Create macOS VM

[rhpijnacker]

Is it possible to create a macOS VM inside UTM using this plugin?
I would like to deploy this from an iso/dmg image created with Mist from scratch.

If that isn't possible, are there alternatives?

[naveenrajm7]

Will the VM backend be QEMU or Apple Virtualisation ?

If it is QEMU , you can use this plugin to build your VM.

If it is Apple Virtualisation, some scripts might break because Apple VM does not support all the config provided like uefi arch etc.

Lastly, what are the steps to create MacOS ? If it is similar to creating other VMs , like attach iso , boot VM and some way to automate OS installation, then it should be easy to provide support for it.
Please share the steps you would like to automate.

[rhpijnacker]

In the UI of UTM I can choose

• Create a new VM
• Virtualize
• macOS 12, I have to select an IPSW or the latest will be downloaded from Apple
• Select mem, cpu, storage

This will create a VM using Apple Virtualization. It would be nice if we could automate that, and then run some additional provisioners on the generated VM, e.g. to handle the initial boot questions and install additional software.

[rhpijnacker]

The reason I mentioned iso/dmg is because that is what we were using for VMware vSphere/Workstation and Proxmox.
But it looks like UTM itself has an even better option.

Either one should work.

[naveenrajm7]

Okay understood.
The steps you mentioned are already automated, we just need to test once with Apple backed VM.
Because all our base boxes for Vagrant are QEMU backed https://github.com/naveenrajm7/utm-box

Next, after above mentioned steps when I boot the VM , will installation happen automatically and is there a way to do MacOS autoinstall ?

Let me know if you aware on how to automate MacOS installation.

[rhpijnacker]

Yes, once you manually configure the VM like that, when you boot it will automatically install macOS.

After waiting for a while it shows the "hello" screens and you have create a user, set the timezone etc.
After that it does the "onboarding", which I think we already know how to skip.

[naveenrajm7]

Okay, I was able to try this.
Currently, there is an issue in UTM scripting, which doesn't allow us to create macOS VM.
Track UTM progress in the above-mentioned issue.

I was able to fix it and then try. As you said UTM automates the installation of macOS, it will directly drop me into Hello/Bonjour screen, where manual interaction is required.

Takeway:

• There is an issue in UTM scripting with creating a macOS VM. (Fixable)
• Even after the above issue is fixed and we provide support to automate it, you can only get untill the hello screen step after which manual interaction is needed.
• Need a way to automate the 'hello' / 'user creation' step. (macOS doesn't support preseed/kickstart style files to automate this step)
• Further, after login you need to enable Remote access (ssh), which is disabled by default .

Only after these steps, the packer can again take over the VM via ssh and configure necessary things.

Solution: Until we find a way to automate user creation and given the simple process of macOS installation, the suggested way could be -

• We create, install, configure user and ssh manually and export the VM.
• We then use utm-utm builder to bake our custom VM.

[Stromweld]

I'd like to see support for VM based on direct download if macOS ipsw files. For the manual parts I've written boot commands in the bento project for configuring MACOS using packer parallels-ipsw builder. Should be able to pass those through vnc like packer does for qemu builder.

[naveenrajm7]

Good to know that we have boot commands to customize MacOS, user creation, configuring ssh etc.
I foresee the problem with Apple Virtualization, which currently does not support VNC. So we need to figure out a different way to pass the boot commands.
However, if we choose to create MacOS using QEMU backend, then we can try the VNC method.

[DavidBraunDefense]

Tart is doing this successfully.

[b1kjsh]

Good to know that we have boot commands to customize MacOS, user creation, configuring ssh etc. I foresee the problem with Apple Virtualization, which currently does not support VNC. So we need to figure out a different way to pass the boot commands. However, if we choose to create MacOS using QEMU backend, then we can try the VNC method.

Parallels is also doing this successfully, though I believe they have their own display tech they are using to pull all of the text from the screen and tab through items on the display. It would appear that they have a native solution in their hypervisor but also they may rely on macOS's screencapture and then send it through OCR. It's a shame that those VM's don't support VNC though, could have been an easy transition.