macOS Unlocker V3.0 for VMware ESXi

[Donk 462]

Verision 3 of the macOS Unlocker for VMware ESXi. Supports versions:

 

• ESXi 6.5 and 6.7

 

https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/files/file/964-macos-unlocker-v30-for-vmware-esxi/

https://github.com/DrDonk/esxi-unlocker/releases/download/3.0.0/esxi-unlocker-300.tgz

https://github.com/DrDonk/esxi-unlocker/

 

readme.txt

 

Please note that this will not work if Secure Boot is enabled on the ESXi host. This is by design where VMware restricts what can be run when booted using Secure Boot.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Donk

[MSoK 121]

Donk,

 

Thanks for releasing the new ESXi unlocker, apologies for not keeping you updated, has been working fine for me since you sent me the pre-release version.

 

Cheers,
MSoK.

[youme 1]

I did update to 6.7U1 just yesterday and 3.0 continues to work.

 

I shut down my macos VMs, uninstalled unlocker, rebooted, updated ESXI, rebooted, re-installed unlocker again, rebooted and finally ... macos Mojave VM is back running

 

Thanks

[nle 0]

Thanks! Much appreciated!

[maba1234 0]

Thanks for this! Running fine on my CPU E3-1230 v6 based Gigabyte based server running 6.7.0 (Build 8169922). 

[sunborn 1]

This doesn't allow booting of new or migrated Mac OS X VMs on AMD machines even though the check script works.

 

It seems that AMD boards were never supported by unlocker. Will this change in the near future or am I SOL?

[Donk 462]

The unlocker cannot make this work. AMD macOS kernels are needed because macOS does not support AMD CPUs. You will find the details on the forums for setting up an AMD Hackintosh.

 

I may add a warning to the unlocker installer but it is still useful if you have AMD macOS setup available.

[sunborn 1]

1 hour ago, Donk said:

The unlocker cannot make this work. AMD macOS kernels are needed because macOS does not support AMD CPUs. You will find the details on the forums for setting up an AMD Hackintosh.

 

I may add a warning to the unlocker installer but it is still useful if you have AMD macOS setup available.

I have had hackintoshes in the past, I am not a fan. The reason I am using VMware is to load it without hacks (at least no Mac hacks).

Are there any Intel chipsets that also don't agree? I am thinking in the server dual socket arena.

Edited November 4, 2018 by sunborn
grammar

[Donk 462]

Intel chipsets shopuld not matter as VMware has a "virtual chassis" that it emulates, unklike the CPU which iit virtualises. Just make sure you get a CPU with VMX Unrestricted Guest mode, as that is a new dependency for VMware products. Of course needs, VT-x and EPT as well.

 

[i.r. 0]

@Donk Please add to readme chmod +x "filename". And most importantly a small bugreport: if you run ESXi on a server with Secure Boot ON, the scripts won't work.

[Donk 462]

50 minutes ago, i.r. said:

@Donk Please add to readme chmod +x "filename". And most importantly a small bugreport: if you run ESXi on a server with Secure Boot ON, the scripts won't work.

What is missing +x? I just took a look at the archive and it was OK.

 

Yep - none of this will work with secure boot, which is a VMware design decision. No way around it but will add to readme for next release.

Edited November 9, 2018 by Donk

[i.r. 0]

28 minutes ago, Donk said:

What is missing +x? I just took a look at the archive and it was OK. 

  

Yep - none of this will work with secure boot, which is a VMware design decision. No way around it but will add to readme for next release.

 

I mean in the readme, before this step

"Run the command from the terminal:

    ./esxi-install.sh"

 

there should be

 

"chmod +x esxi-install.sh"

[Donk 462]

56 minutes ago, i.r. said:

 

I mean in the readme, before this step

"Run the command from the terminal:

    ./esxi-install.sh"

 

there should be

 

"chmod +x esxi-install.sh"

 

I am still confused. The readme is correct you should not need the chmod command. The archive is uploaded to ESXi and use SSH or Tech Support Console to login and extract the contents. The permissions are correctly set in the gzipped tar file. Don't extract on another system and upload.

 

[root@vm-esxi670:/vmfs/volumes/5b41f592-268e512b-943f-000c29347f00] tar tzvf esxi-unlocker-300.tgz 
-rw-r--r-- dave/staff      4125 2018-09-27 07:02:45 unlocker.tgz
-rwxr-xr-x dave/staff       336 2018-09-27 07:02:45 esxi-install.sh
-rwxr-xr-x dave/staff       341 2018-09-27 07:02:45 esxi-uninstall.sh
-rwxr-xr-x dave/staff       189 2018-09-27 07:02:45 esxi-smctest.sh
-rw-r--r-- dave/staff      2629 2018-09-27 07:02:45 readme.txt

[root@vm-esxi670:/vmfs/volumes/5b41f592-268e512b-943f-000c29347f00/esxi-unlocker-300] ll esxi-*.sh
-rwxr-xr-x    1 501      20           336 Sep 27 07:02 esxi-install.sh
-rwxr-xr-x    1 501      20           189 Sep 27 07:02 esxi-smctest.sh
-rwxr-xr-x    1 501      20           341 Sep 27 07:02 esxi-uninstall.sh

 

 

[i.r. 0]

On 11/9/2018 at 9:58 PM, Donk said:

I am still confused. The readme is correct you should not need the chmod command. The archive is uploaded to ESXi and use SSH or Tech Support Console to login and extract the contents. The permissions are correctly set in the gzipped tar file. Don't extract on another system and upload.

 

Yeah you are right, i must have read the readme for the different version that also includes windows executables

[Donk 462]

That's fine. I deliberately split ESXi fromn Windows/Linux so can have separate release schedules if needed.

[trungpt 10]

Sorry, did I miss someting? This version is not for vmware workstation v15?

[Donk 462]

Yes there is a different release now for hosted products.

[rteiouyr 0]

I am reporting that this fails for me when trying to apply to ESXI 6.7 U1 specifically ESXi-6.7.0-20181104001-standard

 

• Testing with esx-smctest.sh returns smcPresent = false
• It appears that ex-install.sh runs cleanly with no errors, the fixup just does not appear to be loaded
• esxcli system visorfs tardisk list | grep custom.vgz returns nothing

 

@Donk, let me know what you need to troubleshoot. 

[Donk 462]

I will take a look when I have some time, but unfortunately not at the moment.

[gr4z 0]

On 11/20/2018 at 2:06 PM, Donk said:

I will take a look when I have some time, but unfortunately not at the moment.

Fresh install of 6.7u1, same problem for me. smcPresent=false

 

Works fine on another host which was 6.7 upgraded to 6.7u1.

[rteiouyr 0]

I figured out the problem. 

 

It turns out the previous install of Unlocker (208) was still on the system despite my having run the uninstall script. After running the 208 uninstall script, rebooting, running the 300 install script then rebooting, things appear to be working again. This is with a Mojave VM.

 

PS. I upgraded from 6.0 to 6.7...

Edited November 24, 2018 by rteiouyr

[t11chb 0]

Hi folks, i've been banging my head against a wall with this one. I had to change my servers due to CPU support with vmware. I'm now running HP Proliant DL360 Gen8's and have tried 6.7 and 6.7u1 and was getting nowhere until i spotted this brief message which flashes up for a second on boot.

I tried googling it and saw something about secure boot but cannot find secure boot on these servers.

 

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

 

 

[ychcs75 0]

I am same condition with @t11chb

 

I saw same message mentioned above..

my server is TS140 with E3-1275L V3 and secure boot is diabled.

it's not working after upgrade 6.7 u1, after fresh install, it is same..

 

 

[cdoublejj 5]

./esxi-install.sh

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

 

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

Edited August 11 by cdoublejj

[KSandbergFL 0]

I'm happy to report that, this morning, I got a MacOS Mojave 10.14 VM running on ESXi 6.5 Update 3 (July 2019).    I had no issues with Unlocker 3 - followed the instructions in the README, rebooted my VMWare host.... worked first time.

 

 

Edited Friday at 02:50 PM by KSandbergFL