Hopefully QEMU, Parallels & VMware are not far behind.
I will walk you through the entire process. (UPDATE!KhaosT just released an updated GUI interface, more info at the bottom of the article)
My video walking you through the process of setting up a virtual machine that can run macOS Monterey!
Requirements & Instructions (Modified Original Instructions)
Download links are at the bottom.
Apple Silicon M1 Mac (running macOS Monterey)
Xcode 13 (Beta)
Apple Configurator 2
macOS Monterey IPSW
Empty dmg image (This will be your system storage, name it disk.dmg, you can create it from Disk Utility)
First Time Setup
1. Clone this project from Github save as zip for use in Xcode. Open zip in Xcode Beta.
2. Click the Run Button (VM will build)
3. Quit the app when “Virtual Machine” window showed up, move disk.dmg into the app’s container
4. Run it again
5. Open Apple Configurator 2, if everything works, There should have a VirtualMac in DFU mode
6. Temporary disable macOS Firewall and iCloud Private Relay (Apple Configurator 2 can’t restore VM with those features enabled) Both are default off if you did not turn them on or sign in with your AppleID
7. Drag macOS 12 IPSW file into Apple Configurator 2, click Restore to install macOS
8. When AC2 finishes the install you should be done and your vm should boot to macOS 12 Setup Assistant!
UPDATE!
KhaosT just released a new update to his code that gives us control over the VM Settings.
VMware Fusion Player 12 is now free for personal use on the Mac!
Last month VMware announced VMware Fusion 12. The new version includes macOS Big Sur support for host and guest. VMware also announced that the Mac version is now FREE ($149 Normal Price) for personal use! Previously the Free VMware player was only available on Windows. You can use it to test macOS, Windows 10, or Linux. If you’ve always wanted to set up a macOS VM, now is the time. It’s never been easier to build a test VM, so let’s get started!
How To Register, Download, Install & Configure VMware Fusion Player 12 – Mr. Macintosh Video.
Create a New VMware Account.
VMware notes that the free version is available for the following situations.
Fusion Player offers a Personal Use License, available for free with a valid MyVMware account. Home users, Open Source contributors, students, and anyone else can use Fusion Player Free for Non-Commercial activity.
VMware.com
If you are one of those, head over to the registration site.
This link also has a download area to get the the 600MB .dmg installer.
Install VMware Fusion Player 12
Open the .dmg and install Fusion Player 12. NOTE: VMware Fusion 12 requires macOS Catalina or newer. Once complete, open the application and you will be prompted to enter in the license key.
When you first start VMWare Fusion you will get a Select Install Method Screen. In the past you needed to run through a bunch of steps to create a macOS Install .ISO file. Not anymore, you can just drag and drop the full Install macOS Install.app (or Windows iso or Linux .iso) over to this window to begin!
VMware Fusion Player 12 – Select Install Method
The next screen will let you select macOS installer.app file. You will normally only see the one that you just dragged over. In my case, I have already installed 10.14, 10.15 and 11.0. Click Continue.
VMware Fusion Player 12 – Select Install image
You will now see a final finish screen, before you start to configure the VM.
Finish of the VM setup wizard.
The next screen will tell you that VMware Fusion Player is creating installation media.
VMware Fusion Player 12 – Creating Installation Media
You will get a warning about running this VM machine with side channel mitigations enable. It says that side channel mitigations provide enhanced security but lower performance. You can change the settings when the VM is not running in the Advanced panel of the VM.
VMware Fusion Player 12 – You are running this virtual machine with side channel mitigations enabled.
The new macOS VM is booting to the installer! Once booted, it will be just like you booted into the recovery partition. All you need to do is select Install macOS to begin.
VMware Fusion Player 12 – Booting to the macOS Installer.
30 Minutes or so later you will be at the Setup Assistant Screen.
Congratulations! You’ve just built your first macOS virtual Machine!
Snapshots
One of the best features about having a macOS virtual machine is snapshots. You can build out a fresh OS and then take a snapshot before you make any changes to the system. Did the test not work? No big deal! Instead of reinstalling the OS to test again, just revert back to a previous snapshot! It’s literally that simple. You can access snapshots from the Virtual Machine menu bar item.
Snapshots!
Boot your macOS VM to Recovery Mode
Quick Way – sudo nvram "recovery-boot-mode=unused" && sudo reboot
If you need to boot the VM to macOS Recovery mode, all you need to do is edit the .vmx file located in /Users/youruserfolder/Virtual Machines/vmnamehere
Right on the file and then select “Show Package Contents”. Inside will be your vmnamehere.vmx file. Right click on that file and edit it with your favorite text editor. Add this line at the very end of the file and click save.
macosguest.forceRecoveryModeInstall = "TRUE"
Start up the VM an you will now be in recovey mode.
To boot back to macOS, open that same file and delete the line that you just added above and click save.
The final step is to delete the .nvram file in that same directory.
NOTE: 10/07/20
I am having trouble booting to recovery with Big Sur Beta, I’m going to run a few more tests. This works fine on 10.14 and 10.15.
Install macOS Big Sur 11 on VMware Fusion & Parallels Desktop
How To Install macOS Big Sur on VMware Fusion and Parallels Desktop.
Like clockwork, Apple delivers a new macOS every year. MacAdmins need to start testing the new OS right way. Running the new os in a virtualized environment is the way to go. The only problem is, sometimes the new OS will not install on the current version of VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop.
Many MacAdmins have already jumped in to find out if macOS Big Sur will install on Fusion or Parallels. The initial report is that a straight install will NOT work. The macOS Big Sur installer presents this error to you.
The operation couldn't be completed. (BIErrorDomain error 3.)
Table of Contents
1. Updates
2. Notes
3. Creating a bootable macOS Big Sur ISO
4. Creating a bootable macOS Big Sur dmg
5. How To Install Big Sur 11 on VMware Fusion
6. How To Install Big Sur 11 on Parallels Desktop
7. How To Install Big Sur 11 on ESXi
Updates – 7/08/20
VMware Fusion Tech Preview 20H2 is now available!!
VM Tools – Even though Big Sur to works on Parallels and Fusion, do not install VM tools yet. Some reports say that after installing VM tools the system boots fine YMMV.
Parallels Tools – VM can get stuck on a black screen after the reboot. Would recommend not installing the tools.
Parallels – VRAM seems suck at 3mb, causing slow response.
Keyboard & Login Issues – Getting reports that VM’s are not accepting certain keys. 1, 2, t and y keys. You need to hold FN key to make them work.
3. Creating a bootable Big Sur ISO
The instructions below will create a bootable Big Sur ISO.
hdiutil create -size 12G -fs hfs+ -volname macOSInstaller -type SPARSEBUNDLE /Users/Shared/macOSInstaller
hdiutil attach /Users/Shared/macOSInstaller.sparsebundle
"[path to]/createinstallmedia" --volume /Volumes/macOSInstaller --nointeraction
hdiutil detach /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Beta
hdiutil makehybrid -o /Users/Shared/macOSInstaller /Users/Shared/macOSInstaller.sparsebundle
# Now create a macOS 10.15 VM with a 50 GB disk i Fusion
# Connect the virtual optical drive to /Users/Shared/macOSInstaller.iso
# Boot and install (you may need to "adjust" the disk Disk Utility to recognize the full capacity)
4. Creating a bootable Big Sur .dmg
Below is a script that Nathan Worster wrote to create a bootable macOS Big Sur Beta dmg.
#!/bin/bash
####################
# Notes #
####################
#
# Created 20200625 by Nathan Worster
#
# This script assumes that the macOS Beta installer is already staged in the Applications folder, and will convert that .app installer into a bootable .dmg.
# To download the latest macOS beta, go to https://developer.apple.com/download/ or, if applicable, https://appleseed.apple.com/.
# The .dmg file will be placed in ~/Downloads.
# This script must be run with sudo using "sudo bash <filename>" if run outside of an MDM.
#
####################
# Variables #
####################
dmgName=$"macOS11BigSurBeta"
####################
# Script #
####################
cd ~/Downloads
# Create and mount sparse volume:
hdiutil create -o install_container -size 20G -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J -type SPARSE
hdiutil attach install_container.sparseimage -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build
# Copy contents of installer .app into mounted volume:
/Applications/Install\ macOS\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --nointeraction --volume /Volumes/install_build
# Detach the completed image:
hdiutil detach -force /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ Beta
# Convert and rename the image:
hdiutil convert install_container.sparseimage -format UDZO -o $dmgName.dmg
# Cleanup
rm install_container.sparseimage
exit 0
5. How To Install Big Sur 11 on VMware Fusion
Requirements
Disk Size – 50-60GB+ Virtual disk size required (40GB Standard size does not seem to work)
Clean install vs Upgrade – A Big Sur Upgrade from Mojave or Catalina is the easiest path. Usually all the values that I mention below are already set, so you have a clear path.
Mac Compatibility – Note if the hw.model is not supported for Big Sur the install will fail. You can fake it by setting a different hw.model and board-id. Be sure to check the compatibility list here.
Install Instructions
If you would like to use the same values from your Mac you can set this attribute. HT @lamw for the simplification!
smbios.reflectHost = "TRUE"
You can also manually set the the required values. The example below = 16-inch MacBook Pro.
hw.model = "MacBookPro16,1"
board-id = "Mac-E1008331FDC96864"
serialNumber = "serialnumberhere" (For DEP Enrollment testing)
To get the values you can run the following commands
Error message – “Not enough physical memory is available to power on this virtual machine with its configured settings.” – communities.vmware.com/thread/638385
Using Fusion 11.5.5 on Mojave 10.14.6, modifying the vmx file was unnecessary. I did a fresh install of Catalina 10.15.4 in a new VM, copied the macOS Beta installer to the VM, and ran the installer. It installed and booted fine. Note that I did not install the VMware Tools to the VM prior to installing macOS Beta. I had a prior Catalina VM with the Tools installed, and upgrading to the macOS Beta resulted in failures at the login screen after the Beta upgrade. So do the Beta upgrade on a fresh Catalina install and it should work fine (at least from 10.15.4).
Please note, if I added ‘board-id.reflectHost = “TRUE”‘ to the .vmx, the Fusion refused to boot the VM with an error that the vmx file is corrupted.
MrMacintosh Reader Corey
6. How To Install Big Sur 11 on Parallels Desktop
1. Create a new VM by installing a fresh copy of 10.15 Catalina
2. Do not install Parallels Tools
3. The install requires at least 80gb or more
4. Install beta profile
5. Download Beta
6. Set the following values set under Hardware > Boot Order > Advanced Settings > Boot Flags.
7. Create a 2nd admin account. (this can help with login problems after the Big Sur install. Some users are saying that they can’t login with the original account. If that happens, login with the 2nd account.)
devices.mac_hw_model="MacBookPro16,1"
devices.smbios.board_id="Mac-E1008331FDC96864"
Keep in mind, both examples above are from a 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro. You can get the correct hardware values by running the following commands.
sysctl hw.model = Model
ioreg -l | grep board-id = BoardID
Try to install Big Sur. If that doesn’t work, try the instructions below.
