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rtrouton
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

macOS Catalina VMs do not run in VMware Fusion 11.1.0

I'm trying to run the WWDC beta of macOS Catalina in VMware Fusion and there is a CPU panic when the VM boots and the guest OS can't ID the right hardware.

How can I fix this problem? Please see below for a screenshot of the error (highlighted in yellow):

Screen Shot 2019-06-03 at 4.33.20 PM.png

76 Replies
wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi Rich,

You're quick!

Just confirming that I have the exact same issue and have tried all kinds of tweaks, such as changing guest OS type, virtual hardware version.

None of those seem to help so far.

Googling on it only gives hackintosh answers and I don't really want to even go that way.

--

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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owenaar
Contributor
Contributor

I am experiencing something similar. I have a VM running macOS 10.14.5 and using system preferences to install the macOS 10.15 Catalina beta results in a forever hung Apple logo screen when the installer reboots to begin installation.

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

That's the same thing.

If you shut down and boot in verbose mode (hold down command-V at boot) then you'll get the same screen as at the top.

--

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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JaxHD
Contributor
Contributor

Yep seeing the exact same thing. There was mention of a seemingly different issue (mentioned in Apple dev forums) with 'Broken Pipe' that folks resolved by checking their VMWare Kernel Extensions. I don't think that relates to this issue as my machine has the VMware Fusion extensions loaded (confirmed with command 'kextstat | grep vmware' when Fusion is open returns 4 entries). Not sure where else to look, hopefully someone has an idea.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Looks like we'll need a fix from VMWare - more plumbing changes.  Patience is probably the only real option.

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jonnokid
Contributor
Contributor

Exactly the same issued here.

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bogdam
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I've managed to start the instalation by switching the OS from macOS 10.14 to Other 64-bit, but the keyboard and mouse are not working. I'm stuck at the choose language screen.

10.15.jpg

bogdam
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

It works! With OS set to Windows 10 x64 and keyboard & mouse Windows 10 Profile

1015.jpg

JaxHD
Contributor
Contributor

Fantastic! Could you provide more detailed on how you did this?

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Intel008
Contributor
Contributor

1. Create new Fusion VM. Critical - Drag/Drop “Install macOS 10.15 Beta” into fusion. DO NOT use the “InstallESD.dmg”.

2. Choose the MacOS 10.14 profile. Next....

3. Choose customize. Change hardware profile to Windows 10 x64, and change KeyboardMouse to Windows 10. HINT: You must choose MacOS 10.14 FIRST, then change it to Windows 10 x64.

4. Start the VM. Finish Install of MacOS 10.15.

5. After install completes and reboots, VM will not boot. Shutdown VM, change hardware profile back to MacOS 10.14.

6. I had to install VMware tools twice. First, install, enable security extension, accessibility option, etc. Reboot, then install tools again. Now display driver will load.

Winner-Winner Chicken Dinner....

Have fun....

Credit to Bogdam for finding this fix.

JaxHD
Contributor
Contributor

Amazing, thanks Intel008 and Bogdam, works perfectly. Thankyou

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celebi23
Contributor
Contributor

I'll try this out and see if it works for me.  Thanks for the suggestion!

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kikohnl
Contributor
Contributor

This did not work for me,  customizing the VM only give the option for where to put the VM no other options.

It does bring up the settings but I donʻt see any way to change the hardware profile.

Screen Shot 2019-06-05 at 6.55.04 PM.png

Ok the area under the black lines is a button that will allow the hardware profile to be changed.

Now to try it.

EMR
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

I must be missing something (Fusion 11.1.0). I can certainly drag and drop the "Install macOS 10.15 Beta.app" to a new Fusion virtual machine. Then, as far as I can see, other than cancelling or going back, I only have the choice to "Continue". Then, if I choose Apple OS X/macOS 10.14, other than cancelling or going back, I only have the choice to "Continue". Then Fusion tells me it intends to create a virtual machine with macOS 10.14 as the operating system, with a new hard disk of 40 GB, 2 GB of memory, 2 cores, et cetera. Then, other than cancelling or going back, I have two choices. One of them is to "Finish", which would offer me the opportunity of naming the new virtual machine. If I say it's "macOS Catalina", it will save the blank virtual machine and, then, try to boot from it. That fails. If, instead of choosing "Finish", I select "Customize Settings", I am presented with the same dialogue to name the new virtual machine, after which I receive the message "Unable to create installation medium". I never have the opportunity of choosing Windows 10 x64, unless that's the first choice (instead of choosing Apple OS X/macOS 10.14, as per above). If I let Fusion try and boot such a "Windows" machine, it also fails.

What am I doing wrong?

EDIT: It looks as if Fusion was unable to use the Catalina install application as the source for an install medium. That might well be the reason why I can't change the target operating system picker to "Windows 10 x64".

EDIT2: My bad. As a result of previous attempts to install Catalina, the InstallEDS.dmg was still inadvertantly open in Mojave, so Fusion couldn't create the install medium. Everything working now as expected. Many thanks.

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sadfjklfjop
Contributor
Contributor

First you create a create a macOS 10.14 virtual with the "Install macOS 10.15 Beta.app", after you created the virtual machine go to the settings of that machine and then to "General". Next to OS  you click on on "macOS 10.14" and there you can select another OS.

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weiranz
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks for the tips, I've got Catalina beta 1 running now.

However while running Xcode 11 beta, I get an exception in MinimapMetalLinesLayer, which sounds like it requires Metal acceleration which the macOS software renderer doesn't support? I was hoping the new DriverKit API might allow VMware to implement their own graphics driver that supports 3D acceleration, but it doesn't look like it includes anything around GPU.

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sadfjklfjop
Contributor
Contributor

I got the same Xcode error when opening a project or a file.

wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

As it involved a few steps and not all of them are obvious I just wrote a blogpost on how-to install macOS Catalina in a VMware Fusion VM.

create a macOS Catalina VM with VMware Fusion

Hope this helps,

--

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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philaneous
Contributor
Contributor

Thanks! Confirmed this works.

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