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

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! Smiley Sad

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.

macmini.png

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.

338 Replies
lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

I just posted an update to my blog article http://www.virtuallyghetto.com/2012/12/running-esxi-50-51-on-2012-mac-mini-62.html which includes a new customized ESXi 5.1 ISO based off of the one posted by zer010gic but this one now contains a customization so that the manual steps of setting the boot option & running the ESXCLI command to persist the iovDisableIR is no longer needed as it's automatically taken care of. You can just install ESXi as you normally would and don't have to worry about the PSOD's anymore and I've been able to verify this myself as I finally got my hands on a new Mac Mini 6,2

In addition, I've also added step by step instructions for installing zer010gic current ESXi 5.1 ISO, so hopefully that'll help others looking to install ESXi 5.1 without having to sift through all the comments in this thread.

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oturn
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Fantastic! Thank you!

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Yalvarez
Contributor
Contributor

Magnific Thank you so much. I won't be updating since i have no issues with my previous install. But this will be very helpful fo people who are getting their mac minis. Thank you

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andrew_mackeret
Contributor
Contributor

William,

Great work, do you have or can you help, the latest patch (ESXi510-201212001.zip) appears to break virtual OS X guests, I assume the patch replaces the "fixed" Apple SMC VMkernel Driver with a newer version, without the "fix", during the update to build 914609.

Is it possible to "fix" the latest Apple SMC VMkernel Driver, or replace it with the one included in the modified ESXi 5.1 (Build 799733) ISO.

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zippytiff
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

Did anybody solve the final problem with macmini as a vmware server...... that being the auto restart on power failure.

There is plenty of info on the web how to do it, just none of it applies to bare metal ESXi

Vmware, is this some thing that could be fixed/added via a plug-in?

Any thoughts pls

Thx

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

Let me see what I can do

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lamw
Community Manager
Community Manager

Are you referring to the Mac Mini being able to automatically power on after a power failure? If so, someone recently asked the same question on my blog about using the following command which works on OSX or Linux

setpci -s 0:3.0 -0x7b=20

There is no setpci command in the ESXi Shell, but I suspect you should be able to just boot off of a linux liveCD runnig off of USB to set the comamnd and assuming it persists in the hardware, that should work. I've not tried, so let us know if this in fact does work.

Here's an additional link with different set of codes: http://www.beasts.org/support/macminicolo_howto.html

Message was edited by: lamw

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twuhabro
Contributor
Contributor

i've installed a SSD on my 2012 macmini but now the two MacOS 10.8.2 VMs have some memory swap problem (boot and thne unresponsive at login screen) i've tried to disable host memory swap and allocating all the VM memory but the problem persist...

the SAME configuration (and same VMs...) works perfectly under normal HD...

10.7 works perfectly both SSD and HD configuration

someone have idee how to TOTALY disable swapfile and vm memory swapping?

(or some other kind of tricks arereally welcome...) :smileyconfused:

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twuhabro
Contributor
Contributor

for power failure i've found this solution:

install MacOS on USB key (or external HD) and configure the power options to reboot after power failure, shutdown, install your ESXi USB and now try to unplug the power cord :smileylaugh:

it's works!

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zippytiff
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

thanks for replying, I had somewhat dismissed this as an option because on previous Mac mini's you had to reset this flag on every power failure. Has your testing shown its now permanent.

In either case I can still see as good fail safe benefit from it doing at least 1 auto reboot

thanks again

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zippytiff
Contributor
Contributor

Hi

I am very pleased to confirm that the workaround offered by twuhabro does the trick and the start on power failure doesnt need to be reset every time.

Just set it once via USB/SD Card with OS-X installed and use the OS-X GUI to tick the box in system preferences..... simple

BRILLIANT !!! THANK YOU !!!

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telecastle
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Has anyone tried to connect Thunderbolt storage in RAID to the Mac Mini running ESXi 5.x? If so, can ESXi see it as one volume?

Also, has anyone tried to configure Thunderbolt pass through to an OS X VM running under ESXi on a Mac Mini? Two applications for this would be a Thunderbolt storage connected directly to an OS X VM and/or a Thunderbolt or Cinema (Display Port) Display passed through to an OS X VM.

Finally, can the internal Wi-Fi adapter in Mac Mini be passed through to an OS X VM running under ESXi?

Thanks!

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telecastle
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm trying to load OS X in VM under ESXi 5.1 on 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 GHz 16 GB RAM. I have enabled the following devices for Direct Path (pass through):

00:1b.0 | Intel Corporation Panther Point High Definition Audio Controller

02:00.0 | Broadcom Corporation BCM4331 802.11a/b/g/n

03:00.0 | Agere Systems FW643 PCIExpress1349b Controller (PHY/Link)

After enabling these devices for Direct Path, I rebooted the Mac Mini, and ESXi came back up fine with all of my VMs auto-starting correctly. I have now added these three controllers to the newly created OS X VM, so once I install OS X (10.8.2) Mountain Lion in this VM, I'm hoping to get audio, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Firewire directly passed to the Mountain Lion VM. Later, I'm hoping to enable video for Direct Path to use this system not just as a headless ESXi server but also as a OS X desktop.

I have a USB stick that I created for booting and installing OS 10.8.2 directly from the USB stick. I have loaded 10.8.2 on a few physical Macs using this USB stick. However, when I try to power up the OS X VM with the virtual USB device configured, the VM cannot find the installation media. I went to the ESXi EFI and looked at the available boot devices, but USB is not listed among them. If I enable USB for Direct Path (pass through), would I be able to boot off this USB stick and load Mountain Lion from it? Also, there are two USB controllers listed in ESXi for my Mac Mini:

00:1a.0 | Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #2

00:1d.0 | Intel Corporation Panther Point USB Enhanced Host Controller #1

Which one should I enable for the Direct Path (pass through)? Is each controller responsible for two USB ports in the back of the Mac Mini or is one controller responsible for all 4 USB ports and the other one is for some internal connectivity via USB?

I'd love to hear some advice. Because I don't know what each of these USB Enhnaced Host Controllers is responsible for, I'm a little apprehensive about enabling one (or both) of them for Direct Path lest should ESXi hang on the reboot. I'm afraid I may not be able to recover ESXi if something like this should happen.

Thanks!

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telecastle
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I'm trying to install OX 10.8.2 in a VM under ESXi running on Mac Mini 6,2 (2.6 GHz 16 GB RAM). I copied the InstallESD.dmg file from the "Install OS X Mountain Lion" package to a network share on my NAS that is accessible via NFS from ESXi. I have installe multiple VMs this way - Linux ones from .iso files and Windows 7 from a .cdr file. I configured the OS X VM to use the InstallESD.dmg file as the CD/DVD drive. When I power up the OS X VM, it starts loading OS X 10.8.2 from the InstallESD.dmg file. However, when the first screen appears where I'm prompted to choose the language, neither my mouse or my keyboard functions in the Console window of this VM. Therefore, I cannot proceed with the installation process.

The OS X VM was provisioned with one virtual CPU with two cores, 4096 GB of RAM and 128 MB of video RAM. The virtual hard disk is on the Mac Mini's internal drive, and the size I provisioned is 800 GB with thin provisioning.

I've tried to use the mouse or keyboard in the OS X's VM console window from two different Windows machines running vSphere Client to no avail. I know this functionality works fine in a console window of any other VM. For example, I can open a Windows 7 VM running on the same Mac Mini under ESXi, and both my mouse and my keyboard work fine in that console window.

The image that I installed is the ESXi 5.1 image with the link posted in this thread. 

What am I doing wrong? 

Thanks!

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dariusd
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

Hi telecastle,

Check that your Mac OS VM is configured with a USB controller.  Mac OS is the only supported operating system which doesn't understand PS/2 keyboard and mouse, and is entirely dependent on USB for its human interface devices.  I'd advise choosing a standard virtual USB 2 controller, in case the OS doesn't understand our newer virtual USB 3 (xHCI) controller.

Cheers,

--

Darius

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sirozha1
Contributor
Contributor

Darius,

Thanks for this tip. It fixes the problem. I think my situation was also complicated by the fact that vSphere Client ran in a Windows VM in Parallels on my MacBook Pro. After I connected the device listed in the drop-down menu for USB device (something related to a virtual mouse or something like this), my Windows VM with vSphere client detected a new USB device and installed a driver for it. After that the mouse inside the vSphere Client's console window for the OS X VM started working, and so did the keyboard.

The only other thing I got stuck at was the inability of the OS X installer to see any disks to which it could install OS X. I ended up having to restart the OS X VM again and once the installation booted up, I went into the installation's Disk Utility, found the disk and "erased" (aka formatted) it with the default file system. After that, I quit Disk Utility and started the installer. It was smooth sailing from there on.

Thanks again!

Sent from my iPhone

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HPReg
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

> The only other thing I got stuck at was the inability of the OS X installer to see any disks to which it could install OS X. I ended up having to restart the OS X VM again and once the installation booted up, I went into the installation's Disk Utility, found the disk and "erased" (aka formatted) it with the default file system. After that, I quit Disk Utility and started the installer. It was smooth sailing from there on.

Yes, that is what you are supposed to do. Fusion is slightly more user-friendly than ESXi with respect to that, in that when it creates the virtual HD for the VM, it also pre-formats it with HFS+, so that volume is recognized as a target volume by the OS installer.

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sirozha1
Contributor
Contributor

I have a few more questions:

Once I installed OS X Mountain Lion in a VM to which a allocated 4 GB of RAM, I decided to lower allocated RAM to 2 GB. Mind you, the minimum reserved memory that ESXi allows for OS X VMs equals the amount of RAM allocated to the VM. Because I am running 5 other VMs on the 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 GHz 16 GB RAM, I cannot have 4 GB of RAM reserved to one VM. So, I powered down the OS X VM, changed the RAM allocation and the RAM minimum reservation from 4 GB to 2 GB, and then powered the OS X VM back on. This time, the vSphere Client's console window was black for a little too long. Then, I received a pop-up that vSphere client disconnected from the ESXi host. I tried to ping the ESXi host, but there was no response. After waiting for a few minutes in hope the ESXi host would come back online, I had to hard-reset the Mac Mini with the power button on the back.

After ESXi booted up again, I started the OS X VM, and this time it booted up fine on 2 GB of RAM allocated to and reserved for it.

So, what cold have caused the ESXI host to drop its network connectivity? It's management interface is on the built-in Gigabit Ethernet adapter. This event concerns me a great deal.

Compared to other VMs I'm running, including Windows 7, OS X seems to be a resource hog. Also, with OS X Mountain Lion running, the Mac Mini constantly feels hot. In my opinion, much more so than without this VM running, and I haven't even installed the OS X Mountain Lion Server app yet. I feel like I may be overtaxing the Mac Mini.

Does ESXi perform proper power management on the 2012 Mac Mini hardware? I have not heard the internal fan yet (unless it is extremely quiet), but the Mac Mini's body feels uncomfortably hot.

One thing I noticed is that it's a good idea to set an upper limit on the CPU resources for each VM; otherwise, "runaway" services in one VM tend to hog the entire CPU resource pool of the ESXi host, and every VM becomes sluggish or unresponsive. This also results in the Mac Mini starting to overheat. However, with an OS X VM running and every VM having upper limits for both CPU and RAM set, the Mac Mini may have been pushed to (or beyond) its limits. No VM is doing any resource-intensive tasks yet. They all are (for the most part) currently idle.

Thanks!

Sent from my iPhone

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AK_____28
Contributor
Contributor

Can anyone explain to me how they got the correct apple drivers ported for use on esx? I'm having a bear of a time trying to port a USB3 to 10/100/100 ethernet driver over from Linux.

Maybe someone has access to the ESX Device Driver Kit and can help me out?

Please?

Thanks in advance everyone!!

(To clarify: I need 4 NIC's to be able to use this mini with the Virtual Storage appliance and as of now I only have 2. Built in and one thunderbolt to ethernet adapter. I bought 2 USB3 to gigabit ethernet adapters to try and port their driver over. The chipset in the USB NIC's is the AX88179 from ASIX Electronics Corp.)

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telecastle
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Another question about OS X running as a VM in ESXi 5.1 on a 2012 Mac Mini 2.6 GHz 16 GB RAM:

I tried to make a snapshot of the installation in ESXi, but the snapshot menue is greyed out while the OS X VM is running. I can make snapshots of all my other VMs (Linux-based and Windows 7) while the VMs are running. When I powered down the OS X VM, the Snapshot menu items became available when I right-click on the VM, but when I made a snapshot, of my working OS X installation with the OS X Server application installed and the OS X Server enabled for basic functionality (file sharing, directory services, a few local user accounts, etc.), it took about 3 seconds for the entire snapshot. Therefore, I'm not sure the snapshot was properly made.

The reason I normally make a snapshot of a newly installed VM is that if something were to get corrupted, I could revert to the state right after the initial installation instead of having to install the OS from scratch.

So, does anyone have any idea what snapshots cannot be taken of a running OS X VM in ESXi 5.1?

Thanks!

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