v0.0.14

Yes, I skipped a couple version numbers -- and if this version turns out to be buggy, I might release a v0.0.12 and/or v0.0.13 with a subset of the changes in this release, perhaps for testing/diagnostic purposes. (I expect that this release will be stable, however.)

The big user-facing changes are:

• The README now discusses the compatibility of different Mac models in much more detail.
• patch-kexts.sh now has a --all option that installs all of the modifications that it can do. This is useful because...
• patch-kexts.sh, with the --all option, now installs LegacyUSBInjector, which enables USB on older Mac models such as the white polycarbonate (Late 2009/Mid 2010) MacBooks. For now, you still have to do the installation (and run patch-kexts.sh) on a 2011 or newer Mac (or maybe a 2009 or later Mac Pro), then transfer the installation over to the older MacBook (either by moving over an external USB HDD/SSD or by transplanting the HDD/SSD), but a future patcher release might patch LegacyUSBInjector into the installer USB.
• In addition, patch.kexts.sh --all also installs nvenet, because that's needed for Ethernet on many Macs that require LegacyUSBInjector. (And it disables the telemetry UserEventPlugin that causes kernel panics on many of these same Macs.)
• There is a new shell script, zap-snapshots.sh, which will delete all but the most recent snapshot from the APFS system volume. (I only tested it while booted from the patched installer USB, so it probably won't work when run on a live Big Sur installation, but I can fix that in a future patcher release.)

Under the hood: To enable LegacyUSBInjector, kext collections are now built a different way, based on a suggestion by testheit on the MacRumors Forums. I believe the new method should also be more reliable in the face of kmutil bugs. Also, all kexts which are taken from High Sierra have been updated to the versions from Security Update 2020-004.

v0.0.11

The changes in this release are basically improvements to error checking code, improvements to progress output and error messages to make them less confusing, and internal code changes that will make future improvements to the patcher easier. (I also added some more information to the README.)

If you have already used v0.0.9 or v0.0.10 to successfully install Big Sur and get Wi-Fi working, there is no need to repatch using v0.0.11.

v0.0.10

• Update the README with post-beta 2 information (this was committed straight to the main branch after v0.0.9 so it would be visible to everyone immediately, but I did not create a v0.0.9a release with the updated README).
• Place kext patches into a "kexts" folder on the USB stick, rather than cluttering the USB stick's root directory. (This may be important if future patcher releases add more kext patches, but even for the current version it's still a nice cleanup.)
• Update AppleHDA -- it turns out that it was updated in High Sierra security updates, so this version of the patcher now uses the version from Security Update 2020-003 High Sierra (the latest as of this writing).

I considered mixing these changes with other, higher-risk changes, but decided to separate these changes into their own release. That way, if the changes in v0.0.11 turn out to be a mistake, I'll have the option of reverting the entire release rather than being forced into reverting part of the release. (It's not that reverting part of a release would be that much harder technically, but it could be harder to explain in simple terms, so that's still a reason for me to avoid it if I can.)

v0.0.9

A few changes:

• Added Intel HD 3000 kexts from High Sierra to the kext patcher, so that 13" MacBook Pro Early 2011 and similar machines can have functioning sleep and brightness control. (It also improved performance enough that I'm now able to watch full screen 720p60 YouTube videos in Safari with very few frame drops, even though it doesn't have true acceleration yet.)
• Made a few tweaks to the patcher to hopefully have compatibility with Big Sur beta 2 (of course we won't know for sure until beta 2 actually arrives). To be honest, this really has more to do with making up for deficiencies in previous versions of the patcher than any truly substantial changes Apple might make.
• Some updates to the README, including instructions on a way to update from beta 1 to beta 2 which should be almost guaranteed to work if the patcher turns out to be compatible with beta 2.

This release still does not try to support 2010 or earlier Macs (yet).

v0.0.8

There's just one fix in this release. Previously, it was possible to get the "payloads folder was not found" error even when the payloads folder was present. This should now be fixed.

v0.0.7

Just a quick fix to the kext (un)patch scripts, to hopefully increase reliability. I may have to take a break from this project for several days, or maybe even a week, so I wanted to push this fix out first.

v0.0.6

This release finally adds installation (and uninstallation) of kexts to patch the installed OS. That means WI-FI! And on 2011 MacBook Pros it also means sound (but still no graphics acceleration). After installation finishes and you arrive at the Setup Assistant, you have to reboot into the installer USB again and run another command from Terminal -- but just one command.

There's more work to be done (including improving the kext installer shell script so that you don't have to boot from the installer USB first), but I feel like this is a logical point in development to cut a release.

v0.0.5

Bundle ASentientBot's Haxes (and use Hax3). This is the first release which is self-contained and does not need any additional downloads (aside from the Big Sur developer preview itself, of course).

v0.0.4

In this release, instead of having to run 2 shell scripts (one to change boot-args and csrutil settings, and the other to run the installer), you only have to run 1 shell script, then quit Terminal and run the installer as you normally would. In turn, this fixes the problem where the installer would fail to automatically restart the Mac.

v0.0.3

The big improvement in this release is that there is no longer any need to reboot between set-vars and run-installer. I also fixed many errors and omissions in the README. I expect that v0.0.4 will make this release obsolete in an hour or two, but this release is finished so there's no real point in holding it back.