ESXi 5.x on new Apple Mac Mini 6,2 Late 2012 *NOT* working

[ViennaAustria]

Hello!

I bought one of the new MacMinis, which were presented yesteraday, plugged two 8GiB DD3-1600 modules in (OsX reported 16GiB of memory, as the models before) and tried to install ESXi 5.1 Build 799733. It started promising:

Initializing chipset...

Initializing timing...

Initializing scheduler...

Initializing processors...

Initializing ACPI...

*BANG*

Pink screen!

NOT_REACHED bora/vmkernel/hardware/intel/vtd.c:3638

cr0=0x8001003d cr2=0x0 cr3=0x449ad500 cr4=0x12c

*PCPU0:4096/bootstrap

PCPU  0: SISISISISISISIS

Code start: 0x41800c600000 VMK uptime: 0:00:00:04.301

and a stackdump.

I tried instalkling 5.0 and 5.0 U1 also, but with the same result.

It is the regular MacMini with an i7 4C 2.3GHz and one 1TB SATA drive (http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD388LL/A with no extras), not the MacMini Server.

Any suggestions? Thanks!

PS1: I was unable to boot the ESXi setup from USB key! Since other USB keys (OsX setup for example) didn't work either, I suspect that there's some EFI boot problem from the new USB3 ports. Booting from CD worked, however.

PS2: on the earlies models we had the problem, that the Alt key wasn't recognized after powering on, when there is an USB hub between the keyboard and the Mac (a KVM switch for example). That seems to be fixed now: whenever I press the Alt key at the powerup chime, I get the Apple "boot menu", even with our KVM switch in between.

[oturn]

@HPReg

Please also investigate the non-functioning ESXi 5.1 VMDirectPath I/O on the 2012 Mac Mini, specifically USB passthrough.

DirectPath I/O can be configured, but it does not become enabled after a reboot.

Thanks!

[dariusd]

Hi ViennaAustria and others trying to run Mac OS guests on a Macmini6,2...

Good news!  We've been able to come up with a fix for the Apple SMC issue that prevents Mac OS guests from running on these Macmini6,2 hosts.  This is something we've quickly come up with in VMware engineering and it hasn't gone through any official release process, but we've had confirmation that it seems to do what's needed and we're happy to see it go into use where it's needed, despite its unofficial status.  :smileygrin:

zer010gic seems to be doing a superb job of putting together a pre-built .iso for the Macmini6,2, so I've forwarded the fix to that user and hopefully it'll be incorporated into an updated .iso soon.  Stay tuned!

Thanks very much to all of you for your patience and kind offers of assistance.  What an awesome example of collaboration we have in this thread and in this community!

Cheers,

--

Darius

[zer010gic]

Alright guys here is the modified ISO with the fix from VMWare.  I also added the iovDisableIR=TRUE kernel option to the boot.cfg for the installer.  I will see if I can add it to the install script maybe as well but for now you just have to add that kernel option after the install on first boot and then set the esxicli command.

http://www.macstadium.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/ESXi-5.1-MacMini-SMC-6-2.iso

[oturn]

Fantastic! Thanks to VMware for the awesome support and response.

Will this fix make it into the offiial build? Will the boot and VMDirectPath I/O issues also be addressed at a future date?

[dariusd]

Hi oturn,

It's not an official fix... Although the Macmini6,2 isn't on the Hardware Compatibility List, we want it to be usable, so in the absence of any reasonable workaround for the SMC issue, we've produced a very minimal and very unofficial engineering "fix" to get things working.  We'll still need to address the issue fully in an update/patch release in due course, timeframe unknown, but this should keep you going in the meantime.  If you are planning on using this in a production environment, you should take whatever steps you feel necessary to satisfy yourself that this engineering fix meets your needs before deployment, and you should understand that VMware support will not necessarily be able to help with issues arising from this specific patch.  (... but I probably will. )

The boot PSOD is under investigation and will most likely also be addressed in due course.  Using iovDisableIR=TRUE should provide a good workaround until we can properly address that issue too.

I haven't had the chance to look into the VMDirectPath I/O issue; I've seen the discussion but have not yet had the time to investigate.

Hope this helps explain the state of things!  Let me know if you have any more questions.

If you find any problems with the SMC fix, kindly direct your enquiries/complaints to me; zer010gic has kindly integrated our "fix" into the published ISO on my behalf.

Thanks,

--

Darius

[MacSS]

OK,

I tried the update on one of my 6,2 Mac Mini machines. Weird thing is that even though the .iso tile is 5.1, my machine now says it is running 5.0.0.

I tried to install OSX on a virtual machine, and all I got was error sign during the startup. Has anyone had this? This was the same error with 5.1.1, likely caused by the SMC issue.

Anyone seen this, or have the same issue?

[dariusd]

Hi MacSS,

You're seeing that while trying to boot the installer for the first time, right?  Have you successfully used the same media or image for installations on non-MacMini hosts?

Could you please post the vmware.log from inside the VM's directory as an attachment here?  Just use the Browse... button below to attach it.

Thanks,

--

Darius

[oturn]

Darius,

I can confirm this fix is working well!

I look forward to future updates, specifically full VMDirectPath I/O support.

Thanks again!

[MacSS]

here is my log

[dariusd]

Which ISO image did you download?

The ESXi 5.0 u1 image that zer010gic posted first (ESXi-50u1-MacMini-6-2.iso) does not yet contain the SMC fix but does contain the modified TG3 network driver.  It looks like you have booted that image.

The ESXi 5.1 image that zer010gic posted a few hours ago (ESXi-5.1-MacMini-SMC-6-2.iso) is the only image available so far with the SMC fix.  It also has the modified TG3 network driver (plus a bonus pre-configured iovDisableIR=TRUE when booting from that image).

We'll hopefully have a 5.0u1 image with the SMC fix out shortly.

Cheers,

--

Darius

[lamw]

To handle the kernel setting after the install, you can easily create a script which runs the ESXCLI command which is bundled within a *.tgz file and appended to the boot.cfg. I've tested this to confirm that the settings sticks after the install

Here's the steps:

1. mkdir -p etc/rc.local.d/

2. vi etc/rc.local.d/custom.sh

In custom.sh add the following:

#!/bin/ash

localcli system settings kernel set -s iovDisableIR -v true

3. chmod +x etc/rc.local.d/custom.sh

4. tar -cvf custom.tgz etc/

Now append "--- /custom.tgz" after /imgpayld.tgz entry in boot.cfg and create the ISO. I've also attached the tgz file and you can find more details about this trick in this article http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/04/disable-lun-during-esxi-installation.html

UPDATE: Just uploaded a new custom.tgz, can you give this one a try. I basically modify the script slightly to add an entry to /etc/rc.local.d/local.sh & then use an init script to clean it up on the next reboot.

Message was edited by: lamw

[vmwarefusionus1]

Hello Darius,

Thank you for coming up with a fix for the Apple SMC issue on the Macmini6,2.  Could it also work for the Macmini6,1?

I was able to install ESXi 5.1 on my Macmini6,1 but I didn't use zer010gic's .iso because I wanted to understand exactly what patches were installed on my system.  So, I started from scratch with the original ESXi 5.1 ISO, installed the latest TG3 driver, patched the TG3 driver, created a bootable ESXi installer on a USB flash drive with the patched TG3 driver, used the "iovDisableIR -v TRUE" setting, updated to build 838463, used Donk's Unlocker, and then migrated OS X 10.6.8 server from my old 2007 Mac mini into a VM using SuperDuper.  It works, but I'm hoping that I can uninstall Dock's Unlocker once the SMC issue is addressed.

Thank you.

[ViennaAustria]

Thank you for coming up with a fix for the Apple SMC issue on the Macmini6,2.  Could it also work for the Macmini6,1?

There is no SMC issue in the prevoius MacMini. We have several MacMini(Server) running ESXi 5.x and experienced no problems.

The only "patch" you have to install is an update of the TG3 driver, because the built-in version recognizes the NIC but doesn't work properly.

[vmwarefusionus1]

ViennaAustria, the Macmini6,1 is also a Mac mini Late 2012.  It is the Core i5 2.5GHz model.

[ViennaAustria]

Sorry!

I never choosed DUAL core processors for virtualization. So this model was not anchored in my brain. Everything less than 6,2 was "previous" and thus "working".

[vmwarefusionus1]

No problem.  I wasn't planning on doing virtualization, so I bought the low-end model.  But after testing OS X Server 10.8, I decided I'd rather run 10.6.8 Server on my new machine and ESXi is a great way to do it.

[MacSS]

O.K.,

I was able to get the updated ESXi-5.1-MacMini-SMC-6-2.iso image to work.

I wiped the drive on the machine, and started from scrtch and everyting works as it should. All I had to do was SSH "esxcli system settings kernel set --setting=iovDisableIR -v TRUE" to make the boot option permenant. Everything else worked like a charm.

For some reason, the upgrade process did not work for me, and was causing the issue, so there must be a bug with the update process going from the ESXi-50u1-MacMini-6-2.iso image to the ESXi-5.1-MacMini-SMC-6-2.iso image.

Thanks for looking at the log file.

- Gian

[akula169]

For those of you having success with the latest iso that zer0l0gic provided, what is the procedure you are following to successfully installing a OSX guest VM? 

I'm having no luck...  a converted (from Fusion) guest gets an error loading mach_kernel.  And trying to install from an ISO ends up on the Apple logo screen for a long time before eventually becoming beachball spin death.

[zer010gic]

Are you using the ESXi image with SMC in the name?  Also what version are you installing of OSX I did a fresh install of 10.7.4 as thats what I had on hand.

Corey

[HPReg]

>  gets an error loading mach_kernel.

Which error exactly?