Run Vanilla OS X El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra or Mojave in VMware Workstation on a Windows Host

[tgreedy]

@fusion71au

 

After following the guide on installing High Sierra without access to a mac I couldn't get it to work. When I came to the step to start the installation i got the error "Could not get license agreement". Didn't matter if i used the simplilfied or the advanced version, I get the same error. (Yes, I made sure that the application path pointed to the full installer on Macintosh HD)

 

Any ideas?

 

Using:

VMWare Workstation Player 14.1.2

Unlocker 2.1.1

[fusion71au]

4 hours ago, tgreedy said:

@fusion71au

 

After following the guide on installing High Sierra without access to a mac I couldn't get it to work. When I came to the step to start the installation i got the error "Could not get license agreement". Didn't matter if i used the simplilfied or the advanced version, I get the same error. (Yes, I made sure that the application path pointed to the full installer on Macintosh HD)

 

Any ideas?

 

Using:

VMWare Workstation Player 14.1.2

Unlocker 2.1.1

 

Usually means the downloaded InstallInfo.plist was not edited correctly. 

 

Post #1 in that thread provides the correctly edited file InstallInfo.plist_edited_10.13.5.zip.  Replace the file in /Install macOS High Sierra.app/Contents/SharedSupport with the provided one...

 

 

[nj_mac]

I'm trying to get High Sierra running in a VM on a Surface Go. I know it's a stretch. Hoping for some advice, just in case.

 

The problem I have pops up immediately when I start the VM for the first time. It's on the first screen where you see the apple logo, before I even get to the install process. The status bar on that screen builds to maybe 5%, then the VM reboots. It reboots again and again at that same screen.

 

Is this because the processor (Intel Pentium Gold 4415Y) is a 2-core processor? The tutorial says a 4-core processor is required. Any advice on a way to work around this requirement, or is it just not possible?

 

I tested everything on a Surface Pro i7 before buying the Surface Go. I wanted to make sure I could get this to work, in general. It all worked on the Surface Pro. I tried moving the VM that I built on the Surface Pro over to the Surface Go, but that VM won't boot. It caused a kernel panic on boot.

[ikithme]

For the life of me I cannot get a working High Sierra ISO using the script given by Guru, I usually get a "This is not valid installation media" error when following the instructions directly however when having the High Sierra installer download the files then copying said files in to the app under SharedSupport I can get the ISO file to create "properly" but when I try to use it to install I get a crash about 5 seconds in to the install and a reboot saying that it cannot install High Sierra.

[fusion71au]

Update for macOS Catalina 10.15
To prepare the Catalina ISO on your Mac or Hack, you can use my macOS_iso_creator.tool.

1.  On your Mac or Hack, download/copy "Install macOS Catalina.app" into your Applications folder.  The app can be obtained from the App Store by enrolling in Apple's Public Beta program or directly from the software catalog with @crazybirdy's installScript_fullapp.zip.

 

Note:  You can verify the installer app by checking the SHA1 of InstallESD.dmg and BaseSystem.dmg (inside the \Install macOS Catalina Beta.app\Contents\SharedSupport folder) with the correct ones at this website.

2.  Download and unzip the attached macOS_iso_creator.tool into your ~/Downloads folder:

For DP5 macOS_iso_creator_19A526h.zip

For DP6 macOS_iso_creator_19A536g.zip

For DP7 macOS_iso_creator_19A546d.zip

For DP8 macOS_iso_creator_19A558d.zip

For DP9 macOS_iso_creator_19A573a.zip

For Final Release macOS_iso_creator_19A602.zip

 

The commands in this executable script are shown below for informational purposes.  Note: you will need approx 18GB of free space on your hard disk for the script to complete.

Spoiler

#!/bin/bash
 
 # Create macOS sparseimage of 8316mb with a Single Partition - Apple Partition Map
 hdiutil create -o /tmp/macOS -size 8316m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J -type SPARSE
 
 # Mount the macOS sparseimage
 hdiutil attach /tmp/macOS.sparseimage -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build
 
 # Restore the Base System into the macOS Blank sparseimage
 asr restore -source /Applications/Install\ macOS*.app/Contents/SharedSupport/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/install_build -noprompt -noverify -erase
 
 # Copy Install App to Base System
 cp -rp /Applications/Install\ macOS*.app /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System
 
 # Copy working prelinkedkernel and copyprelinkedkernel script to Base System
 cp ~/Downloads/macOS_iso_creator/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel
 cp ~/Downloads/macOS_iso_creator/copyprelinkedkernel /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System/usr/bin/copyprelinkedkernel

 

# Unmount the Base System image
 hdiutil detach /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System
 
 # Convert the macOS spareseimage to ISO/CD master
  hdiutil convert /tmp/macOS.sparseimage -format UDTO -o /tmp/macOS.iso
 
 # Rename the macOS ISO image and move it to the desktop
  mv /tmp/macOS.iso.cdr ~/Desktop/macOS.iso
 
 # Delete macOS.sparseimage file
  rm -f /tmp/macOS.sparseimage

 

3.  Open macOS terminal, then run the following commands to execute the script:

cd ~/Downloads/macOS_iso_creator
chmod +x macOS_iso_creator.tool
./macOS_iso_creator.tool

4.  At the end of the process, you will have a macOS.iso on your desktop - copy this onto a 16GB or larger exFAT formatted USB for use on the PC Host later.

 

 

 

Installation

The VMware guest settings from post#1 still work for Catalina 10.15beta (VMware Workstation 12.5 or newer and @Donk's latest unlocker, Apple macOS as the Guest operating system and 10.12 or newer as the version). 

 

Workstation 15.0 and Unlocker v3.0 support Mojave OOB but unfortunately does not support host CPU older than SandyBridge.  Also, it seems VMware 15 presently cannot boot the native prelinkedkernel found in macOS Catalina's BaseSystem/installation media without panicking.  Temporarily changing the guest OS type from macOS to Windows 10 X64 can bypass this panic and enable the second installation phase to complete.  Paradoxically, once the prelinkedkernel is rebuilt on a completed installation (at the end of the install process), the VM is able to boot with guest setting back to macOS!  The macOS ISO prepared above has the plk from a completed install included.

 

• Add the line bios.bootDelay = "3000" to the guest vmx file ---> enables you to access VMware's BIOS settings and change boot priority after pressing the <F2> key at the VMware logo.
• If the host has sufficient memory, I also recommend allocating 3GB or more for a Catalina VM guest.

 

1.  Attach the iso to the Virtual Machine on the PC Host as a Virtual CD/DVDROM.  I have also provided a blank, HFS+ formatted disk image, "macOS.vmdk" in attached macOS.zip, with pre-installed Clover r4972 in its EFI System Partition ---> can use as the target disk.  

This enables the installation if your VMware Workstation lacks apfs support (earlier than ver 15).

2.  Start the VM which should boot to macOS Utilities on the CD/DVD ROM.  Choose "Reinstall macOS" and the blank macOS.vmdk as the target for the install.

3.  At the first reboot, press <F2> at the VMware logo to boot to the virtual CD/DVDROM again.  Open terminal, typing copyprelinkedkernel followed by <Enter> ---> will replace the plk in /macOS Install Data/Locked Files/Boot Files to enable the second phase installation (without having to change guest OS type to Windows 10 X64)...

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

If the script fails to find the target volume with the "macOS Install Data" folder (eg when updating to Catalina volume containing the "— Data" suffix), terminate it by pressing the <Ctrl> and <C> keys on your keyboard simultaneously.  Manually copy the prelinkedkernel on the installer ISO to /macOS Install Data/Locked Files/Boot Files folder eg assuming Catalina installing to macOS, the "macOS — Data" volume will contain the "macOS Install Data" folder...

-bash-3.2# cd /
-bash-3.2# ls -l /Volumes
total 8
drwxr-xr-x  22 root  admin  704 29 Aug 07:12 macOS
lrwxr-xr-x   1 root  wheel    1 29 Aug 07:09 macOS Base System -> /
drwxr-xr-x  21 root  wheel  672 29 Aug 07:12 macOS — Data
-bash-3.2# cp /System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/macOS\ —\ Data/macOS\ Install\ Data/Locked\ Files/Boot\ Files/

 

4.  The second phase installation should now proceed automatically after the reboot ...
 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

5.  Final reboot into the third phase ---> rebuilds kext caches/plk to finalize the install and sets up new user ...

 

Spoiler

 

 

Note:  If the process stalls at step 5, it means a problem with rebuilding kext caches.  You can fix by booting back to the installer ISO (press <F2> at VMware logo to choose CD boot device), opening terminal, and then typing the following commands...

cd /
touch /Volumes/macOS/System/Library/Extensions && kextcache -u /Volumes/macOS   //assuming macOS is name of your Catalina Volume
reboot

6.  End Result after installing VMware tools...

 

 

 

Installing VMware Tools in Catalina

It is important to disable SIP (System Integrity Protection) in Catalina before installing VMware tools, otherwise VMwareGfx.kext may fail to load after system reboot ---> failure to resize or change screen resolution for macOS guest.

 

Easiest way to do this is boot to Clover first, select Options/System Parameters/System Integrity Protection and check the following options...

 

Spoiler

 

 

With SIP setting at 0x0277 and "Allow Untrusted Kexts", "Allow Unapproved Kexts", press <Esc> a few times to return to Clover's Main GUI and boot into Catalina.

 

Open terminal to check SIP is disabled...eg

fusion71au@fusion71aus-iMac ~ % csrutil status
System Integrity Protection status: disabled.

then proceed to install VMware tools (Player Menu/Manage/Reinstall VMware Tools) and reboot the VM.

 

 

Update

VMware Workstation 15.5.0 build-14665864 now has built in Catalina Support, patched with modified unlocker from this post.  Awaiting @Donk for official update to v3.0.2.

Edited October 17, 2019 by fusion71au
VMware Workstation 15.5.0 build-14665864 now officially supports macOS Catalina

[Naki]

1.  On your Mac or Hack, download/copy "Install macOS xxx.app" into your Applications folder.

 

---> Sorry, no idea what this file is, or where to get it. Care to elaborate please?

EDIT: OK, I think I get it now - I am seeing an Install macOS Mojave.app with size around 6 GB on one of my older VMs! So, you likely mean a similar file but for Catalina Beta. How/where to get this, please? 

Also, what exact size would it be? 

To answer myself - seems this is gotten from App Store app on older macOS versions (and differently on Mojave). And RE size, looks like it will be about 6.45 GB when done, at least the download in App Store says this.

Edited June 30, 2019 by Naki
grammar/clarity, extra info

[emikaadeo]

On 6/26/2019 at 3:57 AM, fusion71au said:

Update for macOS Catalina 10.15beta

 

2.  Download and unzip the attached macOS_iso_creator.tool into your ~/Downloads folder:

 

For DP2 macOS_iso_creator_19A487l.zip  

For DP3 macOS_iso_creator_19A501i.zip

 

The commands in this executable script are shown below for informational purposes.  Note: you will need approx 18GB of free space on your hard disk for the script to complete.

  Reveal hidden contents

#!/bin/bash
 
 # Create macOS sparseimage of 8316mb with a Single Partition - Apple Partition Map
 hdiutil create -o /tmp/macOS -size 8316m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J -type SPARSE
 
 # Mount the macOS sparseimage
 hdiutil attach /tmp/macOS.sparseimage -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build
 
 # Restore the Base System into the macOS Blank sparseimage
 asr restore -source /Applications/Install\ macOS*.app/Contents/SharedSupport/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/install_build -noprompt -noverify -erase
 
 # Copy Install App to Base System
 cp -rp /Applications/Install\ macOS*.app /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System
 
 # Copy working prelinkedkernel and copyprelinkedkernel script to Base System
 cp ~/Downloads/macOS_iso_creator/prelinkedkernel /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System/System/Library/PrelinkedKernels/prelinkedkernel
 cp ~/Downloads/macOS_iso_creator/copyprelinkedkernel /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System/usr/bin/copyprelinkedkernel

 

# Unmount the Base System image
 hdiutil detach /Volumes/macOS\ Base\ System
 
 # Convert the macOS spareseimage to ISO/CD master
  hdiutil convert /tmp/macOS.sparseimage -format UDTO -o /tmp/macOS.iso
 
 # Rename the macOS ISO image and move it to the desktop
  mv /tmp/macOS.iso.cdr ~/Desktop/macOS.iso
 
 # Delete macOS.sparseimage file
  rm -f /tmp/macOS.sparseimage

 

Does this works with latest Beta 4 (19A512f) ?

Edited July 17, 2019 by emikaadeo

[tarasis]

@fusion71au apologies for interrupting, but is it better to run OSX in VirtualBox or VMware Player on Windows? Is one faster than the other?

[fusion71au]

1 hour ago, tarasis said:

@fusion71au apologies for interrupting, but is it better to run OSX in VirtualBox or VMware Player on Windows? Is one faster than the other?

 

IMHO, I find VMware currently provides a faster/better experience than VirtualBox, mainly because of NVRAM and VMware tools support for the macOS guest (which is absent in VirtualBox).

[tarasis]

On 6/26/2019 at 3:57 AM, fusion71au said:

Update for macOS Catalina 10.15beta
<snip>

 

5.  Final reboot into the third phase ---> rebuilds kext caches/plk to finalize the install and sets up new user ... 

 

  Hide contents

 

For this phase, if I just used an VMWare generated vmdk (using VMWare Player 15), would you expect it to sit for a long time at the Apple Logo at this stage? Or do I have to use your prebuilt vmdk file with Clover? TaskManager suggests the Player isn't doing anything CPU or Disk wise.

 

-- EDIT

 

Interesting. This was the point that I had to swap the guest type to use Windows 10x64 to see the clover loader.

 

Choosing either the first or the third Catalina option completed the cache rebuild and get to the point of completing installation. However while my mouse worked fine, my keyboard didn't. Which meant I couldn't enter network details or enter my new user. Also the first time I did this Setup Assistant crashed. 

Edited August 22, 2019 by tarasis

[Naki]

@tarasis -- suggest you ask these questions & continue the discussion HERE:

 

[tarasis]

@Naki I was asking in this thread because I was following the steps in this thread, but I will try in the thread you suggest as well.

[Danielx64]

Hi,

 

After following the steps in the first post to create a USB with Catalina, I am having trouble getting it to boot.

 

The error I am getting when trying to boot the bootloader is "The firmware encountered an unexpected exception. The virtual machine cannot boot."

 

Can you please tell me where I may have gone wrong?