macOS Ventura was announced at WWDC 22. Unfortunately, support for 6th generation Intel CPUs, specifically Skylake CPUs, has been excluded from the list of upgradable devices.
By examining the system's built-in drivers, it is evident that the Skylake GPU driver (SKL) has been removed. Ventura now only supports Kaby Lake (KBL) GPUs as a minimum.
However, there is still a way to run the latest macOS on Skylake CPUs.
Hardware Requirements#
- Graphics Card: Intel Skylake desktop or laptop graphics card (HD 515, 520, 530, and 540)
- macOS Version: macOS Ventura
Upgrade Steps#
Emulate Skylake GPU as Kaby Lake GPU#
Add the following DeviceProperties to the config.plist file:
| Devices | Key | Value | Type |
|---|---|---|---|
| PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x2,0x0) | AAPL,ig-platform-id | Laptop: 00001B59 Desktop: 00001259 | DATA |
| device-id | 16590000 | DATA |
Add Kext#
In the WhateverGreen GitHub repository, there is a branch called skl-as-kbl-13. In its documentation, there is a file named SKLAsKBLGraphicsInfo.kext that needs to be added to the config.plist file, placed below the WhateverGreen.kext.
https://github.com/acidanthera/WhateverGreen/tree/skl-as-kbl-13/Manual/Kexts
Updated on June 20, 2022
The official WhateverGreen (1.6.0-ade6c98) version now supports the -igfxsklaskbl boot argument, so there is no need for SKLAsKBLGraphicsInfo.kext anymore.
Emulate Skylake CPU as Kaby Lake CPU#
If the computer cannot boot into the system after the previous steps, it means that the Skylake CPU needs to be emulated as a Kaby Lake CPU.
In the NVRAM, under the UUID 7C436110-AB2A-4BBB-A880-FE41995C9F82, add the following boot arguments:
| Boot Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| lilucpu=9 | Emulate Skylake CPU as Kaby Lake CPU |
| igfxsklaskbl | Emulate Skylake GPU as Kaby Lake GPU |
| -disablegfxfirmware | Prevent infinite loop retry during KBL iGPU boot |
| -wegnoegpu | Disable all GPUs except iGPU, such as AMD or NVIDIA |
Modify SMBIOS#
The following SMBIOS profiles support Ventura:
| Platform | SMBIOS | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Desktop | iMac17,1 | Not officially supported, requires adding the no_compat_check boot argument |
| Desktop | iMac18,1 and later Macmini8,1 and later | Officially supported |
| Laptop | MacBookPro13,1 MacBookPro13,2 MacBookPro13,3 | Not officially supported, requires adding the no_compat_check boot argument |
| Laptop | MacBookPro14,1 and later | Officially supported |
Restart and Install#
Good luck!
Screenshots#
Finally, here are two screenshots for reference.