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ESXi 5 Mac OS X Unlocker


Donk
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Sebus - somebody else sent me a PM with a similar problem. Not sure what is happening but one question do you have the unlocker on both machines that are being used for vMotion? My suspicion is that vCenter is getting a checksum of the core monitor program (vmx) which we patch and decided it is not compatible. The guy on the PM removed the unlocker an vMotion worked again.

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I could understand if it does NOT work ALWAYS. That would be easy. But no, it works for one or two or three moves (never consistent number) & then it times out.

Restarting services on the host makes it all work again (for a random number of times)

 

It just does not make sense...

 

sebus

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Is there anyway the Unlocker could be one day compatible with vCenter ?

I have a 3 Host cluster and don't really feel like managing everything separately.

 

If any help is needed in testing i'll be my pleasure to help.

 

 

@Those who still try to install on a vCenter configuration, not only it won't work to boot up but it will give you problem with any Linux/Unix VM and you won't be able to start Fault Tolerance or start some of you VM.

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@Those who still try to install on a vCenter configuration, not only it won't work to boot up but it will give you problem with any Linux/Unix VM and you won't be able to start Fault Tolerance or start some of you VM.

 

Would you elaborate?

 

Unlikely that it would ever happen, as hacking vCenter files would be required

 

sebus

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Would you elaborate?

 

Unlikely that it would ever happen, as hacking vCenter files would be required

 

sebus

 

Ok.... why hacking ESXi is ok but not vCenter ? What are the difference ?

 

I haven't tested the patch during days since my important VM were affected.

 

Trixbox VM: Wouldn't start at all, i would receive a "general system error", even with vCenter Server and all host reboot.... the VM never wanted to boot after the patch.

 

All VM: FaultTolerance is "ON" but secondary VM won't start, again the "general system error" occur (0xbad0007).

 

I haven't push it further since up start pfSense and Trixbox are two of my most important VM in my cluster, first thing that came to my mind was the patch i just applied so i decided to uninstall it, as soon it was off everything started working back again like it was used to.

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Because the change on the ESXi host came directly from the work done on Workstation. vCenter, vSphere, vMotion, SRM plus all the other parts of a vSphere deployment are hugely complex, and just trying to find what is happening is a challenge. On top of that I don't have access to enough kit to even try and find out what is going. I have virtualized ESXI, vCenter system (vPod in VMware terms) but nothing I do allows me to run a nested Mac OS X guest, which means I can't trace anything. Finally I have no time to do this as my work schedule is vey heavy until at least March.

 

If anyone else wants to take up the challenge feel free, but for now the patch is for ESXi 5 only.

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Because the change on the ESXi host came directly from the work done on Workstation. vCenter, vSphere, vMotion, SRM plus all the other parts of a vSphere deployment are hugely complex, and just trying to find what is happening is a challenge. On top of that I don't have access to enough kit to even try and find out what is going. I have virtualized ESXI, vCenter system (vPod in VMware terms) but nothing I do allows me to run a nested Mac OS X guest, which means I can't trace anything. Finally I have no time to do this as my work schedule is vey heavy until at least March.

 

If anyone else wants to take up the challenge feel free, but for now the patch is for ESXi 5 only.

 

If i had half of your knowledge i would probably be up for it.

I totally understand the complexity it would inquired.

 

I was mainly wondering if it was on the roadmap for the future. Again i can't be more help that testing it but if it can help i'll be more that happy to.

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I also got few "general system error" on VM start, but this one was always clear with services restart (not even host reboot)

Will have to test hostd only restart next time...

Also will have to test starting VM from host only (and not vCenter)

 

sebus

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Sebus - somebody else sent me a PM with a similar problem. Not sure what is happening but one question do you have the unlocker on both machines that are being used for vMotion? My suspicion is that vCenter is getting a checksum of the core monitor program (vmx) which we patch and decided it is not compatible. The guy on the PM removed the unlocker an vMotion worked again.

 

 

Hi to everybody.

I'm "someone else" :) just needed time to understand how to post here))

 

So the problem was when your ESXi had been connected to vCenter and you patcher it with Unlocker.

You successfully run Lion, for example.

But after day or two, when you try to create a new VM (windows, for example) or just(!!) switch off Lion and then try to turn on it again, you get an error:

"A general system error occurred: The virtual machine could not start"

 

The interesting moment is that I managed to vMotion to this host one of my Win2k3 VM and it works well (and turn on too), but another VMs and win2k3 too don't work. So some VMs work...

 

Reboot of ESXi doesn't help, reboot of vCenter doesn't help.

The decision is to uninstall and install Unlocker again.

 

If someone has more information and can test it with more VMs, post it here. It can help to understand the dependence if it exists...

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I'm just installing ESXi5 in VMware 8 and will try the ESXi update and unlocker. If that works I'll do that on my ESXi running 10.7.2, take a snapshot and install 10.7.2 again without the older 10.7.1 scsi kernel module. "One moment please"...

 

 

Edit: I'm back.

 

The good thing: Unlocker (1.0.2) works with this ESXi update (20111201).

The bad thing: after reinstall 10.7.2, Lion don't boot :(

 

The downgrade to 10.7.1 AppleLSI.. module is still required...

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Unlocker works (at least it runs, inserts the correct wording and makes changes, so Mac can be chosen as OS to install), but my SL Server 10.6.8 will not start on this updated host

 

General System Error Occured. The virtual machine could not start

 

.vmx did not change since before update

 

sebus

sl.txt

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Unlocker works (at least it runs, inserts the correct wording and makes changes, so Mac can be chosen as OS to install), but my SL Server 10.6.8 will not start on this updated host

 

General System Error Occured. The virtual machine could not start

 

.vmx did not change since before update

 

sebus

 

detach ESXi from vCenter and after reboot try again....just to be sure that it's patch, not vCenter.

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But one does NOT start Mac from vCenter, but from direct connection to the host

 

Anyway, this VM now does not even start on the previous ESX5i patch (which worked last week)

 

sebus

 

EDIT

 

It is "fascinating"! I stopped usbarbitrator service (as it takes WAYYYYY to long on services restart or ESX boot)

Mac SL config has USB (and hid connected to it)

So without usbarbitrator instead of nice clean error message it just throws the general UGLY one!

 

That is on build 504890 as well as current build 515841

 

Starting usbarbitrator on the host makes the VM boot as normal

 

So Vmware needs to work on error messages!!!!! or checking config & NOT allow something that simply can not work

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Hi

 

I followed all the guidelines and was able to get the installer booting from USB on ESXi 5 :wink2:

 

My problem is now, that it seems that the Keyboard doesn't work (as does the mouse).

When I come to the first installer screen (choose language), I can't anywhere and also arrow keys or enter seems to be not accepted.

 

ESXi 5 standalone, vcenter on Windows 7 (virtual on my mac).

 

Works fine in all other VMs, but not in Mac OS X Lion install screen ...

 

any help is highly appreciated.

 

f0rd42

 

ps: THanks to Donk and all other for the great work!

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strange ..... could use mouse and keyboard after a while, so seems ok now.

 

new problem ...

 

can't see my 40GB Disk in the Install process.

 

I launched terminal and all I can see is the 4GB USB Stick and the RAM Disks (Screenshot attached).

 

I used the default in ESX for the disk (also attached)

 

Am I missing something?

 

Thanks

 

f0rd42

post-940054-0-94927800-1324487942_thumb.png

post-940054-0-95289600-1324487944_thumb.png

post-940054-0-68734100-1324487946_thumb.png

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is my first post .. hello

 

I try to install Lion on my whitebox ESXi 5.0 (amd phenom x6).

The esxi works very well, but if i try it after the unlocker procedure , i have a message like screen1.

I have used: Lion and SL with the same problem.

I'm trying with: Boot dvd (usb dvd) , boot usb key , iso dvd

 

can you help me?

thanks

 

 

ps: about the screen : in this case i'm using usb key with Lion. I have this message too in the events:

Message from ZZ.: The CPU has been disabled by

the guest operating system. Power off or reset

the virtual machine.

info

04/01/2012 10.52.43

LION

User

post-944465-0-59525800-1325671003_thumb.jpg

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Mac OS X does not run on AMD CPUs only Intel. There are mods to make it work but I have no experience of them, and can't really help.

 

But why Intel Xeon CPU E7420@2.13GHz need legacy_kernel-10.6.8.nawcom (SL) or mach_kernel_atom.10.7.1 (Lion) ?

So, now, My ESXi 5.0 server (HP ProLiant BL680c G5), canNot update Lion to 10.7.2, otherwise, hung up.

 

I can't understand why...

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I encountered a few issues when trying to run the lastest v1.0.2 on ESXi 5:

 

1) open failed Permission denied

2) sed: /bootbank/boot.cfg: No such file or directory

 

I fixed them by:

 

1) chmod 777 bin/*

2) touch /bootbank/boot.cfg

 

I blogged with details and an updated install.sh for anyone that's not comfortable able patching themselves: http://tickett.wordpress.com/2012/01/15/patched-install-sh-for-mac-os-x-unlocker-1-0-2-esxi/

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