SSH .sh file "operation not permitted"

[Randy_G]

Thanks for your help!

I'm a instructor at a Community College where we use use ESXi (6.7.0 Update 1 Build 10764712) for IT training. I'm attempting to execute a .sh file to "patch" ESXi to allow installing macOS. I did this last week on the same hardware and ESXi build and the script executed correctly & macOS 13.4.3 installed 100%. Attempting to run the same script today on several servers fails with the error message shown below. (screenshot file attached) 

-sh: ./esxi-install.sh: Operation not permitted

The script and parent folder have permissions -rwxr-xr-x (0755). And I am attempting to run the script at root or as myself with the Administrator role assigned. Using my "good" server as a reference I can't find any difference between servers. 

What am I missing? Seems like a straight-forward error msg. But I am stuck!

Thanks for your help,

Randy Graves

North Idaho College

[continuum]

Did you uninstall the previous version in case you had it "installed" ?
Looks like you are user 501 and not root !
Does the line
BootModuleConfig.sh --verbose --add=unlocker.tgz
reference the correct unlocker.tgz ?
This is not supposed to work with AMD

[IRIX201110141]

Please check the She-Bang in your Shell Script.

Regards,

Joerg

[daphnissov]

It seems very risky and questionable that you should install a "crack" in order to run MacOS on unsupported hardware (thus violating the EULAs of Apple and VMware). Did you get special permission to do this from VMware or something? As you probably know, what you're doing is circumvention as MacOS will not run on anything other than Apple hardware. If I were you, I'd really reconsider this action unless you somehow have a "pass" to do this.

[Randy_G]

Sir,

I want to Thank You for your help!

As root I re-ran the .sh script and received the same "Operation not permitted" error msg. (screenshot).

On a hunch I created a /tools directory off of the root of the file system, uploaded the script package, decompressed it, and it ran! (screenshot).

In my previous attempts I was creating the tools directory and attempting to run the script in a subdirectory of datastore1.

Will attempt to duplicate this success on the remaining servers. I don't understand why it would make a difference where I ran the script, but it did (maybe you know?).

Again, Thank You for taking the time to offer help. I'm reminded how a few moments of our time can mean so much to someone stuck troubleshooting!

Merry Christmas,

Randy Graves

North Idaho College

[Randy_G]

Sir,

Understood! Your points are well taken. We are a VMware Academic partner. And as I mentioned in my original reply - I work/teach at a Community College and running macOS on ESXi is done for training students how to support & integrate macOS. While I don't have specific permission for this setup, in education here in the US we have a lot of legal latitude & flexibility as to what we can do in educating and training students.

Best Regards,

Randy Graves 

[daphnissov]

Randy, I certainly understand your situation. However, I would still strongly recommend, based on working with other academic institutions like yours, that you still should contact VMware as a partner and ensure you're covered in this case. Because in the past, it was important that VMware and the academic institution be covered from a legal perspective, and also from a student educational perspective so they know and understand that this isn't something that should be done outside of a training environment. Just my personal recommendation here based on prior engagements with colleges...

[Randy_G]

Thank You for Your Follow-Up and Thoughtfulness, will move forward accordingly. Your suggestions are well noted and appreciated!

As a final note - in case someone else stumbles onto this thread with the same problem.

The core of the "Operation not Permitted" problem when running the .sh script turned out to be tied to having "UEFI - Secure Boot" enabled in the BIOS of the ESXi servers. Don't fully understand the cause & effect of this BIOS setting relating to the script. But turns out by disabling "Secure Boot" in the BIOS of the remaining servers I am able to upload the script to to a sub-directory in datastore1 and run it successfully as noted by the scripts author. 

Again Thanks,

Best Regards

Randy Graves

[Tseb_Olol]

Thank you @Randy_G ! The /tools folder in root (not datastore) worked, it was driving me mad 🙂

I should add though, it "crashed" my ESXi Server (free, 7.0.3) - it wouldn't boot anymore, "unlocker.tgz" error. I had to re-run the ESXi USB installer (upgrade option, basically from 7.0.3 to 7.0.3, a "repair" of sorts). The Host settings were all there as before, so no harm done. However a MacOS VM setup still wouldn't work (ISO boot loop) 😞