v0.4.0

There are many changes in this release, mostly small changes I suppose, but different changes will be very important to different groups of users. Most existing users do not urgently need the improvements or bug fixes in this release and can wait until the next Big Sur beta (or GM) before updating. When it is time to update to the next Big Sur build, make sure not to skip steps 7 or 9, especially on Late 2013 iMacs.

patch-kexts.sh now has a new --iMac command line option that adds the necessary kext patches for (2011) iMacs which have been upgraded with Metal GPUs. At this time, the --iMac and --2011 command line options must be used together, and the --iMac option only works when running patch-kexts.sh on a live Big Sur installation, not when booted from the installer USB. Thanks to Ausdauersportler for the code contribution.

patch-kexts.sh has an improved check for SIP/ARV that is less prone to false negatives. (Thanks to jackluke for reporting the bug.) Also, there is a new --force option to override the check.

patch-kexts.sh now has a --wifi= option for choosing a WiFi kext patch. It defaults to --wifi=mojave-hybrid (the one that has been used from v0.2.1 onward), but --wifi=hv12v-old (used in micropatcher v0.0.6-v0.0.20) and --wifi=hv12v-new (used in micropatcher v0.1.0-v0.2.0) are also available.

patch-kexts.sh also adds a --old-kmutil option that uses the kmutil from Big Sur beta 8 instead of the one that is installed on the system. This can help with troubleshooting problems with kext patches, especially during patch development. This option is currently not documented in the README. Eventually I will document it, but future patcher releases may change the option's name or other implementation details first.

If patch-kexts.sh is run on a system volume snapshot, it now mounts the underlying volume at /System/Volumes/Update/mnt1, just like Apple's own delta updaters.

remount-sysvol.sh and rebuild-kc.sh have been updated with all of the applicable patch-kexts.sh bug fixes from this release and the last several releases, so they now work again.

There are new variants of the setvars EFI program which enable, rather than disable, SIP and ARV (authenticated-root). install-setvars.sh has been updated to automatically use the new variants on Late 2013 iMacs, but there are also command line options for overriding the Mac model detection. The trampoline has been updated to leave APFS volume sealing enabled if both SIP and ARV are enabled. The end result is that, on Late 2013 iMacs, SIP and ARV stay enabled the entire time during and after the installation process, just like on a supported Mac. (Users of other 2012/2013 Macs which have been upgraded to 802.11ac WiFi cards may want to use the -e option with install-setvars.sh in order to get the same security benefits as Late 2013 iMac users.)

The reenable-animations.sh and disable-animations.sh scripts have been moved from the misc-scripts directory to the payloads directory. Thus, they are now copied onto the installer USB, which makes them more conveniently accessible for disabling animations on non-Metal Macs after finishing the Big Sur Setup Assistant.

Finally, there have been many updates to the README.