High Sierra host with High Sierra + FileVault guest - cannot boot

[LomaLinda]

Hello;

I am using macOS running on VM Fusion 10.1.3 to test the deployment of software and settings.

In particular, I am experimenting setting up FileVault where the guest is a High Sierra.

Everything works well until I enable FileVault 2 and restart the guest.

When rebooting looks like Fusion cannot see the boot and stops at the Boot Manager and no option there works.

Any suggestions?

Regards!

[JessieZhang]

LomaLinda​,

Could you please let us know the version of your High Sierra VM, is it a version prior to macOS 10.13.4 or post-10.13.4?

Here are some steps that I would suggest you to try:

1. Try changing the hard disk from SATA disk type to SCSI disk type, and see if the VM can boot up properly after the change

2. If step 1 does not help, try reducing the number of assigned processor cores to one, and see if the VM can boot up properly after the change

If your Mac VM can boot up after step 1 or step 2, after the VM is booted up, please use App Store to upgrade your Mac VM to the latest 10.13.6 version. After the macOS VM is upgraded to 10.13.6, the issue should no longer exist , you can then restore the VM to its previous settings, for example, changing the hard disk back to SATA disk type, or changing the VM's processor cores to its original value.

[LomaLinda]

Hi Jessie,

Thanks for helping out!

The guest OS is the High Sierra 10.13.6

I tried the items 1 and 2 using an already encrypted and it didn't boot stil.

I also tried it starting a new VM and then encrypting after changing SATA to SCSI and the have 1 processor. Still didn't work.

More suggestions are welcome!

Thanks!

[aharms]

I also have this issue. The workarounds mentioned do not work, even if applied before FileVault is ever enabled within the VM. Please advise.

[ahmaduhhs]

Seeing the same exact issue.

[LomaLinda]

Not a solution but a workaround:

1.Create a simple macOS guest using Parallels

2.Import it into Fusion

3.Use the imported hard drive from step 2.

I was able to encrypt and boot this way

[rg12b]

Also not a fix, but another workaround.  I found that if I enable FileVault, wait for it to finish encrypting, then select the Startup Disk from System Preferences it will boot successfully.  If I simply restart after encrypting with FileVault it would fail to boot.  Hope this helps someone.

[bazcurtis178]

I am seeing this too in 11.0.2.

[veggiepirate]

I can confirm. In fact, I've tried this process with Sierra, High Sierra, and Mojave guests and get the same issues with a NO symbol boot, even after FileVault is fully done with encrypting.

SATA, SCSI, & NVMe interfaces all do the same thing. I'm inclined to believe it's a security feature that was patched into the older versions at some point.

[gtdragon980]

Has anyone found a solution to this? I have been building up a test lab to use for pushing policies and configurations to the guests and I have attempted to use Jamf Self Service to initiate a policy to encrypt the machine and escrow the personal key. On the first machine, the policy ran successfully, encrypted the volume and I was able to reboot it successfully. Then on the second one, same thing but once I rebooted, it could no longer see the disk. It booted into the Vmware boot manager. Third one was the same. Restored the pre-encryption snapshots and tried it again with the same result.

It is strange that the first one is still working completely fine, but the second and third ones are not booting after Filevault 2 encryption.

[ColoradoMarmot]

If you hold down the 'Opt' key while booting, do you even get a boot menu?  Wondering if the initial install is failing to create a recovery partition properly.

[clarksonswimmer]

I'm also having this issue. After FileVault encrypts a boot volume and VM is rebooted, it boots into the VMWare BIOS. Selecting the HDD device doesn't help. This happens when the drive is SATA or SCSI.