Building XNU for macOS 11.2 (Intel + Apple Silicon)

 The macOS Big Sur 11.2 kernel (XNU) source has been released here: source ,  tarball.

My previous post on building XNU for macOS 11.0.1 described the method for compiling open source XNU for Intel Macs. This post details how to compile XNU for both Intel and Apple silicon Macs, and how to boot the custom kernel on both platforms. Note that it is not possible to build or boot a custom XNU on Apple silicon Macs before macOS 11.2.

Building XNU requires some patience, and some open source dependencies which are not pre-installed. This post walks through all the steps necessary to build the open source version of XNU on supported Apple hardware. Some of the steps have changed slightly from the previous process of building for Intel only. Please read carefully!

Building XNU for macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 (Intel)

 The macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 kernel (XNU) source has been released here: source ,  tarball.

A lot of things have changed in Big Sur, and the installation and running of a custom kernel is significantly different from previous OS releases. This post covers building a kernel for x86_64 (Intel) platforms. It is not currently possible to build open source XNU for Apple Silicon Macs.

Building XNU requires some patience, and some open source dependencies which are not pre-installed. This post walks through all the steps necessary to build the open source version of XNU and boot it on supported Apple Intel hardware.