vm stuck in rebooting loop after update to macOS 11.3b2 Big Sur

[issueman]

While attempting to upgrade to macOS 11.3b2 the vm is now stuck in a rebooting loop.

1.  update download and ran its pre-install routine
2. vm rebooted for installation
3. install progress bar completed
4. another reboot, showing boot bar and apple logo

That's it - it instantly restarts after filling a small portion of the boot bar. Shut down vm and restarted to run into the same problem. Any ideas how to get out of this loop?

[m0leX]

11.3 beta 4 released - will try to update later today

[trodemaster]

I just installed 11.3 Beta 4 20E5210c and the boot loop issue is resolved! 

[billearl]

Also resolved here. Yay!

[tw67550]

Good news, did you do an update from 11.2.x or 11.3.x?

[billearl]

It was from 11.2.3.

[tw67550]

Only 50% success.

My full installer VM BigSur 11.3b1 (20E5172i) on BigSur 11.2.3 host was successfully updated to 11.3b4 (20E5195f) today.

My upgraded VM BigSur 11.3b1 (20E5172i) on BugSur 11.2.3 host could not be updated to 11.3.b4 (20E5195f). Unfortunately it is now stuck in reboot loop again.

[billearl]

Incidentally, I had installed Big Sur 11.2.x from the 11.2.x full installer over 11.3b1, so you have the option of doing that (or 11.3b1 full installer) before updating to 11.3b4.

[tw67550]

My problem is that my long lasting VM (upgraded from Catalina) could be successfully updated to 11.3b1, but after that the next update lead to the reboot loop (either with 11.3b2 or to 11.3b4). I didn't test 11.3b3 update but this also failed as reported earlier by billearl and wila.

[billearl]

You could download the 11.2.3 full installer from the App Store, run it to overwrite your 11.3b1 install, then try the update to 11.3b4. It appears that's unlikely to work, but may be worth trying.

Otherwise, wait for the 11.3 release and hope it works. An update to VMware Fusion that attempts to fix this might also help.

My only Big Sur VM was created from scratch, so I can't test that easily.

[tw67550]

I think my next attempt will be the 11.3 step for my "old" VM 🙂

Have you heard about an update for Fusion 12.1.0 that will perhaps help?

[billearl]

Sorry, no insight on an update for Fusion 12.1.

[tw67550]

So I will wait and hope, thx

[tw67550]

I'am back in the game 🙂

My full installer VM BigSur 11.3b4 (20E5195f) on BigSur 11.2.3 host was successfully updated to 11.3b5 (20E5217a) today.

My upgraded VM BigSur 11.3b1 (20E5172i) on BugSur 11.2.3 host was successfully updated to 11.3.b5 (20E5217a) today.
But I don't know why this happened :-).

[tw67550]

I'am back in the game 🙂

My full installer VM BigSur 11.3b4 (20E5195f) on BigSur 11.2.3 host was successfully updated to 11.3b5 (20E5217a) today.

My upgraded VM BigSur 11.3b1 (20E5172i) on BugSur 11.2.3 host was successfully updated to 11.3.b5 (20E5217a) today.
But I don't know why this happened :-).

[issueman]

So vmware has remained silent about this for over a month. Safe to assume I can throw away the stuck vm?

[wila]

Yes, it was a problem on apple's end (probably related to virtualisation though).
It was apple who initially introduced the issue and also apple who addressed the issue.

If you can't roll back to a backup or snapshot of your VM to before the reboot loop then the options left are either:
- recovery, for example attach the disk(s) of the broken VM to another working VM and get your apps/data out that way
- trash it

--
Wil