[WorksForMe] Help installing Mojave into Catalina

[elipsett]

I am trying to install Mojave as a VM into Catalina, using this page at appletoolbox[dot]com/need-to-run-32-bit-apps-on-macos-catalina-use-a-mojave-virtual-machine/
I'm using the latest VM6.0 download from the Oracle site. (I have no idea what that corresponds to in my profile info; if anyone knows please tell me!)

I've gotten as far as "Click Start" and everything up to that point seems fine. When I click start, instead of booting the ISO and asking me where to install, it just stops at the shell prompt (screenshot). If I do it "by the book" as per the VirtualBox manual, the VM wizard asks me what drive to use, I specify the ISO file, and I end up at the same screen.

スクリーンショット 2019-11-11 13.38.03.png (43.53 KiB) Viewed 5811 times

I would greatly appreciate any advice as to what I'm doing wrong!

Thanks for your time.

[socratis]

(I have no idea what that corresponds to in my profile info; if anyone knows please tell me!)

Next to the Apple menu (), there is the 'VirtualBox' menu. The 'About VirtualBox' shows you the exact version that you're running, no need for speculation...

instead of booting the ISO

What ISO, where did you get the ISO from? The fact that you're ending up in the EFI shell tells me that the ISO that you got is not bootable.

We need to see a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run, where the problem occurs:

• Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state) / Observe or recreate the problem / Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
• With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
• Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.

Moving to "OSX Guests" from "OSX Hosts". The problem that you're having is with your Guest, not your Host...

PS. For future reference, next time please downsize your attached images by 50% (at least), and change the DPI to 72, both with the Preview.app. Not everyone has the luxury of a HiDPI display

[granada29]

The site you followed is missing one critical part. Mojave will only boot from an apfs file system.

I suggest you take a look at https://www.whatroute.net/installerapp2 ... l#createvm which goes through a process that I have used many times with success for both creating a bootable ISO and installing it to a bootable disk image.

[elipsett]

granada29:

OK, I've been following your guide.
It appears to have made a Mojave ISO file, about 8.5GB.
I'll start on the next steps tomorrow.

[socratis]

2019-11-13 15:21:20.603 diskimages-helper[1803:25391] _mountDevEntries: disk6s1 aborting mountpoint
           postflight because disk image has no band size specified.
2019-11-13 15:21:20.603 diskimages-helper[1803:25388] _postflightMountPointsAfterDAMount:
           disk6s1 aborting because disk image has no band size specified.
2019-11-13 15:21:20.606 diskimages-helper[1803:25388] _postflightMountPointsAfterDAMount:
           disk6 aborting because no mount point found.

The last 2 out of these 3 messages is not something I'm getting when trying to use the same script on a 10.11.6 Host. I'll need to coordinate with Bryan (granada29) and either have him recreate the whole setup (he's on 10.15.1), or I'll have to reboot my MBP into 10.15.1 mode and see if there are any differences. I'll keep your installation logs for comparison purposes.


PS. For future reference you should save and ZIP your logs instead of dumping them inline. It helps you, it helps us, it helps the server, it helps save a (virtual) tree or two...

[elipsett]

I just edited my prior post... rebooted the system, turned off extraneous background apps, and tried again.
It seems to have worked the second time.
(I saved the new, apparently successful log, for reference, but that last one I posted can be safely discarded)

[socratis]

I just edited my prior post...

Please do not do that again in the future. Heavy editing of the posts, where the original meaning of the post is lost, is considered vandalism and it can be grounds for banning a user. My answer is meaningless now, and other users do not get a chance to study the log.

rebooted the system, turned off extraneous background apps, and tried again. It seems to have worked the second time.

So maybe something in the background was interfering with the timing of the script, still got to investigate the script, maybe either a sleep is needed, or a forced unmount due to Spotlight interference.

Marking as [WorksForMe].

[elipsett]

OK, I think I have created the VDI. I ran the app as directed (log), yielding a drive on my desktop named "OS X Base System," which contains a lot of things including a copy of the Mojave installer app (but much smaller than the real thing).
There doesn't appear to be anything named VDI. This is not the name I entered when making it, however.

The procedure then says to "Copy your newly minted VDI file into the VM folder. By default the VDI was created on your Desktop."
Since this folder is the only thing created on my desktop, I assume that's what you mean.
So I copy the entire "OS X Base System" folder? Or just some portion of it?
Or is the VDI file something else entirely?

Thanks.

Edward

[granada29]

The log shows that no .vdi was created - an error occurred.

Code: Select all

New File System Devices
          Whole disk: /dev/disk7
EFI partition device: /dev/disk7s1

Error: Cannot locate driver: 

/Volumes/OS X Base System/usr/standalone/i386/apfs.efi

If you see this error, try running the .vdi creation again. This error seems to be some sort of timing hole.

[elipsett]

Thank you all for your assistance.

The second installation was also an error, but on the third try it did create a vdi file. I set up VB as instructed, got the installation apple, selected the language, and was told that

This copy of the Install macOS Mojave application is damaged, and can't be used to install macOS.

I don't see much point in continuing. I have work to do and will just set up a spare Mac to run an old MacOS when I need one. I had hoped to be able to put it all on one machine to simplify my life, but this is not simplifying.

I'm done.

[socratis]

For anyone landing on this thread:

...but on the third try it did create a vdi file ... and was told that

This copy of the Install macOS Mojave application is damaged, and can't be used to install macOS.

I originally asked you:

What ISO, where did you get the ISO from?

You never replied. You should have.

If you got the Installer from Apple before 2019-10-30,
you need to download it again.

Apple's own certificates have expired!
See https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208052 for more details...

I had hoped to be able to put it all on one machine to simplify my life, but this is not simplifying.

If you thought this was going to be a clicky-clicky thing, you got another thing coming.

On the other hand if you give up, there's no more 32-bit apps for you...

[elipsett]

I have the Mojave installer direct from AppleStore, and I created the ISO file in accordance with the procedure given in InstallerApp2ISO.
If Apple's own certificates have expired that's wonderful, but maybe somebody might have mentioned that earlier in the process?

I'll leave this process up to people who enjoy fiddling with arcane black boxes, and perhaps worry about it some other day, but not now.
Thanks again, but as I said, I'm done.

[socratis]

I don't care if you got it from Tim Cook himself, or if Steve Jobs got resurrected and hand delivered it to you.

That doesn't matter. What matters is that you download a new one, because the one that you have has expired. In one night *all* my official installers became invalid!!! And I had a whole collection of them...

The only way for me, you, or anyone else to use these old installers now, is to disable internet access on my VMs, and to actually switch back the time to something like 2019-10-01, *if* I want a chance to install it.

And you thought it was going to be easy...

If Apple's own certificates have expired that's wonderful, but maybe somebody might have mentioned that earlier in the process?

I asked you, didn't I? And mind you, if we could have known, why didn't *you* know about it? We're not demi-gods here, we're simple users like you, and the expiration came less than two weeks after you tried to install it...

[elipsett]

No, you're clearly not demigods, but you are obviously arrogant.
If you thought there might be a problem with the ISO, you could have mentioned at the very start that I'd need a new one from Apple.

And since you are shifting from providing assistance to personal attacks, not only am I done with experimentation, I'm most definitely done with VB.

Have a good day.

[socratis]

If you thought there might be a problem with the ISO

I asked you. You ignored me.

And since you are shifting from providing assistance to personal attacks

Personal attacks? Where exactly is the personal attack? Please point me to the "personal attack" sentence! Please don't make things up out of thin air...