[Support] SpaceinvaderOne - Macinabox

[avinyc]

2 hours ago, plantsandbinary said:

@avinyc and @ghost82 sorry to ping, but did either of you use Macinabox to generate the Mac VM you're using? Are either of you even using a VM or are you using a real Mac device to run the server? I am starting to think maybe it's something to do with my Serial Number after talking on Discord with the code owner.

 

Though when I looked up the serial number it says that it is legit. Though my VM specs don't match it "perfectly". If you are using a VM did you set it up some other way? I am just wondering if I missed a step. The code owner was pretty adamant that this is Apple's fault on their side and said that it's an issue with iMessage not working. Not an issue with Bluebubbles as we can confirm that it works fine by messaging myself, just not others.

Speaking for myself, I am running a BigSur MacVM in unRaid and used the Macinabox container to set it up by following @SpaceInvaderOne's tutorial video here: 

 

 

I have not made any modifications or upgrades to my install, so I followed Ed's instructions exactly as he explains them.

[HomerJ]

Hi again

 

I'm not sure exactly how I did it, but I've managed to install Sonoma over the top of Big Sur. The problem I have now is that I'm faced with the log in screen which is asking for the password, but I can't type anything. I don't have it set up to use a GPU as yet, thought I'd try and get it running first. I'm not sure what to do next. I was so excited that it had updated, but now I can't go any further. Does anyone have any tips? 

Thanks!

[ghost82]

On 5/15/2024 at 10:17 PM, plantsandbinary said:

but did either of you use Macinabox to generate the Mac VM you're using?

No, I'm currently running my primary mac os vm on another linux host and manually generated the xml; macinabox was useful to start, but I have too many mods now. I'm currently using smbios data of imacpro1,1.

Serial number must be correct as far as the smbios model you set, but apple should not be able to validate when you bought the device.

Edited May 18 by ghost82

[SidM]

Hello everyone,

I expanded my server to a total of 128GB RAM and, by a lucky coincidence, upgraded it from the E-2176G to the E-2278GE.

Now I started my MacOS VM (Ventura) again to see if it still works --> Yes, it still works.

So I shut down the VM and then gave it 64GB and expanded the cores from 4 (8 threads) to 8 (16 threads).
Then run the helper script and then start the vm again.

Unfortunately, I discovered that with the new config the VM takes significantly longer to start. (It used to be about 1 minute, now it's about 3-4 minutes),
I also see that in the utilization of the CPU cores. For a while, only one core is used, until later all cores are involved.

Now I tried a little and with the following arguments the VM starts in just under 40 seconds:

<qemu:arg value='host,vendor=GenuineIntel,+hypervisor,+invtsc,kvm=on,+fma,+avx,+avx2,+aes,+ssse3,+sse4_2,+popcnt,+bmi1,+bmi2'/>

 

Originally, as I found it online, it also said "+sse4a", but this caused the following errors in the log:

qemu-system-x86_64: warning: host doesn't support requested feature: CPUID.80000001H:ECX.sse4a

 

And the standard configuration before looked like this:

<qemu:arg value='host,kvm=on,vendor=GenuineIntel,+invtsc,+hypervisor'/>

 

Now I've been looking for quite a while, but unfortunately I haven't found anything specific.
What do all the points do, is there a list for them and can I use them to get something out of performance or optimize it?

[plantsandbinary]

I gave up on this whole thing. Nothing but hours wasted and even after 1 week I can't send a message. Pretty sure my account is shadowbanned and I cbf'ed trying to get it to work. Just told my relatives if they want to speak to me they can get Whatsapp or something.

 

I'm not as young and bored as I used to be so tinkering with this sort of thing is just a waste of my time. Thanks a ton to everyone who helped. I hope the information I provided will lead people in the right direction or help convince them that their time is more precious.

[avinyc]

On 5/25/2024 at 11:18 AM, plantsandbinary said:

I gave up on this whole thing. Nothing but hours wasted and even after 1 week I can't send a message. Pretty sure my account is shadowbanned and I cbf'ed trying to get it to work. Just told my relatives if they want to speak to me they can get Whatsapp or something.

 

I'm not as young and bored as I used to be so tinkering with this sort of thing is just a waste of my time. Thanks a ton to everyone who helped. I hope the information I provided will lead people in the right direction or help convince them that their time is more precious.

@plantsandbinary I'm sorry this didn't end up working for you.  I think the difficulty is troubleshooting without a control device.  If you have a friend who can sign in with their credentials on the MacVM and they can communicate, then you can rule out the VM as being the issue.  If you can sign in on someone's apple device that works for them, you will know if it's your appleid that is't working.

 

I still believe since you can message yourself that the appleid has been activated and isn't blocked from apple, but I can be completely wrong.  I wouldn't suggest a wipe and fresh install of the mac os before troubleshooting further, but it's all I can think of to help.   Again, sorry this was such a waste of time, but if you manage to figure out a fix in the future, feel free to share an update.

 

Good luck! 

[mackid1993]

Honestly it's much easier and safer for your Apple ID to go on eBay and buy an old Mac Mini or Macbook Air and use that to host BlueBubbles. OCLP is great for installing a newer version, currently the best version to use for BlueBubbles is Ventura and it's pretty much set and forget.

 

I keep a Macbook Air with a dummy HDMI plug and ethernet adapter sitting on top of my Unraid server with an iPhone plugged into it charging for phone number registration. My setup is bridged into Beeper and everything works great.

[avinyc]

15 hours ago, mackid1993 said:

Honestly it's much easier and safer for your Apple ID to go on eBay and buy an old Mac Mini or Macbook Air and use that to host BlueBubbles. OCLP is great for installing a newer version, currently the best version to use for BlueBubbles is Ventura and it's pretty much set and forget.

 

I keep a Macbook Air with a dummy HDMI plug and ethernet adapter sitting on top of my Unraid server with an iPhone plugged into it charging for phone number registration. My setup is bridged into Beeper and everything works great.

I agree it's easier when money isn't a factor, but it's another hardware set to maintain and use power.

 

I don't know what you are inferring about "safer for your Apple ID, " as using an Apple ID on a VM is not inherently dangerous.  People may not understand the cause when something goes wrong, but no need to jump to conclusions that apple is going to blacklist an account when it's never happened.  Temporary difficulties and lock outs occur, but I have yet to hear about a permanent ban from a user.

 

Finding a bargain on a used Mac mini like the 2018 version that allows a person to upgrade the RAM and run the latest macOS smoothly will be less work than getting this working on the server.  Some of us like to tinker, and others just want it to work without hassle.  To each their own:)

 

 

[bl00dy-c0d3]

Hey Guys,

is there an estimation on when Sonoma will be available?

[avinyc]

On 6/23/2024 at 6:13 AM, bl00dy-c0d3 said:

Hey Guys,

is there an estimation on when Sonoma will be available?

You can search around for guidance, but it can be installed with some effort, see previous post on this topic: 

 

[c0d3m0nk3y]

On 6/19/2023 at 9:03 PM, VJO said:

hello everyone, this being my first attempt in installing mac vm, following SIO's  youtube video, but i am struck in installation where it says "an internet connection is required to install macOS", what i have missed ?

For anyone coming across this issue, for me it was caused by the "Machine" setting, it worked when I set it back to Q35-4.2

[Espressomatic]

 

Has anyone verified success doing a brand new Macinabox install while running Unraid 7.0.0-beta1?

 

 

[bmartino1]

11 minutes ago, Espressomatic said:

 

Has anyone verified success doing a brand new Macinabox install while running Unraid 7.0.0-beta1?

 

 

this is on my to do list. I have not gotten to that step in my dev testing.

Currently, finishing docker networking stuff and will post back when i have more information. As the new beta 7 has other kvm spots for qemu and that will come in handy for "hackintsh" / the mac in the box docker to run.

Unless the docker has finally been updated. the last mac os form the docker is Big Sur reliable in my testing and will be tested when i run as such.

 

I can say that any docker made VM did transfer and runs under the VM tab in beta 7.

[bmartino1]

As said ealrier i can confirm premad docker images in 6 still work in beta 7 just not have tried the docker in 7 to se if it still makes a VM.

 

Beta 7 has some nice vm updates:

Setting VM:

 

vms ex:

 

 

 

[Espressomatic]

6 minutes ago, bmartino1 said:

just not have tried the docker in 7 to se if it still makes a VM.

 

I've also successfully ran the image I made in 6.12 while running 7, but I didn't have success making a new image when I tried. It was just some quick testing but I was hitting a wall and haven't gone back to try again.

 

 

Edited July 10 by Espressomatic

[Espressomatic]

18 hours ago, bmartino1 said:

images in 6 still work in beta

 

I'm having an issue where (most) VM vdisk files won't boot and instead go straight to UEFI shell when I try to import into 7-beta - this is by creating a new VM and using the prervious vdisk.

 

In my testing, this has affected VMs for Fedora Server 40, Debian 12 and MacOS. Strangely, it doesn't affect my Home Assistant vdisk.

[Espressomatic]

On 3/16/2024 at 7:02 PM, OldManBeard said:

<interface type='bridge'> <mac address='xx:xx:xx:xx:xx:xx'/> <source bridge='br0'/> <model type='e1000-82545em'/> <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x00' slot='0x05' function='0x0'/> </interface>

 

This was the only thing I was able to do to see Ethernet and have it Connected in the Mac VM. Otherwise, without any manual edits, only a serial port is ever displayed

 

7.0.0-beta.1 doesn't ever list "e1000-82545em" as available, just "e1000" - and manually changing to that doesn't make Ethernet show up.

 

If you make the changes above, but use "e1000" instead, Ethernet will show up, but will be disconnected with no way to make it work.

 

Macinabox most definitely doesn't work properly in 7.0.0-beta.1 and likely 6.12.10 either. No matter what oddball setting you leave for interface, running the helper script always says it's correct.

 

Your network type was already correct. Network has not been changed.

 

But it does always seem to revert to Virtio-Net - which doesn't work in MacOS to show any Ethernet support.

Edited July 12 by Espressomatic

[jafi]

Do you have any ETA for the Macinabox update? There was a mention of a new version in one of Spaceinvader One's recent videos. Thank you for everything!

[avinyc]

3 hours ago, jafi said:

Do you have any ETA for the Macinabox update? There was a mention of a new version in one of Spaceinvader One's recent videos. Thank you for everything!

@SpaceInvaderOne has not posted any updates here, what video are you referring to?

[salora]

On 11/6/2023 at 5:34 PM, Pirokiki said:

Hi, I managed to create Sonoma vm with some tweaks to spaceinvaderone's macinabox created template, maybe someone will find this helpful.

 

1. Firstly I have created Sonoma image with this tutorial: https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0763.html (method of obtaining macOS does not matter and you skip usb creation part, just go straight to "creating bootable .iso"), but in "creating bootable.iso" part you have to make an image at least 15000m in size and change image name from *.cdr to *.img not to *.iso. than copy this image to unraid

 

2. Download mentioned earlier: https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore/releases/download/v20/OpenCore-v20.iso.gz this also copy to unraid

 

3. Run macinabox with Monterey option (you can try custom open core, but this option didn't worked for me, I had just manually changed path in automatically created Monterey vm) and override network interface to "vmxnet3", than normally go to user scripts and run vmready_notify and helper scripts as in spaceinvaderone's tutorial but do not run newly created vm

 

4. In new monterey vm, change opencore image path to downloaded one, and change Monterey path to Sonoma path. and in the last part of xml (qemu commandline) add missing flags from part 22 of this tutorial: https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0566.html , mine tweaked part looks like this:

 

  <qemu:commandline>
    <qemu:arg value='-usb'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-device'/>
    <qemu:arg value='usb-kbd,bus=usb-bus.0'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-device'/>
    <qemu:arg value='************************'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-smbios'/>
    <qemu:arg value='type=2'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-global'/>
    <qemu:arg value='nec-usb-xhci.msi=off'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-global'/>
    <qemu:arg value='ICH9-LPC.acpi-pci-hotplug-with-bridge-support=off'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-cpu'/>
    <qemu:arg value='host,kvm=on,vendor=GenuineIntel,vmware-cpuid-freq=on,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,+hypervisor,+invtsc,+pcid,+ssse3,+sse4.2,+popcnt,+avx,+avx2,+aes,+fma,+bmi1,+bmi2,+xsave,+xsaveopt,+rdrand,check'/>
  </qemu:commandline>

 

this tweaks are working for xeon e5-2690v4

 

5.now run vm and go to UEFI shell, in UEFI shell type System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi and it should take you to standard recovery screen, next steps are as in spaceinvaderone's tutorial

 

6. after configuration you can copy open core files (https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore/releases/download/v20/OpenCoreEFIFolder-v20.zip) to efi partition of Sonoma installation and remove opencore and Sonoma installer entries from xml

 

7. if everything works, you can change core assignment to 4 cores 2 threads, 8gb of ram and it should boot just fine without any additional things, keep in mind that you have to edit everything in xml view because spaceinvaderone's xml fixing script won't work anymore in present form

(you can try different core count and ram size, but these just worked for me)

 

8. you can fix performance of this vm with this guide: https://github.com/sickcodes/osx-optimizer , it made huge difference with my setup

 

Performance isn't terrific, but vm is totally usable, in my case the biggest issue is graphics performance because I don't have suitable graphics for macOS and I'm stuck with qemu emulated graphics

 

edit: idk why but after posting this part of qemu args with apple osk changed to asterisks

 

edit2: i have just ran passmark, and it hit 9449, not bad I think

Hi I successfully installed big sur. trying sonoma. I did all the steps above but i am stuck at part 5 it does not go further the efi command lines. i always go back to uefi shell not the recovery screen.

any tips? thanks

[Mamaun]

On 11/6/2023 at 5:34 PM, Pirokiki said:

Hi, I managed to create Sonoma vm with some tweaks to spaceinvaderone's macinabox created template, maybe someone will find this helpful.

 

1. Firstly I have created Sonoma image with this tutorial: https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0763.html (method of obtaining macOS does not matter and you skip usb creation part, just go straight to "creating bootable .iso"), but in "creating bootable.iso" part you have to make an image at least 15000m in size and change image name from *.cdr to *.img not to *.iso. than copy this image to unraid

 

2. Download mentioned earlier: https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore/releases/download/v20/OpenCore-v20.iso.gz this also copy to unraid

 

3. Run macinabox with Monterey option (you can try custom open core, but this option didn't worked for me, I had just manually changed path in automatically created Monterey vm) and override network interface to "vmxnet3", than normally go to user scripts and run vmready_notify and helper scripts as in spaceinvaderone's tutorial but do not run newly created vm

 

4. In new monterey vm, change opencore image path to downloaded one, and change Monterey path to Sonoma path. and in the last part of xml (qemu commandline) add missing flags from part 22 of this tutorial: https://i12bretro.github.io/tutorials/0566.html , mine tweaked part looks like this:

 

  <qemu:commandline>
    <qemu:arg value='-usb'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-device'/>
    <qemu:arg value='usb-kbd,bus=usb-bus.0'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-device'/>
    <qemu:arg value='************************'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-smbios'/>
    <qemu:arg value='type=2'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-global'/>
    <qemu:arg value='nec-usb-xhci.msi=off'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-global'/>
    <qemu:arg value='ICH9-LPC.acpi-pci-hotplug-with-bridge-support=off'/>
    <qemu:arg value='-cpu'/>
    <qemu:arg value='host,kvm=on,vendor=GenuineIntel,vmware-cpuid-freq=on,+kvm_pv_unhalt,+kvm_pv_eoi,+hypervisor,+invtsc,+pcid,+ssse3,+sse4.2,+popcnt,+avx,+avx2,+aes,+fma,+bmi1,+bmi2,+xsave,+xsaveopt,+rdrand,check'/>
  </qemu:commandline>

 

this tweaks are working for xeon e5-2690v4

 

5.now run vm and go to UEFI shell, in UEFI shell type System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi and it should take you to standard recovery screen, next steps are as in spaceinvaderone's tutorial

 

6. after configuration you can copy open core files (https://github.com/thenickdude/KVM-Opencore/releases/download/v20/OpenCoreEFIFolder-v20.zip) to efi partition of Sonoma installation and remove opencore and Sonoma installer entries from xml

 

7. if everything works, you can change core assignment to 4 cores 2 threads, 8gb of ram and it should boot just fine without any additional things, keep in mind that you have to edit everything in xml view because spaceinvaderone's xml fixing script won't work anymore in present form

(you can try different core count and ram size, but these just worked for me)

 

8. you can fix performance of this vm with this guide: https://github.com/sickcodes/osx-optimizer , it made huge difference with my setup

 

Performance isn't terrific, but vm is totally usable, in my case the biggest issue is graphics performance because I don't have suitable graphics for macOS and I'm stuck with qemu emulated graphics

 

edit: idk why but after posting this part of qemu args with apple osk changed to asterisks

 

edit2: i have just ran passmark, and it hit 9449, not bad I think

 

THANKS!!

I've successfully installed sonoma with your guidelines and its working well.
BUT! I have 100% cpu spikes doing low process intensive tasks like browsing a single tab web or opening some os windows. 
I'm running a i3 10100 host cpu with 2cores 2threads and 16GB of ram dedicated to vm. 
I suspect it's a GPU emulation thing as i only have my igpu.

Can I do something on configuration (increase gpu ram, some qemu settings...) to speed up things? It's really slow.

Thanks!!

Edited August 8 by Mamaun

[alturismo]

1 hour ago, Mamaun said:

to speed up things? It's really slow.

all macos vm without dedicated dGPU passthrough are "slow" and eating CPU Power ...

 

so i would guess, not really ... you can increase the cores as mentioned before, but macos really aint fun without a dGPU in my experience ...

[Kilrah]

Yeah macos is basically unusably slow with no supported GPU, even if you give it 16 cores...

[Mamaun]

Oh. I see.. 

So the next question is what is the cheapest dgpu to passthrough to the VM? And, can it be fully shutdown when I don't use the VM?

[alturismo]

3 hours ago, Mamaun said:

And, can it be fully shutdown when I don't use the VM?

to answer this, no, you can set it in persistent mode to spare something ... but in sum it ll always use power in idle

 

1/ the gpu itself (sample, rtx3080ti 4 W, GTX 1060 6 W)

2/ but ... as soon pcie slots are in use (also in idle), the board itself will use more ... here as sample, about 10-12 W just for keeping the cards in the slots ... in persistent idle mode

 

3 hours ago, Mamaun said:

what is the cheapest dgpu to passthrough to the VM?

cant answer this one as its AMD only meanwhile afaik ... and im out with them  due too many passthrough issues overall.

 

my macos testings stopped with sierra (last Nvidia capable macos)