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fitzlcsaba
Contributor
Contributor

macOS Monterey VM - Black screen

Hi,

On a macOS Monterey (macOS 12) VM, the screen will become entirely black after a reboot, and it's not usable anymore, no login screen etc... I use VMware Fusion Pro 12.1.2

Csaba

 

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fitzlcsaba
Contributor
Contributor

--

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scott28tt
VMware Employee
VMware Employee

A pain of being at the bleeding edge of an OS that was only announced in the last 24 hours?

I wonder if a Fusion update will need to be written and released for Monterey to function as either host OS or guest OS?

 


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fitzlcsaba
Contributor
Contributor

I can install the OS, it works, but after reboot it doesn't come up. For now the workaround is to use Parallels

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slgarwood
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

There seem to be changes in the Virtualization framework under Monterrey including Virtio support - maybe Fusion update needed? I wonder if Fusion can turn off Apple framework and use (old) VMware kext to run as in Parallels.

... https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization

https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/vzmacosbootloader?language=objc

 

fitzlcsaba
Contributor
Contributor

The host is Big Sur, and the VM is Monterey so the framework change should not impact it.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Csaba,

Confirmed.

First installed macOS Monterey which went all the way through until the end.
But then I had a black screen (no login)
Then I figured.. maybe it helps if I switch to the highly experimental VMware Fusion metal renderer (see my blog post ) Well... I saw the boot process a bit further. There was even a login screen, but after that my host crashed.
Never even got to try and login.
Tried it again and the VM hung.

Then I think.. hmm.. maybe if I update VMware Tools to the latest before upgrading... so I did and started the upgrade process again.
An hour later.. black screen. Switch to appleGPU0 -> host crashed.

Pfff...

It doesn't want to work for the moment it seems.

edit, adding host details: host runs macOS Big Sur Version 11.5 Beta (20G5033c) and VMware Fusion 12.1.2

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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Mikero
Community Manager
Community Manager

What hardware are you using, Wil?

I was able to get it up on my iMac Pro with 11.4 on the host. Working on my 2018 MBP with Monterey. 

A tad convoluted, but here are my steps:

  • Created ISO from the .app using this tool: https://github.com/rtrouton/create_macos_vm_install_dmg 
  • New custom VM using macOS 11 GOS type, side-channel mitigations disabled.
  • Before booting, I changed the network adapter type to vmxnet3
    • Means changing `ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"` to: `ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"` (minus the `)
  • Booted with the ISO connected
  • Installed the OS, did not reboot afterwards
    • Took snapshot!
  • Enabled Auto-Login for my user (who is not signed into an iCloud account)
  • Installed VMware Tools
  • Shut the VM down
  • Enabled the Paravirtualized GPU (https://www.mikeroysoft.com/blog/mac-metal-vms/)
  • Boot the VM...

It hangs a tad coming up (normal with the Apple GPU), but it gets to the desktop and things work as we'd expect (tho I haven't done a ton of digging)

The Guest crashed (kernel panic) a few times doing random things... going to the account page in system prefs did it once, 

(I'm not sure if I'm allowed to share screenshots until the beta is made public, so I'm refraining for now until I read the license more thoroughly (MY FAVORITE PASTIME!))

 

-
Michael Roy - Product Marketing Engineer: VCF
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Mike,

This is on my Late 2014 Mac mini and I have 2 cores assigned out of 4, intel i5-4278U.
IOW at the lower end of what would be supported.
Works fairly OK with a Big Sur VM in the same config.

I tend to refrain on running on my main MBP when it is too beta as I can keep on working undisturbed in case something bad happens. FWIW, I do connect to it via screen sharing, but have a screen/mouse/keyboard attached just in case I need it.

Tried changing the NIC to vmxnet3, but it didn't matter.
Another host crash.

Side Channel mitigation was disabled all the time.

Realized I had not set the screen width/height for the appleGPU0 (lazy for the win) and tried once more, now with adding the screen width/height settings from my Big Sur VM.

I get a login screen... and was able to log in 😎

Will see how stable it is. With all the host crashes so far I'm not expecting too much, but this is at least promising. Thanks Mike for the extra vote of confidence.

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Finished writing my post.. and by the time I was done..

wila_0-1623183129236.png

I'd say that it is not very stable, yet (but will keep on trying). 😄

--
Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Day two and it's functional at all?  Nice!


No sarcasm there, just hopeful that maybe the usual Apple plumbing changes aren't as massive this go around.

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l1am
Contributor
Contributor

Try setting auto-login to ON before upgrading, got past the black screen and landed on the macOS 12 desktop with this warning.

loginwindow warning.png

SvenGus
Expert
Expert

Installed macOS 12 Monterey in a new “macOS 11.0” (BTW, with the new version naming, you should probably change the name to “macOS 11”…) VM, after creating the boot .iso image manually (the built-in Fusion script didn’t work and neither did the linked script from GitHub), with hdiutil and createinstallmedia; and so on (see also the posts above)… It certainly works faster with the experimental graphics driver, but one must say that it is quite unstable, indeed: sometimes booting the VM requires several attempts, with kernel panics in the VM (and sometimes there are kernel panics in the Monterey VM also with the traditional, non-Metal graphics driver): but all in all it works surprisingly well, for a new OS! Test machine: Intel MacBook Pro 15”, late 2013 model (wow: Monterey on an unsupported Mac, and in a VM!). BTW, in Parallels Desktop I could install Monterey directly from an USB flash drive, which made it a little easier: and, as often happens, it is faster than Fusion, with the Metal graphics driver. (It’s a real pity that the Metal driver is not available in Catalina and Mojave: that would have been really great, indeed…)

Finally, don’t forget to change

ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000e"

to

ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"

in the VM’s config file (the default network adapter doesn’t seem to work, in Monterey).

Here’s also one of the first tutorials on the web for Monterey on Fusion:

https://blog.eucse.com/how-to-run-macos-monterey-12-beta-in-vmware-fusion

BTW, at least in my case, it wasn’t necessary to modify or add machine models or serial numbers: it just worked out of the box…

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DaveP
Commander
Commander

You can install from a USB flash drive in Fusion as well. Just ensure the USB key is attached at boot to the VM via the USB settings.
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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

I thought that USB boot in Fusion still required the additional Plop boot manager*: so, now it works out of the box…? That would be cool, indeed…

* Probably needed only for legacy BIOS-based VMs, thus.

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DaveP
Commander
Commander

Yep VMware EFI firmware has been booting USB drives for years. I just finished installing Monterey VM from a USB drive a few minutes ago. Drive was created with the createinstallmedia tool.

albatros99
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Don't change a running system!

I had no problem on a test machine, i had installed the first developer version osx 12.0 and used the newest fusion version 12.1.2.

No problem on a Macbook Pro 2018, 32 GB Ram, I7-Prozessor, 1TB SSD

Think, that is the first developer version, any application will have problems to run correctly, thinkertools don't start on osx 12, also other application. This developer is for developer to test there app and application.

The same is for ios15, ipados15 and TVos15, here the are more thinks not working.

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exnemo
Contributor
Contributor

Solution

To prevent the VM getting stuck on a black login screen you will need to enable
auto-login BEFORE you reboot otherwise you will need to reinstall.

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gringley
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I am trying the public beta.  Upgraded a Big Sur Public Beta VM that had tools 11.3.  Apple GPU produced a color static screen and did not work.  Had to use vmxnet3 for the network.

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