w11arm_esd2iso - a utility to create Windows 11 ARM ISOs from Microsoft ESD releases

[#1]

This utility is now end of life and has been removed for download.

if you need to generate Windows 11 ARM media, please see the built-in tool provided with VMware Fusion 13.5, or the CrystalFetch utility available for free from the Mac App Store.

The utility still remains available for those that are interested. It can be found at https://github.com/Technogeezer50/esd2iso

No further questions or problem reports about w11arm_esd2iso will be accepted. 

[Technogeezer]

@boingolover - the w11arm_esd2iso utility is a zsh/bash shell script - so in essence the source code is published without having to resort to a GitHub site.

@SvenGus I did have a chance to download CrystalFetch 2.0.0 and it does a nice job of building the ISO from ESD.  It has a couple of interface quirks, but in my initial testing of CrystalFetch 2.0.0, it has worked very, very well and very quickly for creating the ISOs (as it should as it's using the core of w11arm_esd2iso).  The author did the stuff that I didn't have the expertise to do.

[boingolover]

@Technogeezer I know the code is published on here, and thank you for that.  I've looked through the script and it's clear you put a ton of work into it (also, I had no idea bsd tar could extract a CAB file!)  The main thing publishing on github gets you is a good way for people to post bug reports / issues, issue pull requests to collaborate on improvements etc.  Also it's not unheard of for a given vendor's community forums to get shut down for one reason or another (I know VMware has had forums for a very long time and I don't expect this to happen, but stranger things have happened).  Anyway, I just thought maybe I'd put the bug in your ear.  

[TianCook]

helo, can someone please help me. When i run w11arm_esd2iso file, i am keep getting error message: 

[ERROR] Catalog download failed with error 134

Tian

[Technogeezer]

@TianCook Can you rerun the command with the -v option:

./w11arm_esd2iso -v

and post its output in a reply if it continues to fail.

As an alternative, you can try the CrystalFetch app found in the Mac App Store.

[tnewman27]

Just a heads up (might just be a me thing) when i switched to powershell i got text saying to download the latest version and a link. The tricky part was the PS was in front but it still stayed on the C:\Windows\System32> prompt it didnt change to PS > until i cd to D

[Technogeezer]

@tnewman27  I did take a couple of editorial liberties in the Companion guide that explains the differences you are seeing.

Any prompt by PowerShell to upgrade to a newer version isn’t really important. The VMware installation scripts will work fine with the stock version of PowerShell.

The PS prompt includes the current directory. The working directory c:\Windows\System32 when you first start up PowerShell isn’t a problem because the first thing you’re going do is to switch to the CD/DVD drive 😧  where the tools installer is. 

[Boulshou]

@Technogeezer 

like one other user in this forum, im also getting the 134 error when trying to install the iso file.

when I input the command given by you here in this forum:

./w11arm_esd2iso -v

I get this:

when I enter "e" I get the following error:

hope you know a fix!

[Technogeezer]

@Boulshou what version of macOS are you running?

In the mean time, can you try the CrystalFetch app (found in the Mac App Store, free) and see if you can get a download?

[Boulshou]

@Technogeezer 

im using the macOS Sonoma (14.0) Release Candidate

[Boulshou]

@Technogeezer 

oh my god thank you so much!

I've been looking for a fix for the last couple of hours and the CrystalFetch method worked!

Thanks a lot for the help technogeezer😃

[Technogeezer]

@Boulshou 

I just installed a fresh copy of the Sonoma RC and am not able to reproduce your issue so far.

The traceback seems to indicate that aria2c is failing in some code dealing with internationalization. What are the language and locale settings for your macOS? Could you drop into a terminal session and post the output of the following command:

env

[Technogeezer]

I just found that there seems to be some kind of bug with the current version of aria2c (which w11arm_esd2iso uses) and Sonoma. Can you re-run w11arm_esd2iso as follows:

export LC_MESSAGES="C"
./w11arm_esd2iso -v

[Boulshou]

@Technogeezer 

already solved the problem with CrystalFetch, but still wanted to check this method out. 

when I run this:

export LC_MESSAGES="C"
./w11arm_esd2iso -v

it works!

it could have had something to do with the fact that im not form the US that it didn't work before?

I have no idea how you figure this type of stuff out, but u must be a real genius haha

thank you for the fast and very helpful support.

[Technogeezer]

@Boulshou thanks for the information. I've fixed this in version 4.0.3, which has just been uploaded.

@TianCook since you reported the same error, could you download version 4.0.3 of the utility and see if that fixes your issue?

[stefantimm]

I noticed that in Windows I don't get the special key mappings (e.g. Option-L for Ampersand, Shift-Option-7 for Backslash), that I get on macOS with the German keyboard.

I did some testing and eventually found out that this happens with the ISO generated with the esd2iso tool (no matter what language I select) and does _NOT_ happen when I use an original Microsoft ISO (acquired from MSDN).

This is on a Mac mini 2023 M2 Pro with a fresh install of Sonoma 14.0 and VMware Fusion Professional Version e.x.p. 22068932 and (in both cases) Windows 11 Pro 22H2 Build 22621.2283 (ARM version of course).

So my guess is that either the ESD or w11arm_esd2iso has an issue there ...

[Technogeezer]

I assume that you specified the German language variant of Windows 11 ARM (de-de) using w11arm_esd2iso, and then selected those languages and keyboard support when you installed?

Unfortunately I've only got a US English keyboard to test against... so I apologize in advance because I don't have the hardware to reproduce. And I don't have access to the MSDN builds to poke around and see what they may have done differently.

[stefantimm]

Hi Paul,

let me first thank you for your excellent work providing the unofficial companion guide and the esd2iso script. All I wanted to do is use PowerPivot on my new Mac mini (this will in all likelihood never make it to the macOS version of Excel) and with your help I was able to accomplish that.

About the keyboard issue: I mainly wanted to document it to spare others some time. At first I thought this was related to the Fusion Tech Preview, but I did a complete removal and installed Fusion 13.0.2 with the same result.

To your point: Yes, I selected de-de when using w11arm_esd2iso. I will take a closer look at the 2 different ISOs and will report my findings back here.

I also hope that at some point Microsoft comes to reason and makes the Windows 11 ARM ISO available to all of us.

[Technogeezer]

Very interesting indeed. i tried to reproduce what you're seeing. I enabled German keyboard support into my host Mac, and switched the macOS keyboard input method to German. In both macOS and the VM I installed from the generated de-de ISO, the keyboard seems to generate the right characters  (I have the macOS soft keyboard enabled so I can see the mappings and the @ and \ characters are generated in both the host and VM with the keystrokes you indicate). 

Its funny as a touch typist in English to find that the keys are not in the places that you expect them... 😄

[randalstout]

I used both methods yesterday:  downloading via w11arm_esd2iso and then again trying to download with Crystal Fetch.

Neither produced an error, so thought it would work properly.

Attempted to install using the ISO and received random errors during installation from the ISO:

One error simply said "the installation has been aborted".  Another error was 0x80070570, which translates to a file corruption error.  

Not sure whether this is a problem with me, with Fusion 13, or the source which is currently posted.  Very frustrating.

I'm on Sonoma.

[Technogeezer]

@randalstout what type of ISO (home/pro or pro/enterprise) and language did you try to download?

At what point in the installation are you getting the failures?

Do you have any anti-virus utilities installed on the host Mac? 

On what type of file system did you elect to save the VM? It needs to be on an HFS+ or APFS file system. - not on NTFS, FAT32, ExFAT, or any networked file system).

Does your VM reside on a location that's being synced to a cloud service (e.g. OneDrive, Dropbox, iCloud (either iCloud Drive, or having your Desktop and Documents folder synced to iCloud). DON'T DO THAT.  With iCloud, make sure that if you're saving to the Desktop or Documents folders, that Apple hasn't silently turned on managing those folder to iCloud. 

[randalstout]

Weird problem.  I was saving the file to an external SSD and it may need to be scanned and fixed.  Saved internally and it works fine.

[Technogeezer]

if you do a get info on that external drive what file system does it say is formatted with? If it’s FAT, NFS, or ExFAT you will have problems. External drives formatted as APFS or HFS+ work fine. 

[Technogeezer]

@boingolover I've taken your advice and am in the process of setting up a GitHub repository for this.. The new version that you'll find there will be more generic and have a few more goodies... (how'd you like to run this on Linux or Intel Macs?).

Stay tuned to this document as I expect to have the new location posted by Nov 15th.

[sayjonule]

how do I download from github?
Its so complicated for no reason it only let me download the .txt file

[Technogeezer]

if you don't know how to download from GitHub, and don't take the time to read the documentation posted there, then maybe you shouldn't use it. You might be better off using either the Fusion 13.5 built-in tool or CrystalFetch.

The latest release can always be found in the right hand column of the GitHub site for the w11arm_esd2iso project.:

If you click on the release, you'll be directed to the release documentation for that release. Scroll down until you find the Assets for the release. Click on the zip file version.

Then follow the directions on the home page of the project, and read the USAGE.txt file.