7 Replies Latest reply on Oct 31, 2019 4:28 PM by dempson

    Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019

    tjluoma Lurker
    tjluoma Oct 29, 2019 2:50 PM

      I have downloaded 3 DMGs from Apple (see below for URLs) with the intention of making VMs from them (on a Mac), but I cannot.

       

      Apple has seemingly made these DMGs with the expressed intention of installing them on a Mac, and not making VMs. Even more, Apple seems to have made it intentionally difficult.

       

      The DMG mounts to a package (.pkg) file. The .pkg will not run on any Mac which cannot run the version of macOS which it will install. I also assume it will not run if you are using a Mac which could use that version of Mac OS X but has a later version already installed.

       

      I was able to extract the .app that the .pkg was meant to install, but the app lacked the “InstallESD.dmg” which is needed to actually do the installation. I manually extracted “InstallESD.dmg” and moved it to the ‘/Contents/SharedSupport/’ sub-folder of the app, and then tried to create the VM that way.

       

      The process starts, but when it gets to the point of choosing where to install it, the installation fails with a message:

       

      “This copy of the install OS X El Capitan application can’t be verified. It may have been corrupted or tampered with during downloading.”

       

      The installation will not continue from that point.

       

      (Note: I outlined these steps in greater detail at https://rhymeswithdiploma.com/2019/10/28/dmg-to-virtual-machine/ if you care to know more specifics.)

       

       

      My question is: How can I make a VM from one of these DMGs?

       

       

      Please note that I am only asking about running a macOS VM on Mac hardware.

       

      If anyone wants to try this themselves, here are the URLs that I used and the version of Mac OS X that they relate to:

       

      wget --continue --show-progress --progress=bar --output-document=InstallYosemite.dmg \

      http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41343-20191023-02465f92-3ab5-4c92-bfe2-b725447a070d/InstallMacOSX.dmg

       

      wget --continue --show-progress --progress=bar --output-document=InstallElCapitan.dmg \

      http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-41424-20191024-218af9ec-cf50-4516-9011-228c78eda3d2/InstallMacOSX.dmg

       

      wget --continue --show-progress --progress=bar --output-document=InstallSierra.dmg \

      http://updates-http.cdn-apple.com/2019/cert/061-39476-20191023-48f365f4-0015-4c41-9f44-39d3d2aca067/InstallOS.dmg

        • 1. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
          wila Guru
          vExpertUser ModeratorsCommunity Warriors
          wila Oct 29, 2019 4:47 PM (in response to tjluoma)

          Hi,

           

          Sounds like the issue where the certificates for the apple install media expired on October 24th

           

          See also:

          Certificate used to sign older Apple software expiring on October 24, 2019 | Der Flounder

           

          as for using direct download links... you might want to try the following instead:

          Downloading macOS installers with updated signing certificates on macOS Catalina | Der Flounder

           

          --

          Wil

          | Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Desktop Products
          | Vimalin : Automated backups for VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation Professional
          | More info at https://www.vimalin.com
          | Twitter @wilva
          | VMware Wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com
          • 2. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
            tjluoma Lurker
            tjluoma Oct 29, 2019 6:47 PM (in response to wila)

            > Sounds like the issue where the certificates for the apple install media expired on October 24th

             

            It does… except that I downloaded them on October 28th.

             

            > as for using direct download links... you might want to try the following instead:

             

            If you scroll down to the "Update 10-28-2019" part of the 'derflounder' post, he notes that the newer 3 versions of macOS are in the Mac App Store, but the older 3 are direct download DMGs.

             

            I also tried an older installer, and it made it through more of the installation process, but still failed with a similar error, presumably because of the expired certificates.

             

            At this point I'm unsure whether it's even possible to make a VM out of any of these DMGs.

            • 3. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
              wila Guru
              vExpertCommunity WarriorsUser Moderators
              wila Oct 30, 2019 1:01 AM (in response to tjluoma)

              Hi,

               

              If you scroll down to the "Update 10-28-2019" part of the 'derflounder' post, he notes that the newer 3 versions of macOS are in the Mac App Store, but the older 3 are direct download DMGs

               

              Yes I knew that. However as you did not mention in your opening post that you downloaded after 24th of October and are aware of the certificate issue I started out with the most likely answer.

              Direct links have a danger of not getting updated. I just verified the El Capitan link in https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206886 and that one is the same.

              I don't know if apple did not update their link or if you are seeing another issue.

               

              You can verify if your issue is a bad cert by messing with the time clock.

              See Darius his excellent answer here:

              Re: VMWare won't install OS X from installer from Network drive

               

              Normally the old installers allowed you do drag and drop them onto the New VM wizard in VMware Fusion. If that doesn't work anymore then I would expect you need to go through a process like bogdam described here:

              Re: macOS Catalina VMs do not run in VMware Fusion 11.1.0

               

              Btw, saw your blog post, but I don't know if that is supposed to work or not.

               

              --

              Wil

              | Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Desktop Products
              | Vimalin : Automated backups for VMware Fusion and VMware Workstation Professional
              | More info at https://www.vimalin.com
              | Twitter @wilva
              | VMware Wiki at http://www.vi-toolkit.com
              • 4. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
                dempson Enthusiast
                dempson Oct 30, 2019 4:13 AM (in response to tjluoma)

                If you have a Mac which is too new to run Yosemite, El Capitan or Sierra and no access to an older Mac, then the following process works (tested with VMware Fusion 11.5 on a 2018 Mac Mini running Catalina, with Mojave and Sierra installers - this model can't boot anything older than Mojave):

                 

                1. Download the full installer for the version of macOS that your Mac is currently running or is able to run (High Sierra, Mojave or Catalina). The normal method via App Store gives you an installer application in your /Applications folder.

                 

                2. Use that installer application to create a VM and set it up. Install VMware Tools for convenience.

                 

                3. From inside the VM, open the .dmg file for the Yosemite, El Capitan or Sierra installer, and open the package. The installer recognises it is running in a VM and bypasses the model check, so it will create an installer application for the target version in the VM's Applications folder.

                 

                4. Copy the installer application for the older OS back to the host.

                 

                5. Use the installer application for the older OS to create a VM for the version you want.

                 

                I haven't tested the following but they should work too:

                 

                If you have an older Mac that can't run a newer version you want to put in the VM (e.g. Sierra on a 2009 or earlier Mac) then a similar process should work if you are able to download an installer application for Lion, Mountain Lion, Mavericks, Yosemite or El Capitan from your purchase history in App Store. Those installers are either unsigned or have an expired certificate, so using one to create a VM may require temporarily setting your clock back to before 2019-10-24.

                 

                A similar technique would allow creating a VM of Lion, Mountain Lion or Mavericks on a newer Mac - you first need an older Mac or a VM running Sierra or earlier to get the installer.

                 

                ADDENDUM:

                 

                I was able to use the Sierra VM I created at step 5 above to sign in to App Store, download the Lion installer from my purchase history, drag that application out to the host, and then use it to create a Lion VM on my 2018 Mac Mini. Three stage "bootstrap" but I got there in the end. No need to fiddle with the date: this particular installer is not signed.

                 

                I haven't tried Mountain Lion or Mavericks yet - those installers might behave differently.

                • 5. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
                  tjluoma Lurker
                  tjluoma Oct 30, 2019 10:07 AM (in response to dempson)

                  3. From inside the VM, open the .dmg file for the Yosemite, El Capitan or Sierra installer, and open the package. The installer recognises it is running in a VM and bypasses the model check, so it will create an installer application for the target version in the VM's Applications folder.

                   

                  A-ha!  Now that's the sort of creative thinking that I was hoping someone would have!

                   

                  Running the installer inside the VM to get the installer app worked perfectly for El Capitan. I was able to make and boot a new 10.11 VM. Now I'm going to save a copy in its current "pristine" state so I don't even have to do this again and will always have a "clean" copy to go back to if I need/want.

                   

                  Thank you very much!

                  • 6. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
                    dempson Enthusiast
                    dempson Oct 31, 2019 3:08 AM (in response to tjluoma)

                    Glad it worked for you.

                     

                    A small correction to my (already edited) previous message:

                     

                    The Mac OS X Lion installer I re-downloaded only APPEARS to be unsigned. That is what Suspicious Package 3.5.1 reports if I examine the OSInstall.mpkg file inside InstallESD.dmg while running on macOS Catalina 10.15.1. If I do the same test in the same version of Suspicious Package running on macOS Mojave 10.14.6, it reports an expired certificate, as does an older version of Suspicious Package running on macOS Sierra 10.12.6. Therefore Catalina has changed something related to the certificates, or Suspicious Package can't test certificate status while running on Catalina (I'll try to narrow this down with more tests later).

                     

                    Despite the expired certificate status, I was able to use the same Lion installer on a Mac running Mojave to create a new VM.

                     

                    I'll test my Mavericks and Mountain Lion installers later to see if they also still work. Re-downloaded copies of both appear to be unsigned in Suspicious Package on macOS Sierra 10.12.6, so they differ from the Lion installer.

                    • 7. Re: Cannot create a new VM from DMGs provided by Apple in October 2019
                      dempson Enthusiast
                      dempson Oct 31, 2019 4:28 PM (in response to dempson)

                      Freshly downloaded Mountain Lion 10.8.5 and Mavericks 10.9.5 installers (from App Store purchase history, downloaded on a Mac running Sierra 10.12.6) also work to set up new VMs in VMware Fusion 11.5 running on Mojave 10.14.6, with no complaints about certificates and no need to adjust the date.