Jump to content

macOS Unlocker V3.0 for VMware ESXi 3.0.0


About This File

macOS Unlocker V3.0 for VMware ESXi
===================================

1. Introduction
---------------

Unlocker 3 for ESXi is designed for VMware ESXi 6.5 and 6.7.

The patch code carries out the following modifications dependent on the product
being patched:

* Fix vmware-vmx to allow macOS to boot
* Fix libvmkctl to allow vSphere to control the guest

The code is written in Python as it makes the Unlocker easier to run and
maintain on ESXi.

+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| IMPORTANT:                                                                  |
| ==========                                                                  |
|                                                                             |
| Always uninstall the previous version of the Unlocker before using a new    |
| version. Failure to do this could render VMware unusable.                   |
|                                                                             |
+-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+

2. Installation
---------------
Copy the distribution file to the ESXi host datastore using scp or some other
data transfer system.

Decompress the file from the ESXi console or via SSH:

    tar xzvf esxi-unlocker-xxx.tgz

(xxx - will be the version number, for example, 300)

Run the command from the terminal:

    ./esxi-install.sh

Finally reboot the server.

3. Uninstallation
-----------------
Open the ESXi console or login via SSH and chnage to the folder where the files were extracted.

Run the command from the terminal:

    ./esxi-uninstall.sh

Finally reboot the server.

4. Notes
--------
A. There is a command added called esxi-smctest.sh which can show if the patch is successful. It must be run from a
terminal or SSH session. The output should be:

/bin/vmx
smcPresent = true
custom.vgz     false   38725560 B

B. The unlocker can be temporarily disabled during boot by editing the boot options and adding "nounlocker".

5. Thanks
---------

Thanks to Zenith432 for originally building the C++ unlocker and Mac Son of Knife
(MSoK) for all the testing and support.

Thanks also to Sam B for finding the solution for ESXi 6 and helping me with
debugging expertise. Sam also wrote the code for patching ESXi ELF files and
modified the unlocker code to run on Python 3 in the ESXi 6.5 environment.

The code is available at https://github.com/DrDonk/esxi-unlocker

History
-------
26/09/18 3.0.0 - First release


(c) 2011-2018 Dave Parsons

 

  • Like 4
  • Thanks 2
 Share


User Feedback

Recommended Comments

This doesn't work on AMD systems. Is there any plan on getting this too work on AMD systems?

 

It appears that unlocker never worked on AMD boards.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

On 11/4/2018 at 5:02 PM, sunborn said:

This doesn't work on AMD systems. Is there any plan on getting this too work on AMD systems?

 

It appears that unlocker never worked on AMD boards.

Why would you think that UNMODIFIED Macos would run on AMD processor? This patch just add some piece of code to allow running macos virtual machines, not to add amd support to os, that never supported it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I just wanted to throw my thanks in here. ESXi is my preferred platform to run MacOS on, and it works flawlessly (disregarding Apple's poor support for non-accelerated video)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for you hard work, Donk. Thought you gave this up, but glad you're back at it.

Time to upgrade from ESXi 6.0 to 6.7 finally. :yes:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

./esxi-install.sh

gives me a permission denied? does that mean secure boot is enabled?

 

 

EDIT: "chmod +x esxi-install.sh" did something!

Edited by cdoublejj
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank for your work :-)

Unfortunately on my ESXi 6.7.0 Update 3 (Build 15018017) I cannot install the patch. Gives me the following error:

VMware Unlocker 3.0.0

===============================

Copyright: Dave Parsons 2011-18

Installing unlocker.tgz

Acquiring lock /tmp/bootbank.lck

Copying unlocker.tgz to /bootbank/unlocker.tgz

Editing /bootbank/boot.cfg to add module unlocker.tgz

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

Editing /bootbank/boot.cfg failed: 1

Success - please now restart the server!

 

Did a "chmod +x ESXi-install.sh", but no luck.

I found another blog describing this error, but with a rather old version: https://tickett.wordpress.com/tag/esxi-unlocker/

 

Any hints would be very welcomed :-)

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Although the install script says success, when I run ESXI-smctest.sh - its shows FALSE.

 

What did I do wrong?  There are no VM's in my system that have secure boot.  How do I debug?

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

×
×
  • Create New...