[Support] SpaceinvaderOne - Macinabox

[DonUnder]

Has anybody been able to create a Catalina boot USB from an OSX VM running on unraid (i'm trying to set up a hackintosh but have no access to a legit mac)?

 

I have managed to deploy High Sierra in a VM with a USB thumb stick passed through and accessible but whenever I try to format it it fails with this error:

 

POSIX: reports: The operation couldn't be completed.  Invalid argument. Operation failed.

 

I've tried a few USB sticks which I know are working fine.

[rutherford]

I'm having some problems getting my VM to start. I went through quite a bit of rigamarole getting iMessage working, and when I roll back this installation, or nuke&reinstall, I want to be sure the codes (Serial Number, Board Serial Number, Product Name, Family) stay the same so I don't have to re-do all the steps with iMessage (Calling Apple support and speaking with two levels of technicians).

 

What stuff should I delete to roll this back and get started again?

           

 

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/an-idiots-guide-to-imessage.196827/

 

Edited April 24, 2020 by dkerlee

[ghost82]

5 minutes ago, dkerlee said:

Calling Apple support and speaking with two levels of technicians

You were lucky if Apple unlocked imessage/facetime.

I tried one time and after 5-6 phone calls they did not activate them...

Anyway, that data are managed by the mac os bootloader, so make a copy of Clover or opencore.

[Sheepster]

Hey! Just installed Catalina. Would have been a very smooth process but I had to trouble shoot for a long time before I finally realized my Chrome add-ons prevented me from connecting with VNC.

 

However, now that I'm inside my Catalina VM I can't seem to change my keyboard layout. Since I am from Sweden it is quite different. I tried changing it both in the Mac-settings as well as inside the VM-template with no result.

 

What can I do?

 

Edit: Solved this by copying xml, changing to Swedish in the template, saved, compared the changed xml and found the value I needed to change to 'sv'. Pasted the original xml back and only did that small change

Value is called keymap

Edited April 24, 2020 by Sheepster

[rutherford]

@Sheepster

I'd also mention that the docker has VNC built in and running. Installing VNC server on the macos is a bit redundant. Unless you want it signed into your VNC account.
 

[none_obviously]

Hey guys is there a step by step to get an AMD GPU passed through and working? In struggle town a bit here.

[rutherford]

@ghost82I assume that's the TOWER/domains/MacinaboxCatalina/Clover.qcow2 file?

And, when I nuke this thing, and bring it back, at what point do I restore the qcow2 file?

I didn't see any Opencore files around; but then, I'm also not sure what, exactly, I'm looking for.

thanks!

[ghost82]

3 hours ago, dkerlee said:

I assume that's the TOWER/domains/MacinaboxCatalina/Clover.qcow2 file?

Yes, correct.

Opencore is an alternative to clover, so it's ok you don't have any reference to opencore.

More into details, you said that you can't start the vm?

Most of the time the issue is in the boot loader...so replacing the whole image will bring you at the starting point, without solving the issue.

Clover.qcow2 is an image file, the file containing the data of interest is inside this image, and it's the config.plist

The config.plist contains all the configurations for the bootloader.

So, proceed as following:

1- with the VM shutdown mount the actual clover.qcow2 image:

1a- open terminal in unraid or connect through ssh and type:

modprobe nbd max_part=8
qemu-nbd --connect=/dev/nbd0 /mnt/user/domains/MacinaboxCatalina/Clover.qcow2
fdisk /dev/nbd0 -l
mkdir /mnt/EFIFolder/
mount /dev/nbd0p1 /mnt/EFIFolder/

PS: I'm assuming your Clover.qcow2 is at /mnt/user/domains/MacinaboxCatalina/ otherwise change the path accordingly.

 

2- Backup the actual config.plist somewhere (here I'm backupping at /mnt/user/, if you want to backup at a different place change the path accordingly):

2a- in the terminal in unraid or through ssh:

cp /mnt/EFIFolder/EFI/CLOVER/config.plist /mnt/user/

 

3- Unmount the Clover.qcow2 image and close the terminal:

umount /mnt/EFIFolder/
qemu-nbd --disconnect /dev/nbd0
rmmod nbd

 

4- Optional: now you can open with notepad/textedit or similar the config.plist file at /mnt/user/ and look inside, to understand the structure nad where your data are: more into details you could see (may change a bit depending on clover version) your SMBIOS data (board id, SN, mac family, etc.) in the <key>SMBIOS</key> section.

 

5- Delete your actual virtual machine

 

6- Create the new virtual machine and disconnect internet as soon as you can: I recommend to disconnect internet because you don't want to be locked again by apple; so let the machinabox download all the needed files and then disconnect from internet when mac os starts to install; do not login in any way to any apple service

 

7- Make sure you have your new VM up and running

 

8- Inside the VM mount the Clover.qcow2 image: you can download the "Clover Configurator" app and use the mount tool, or you can mount the EFI from the terminal:
 

diskutil list

You will see the list of your partitions/disks: most probably you will see 2 EFI partitions, the Clover one should be the one of smaller size (the disk with the Linux Filesystem); mount it:

Create a mount point:
 

sudo mkdir /Volumes/efi

Mount the EFI:
 

sudo mount -t msdos /dev/disk0s1 /Volumes/efi

Note: disk0s1 is from diskutil list; "1" of "s1" is from the first column of the output of diskutil list, under "#" (You are mounting Name: EFI, Type: EFI)

 

9- from the desktop open the mounted EFI and navigate to EFI/CLOVER

 

10- Open the new config.plist and replace the data of interest with the data from your old config.plist, save the modifications

 

11- Unmount the EFI

 

12- Restart the VM and check in about my mac that SN, processor, etc. are ok

 

13- You can now connect to internet

Edited April 25, 2020 by ghost82

[Daniel Ehrhardt]

Is there a fix when i have Issue to Login to the App Store?

[ghost82]

36 minutes ago, Daniel Ehrhardt said:

Is there a fix when i have Issue to Login to the App Store?

Read the external link:

It's related to imessage, but valid also for apple store.

Note: imessage/facetime are more difficult to make them work.

Edited April 25, 2020 by ghost82

[Daniel Ehrhardt]

Does someone know if it would be possible to run Docker inside the the Mac VM?
i get hv_support 0

 

[ghost82]

17 hours ago, Daniel Ehrhardt said:

Does someone know if it would be possible to run Docker inside the the Mac VM?

Just to have some more order, discussion is available from here:

 

[Lee.B]

I'm having some issues with my VM and I'm hoping someone can help me  I've been happily running the VM for a while now but it doesn't seem to like upgrades

 

First I tried going from UnRaid 6.8.2 to 6.8.3, once it was back up I couldn't get the VM to load properly anymore. It would open up but instantly it would peg it's first assigned core to 100%, it would slowly make it to the login screen with a graphical issue. If you type the password it would start loading and then just reboot. To fix this I rolled back to 6.8.2 and restored the instance from TimeMachine. Everything was ok...

 

Until I tried to update Catalina to 10.15.4 (I was on the previous version 10.15.1?), after a restart it lets me know the update failed to apply and exhibits exactly the same behaviour. 

 

If I boot the VM into recovery mode it doesn't peg the CPU and works normally.

 

edit: forgot to mention I'm not doing any GPU passthrough. 

 

 

 

Edited April 27, 2020 by Lee.B

[ghost82]

23 minutes ago, Lee.B said:

Until I tried to update Catalina to 10.15.4 (I was on the previous version 10.15.1?), after a restart it lets me know the update failed to apply and exhibits exactly the same behaviour. 

What version of clover are you running?

It seems related to graphic acceleration, in recovery mode mac os doesn't use acceleration, this is why you don't have slow performance.

Edited April 27, 2020 by ghost82

[Lee.B]

2 hours ago, ghost82 said:

What version of clover are you running?

It seems related to graphic acceleration, in recovery mode mac os doesn't use acceleration, this is why you don't have slow performance.

2.5k rev 5097

[ghost82]

7 minutes ago, Lee.B said:

2.5k rev 5097

I would update clover first (latest release now is v5 r5114) and check if there is any difference (from r5098 there are improvements in Catalina compatibility).

Mount your efi, download from github the iso image, mount the iso, overwrite files from iso to EFI, check config.plist and eventually adpt to the new clover revision (compare config.plist files to see if there are new options added/removed).

Try to inject also lilu+whatevergreen kexts.

Edited April 27, 2020 by ghost82

[Lee.B]

26 minutes ago, ghost82 said:

I would update clover first (latest release now is v5 r5114) and check if there is any difference (from r5098 there are improvements in Catalina compatibility).

Mount your efi, download from github the iso image, mount the iso, overwrite files from iso to EFI, check config.plist and eventually adpt to the new clover revision (compare config.plist files to see if there are new options added/removed).

Try to inject also lilu+whatevergreen kexts.

Thanks, I'm guessing I can use the pre-macinabox spaceinvaderone videos guide how to go about this? 

I'll give this a crack tomorrow as it's night here :)

[ghost82]

28 minutes ago, Lee.B said:

I'm guessing I can use the pre-macinabox spaceinvaderone videos guide how to go about this?

I'm not sure but I don't think that he explains how to update the bootloader, there's a pre-made qcow2 clover image, the one you have (r5097), that during the setup the macinabox downloads.

Edited April 27, 2020 by ghost82

[ghost82]

3 hours ago, Lee.B said:

I'll give this a crack tomorrow

Try the attached clover qcow2, backup yours first if this doesn't work.

I modified the original Clover.qcow2 from the macinabox github repository, so if you changed SMBIOS data you need to change them again.

Config.plist is also the same as the original macinabox, sligtly modified, it should be compatible with the latest revision.

It's the latest release, revision 5114 but I cannot test, so not sure if it will boot or not.

Just try..

 

Clover.qcow2.zip

Edited April 27, 2020 by ghost82

[jboku]

I have successfully loaded and can use the Catalina VM - many thanks to Spaceinvaderone and others for the help, the only issue left is getting imessages up and running (which in reading different posts seems very tricky), and after reviewing posts I loaded Clover on my Catalina instance and modified the SMBIOS following a few tutorials I found with no success. My Imessage_debug shows a changing UUID.  So my two questions I have, 1) the mounted EFI within the VM of Catalina is the correct place to edit? Or should I be editing the SMBIOS on a file on my Unraid server? 2) ghost82 and other posts mentioned disconnecting the internet as soon as I can to update serial numbers, how would you do that for just the VM of Catalina? I cannot drop the internet for the server as it is being utilized by others.

[ghost82]

Quote

1) the mounted EFI within the VM of Catalina is the correct place to edit?

Yes, it's correct.

 

34 minutes ago, jboku said:

2) ghost82 and other posts mentioned disconnecting the internet as soon as I can to update serial numbers, how would you do that for

just the VM of Catalina?

It depends on the error you have when running imessage.

Problems should be linked to:

1- wrong SMBIOS data

2- wrong network setup (ex: en0 not built in, or wrong type of virtual network setup)

3- NVRAM

4- wan ip device quota or locked by apple because of several logins with different 'fake' devices

 

You mentioned that Sm-UUID is changing? This is very strange, as it never happen with my vm, with clover or opencore: are you saying is it changing at every reboot without making any modification or after changing smbios data? If it's changing without any modification it is a NVRAM issue that needs to be investigated.

About point 4, wan ip device quota was quite recent for me, simply refresh you wan ip (if it's not static...); if you played too much (as I did) you should receive a message to contact apple with a costumer code, and if this is the case your only option is to really call apple because you are apple server locked.

 

About disconnecting the vm from internet, simply delete in the vm xml the bridge, or if it is directly connected to internet detach the dedicated wifi/ethernet. Or if you have the vm started, disable the virtual connection in the network pref pane.

The fact is that one should know all these things before setting up the vm..because if you keep changing SMBIOS data, or if your setup is not correct, while connected to the internet you can have issues..I'm not saying you had to know all of these..me too I didn't know without "playing"..and now I'm locked

Edited April 27, 2020 by ghost82

[jboku]

The only error I get is when trying to log into imessage, the error I get is call customer support with the id. I am not sure how to inspect NVRAM but I have verified that my network is en0. I edited the SMBIOS within Clover on the Catalina instance, following a few different flavors of tutorials,  one mentioned making sure the UUID in the SMBIOS matched the imessage_debug, which after I make changes in the clover tool and reboot I get a different ioplatformUUId within imessage_debug that does not match  the SMBIOS value.

For the wan ip device quota, I originally loaded Mojave, failed at getting imessage to work, so wiped the vm and started fresh with Catalina, once I tried imessage on Catalina is when I started getting that customer support error message, do you think I got flagged with my apple id logging in to many times?

[ghost82]

5 minutes ago, jboku said:

do you think I got flagged with my apple id logging in to many times?

Unfortunately yes, your account is flagged.

Possible solutions:

1- call apple and pray (did not work for me...maybe I didn't pray too much ahah)

2- setup a new account and generate new smbios data (start fresh)

[jboku]

Going to go with number 2 😁,  thank you so much for taking time to help.  

[ghost82]

20 minutes ago, jboku said:

I am not sure how to inspect NVRAM

Try this, but I'm quite sure your nvram is working:

Quote

NVRAM Testing: You can test if your NVRAM is working by running the following Terminal command and rebooting: sudo nvram TestVar=HelloWorld; once you reboot, run sudo nvram -p | grep 'TestVar'; if you see a result, your NVRAM is working; if not, your NVRAM is broken and needs to be fixed, or otherwise iMessage won't work; after testing, you can delete the TestVar variable by running sudo nvram -d TestVar

Uh, another thing...is the imessage costumer code (in the window that tells you to contact apple) changing after a reboot or is it always the same?

Edited April 27, 2020 by ghost82