ESXi, use unlocker when MacOS already available?

[Andy Wright]

Hey all,

 

I have a Dell Precision T5500 which I have installed ESXi 6.5 on. I was going to run Unlocker on it but I have read that it is unstable with 6.5.

 

I realised early on that my ESXi (which is the Dell custom U3 build) was showing MacOS 10.12 as an installable option. However, I cannot get the installer to boot (the progress bar gets to about 60% then it reboots). If possible I would like to use vanilla Sierra or High Sierra.

 

So, my first question is: do I need to run Unlocker even if it is already in the list (does Unlocker do more than just make the options available)? I'm pretty sure I saw somebody ask this question somewhere online a couple of weeks ago but I cannot remember what was said and my Google-fu is failing me now.

 

If I run Unlocker on ESXi 6.5 what are the real repercussions? I only use the HTML interface fling. I have read that hostd sometines crashes but I am unclear what that does and if, in my scenario, it would matter (the "host" in the name suggests it is important but it's best to check ). I would be happy to downgrade to 6.0 if necessary.

 

I am sure that the High Sierra iso I created is solid because I successfully installed it in VirtualBox on my MacBook Pro.

 

 

PS. I am a first time poster here and very much a noob with ESXi, Unlocker and Virtualising MacOS.

 

 

Host Spec

MODEL:      DELL PRECISION T5500 WORKSTATION

PROCESSOR:  DUAL XEON 4 CORE 2.67GHz - INTEL X5550 
            6.40 GT/s 
            8 CORES AVAILABLE  

RAM:        16GB DDR3 ECC (4 X 4GB, ECC PC3-10600R)

GRAPHICS:   NVIDIA NVS 295 DUAL HEAD 256MB PCI EXPRESS CARD 

NETWORK:    ONBOARD INTEGRATED BROADCOM 5754 GIGABIT
 
OTHER PORTS:
    11 x USB PORTS (2 FRONT, 6 BACK, 3 INTERNAL)
     2 x PCI SLOTS
     1 x SERIAL PORT
     1 x PARALLEL PORT
     4 x PCI EXPRESS (2x16 PCIE2 & 2x8 PCIE2)
     1 X ESATA PORT (BACK)

[macfriend123]

Hi Andy,

 

I have been using unlocker under ESXi 6.5 for a few months now and did not experience any problems. Of course YMMV. Guests are all versions of MacOS from Snow Leopard to High Sierra and also some versions of OpenBSD.

 

AFAIK, unlocker does more than just make MacOS available in the list. Among others it fakes the existence of real Mac hardware, just like FakeSMC.kext does.

 

The HTML interface fling *IS* flaky, it has to reload quite often, but for me it did not do any real harm to my installed guests.

 

That's my $0,02. HTH

 

-Heinrich

 

[sunborn]

So, my first question is: do I need to run Unlocker even if it is already in the list (does Unlocker do more than just make the options available)? I'm pretty sure I saw somebody ask this question somewhere online a couple of weeks ago but I cannot remember what was said and my Google-fu is failing me now.

 

 

 

I wondered this too. It turns out, the answer is YES.

 

If I run Unlocker on ESXi 6.5 what are the real repercussions?

I can't help you there. It works great with 6.0 U2