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ESXi 5 Mac OS X Unlocker

Donk

By Donk,
in Multi-booting and Virtualisation

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  • 2 weeks later...
Donk
Donk
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I just install OS X yosemite on my esxi host. but without esxi unlocker.

 

i install it in form of hackintosh. so now i can use os x server in vanilla host, manage with vcenter.

Of course it is possible to do this but this thread is about the unlocker. Please continue this in a separate thread.

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Dentyne
Dentyne
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Working (somewhat) for me on Yosemite.

 

I was running 10.10 under ESXi 5.5u2, but getting some PSODs.  I upgraded to latest patch (ESXi550-201410001), but the crashes seemed to get works (see attachments).  The crashes area all in E1000TX and seem to only occur when the OSX vm is running (although the crash happens when the OSX vm is not running).

 

I've moved to E1000E nics and have been running stably overnight.

 

Thanks for your efforts - any plans for a vCenter patch to enable management of patched ESXi hosts?

 

 

Dent

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nubb
nubb
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I am using ESXi 5.0.0 469512 and cannot get any OSX iso to work properly. I found some hacked up 10.8 iso that gets me to the install menu but the virtual SCSI disk is not found under diskutil. When i use a virtual IDE I never get to the install menu. 


 


I have tried Donk Unlocker ver 1.3 and 1.1, both successfully installed (1.3 I had to manually patch my rc.local file being as there is no /etc/rc.local.d/ on ESXi 5.0.0). I have used a few retail DMG's that I've tried converting to iso and renaming to ISO, both unsuccessful. 


 


I've tried various dmg/iso's of OSX 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, all with no luck so far. 


 


Any advice? On a positive note, I had no issues running the unlocker on my windows box with Player6 and installing osx 10.8 with my weirdo iso. 


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nubb
nubb
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I am using ESXi 5.0.0 469512 and cannot get any OSX iso to work properly. I found some hacked up 10.8 iso that gets me to the install menu but the virtual SCSI disk is not found under diskutil. When i use a virtual IDE I never get to the install menu. 

 

I have tried Donk Unlocker ver 1.3 and 1.1, both successfully installed (1.3 I had to manually patch my rc.local file being as there is no /etc/rc.local.d/ on ESXi 5.0.0). I have used a few retail DMG's that I've tried converting to iso and renaming to ISO, both unsuccessful. 

 

I've tried various dmg/iso's of OSX 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, 10.8, all with no luck so far. 

 

Any advice? On a positive note, I had no issues running the unlocker on my windows box with Player6 and installing osx 10.8 with my weirdo iso. 

 

 

Fixed my problem by converting my dmg with dmg2img. I was using UltraISO. 

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  • 3 weeks later...
relume
relume
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Is it possible to do link aggreation on a OS X guest under ESXi 5.5?  Have a box running a 10 Gb interface and alass no VMXNET3 drivers for OS X.

 

Hello, unfortunately link aggregation on OSX guest does not work very well - the link aggregation is much slower than a single nic. Also passthrough an 10Gb adapter does not work at all. So the only solution would be an VMXNET3 native driver for OSX. Is the VMXNET3 driver for Linux guest OpenSource? By the way for OSX guest the E1000E nic should be used - by setting it manually in the vmx-setting, as the E1000 creates often PSOD.

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  • 2 weeks later...
MSoK
MSoK
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Using the latest ESXi specific unlocker 1.3.1 you should be able to manage your patched ESXi hosts for all guests except OS X. vCenter Server does additional checks, which have proved difficult to patch, so unless your ESXi host is a 'real' Mac, lots of people using Mini Mac's as ESXi hosts, which allow creation and management via vCenter and the web client, you will have to stick with using the vSphere client directly connected to your ESXi host to create and either the vSphere client or VMware Workstation 10 or later for management.

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relume
relume
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Differences of Unlocker 1.3.0 and Unlocker 1.3.1?

 

Hello

I am wondering what are the differences between Unlocker 1.3.0 and 1.3.1 in order to understand why I had no success with 1.3.0 to enable working MacOS-guest but had success with 1.3.1.

On several SuperMicro server boards with Xeon 56XX cpu I have running the latest ESXi 5.5.0 updates (u2) and patches (201412001) together with Unlocker 1.3.0 and had never problems to run MacOSX 10.6, 10.8, 10.9 and 10.10 VM-guests.

On an other server from IBM x3550 M4 with Xeon E-2620 cpu I had running ESXi 5.1 with the latest patches and Unlocker 1.2 and MacOSX-guest (10.6) for a year without any problems. Now I "upgraded" on this server ESXi 5.1 to 5.5.0 by installing a total new instance of ESXi 5.5.0 (starting with 5.5.0 u1) to a new USB-medium and applied all following updates and patches. Thereafter I switched in the ESXi host configuration the scratch partition to a installed SSD as I did before under ESXi 5.1 and as I have it on the others servers with the SuperMicro boards and finally installed Unlocker 1.3.0. Unfortunately I was not able to startup now the MacOSX-guests, nor a MacOSX (10.6) installer CD-ROM iso. MacOSX-guests startups were always stopped on the grey Apple logo, and for the MacOSX installer CD-ROM by a spin ball on a void dark grey screen. So far all guest vmx configurations files looked ok, quasi the same as on the well running MacOSX-guests on the SuperMicro servers. After hours I decided to try Unlocker 1.3.1 on the IBM server and thereafter all MacOSX-guests booted and worked correctly and instantly. So I am wondering why Unlocker 1.3.0 "works" on identical ESXi 5.5.0 installations (same upgrades, updates and patches" but not on different hardware and what could be the reasons why Unlocker 1.3.1 works on the "problematic" server hardware?

I would appreciate any hint in order to understand, many thanks in advance.

P.S. 1 : Many thanks to all that have contributed to develop Unlocker and adapt it further!!

P.S. 2 : Is there any way to pass boot parameters on the ESXi 5.5.0 guest boot-efi shell in order MacOSX-guests would boot up in verbose mode? I could not figure out how to pass the -v parameter.


 

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MSoK
MSoK
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relume,

 

Donk will be able to give you chapter and verse regarding the small differences between 1.3.0 and 1.3.1, but basically as I understand it, 1.3.1 uses a RAM Disk rather than the persistent scratch location to store the files, in some cases the original script leaves the files read only rather than the required read/write, i.e. when the persistent scratch location is on an NFS share.

 

For more insight follow the posts between Donk and Keithl in this topic starting with post #735, link below:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/267296-esxi-5-mac-os-x-unlocker/?p=2061185

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  • 4 weeks later...
niel07
niel07
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I successfully installed Yosemite 10.10 on ESXi 5.1. but i'm unable to passthrough GPU. It is gradeout and says host doesnot support pass through configurtion.

I enabled the Virtualization and VT for Direct I/0 in BIOS but still in ESXi passthrough is gradeout. I'm attaching files for reference. Pls help.
 

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oli-j
oli-j
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I need help with how to set 'GraphicsEnabler=Yes' with ESXI and OS X.

 

I am passing through a GPU to OS X 10.1 - OS X kinda loads but with no GUI (I can log in via SSH),  vnc / teamviewer get nothing. No output from the card. Console hangs at just under 50% of the loading bar.

 

According to posts about the card I am using, others (not virtualising with ESXI) have had success with booting with 'GraphicsEnabler=Yes'. How do I add this boot flag in ESXI? Do I add it to the VMX configuration file and what is the correct strings to enter for the name/value pair?

 

Thanks,

 

OSX 10.10 boots fine without using GPU passthrough.

 

Hardware is a fully patched dell poweredge r410 and a NVS295 card.

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  • 2 weeks later...
  • 2 months later...
steelrat
steelrat
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Well here is the final test version http://www.filedropper.com/esxi-unlocker-131. I have removed the base64 encoded C++ executable with a bit of Python code. Smaller, neater and don't need to cross-compile for ESXi. Let me know how it goes.

 

Hey Donk,

 

I'm relatively new to this, and I have the unlocker 1.3.0 working on a workstation 10 build without any issue, however, with my esx host, it's weird, I've been having issues with ISO's going from IDE/SATA... I guess depending on whether the vm hardware is set for 8 or 10. The console on esx seems to be the worst. I've tried editing the vmx from workstation with it logged onto esx, but it doesn't help. I've also tried using the vsphere web client (since of course it's 10 complient). Normally the efi bios in hardware 10, just says "can't find" cd, and then preceeds to try to load the HD.

 

Now I do have a working niresh build on my esx... but I had to build it on the workstation 10 and then upload it there. I also on workstation 10 have a 10.9.5 vanilla install which works. But it doesn't start or work with the esx. Now I know that's because my whitelist esx is running on an amd a10. So I know I need an amd kernel. The niresh works fine once the kernel was changed.

 

So using the niresh build, I attach the vanilla build swap out the kernel, reboot, and it continues to sit and spin. Given my issues with the iso mounting.... I'm not sure if I can use the "regular" amd fixes (which of course are out of scope of the unlocker).

 

That said, I've been reading through the thread, and since my esx is running 5.5.0 - 2456374, I thought I would give the 1.3.1 a try. Unfortunately, I can't find the download. The one you posted earlier in this thread, is giving me a 404 error.... I was able to get the test files, so I think I'll try those.... but I figure it can't hurt to ask....

 

Thanks....

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Donk
Donk
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Hey Donk,

 

That said, I've been reading through the thread, and since my esx is running 5.5.0 - 2456374, I thought I would give the 1.3.1 a try. Unfortunately, I can't find the download. The one you posted earlier in this thread, is giving me a 404 error.... I was able to get the test files, so I think I'll try those.... but I figure it can't hurt to ask....

 

Thanks....

 

I think there are still files and attachments missing after the forums went down a couple of weeks ago. Will upload the files to my own web site over the weekend and post the links.

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steelrat
steelrat
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I think there are still files and attachments missing after the forums went down a couple of weeks ago. Will upload the files to my own web site over the weekend and post the links.

 

Thank you kindly sir.... progress made with some kernel kexts, and more importantly a new vm set for a "bios" instead of efi in esx.... and pointing to one of the osx vmdk.

 

I would like to see if 1.3.1 does better with the efi and bootable iso's.

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