I'm stumped.  I follow this guide for Big Sur and everything is working except for passing through my RX 560 GPU.  I purchased the MSI version recommend directly on Apple's site.  I can access the VM via TeamViewer.  But the physical monitor stays on the Apple loading screen, even after the VM has booted.  It sees it in About this Mac, but doesn't seem to show all the usual properties.  Display Preferences doesn't see the display attached either.

I have to be missing something simple.

I pass through the GPU and Audio portions of the card, tried both with and without VBIOS.  Card works totally fine when attached to my Windows 10 VM. Tried both Trash Can and New Mac Pro platform types. 

Any ideas?

 

 

So I managed to get Big Sur working on my Unraid/Macinabox setup. I was unable to install Big Sur directly from Macinabox, but it worked to install Catalina. It also appears that upgrading to Big Sur from the fresh Catalina install worked fine.

 

Now I am trying to import my user folder from a bare metal Macos Big Sur install I had. I created a symlink to my /Users/Me folder inside the admin account on my VM Big Sur (the user folder had been copied to my unraid cache). Then I tried adding a user with the same name as my previous install. Macos recognized that there was an existing user with the same name and asked to use that folder. After a while the user space loaded up, but non of my apps, setting, documents were pulled. Essentially a blank new user.

 

Is there a better way to do this? Create an image of my old Big Sur install? Something else? I cannot use the Apple Migration tool as the old bare metal big sur system is not on my network, but I have the files copied onto Unraid. Any suggestions? Thanks!

Edited January 31, 20215 yr by joshallen2k
typo

I found the SIO video "How to Mount, Access and Share any Vdisk on Unraid" which sounds like what I needed. However it didn't cover sharing a vdisk thats in APFS format. I did some googling and found a post on using Fuse to mount APFS volumes.

 

However trying that method produced this error:

 

# qemu-nbd --connect=/dev/nbd0 "/mnt/user/domains/Macinabox Catalina/macos_disk.img"
WARNING: Image format was not specified for '/mnt/user/domains/Macinabox Catalina/macos_disk.img' and probing guessed raw.
         Automatically detecting the format is dangerous for raw images, write operations on block 0 will be restricted.
         Specify the 'raw' format explicitly to remove the restrictions.
qemu-nbd: Failed to set NBD socket
qemu-nbd: Disconnect client, due to: Failed to read request: Unexpected end-of-file before all bytes were read

 

Anyone with any ideas?

10 hours ago, joshallen2k said:

So I managed to get Big Sur working on my Unraid/Macinabox setup. I was unable to install Big Sur directly from Macinabox, but it worked to install Catalina. It also appears that upgrading to Big Sur from the fresh Catalina install worked fine.

 

Now I am trying to import my user folder from a bare metal Macos Big Sur install I had. I created a symlink to my /Users/Me folder inside the admin account on my VM Big Sur (the user folder had been copied to my unraid cache). Then I tried adding a user with the same name as my previous install. Macos recognized that there was an existing user with the same name and asked to use that folder. After a while the user space loaded up, but non of my apps, setting, documents were pulled. Essentially a blank new user.

 

Is there a better way to do this? Create an image of my old Big Sur install? Something else? I cannot use the Apple Migration tool as the old bare metal big sur system is not on my network, but I have the files copied onto Unraid. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I figured it out.

I turned off Resizeable Bar in the BIOS settings of my motherboard and it started working.

It looks like Big Sur has been updated so maybe that's why it's not downloading through the container.  Running method 2 the machinabox_Big Sur.log shows "Product ID 001-86606 could not be found."  

 

index-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog has been updated to show Product ID 071-00838 which I suspect is the 11.2 (20D64) update.  Not entirely sure about this, but if somewhere in the script it is looking for an old build it needs to be updated to this one now:

 

https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-big-sur-11-2-update-20d64-is-live-whats-new/

23 minutes ago, avinyc said:

It looks like Big Sur has been updated

 

It has. 11.2 is officially available and is currently installing on my MacBook Pro.

 

1 hour ago, avinyc said:

It looks like Big Sur has been updated so maybe that's why it's not downloading through the container.  Running method 2 the machinabox_Big Sur.log shows "Product ID 001-86606 could not be found."  

 

index-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog has been updated to show Product ID 071-00838 which I suspect is the 11.2 (20D64) update.  Not entirely sure about this, but if somewhere in the script it is looking for an old build it needs to be updated to this one now:

 

https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-big-sur-11-2-update-20d64-is-live-whats-new/

I guess this is why I am unable to get things running. I have been waiting for 6 hours for something to happen. the container log just stops at 

2021-02-01 12:54:18,581 Selected macOS Product: 061-86291

and nothing happens after. Guess I will have to wait for the container to get updated.

3 hours ago, LTM said:

I guess this is why I am unable to get things running. I have been waiting for 6 hours for something to happen. the container log just stops at 

2021-02-01 12:54:18,581 Selected macOS Product: 061-86291

and nothing happens after. Guess I will have to wait for the container to get updated.

 

If there are instructions on how to create or download the proper qemu BigSur-install.img file, I am guessing it can be copied to the ISO folder and the installation would work.  If it's easier to wait for the update at this point, that might be better.

1 hour ago, avinyc said:

If there are instructions on how to create or download the proper qemu BigSur-install.img file, I am guessing it can be copied to the ISO folder and the installation would work.  If it's easier to wait for the update at this point, that might be better.

 

Have you considered installing Catalina instead, making a backup and upgrading? There are people now reporting success if you follow the method outlined on the previous page. The key to success seems to be to perform the upgrade before trying to migrate OpenCore EFI partition to the macOS boot drive.

 

15 minutes ago, John_M said:

 

Have you considered installing Catalina instead, making a backup and upgrading? There are people now reporting success if you follow the method outlined on the previous page. The key to success seems to be to perform the upgrade before trying to migrate OpenCore EFI partition to the macOS boot drive.

 

Tried installing catalina and posted this yesterday.  Unfortunately, once I get to the steps after formatting the drive, I click to continue and the error message is "The recovery server could not be contacted."

Edited February 2, 20215 yr by avinyc

2 minutes ago, avinyc said:

"The recovery server could not be contacted."

 

I have never experienced that error. Have you tried Method 2?

 

3 hours ago, avinyc said:

The recovery server could not be contacted

Try changing the network type to e1000-82545em if it's vmxnet3.

11 hours ago, John_M said:

 

I have never experienced that error. Have you tried Method 2?

 

I tried running a fresh install and selecting method 2, none of the isos were downloading.  I re-ran as method 1 and then tried method 2 afterwards, sill returns the same error that recovery server could not be contacted.

8 hours ago, ghost82 said:

Try changing the network type to e1000-82545em if it's vmxnet3.

 

One of the things the helper script does is change the network type from vmxnet3 to e1000-82545em, when it's run after the initall installation. I wonder if @avinyc forgot to set it up and run it?

8 hours ago, ghost82 said:

Try changing the network type to e1000-82545em if it's vmxnet3.

I edited the VMs XML and changed to e1000-82545em, still not working.  The recovery server error persists.

1 minute ago, avinyc said:

I tried running a fresh install and selecting method 2, none of the isos were downloading.  I re-ran as method 1 and then tried method 2 afterwards, sill returns the same error that recovery server could not be contacted.

I have had the same issues, everything works as the video states until its time to install Catalina. I have even tried adding that NIC, and still can not contact the recovery server error pops up.

1 minute ago, avinyc said:

I edited the VMs XML and changed to e1000-82545em, still not working.  The recovery server error persists.

Same here

Just now, John_M said:

 

One of the things the helper script does is change the network type from vmxnet3 to e1000-82545em, when it's run after the initall installation. I wonder if @avinyc forgot to set it up and run it?

I am running the helper script before running the VM.  After the last fresh install, the VM wouldn't show up until the script was executed.

1 minute ago, cloudgeek said:

recovery server error

 

Could there be a local connectivity issue that's unrelated to Unraid?

 

Just now, avinyc said:

I am running the helper script before running the VM.  After the last fresh install, the VM wouldn't show up until the script was executed.

Avinyc is doing the exact same thing I am doing with the same errors. I have gone through and completely cleared everything before trying new suggestions such as Method 1 or 2, etc...still get to the install and get the recovery server can not be contacted error. Thanks in advance for your help everyone! Really want to get this working.

Just now, John_M said:

 

Could there be a local connectivity issue that's unrelated to Unraid?

 

That seems like the most promising explanation.  It has to be something going on either in my server or router if this connection issue is not universal.  I'll see if I can figure out if somehow there is a firewall problem or something causing this to fail.

Just now, avinyc said:

That seems like the most promising explanation.  It has to be something going on either in my server or router if this connection issue is not universal.  I'll see if I can figure out if somehow there is a firewall problem or something causing this to fail.

I thought the same at first but my Windows VM works just fine getting out to the net so I believe its something else. 

Just now, cloudgeek said:

Avinyc is doing the exact same thing I am doing with the same errors. I have gone through and completely cleared everything before trying new suggestions such as Method 1 or 2, etc...still get to the install and get the recovery server can not be contacted error. Thanks in advance for your help everyone! Really want to get this working.

Yes, I also echo my thanks to all those taking the time to help here!  I am a complete novice so I would assume I am making some ridiculous error on my end:)

 

Just now, cloudgeek said:

I thought the same at first but my Windows VM works just fine getting out to the net so I believe its something else. 

I have a windows VM running as well.  That was an easier experience:)

3 minutes ago, avinyc said:

I have a windows VM running as well.  That was an easier experience:)

Would there be any value to pasting the XML of the VM here for you much more experienced folks to review? Maybe something is wrong that you will spot straight away...