On 12/19/2020 at 9:26 PM, dojesus said:

User scripts didn't install....any idea why? And can you post the actual scripts so I can add them manually?

I don't know why, but in my case, the scripts only appeared AFTER the Catalina ISO finished downloading. So it's not possible to perform the step in the video of launching the VM_Ready_Notify script until afterwards - it then (obviously) reports that it's ready.

Hi all,

 

I've run into a few issues with Macinabox.

 

Firstly, I can't seem to get BigSur to install. It's listed in the VM Tab as "Macinabox BugSir", but when I go to install the OS it is still on MacOS Catalina.

 

 

Secondly, I cannot for the life of me get the changes I make to my efi config.plist to stick. I have installed Catalina on a passed through NVMe drive and have changed it multiple times. When i reboot, the changes remain in the config.plist file but the OS does not reflect any changes. I am positive I am changing the EFI of the NVMe drive, and have even tried making the changes on the QEMU drive as well but no luck. Has anyone been able to make changes to the config.plist and could help clear up my issues?

Edited December 28, 20205 yr by AY21618
mispelling

Hi,

 

getting an error after rebooting unraid, what can i do

 

internal error: child reported (status=125): unable to open /etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/4f6effeb-4e36-431a-809f-d016c4aa829e_VARS-pure-efi.fd: Read-only file system

 

8 hours ago, erasor2010 said:

Hi,

 

getting an error after rebooting unraid, what can i do

 

internal error: child reported (status=125): unable to open /etc/libvirt/qemu/nvram/4f6effeb-4e36-431a-809f-d016c4aa829e_VARS-pure-efi.fd: Read-only file system

Try using midnight commander to edit the permissions of the file. Otherwise you can remove the reference to the file in the VM XML. (You'll need to run the the user script for the vm again after..) 

BACKUP your XML first!!

 

Edited December 29, 20205 yr by dja

On 12/25/2020 at 4:17 PM, alturismo said:

personal experience, there is nothing really good compared to rdp windows when using mac remote, but thats my personal experience ...

 

vnc, speed well ... but scaling, audio, ...

teamviewer, ok ....

anydesk, ok ....

splashtop, never tested, give it a try, something similar to rdp would be really nice

I *WISH* we could get RDP support into the actual VM itself, much in the way HyperV does it with a virtual switch.  This so much better than using any other remote tool. 

 

Honestly, aside from testing an app  on Safari for work I don't see much use for this Mac VM anyway. You would need your unraid server next to you for it to be of use if plugged into a monitor.  Don't get me wrong, I love the work that went into this, I'm just struggling to understand the use case. 

15 minutes ago, dja said:

I *WISH* we could get RDP support into the actual VM itself, much in the way HyperV does it with a virtual switch.  This so much better than using any other remote tool. 

 

Honestly, aside from testing an app  on Safari for work I don't see much use for this Mac VM anyway. You would need your unraid server next to you for it to be of use if plugged into a monitor.  Don't get me wrong, I love the work that went into this, I'm just struggling to understand the use case. 

I don't use the app but I do have a Big sur VM with a GPU,usb controllers, keyboard mouse etc passed through and I use just like a full desktop mac.

For some reason my keyboard support via VNC (web & standalone app) seems unreliable when using Catalina macOS in a VM via macinabox. When installing the OS I would sometimes have to reboot the VM because it would not recognize my keyboard any longer. Once installed and in the OS, despite working and logging in a few times, it now doesn't seem to recognize the keyboard I use outside of the initial enter at the boot loader. No USB pass through or anything like that, I am just trying to use VNC to control the VM (via W10 and have tested same issue on Chrome Edge and Firefox). I am using 6.9.0-rc1 and any ideas would be much appreciated!

 

Edit: Looks like my issue was Tips and Tweaks CPU Scaling Governor set to Power Saving which was causing a lot of instability due to CPU not scaling correctly.

Edited January 3, 20215 yr by Whiskey90

Hi Folks

 

For those having issue with the Big Sur install and 'Method 2'.  Try and edit line 273. to include an 'rm' before the dmg line.  This will remove the permission denied and hopefully continue with the script.

 

Worked for me.  Remember, if you reconfigure the container, you will remove the edit as it's within the container and not part of the appdata.

 

Line 273. of the unraid.sh within /macinabox folder of the container.

 

 

9 hours ago, dja said:

I *WISH* we could get RDP support into the actual VM itself, much in the way HyperV does it with a virtual switch.  This so much better than using any other remote tool

Fully agree. In the absence of this, RealVNC does a good job for me. It works quite smoothly and is a good tool.

6 hours ago, M0CRT said:

For those having issue with the Big Sur install and 'Method 2'.  Try and edit line 273. to include an 'rm' before the dmg line.  This will remove the permission denied and hopefully continue with the script.

 

Worked for me.  Remember, if you reconfigure the container, you will remove the edit as it's within the container and not part of the appdata.

 

Line 273. of the unraid.sh within /macinabox folder of the container.

Thanks for posting this. I am struggling with this, so this work-aroud will be helpful for me. Two questions:

 

1) When and how exactly do you do the change? You wait until the error occurs and then stop the container? Then edit the file and restart the container?

 

2) I am still struggling how to set the path for /appdate and /system. It seems to default to creating a folder on my first array disk, while I'd prefer to have it on on of the UD disks (e.g., in the docker container folder). For "/system", it says not to change it. Also, the default for the sub-folder within appdata actually ppoint to a very different folder. Would you mind posting your working setup for the paths?

6 hours ago, M0CRT said:

For those having issue with the Big Sur install and 'Method 2'.  Try and edit line 273. to include an 'rm' before the dmg line.  This will remove the permission denied and hopefully continue with the script.

@SpaceInvaderOne, I created a pull request to fix the permission issue for download method 2. Haven't been able to test yet though.

 

https://github.com/SpaceinvaderOne/Macinabox/pull/34

Brilliant, that did the job.  Thank you!

 

Was that in SpaceInvader's video?  If so I missed it.

 

Thanks again

 

D

I was hoping iCloud and iMessage would work, but I keep getting errors trying to login (I know my login works in the VM tho', as I can sign into App Store and download stuff). Anyone know why? My default interface is en0. XML file says:

 

<interface type='bridge'>
  <mac address='aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff'/>
  <source bridge='br0'/>
  <model type='e1000-82545em'/>
  <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</interface>

MAC address obfuscated.

3 hours ago, mortenmoulder said:

I was hoping iCloud and iMessage would work, but I keep getting errors trying to login (I know my login works in the VM tho', as I can sign into App Store and download stuff). Anyone know why? My default interface is en0. XML file says:

 

<interface type='bridge'>
  <mac address='aa:bb:cc:dd:ee:ff'/>
  <source bridge='br0'/>
  <model type='e1000-82545em'/>
  <address type='pci' domain='0x0000' bus='0x01' slot='0x00' function='0x0'/>
</interface>

MAC address obfuscated.

 

Having the same issue here. Was really hoping to get iMessage to work. Been fiddling around with it the last couple days and no luck. Has anybody been able to get it to work with Big Sur? Or any suggestions to fixing?

I got iCloud and iMessage to work by reading the link in this post: 

Link: https://dortania.github.io/OpenCore-Post-Install/universal/iservices.html#fixing-en0

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by mortenmoulder

6 minutes ago, JarrettCS said:

 

Having the same issue here. Was really hoping to get iMessage to work. Been fiddling around with it the last couple days and no luck. Has anybody been able to get it to work with Big Sur? Or any suggestions to fixing?

 

Didn't see your reply before I replied with an update. Check out the post right below yours - the fix actually works!

I went with all default paths, which gets it somewhat working. I still cannot access cloud (see other thread), but more importantly I cannot get the GPU passthrough to work. It used to work with the previous macinabox version in Catalina, but I cannot get it to work with the new macinabox with BigSur.

 

Below error when not adding a gpu rom. VM starts, but is horribly slow (i.e. not using the GPU).

-smbios type=2 \
-cpu Penryn,kvm=on,vendor=GenuineIntel,+invtsc,vmware-cpuid-freq=on,+pcid,+ssse3,+sse4.2,+popcnt,+avx,+aes,+xsave,+xsaveopt,check \
-sandbox on,obsolete=deny,elevateprivileges=deny,spawn=deny,resourcecontrol=deny \
-msg timestamp=on
2020-12-31 06:26:07.247+0000: Domain id=7 is tainted: high-privileges
2020-12-31 06:26:07.247+0000: Domain id=7 is tainted: custom-argv
2020-12-31 06:26:07.247+0000: Domain id=7 is tainted: host-cpu
char device redirected to /dev/pts/0 (label charserial0)

 

When adding a gpu rom, Unraid crashes after starting the VM. After restarting, there is no more VM tab. Need to then need to enable the VM again.

 

Any thoughts?

On 12/29/2020 at 1:27 PM, dja said:

Honestly, aside from testing an app  on Safari for work I don't see much use for this Mac VM anyway. You would need your unraid server next to you for it to be of use if plugged into a monitor.  Don't get me wrong, I love the work that went into this, I'm just struggling to understand the use case. 

 

Why would you run Linux or Windows in a VM? Because you want access to a second, third, fourth, etc. machine running that OS for whatever reason, including testing as you mentioned. So in other words, this VM is useful for the same reason ANY VM is useful. And Macinabox especially useful because it makes deployment easy in a few clicks - getting a Mac VM up otherwise is a royal PITA.

 

As far as having a monitor connected, have you ever put together a bare-metal CustoMac or Hackintosh? The VM route is a lot easier to deploy and maintain.

 

And lastly, connecting to a Mac VM (or any Mac) remotely:  Use the Mac's built-in screen sharing. It works well. Enable it in the Sharing pref-pane inside System Preferences.  From Windows use RealVNC or other client to connect to your Mac. From another Mac, just browse the remote machine from Finder's Network path and then click the "Share Screen" button that should appear.

 

As far as Big Sur goes, I run it on my new M1-powered Mac, but I'd avoid it on Intel machines for now, unless you're developing and need to test solutions on that target. Stick with Mojave or Catalina for day-to-day and consumer-use. Big Sur has quite a few issues at the moment even on Apple hardware and it's a good idea to let those shake out over the next 4-6 months.

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by Espressomatic

31 minutes ago, Espressomatic said:

And lastly, connecting to a Mac VM (or any Mac) remotely:  Use the Mac's built-in screen sharing.

That what I do. As you'd expect, it works well, though there's no sound support.

 

2 hours ago, John_M said:

That what I do. As you'd expect, it works well, though there's no sound support.

 

One can always use Airfoil to re-route audio if you're on the LAN. Not using it myself for that purpose as I don't want/need audio with my primary Mac VM.

 

I also use some client-server type apps in that VM, so most of the time I can interact with specific software without using VNC/Screen-Sharing at all.

Edited December 31, 20205 yr by Espressomatic

19 hours ago, John_M said:

That what I do. As you'd expect, it works well, though there's no sound support.

 

 

May I ask how that's working for you? Can you get it to create virtual monitors for you? I run Windows on my main rig, and I want to connect to my Big Sur VM with either RDP or VNC, but I want it to span across all my monitors in the correct resolution. So far it seems like that's not possible with macOS.

4 minutes ago, mortenmoulder said:

May I ask how that's working for you? Can you get it to create virtual monitors for you?

No. Just as Windows (well, not the Home edition) comes with an RDP server built in, macOS has Apple Screen Sharing built in. You can view a Windows desktop on another Windows computer using the latter's built in RDP clinet. Similarly you can view a macOS desktop on another Mac. The protocols are not compatible, unfortunately. There is a free Microsoft Remote Desktop client for macOS but no Apple Screen Sharing client for Windows, which is also a shame.

Just now, John_M said:

No. Just as Windows (well, not the Home edition) comes with an RDP server built in, macOS has Apple Screen Sharing built in. You can view a Windows desktop on another Windows computer using the latter's built in RDP clinet. Similarly you can view a macOS desktop on another Mac. The protocols are not compatible, unfortunately. There is a free Microsoft Remote Desktop client for macOS but no Apple Screen Sharing client for Windows, which is also a shame.

 

Dang, that sucks. I really wanted an almost true 1:1 feel of macOS, while sitting on my Windows rig. There HAS to be someone who has developed a 3rd party software for this. It makes no sense there isn't.

2 minutes ago, mortenmoulder said:

 

Dang, that sucks. I really wanted an almost true 1:1 feel of macOS, while sitting on my Windows rig. There HAS to be someone who has developed a 3rd party software for this. It makes no sense there isn't.

There's plenty of third party software that's suitable for viewing a macOS desktop on Windows, as already mentioned. I prefer to use the built-in software if it does what I want though and, since I typically use a MacBook Pro as my daily companion, I use Apple Screen Sharing.

Just now, John_M said:

There's plenty of third party software that's suitable for viewing a macOS desktop on Windows, as already mentioned. I prefer to use the built-in software if it does what I want though and, since I typically use a MacBook Pro as my daily companion, I use Apple Screen Sharing.

The 3rd party software options, does not, as far as I know, replicate the native Screen Sharing capabilities in macOS. All the VNC options I've tried, doesn't span across the monitors. It's fixed to 800x600 with no monitor plugged in or 1920x1080, which is the resolution of the monitor I plugged into the GPU, which I passthrough'd to the VM.