot Tahoe, changed my Clover config's SMBIOS to MBP16,2 (necessary), disabled the BlockSkywalk kernel & kext patch (necessary) and updated Lilu & Plugins and other kexts to the versions provided by @Lorys89  here and at InsanelyMac (to avoid using boot arg -lilubetaall). I then rebooted Sequoia, downloaded the Tahoe beta installation package (though software update) and launched the installation targeting a dedicated Tahoe volume (previously created in Disk Utility). That was it and, after a couple of reboots, I was offered the Tahoe setup screens and reached the Tahoe desktop.

 

 

 

Resources:

• Tahoe beta 1 installation package can be downloaded here.
• Clover_r5162.pkg.zip
• E7270_Clover_Pack_Tahoe_26.0.b1.zip

 

Working from the onset:

• graphics acceleration with same KBL settings as in Ventura/Sonoma/Sequoia
• brightness control
• HDMI output
• mini-DP output
• touchscreen
• touchpad 
• audio (incl. DP/HDMI audio)
• LAN
• Apple (Broadcom) BCM94360CS2 Bluetooth
• USB ports
• SD card reader
• full CPU power management
• sleep & wake (having disabled hibernation)

Not working:

• Apple (Broadcom) BCM94360CS2 wireless, as per Sonoma and Sequoia. We'll have to wait for the OCLP patcher to be updated for Tahoe. Meantime, it's important not to boot with the BlockSkywalk kernel & kext patch and/or with AMFI prevention or Tahoe will KP/fail to boot.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some bugs here and there. Graphics not entirely stable.