[VMware] "An error occurred installing macOS"?

[mcandre]

Hello there! I'm trying to install High Sierra in VMware Fusion for a command line driven Vagrant box, in order to make it easier to compile applications for macOS. I actually managed to automate macOS installation entirely with PC-compatible keyboard input in https://www.packer.io/, so that's pretty cool I guess. Unfortunately, the boot after SetupAssistant fails:

Trace
 

Installing: About 15 minutes remaining

...

Installing on "Macintosh HD"

...

An error occurred installing macOS. To use Apple Diagnostics to check your Mac hardware, shut down, press the power button, and immediately hold the 'D' key until diagnostics begins.

Quit the installer to restart your computer and try again.

Restart

Screenshots





System Specs

• Guest OS: macOS 10.13 High Sierra
• Host OS: macOS 10.13 High Sierra
• Hypervisor: VMware Fusion 10
• Physical hardware: mid-2013 13" MacBook Air

Configuration

 

VMX: https://gist.github.com/mcandre/df4a69809afb8103ef37ae32371c6e23

ISO generation scripts, packer configuration, and VMX settings are available as a work-in-progress "macos" branch in my packer templates repository:

https://github.com/mcandre/packer-templates/tree/macos

Mitigation steps attempted

I've already tried:

• Re-generating the installer ISO image.
• Re-running the packer VM build.
• Tweaking VMX settings.
• Disabling SMC (which results in a VM that never finishes booting).
• Increasing virtual RAM to 4GB.
• Specifying the virtual hard drive as a solid state drive.
• Using VirtualBox (unfortunately, packer sends the wrong scancodes to VirtualBox for macOS guests, so packer + macOS guests + VirtualBox doesn't integrate very well at the moment).
• Pressing 'D' during boot (no change in behavior, no diagnostics displayed).

If anyone else has experience getting macOS to boot in VMware, let me know how the VMX configuration can be improved, or if some kind of SMC toggling intervention is necessary to get the thing to boot better. I've already tossed so many hacks and workarounds into the mix that I'm starting to run out of ideas

 

I'm new to hackintoshing, so I'm not sure if I'm missing some critical VMX configuration, or perhaps if High Sierra introduces further complications compared to earlier editions of macOS. Or even if an alternative EFI bootloader (Clover?) is necessary, I just don't know. I'd prefer to install macOS with as vanilla/default a configuration as possible.

 

( Also posted to Reddit just in case. https://www.reddit.com/r/hackintosh/comments/7gaebu/vmware_high_sierra_an_error_occurred_installing/ )

[mcandre]

Turns out packer was supplying bad configuration to VMware Fusion. Here is a working VMX:

 

https://gist.github.com/mcandre/48f90963d9a24315024319cd62142f6a