After booting up my iMac with Sonoma, I get a small window telling me that there are updates to Opencore Legacy Patcher. What does Opencore Legacy Patcher do, do I need it and, if not, how do I remove it?
iMac (M3, 2023)
Under no circumstances would you need to install the hackware Opencore Legacy Patcher on your M3 iMac. Did you inherit that Opencore Legacy software via Migration Assistant from an earlier Mac's Time Machine backup? One should never migrate applications from older Macs.
You might consult with the Opencore Legacy site (Google search) to see if they offer removal instructions. Otherwise, it may have sprayed itself all over your Sonoma installation where it could write, making removal a true pain.
Under no circumstances would you need to install the hackware Opencore Legacy Patcher on your M3 iMac. Did you inherit that Opencore Legacy software via Migration Assistant from an earlier Mac's Time Machine backup? One should never migrate applications from older Macs.
You might consult with the Opencore Legacy site (Google search) to see if they offer removal instructions. Otherwise, it may have sprayed itself all over your Sonoma installation where it could write, making removal a true pain.
bratman91 wrote:
What does Opencore Legacy Patcher do, do I need it and, if not, how do I remove it?
It hacks the system to run on older, unsupported computers.
If you are really running an 2023 M3 iMac, then you most definitely don't need it and don't want it. It must have been migrated from an older computer.
I have no idea how to remove it. You will have to contact Opencore Legacy Patcher support.
Preface: since I do not permit such modifications I am unable to provide and direct assistance regarding its removal. I do know what it's used for though, which happens to be the reason I'd never use it.
However, if you download and run EtreCheck, and provide its report in a reply to this discussion, others might be able to identify the components that need to be removed. Instructions: How to use the Add Text Feature When Posting Large Amounts of Text, i.e. an Etrecheck Report - Apple Community
Ideally, consult with its developer to determine how to remove it. If it is an old and "grandfathered" kernel extension removal is likely to be tedious and error-prone, but EtreCheck with the assistance of others might at least point you in the right direction.
Did you use OpenCore Legacy Patcher to force install macOS Sonoma on older Mac hardware for which Apple had shown incompatible with Sonoma? If you have done that, we cannot help you here as you would be in violation of Apple's licensing for macOS.
Post the Apple () menu : About This Mac panel showing the description line of your Mac hardware — without the serial number.
For VikingASX, The iMac is a late 2023 M3 model purchased as soon as the M3 models were released. It came with Ventura and I installed Sonoma using the method stated by Apple. That was:
Download and install macOS Sonoma
Use Software Update to download and install the latest version of macOS Sonoma. It’s the fastest and easiest way to get macOS upgrades, and it may require less storage space to download and install.
bratman91 wrote:
Removing the app seems straightforward but, quite frankly, I have little idea what removing the bootloader means and what effect it might have on my machine. I would be grateful for any advice in non-technical terms.
The hidden "EFI" partition on the Intel Macs contains the bootloader for non-Apple operating systems and apparently OCLP. There are no "EFI" partitions on Apple Silicon Macs since Apple Silicon Macs boot differently than the older Intel Macs.
I would imagine you now only have to remove the OCLP components found with macOS itself.
This is what I suspect happened. I had a 2012 iMac with Catalina that was showing signs of a severe hard drive issue. I took it to a local computer repair shop who returned it saying that they had managed to get it working but thought that it might soon fail totally. They said that they had installed Sonoma which surprised me as I thought that Catalina was the most recent OS that could be installed.
After about a week, the iMac failed totally so I bought a brand-new M3 iMac with Ventura installed. From a Time Machine backup of the old computer, I copied Documents and a very small number of apps to the new iMac. I did not use Migration Assistant and saw nothing that indicated Opencore Legacy Patcher but I surmise that this came from the old computer. Neither the Time Machine backup nor “Applications” on the new computer show the Opencore Legacy app but I have round it in Library/Application Support/Dortania folder.
Dortania give the following instructions for removal:
Uninstalling OpenCore
Uninstalling the bootloader
WARNING
Note that after you remove OpenCore, your Mac will no longer boot and show the "prohibited" symbol. Be ready to install an natively-supported version of macOS before you uninstall OpenCore.
Uninstalling the application
If you want to remove the application without reinstalling the OS, navigate to /Library/Application Support/ and delete the Dortania folder.
Removing the app seems straightforward but, quite frankly, I have little idea what removing the bootloader means and what effect it might have on my machine. I would be grateful for any advice in non-technical terms.
The need for Opencore Legacy Patcher
