Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

I have a working Catalina guest, fully patched with the most recent update.

If I try to install the latest official Monterey, 12.0.1 (21A559) / October 25, 2021, then things go well initially (before reboot), but after the system is restarted, it enters a "reboot loop" where it will boot up to the Apple logo and progress bar, saying "About 29 minutes remaining..." and then sometimes immediately or sometimes after it reaches 18 minutes, it will reboot and start over, and the process just keeps repeating.

I've tried both installing Monterey as an upgrade to Catalina, and also installing to a new drive. Same result.

I didn't see a ticket for this so maybe I need to file one. I only see a ticket referring to problems with Monterey as a host.
scottgus1
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by scottgus1 »

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

Before I try to capture and submit logs, I was trying find out...

Does the development team proactively test with new MacOS releases? Is Monterey installation working for anyone else?
mpack
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by mpack »

Todd Almighty wrote:Does the development team proactively test with new MacOS releases? Is Monterey installation working for anyone else?
User Manual wrote:Oracle VM VirtualBox enables you to install and execute unmodified versions of Mac OS X guests
on supported host hardware.Note that this feature is experimental and thus unsupported.
I imagine the dev team is busy with Win11 right now. Bad timing for a new Apple release, but I'm sure they'll get around to it when they can.
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

The most recent MacOS version in the OS dropdown is still High Sierra (10.13), and that's consistent with the online docs describing the supported guest OSes, so it's not even clear to me that BIg Sur has been tested. I only know that Catalina works because I have it running.
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

Looks like the key here is the # of CPUs you choose in your machine settings. If you choose 2 CPUs, it will install properly to a new disk or an upgrade, but if you choose 4 CPUs (or 6), the installation will loop. It will also hit a kernel panic if you try it with a working Monterey system after installation.

So, looks like someone should create a ticket to support > 2 CPUs for Monterey. My Catalina VM was using 4 CPUs.
fth0
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by fth0 »

Could you try with this test build? It is notarized, to avoid the usual SIP trouble...
Todd Almighty
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Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

I actually build from source for my use case. Can I download that tarball somewhere? The official page only links to the release tarball.

Or you could tell me which file(s) you think contain the fix and I could manually patch them into the 6.1.28 source - I think I can browse the latest source from the website.
fth0
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by fth0 »

No, the sources for this special build of VirtualBox for macOS hosts are not publicly available. Since this is probably the earliest VirtualBox version capable to run on a macOS Monterey host with SIP enabled, and macOS guests are only supported on macOS hosts, trying it would be a useful prerequisite for a bug ticket. ;)

The browsable sources from the VirtualBox website belong to the development version 6.1.97 and can also be downloaded via Subversion.
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

Are there specific changes post 6.1.28 in the source tree that you think could fix the 4 cpu issue? If so, let me know which files and I will attempt to merge them into my local 6.1.28 build.
fth0
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by fth0 »

I don't know any. I'd take a look at a VBox.log file, but I have a feeling that you're not going to provide one. ;)
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

I guess I can use SVN to attempt to pull down a snapshot at the revision you mentioned. Then i can build from that.

I was asking about specific files because I assumed you suspected this issue may already be fixed, but now it sounds like it was just a shot in the dark. In any event, it's not difficult to rebuild so if I can sync from SVN the snapshot you mention, I'll try it.
fth0
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by fth0 »

Todd Almighty wrote:I guess I can use SVN to attempt to pull down a snapshot at the revision you mentioned.
I think (but don't know) that the revision numbers of the SVN trunk (6.1.97) and of the SVN 6.1.28 release branch (6.1.29) are not aligned, although being numerically similar. Additionally, the branches have thousands of differences. In consequence, whatever you pull from SVN, will be significantly different from any 6.1.29 test build.
Todd Almighty wrote:I was asking about specific files because I assumed you suspected this issue may already be fixed, but now it sounds like it was just a shot in the dark.
Something in between. If you have a rare issue and want to get the attention of a developer, it's usually best to use a software version as close as possible to their reality, which often is far ahead of the reality of the users. This holds true not only in the VirtualBox world. ;)
Todd Almighty
Posts: 51
Joined: 13. Nov 2013, 13:44

Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by Todd Almighty »

Yeah, I see that the file Version.kmk, which should be updated for every minor release, hasn't been touched in svn in 21 months. So, yeah, the svn tree appears to be junk, unrelated to the release tarballs. That's not really in the spirit of open source, is it? Why not just publish the real source tree?
fth0
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Re: Anyone have a Monterey guest working?

Post by fth0 »

AFAIK, there hasn't been any minor release of VirtualBox 6.1.97 in the previous 21 months, so everything is fine with the SVN trunk. And for each minor release of VirtualBox (6.1.0 up to 6.1.28) the sources have been published.
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