Enable Sidecar on Older MacBook Pro

[nelsonic]

This is definitely "first world problems". 🤦‍♂️ But I really like having a second screen when I'm doing dev work remotely. 🧑‍💻

Context:

Been using Duet Display with an iPad 2017 10" and 2015 MacBook Pro 15" reasonably successfully.

But recently got an iPad 12.9" 2018 which has a much bigger/better screen and want to use it as my second display when working away from my main desk this summer. Duet Display is not cooperating. So I'm investigating the "patch" that allows Sidecar on older Macs ... 🔍

Reading: https://appletoolbox.com/how-to-enable-sidecar-on-incompatible-macs-in-catalina/

[nelsonic]

Lots of issues: https://github.com/pookjw/SidecarPatcher/issues seems like Apple are deliberately making this patch not work so they can force hardware upgrades. 🙄

[nelsonic]

no luck yet. ⏳ reading: https://github.com/ben-z/free-sidecar

[nelsonic]

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210380

[nelsonic]

Attempted to run:

cp /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore ~/Downloads/SidecarCore.bak

Got: [Error]

cp: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore: No such file or directory

Off to a great start! 🙄

[nelsonic]

cp: /System/Library/PrivateFrameworks/SidecarCore.framework/Versions/A/SidecarCore: No such file or directory

[nelsonic]

Goggle just points to the issues on the repo, e.g: https://github.com/pookjw/SidecarPatcher/issues/126

[nelsonic]

This is a wild goose chase. And ultimately I'm not very comfortable running a system file patch [arbitrary code as root!] on my "main" computer. Going to park this for now. Will return to it later when I have more time or a desperate need to run Sidecar. ⏳

[nelsonic]

Also, it looks like Apple resets it with each OS update. 🤦‍♂️ They really want you to upgrade your hardware. 🙄

[nelsonic]

Rather than trying to "fight" Apple I'm just using Duet https://github.com/dwyl/remote-working/issues/32#issuecomment-706051576 on my "older" Mac.