Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
ant
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Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

Hello.

This is my first time trying to install a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 in a brand new VirtualBox v5.1.18 installation in a 2012 13.3" 9,2 / MD102ll/A model with Intel Core I7 CPU (2.9 ghz with 4 MB L3 cache (Turbo Boost up to 3.6 Ghz)), updated OS Sierra v10.12.4, 8 GB of 1600 MHZ DDR3 SDRAM, Intel HD graphics 4000, 500 GB of SSD, etc. I used viewtopic.php?f=22&t=81443 's instructions and script to make an ISO file of my downloaded App Store's Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 installer.

I tried a couple new VMs (guided and expert with their mostly defaults except the VM location to be shared by multiple Mac OS users in /Users/ant/VirtualBox VMs/Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6/) twice with the mounted ISO file, but both failed with their last "com.apple.AppleFSCompressionTypeZlib load succeeded" line as shown in my http://i.imgur.com/Gf6yOtz.png screen capture/shot.

How do I fix this so I can clean install?

Thank you in advance. :)
Last edited by ant on 18. Apr 2017, 17:22, edited 2 times in total.
socratis
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.4 hangs in its text mode...

Post by socratis »

  1. The MBP9,2 came originally with OSX 10.7.4, so it definitely supports 10.11.
  2. Did you get any errors during the InstallerApp2iso process?
  3. How long did you wait? The messages seem normal up to the point that you gave up.
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

1. I believe so for the host MBP. I also upgraded (not clean install) its OS to Mountain Lion v10.8 and then Sierra v10.12.4.
2. I will have to check. It did say it was done at the end.
3. I waited about ten minutes. Is that still too short?
Last edited by ant on 18. Apr 2017, 17:22, edited 2 times in total.
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

ant wrote:... 2. I will have to check. It did say it was done at the end...
OK, I reran InstallerApp2iso with verbose 3 to make a new ISO from the same App Store's downloaded El Capitan v10.11.6 app file. I attached the log file. The only thing I noticed that might be a problem:
...
2017-04-17 08:43:41.025 diskimages-helper[3511:191439] -processKernelRequest: flush received
33:66: execution error: Finder got an error: Can’t get window "OS X Base System". (-1728)
Remove Package link and replace with actual files... (go get some coffee)
...

I also found it interesting that both md5's checksums were different from my yesterday's ISO and today's ISO files. Shouldn't they be the same?
Attachments
log2.txt
InstallerApp2iso (4/2/2017)'s verbose log 3's outputs with downloaded App Store's El Capitan v10.11.6 app.
(19.67 KiB) Downloaded 29 times
Last edited by ant on 18. Apr 2017, 17:22, edited 1 time in total.
socratis
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.4 hangs in its text mode...

Post by socratis »

The conversion seems to have worked. The error is non-essential. Just FYI, that specific Finder window was closed before the "asr" actually started. I don't know why the message is sent afterwards...
ant wrote:I also found it interesting that both md5's checksums were different from my yesterday's ISO and today's ISO files. Shouldn't they be the same?
No, but if you find out why, I'd appreciate it. Please re-read the "[Howto] Create OSX ISO from the OSX Install app". Carefully this time.

One thing I'm trying is to verify the checksum of the installer app. See: https://github.com/notpeter/apple-installer-checksums and make sure that it's the correct one.
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

socratis wrote:... One thing I'm trying is to verify the checksum of the installer app. See: https://github.com/notpeter/apple-installer-checksums and make sure that it's the correct one.
My .dmg file looks OK:

Code: Select all

$ shasum /Users/Shared/archives/Mac\ OSes/OSinstallers/Install\ OS\ X\ El\ Capitan\ 10.11.6\ \(ELN\).app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg 
7739e3f62080000da5d28efa689c53976112a262  /Users/Shared/archives/Mac OSes/OSinstallers/Install OS X El Capitan 10.11.6 (ELN).app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg
I noticed there was a DMG so I tried to see if I could boot from it in VM like the ISO file. Nope. :(

And oops, I meant to say v10.11.6 and not v10.11.4 (confused with Sierra's .4) earlier. :(
socratis
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by socratis »

Right-click on the VM in VirtualBox Manager, "Show in Finder", zip the .vbox file and attach it here please.
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

socratis wrote:Right-click on the VM in VirtualBox Manager, "Show in Finder", zip the .vbox file and attach it here please.
Done. I also upgraded my VirtualBox to v5.1.20 and rebooted the host machine, but they did not help. :(
Attachments
Mac OS X v10.11.6 El Capitan.vbox.zip
A zipped file of my brand new .vbox file from VirtualBox v5.1.20.
(1.36 KiB) Downloaded 33 times
socratis
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by socratis »

  1. Try with 3072 MB of RAM instead of 2048 MB.
  2. Try with two vCPUs instead of one.
  3. Try with 128 MB of vRAM instead of 16 MB.
  4. Enabling the Host I/O cache, might improve your performance. If the VM ever boots ;)
    (VM settings » Storage » SATA Controller » Use Host I/O Cache = checked)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
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ant
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

socratis wrote:
  1. Try with 3072 MB of RAM instead of 2048 MB.
  2. Try with two vCPUs instead of one.
  3. Try with 128 MB of vRAM instead of 16 MB.
  4. Enabling the Host I/O cache, might improve your performance. If the VM ever boots ;)
    (VM settings » Storage » SATA Controller » Use Host I/O Cache = checked)
I changed each setting one by one to see which would work with a brand new VM.

The first three did not help, but the fourth (enable the host I/O cache) finally made the ISO booted up fully, but why? However, it won't let me install since it says "There's not enough free space on OS X Base System to install" and no HDD seen. And then, I used its Disk Utility (top menu bar was hidden because of my limited screen space) to initialize the 32 GB virtual drive.

OK. So I decided to start over from scratch to see if I can use the default settings again, but it boots up ISO just fine. What the frak? I decided to reboot the host and retry from scratch with defaults with the new VM. Same hang. So, I enabled the Host I/O cache, and it booted up. Weird. I will resume the installation later and just in case you have something else to tell me. :P
Last edited by ant on 19. Apr 2017, 18:18, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by socratis »

ant wrote:So, what does Enabling the Host I/O cache do to fix my issue? Is it a common issue?
Not being patient enough for the installation to proceed? Maybe... ;)
No, seriously, that's the only thing that I can think of that it would change things; the speed that your VM was reading the ISO. That's it.
ant wrote:(top menu bar was hidden because of my limited screen space)
Why? Are you using a VGA monitor? At 1024x768 (the default), I find it rather odd that you wouldn't see the top part of the VM.
ant wrote:"There's not enough free space on OS X Base System to install" and no HDD seen.
Your virtual HD is unformatted, unpartitioned. For unknown reasons, OSX installers do not really appreciate that. You have to go to the Disk Utility and initialize it. That's what happens in real installs as well.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
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ant
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

socratis wrote:
ant wrote:So, what does Enabling the Host I/O cache do to fix my issue? Is it a common issue?
Not being patient enough for the installation to proceed? Maybe... ;)
No, seriously, that's the only thing that I can think of that it would change things; the speed that your VM was reading the ISO. That's it.
ant wrote:(top menu bar was hidden because of my limited screen space)
socratis wrote:Why? Are you using a VGA monitor? At 1024x768 (the default), I find it rather odd that you wouldn't see the top part of the VM.

Uh, I even tried waiting 30 minutes yesterday during my breakfast break. After enabling host I/O cache, then it boots up instantly today. No hang and pause!

This internal 13.3" MBP's screen is only 1280x800 pixels big and non-retina with Intel 4000 video. I had to scroll up. The vertical scrollbar appeared during the basic text screen. :(

It sounds I am safe to resume to install.
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by socratis »

ant wrote:Uh, I even tried waiting 30 minutes yesterday during my breakfast break. After enabling host I/O cache, then it boots up instantly today. No hang and pause!
Weird... At some point earlier I believe that you said that you switched hard drives from a platter-based one to an SSD one, is that correct? It's the only thing I can think of that could make a difference, yet the connection is not that obvious. I know that it works fine with or without the I/O cache, since when I started installing OSX guests the cache wasn't even an option.

I will repeat the tests (I believe I still have a 10.11.x installer around), but could you do the same please? Create two identical VMs, except the I/O cache setting. Then we'll compare logs from the 4 runs; 2 yours and 2 mine. 2 with cache on, 2 with cache off.

And yes, of course the MBP9,2 has indeed a small screen size, you're right...

Proceed with the installation. It seems you're good to go...
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Re: Installing a brand new Mac OS X El Capitan v10.11.6 hangs in its text mode...

Post by ant »

Yeah, MBP's internal HDD crashed hard due its physical drop. :( Attached a zip file with logs. I booted up host I/O to GUI screen. And then rebooted the host and then made a new VM with its defaults (no host I/O cache) for the boot hang.
Attachments
2VBoxLogs.zip
2 VM logs when it didn't work and did work between reboots and enabling host I/O.
(43.71 KiB) Downloaded 23 times
Last edited by socratis on 19. Apr 2017, 18:48, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unnecessary verbatim quote of the whole previous message.
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A new issue after installing and rebooting...

Post by ant »

Dang it. I thought I was good to go, but it hung after installing and auto-rebooting as shown in my attached screen shot/capture. :(
Attachments
Stuck at BootCacheControl...
Stuck at BootCacheControl...
Screen Shot 2017-04-19 at 10.45.24 AM.png (94.73 KiB) Viewed 7310 times
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