Catatalina Beta 10.15 - Anyone got it booting yet?

[tarasis]

Was pointed to ask in here. I was following @fusion71au's steps laid out in this post.

 

The difference is I am using Windows 10x64, VMWare-Player 15.1.0, patched with Unlocker 3.0.2.

 

I was able to use Mojave earlier today without issue and built the Catalina DP6 iso in that OS.

 

Using the aforementioned steps (with the pregenerated vmdk and also with a empty vmdk), I get to Step 5 and the system just sits with an Apple Logo and no progress.

 

If I reboot and smack the F2 key to get to Clover and select either Preboot or Boot macOS then I get a Memory Panic.

If I don't smack F2 and just let it boot normally, it sits on the Apple logo doing nothing, with no activity shown in Windows Task Manager.

If I set the Guest Type to Windows 10x64 and reboot then the installation process continues and I can select Country, Input Languages, Network Configuration, user details

 

However when I go to enter the Network Configuration details I find that the keyboard has stopped working but the mouse continues fine (Have tried both a USB 2 and USB 3 socket for the keyboard).

 

I have tried using Safe Mode as a option to clover with no success.

 

At this point am I better off trying an upgrade of 10.14.6? Anyone have any thoughts?

 

[Naki]

Please note macOS Catalina Betas DP1, DP2, DP3/etc ALL need separate, specific kernel patches which you "inject" (copy) into the failing macOS Catalina Beta disk drive, attached to an older, working macOS VM. (this is done with your macOS Catalina Beta VM fully turned off) 
If you check out the thread carefully, you will see attached downloads up to DP5, but NOT DP6, so I guess we will have to wait for DP6 files from somebody here.

(OR if you can obtain a copy of DP5, you CAN get that working.)

Edited August 22, 2019 by Naki

[tarasis]

7 minutes ago, Naki said:

Please note macOS Catalina Betas DP1, DP2, DP3/etc ALL need separate, specific kernel patches which you "inject" (copy) into the failing macOS Catalina Beta disk drive, attached to an older, working macOS VM. (this is done with your macOS Catalina Beta VM fully turned off) 
If you check out the thread carefully, you will see attached downloads up to DP5, but NOT DP6, so I guess we will have to wait for DP6 files from somebody here.

(OR if you can obtain a copy of DP5, you CAN get that working.)

 

Noted @Naki but there was a DP6 patch on the aforementioned post that I used to generate the ISO.

 

"macOS_iso_creator_19A536g.zip" for DP6 and that's what I used earlier and am redownloading now to try again. (I wiped the DMG thinking I didn't need it anymore and in the hopes of reclaiming space … that was for nought. There appears to be no way to compact a VMware-Player 15 macOS Guest. Tried Zeroing in OSX, and then using the Compact UI in VMware-Player, but no dice. OS Using 12GB, VMDK file is currently 42GB)

[Naki]

No, no. The ISO is one matter, patching the necessary files is another, 2nd step.

 

EDIT: Oh, OKay, so it seems it has the files inside it. Did you do the steps listed in this thread, please?
* I.e. power off failing Catalina VM.

* Resume an older working VM, I used macOS Mojave here.

* Now shut it down too, then attach the failed Catalina VM main disk drive to the OLD VM as a 2nd disk, power old VM back on - with 2 HDDs/disks now.

* Then copy those file(s) to correct location, then shutdown older VM again.

* Disconnect the Catalina disk from it, run Catalina Beta VM again - it should now work fine.
(except resolution and Firefox, for me those fail - the former stays at 1024x768 with no way to change, and the latter just crashes and is not usable for me)

 

Please tell me how it goes. Please tell me if something is not clear.

 

And yes, VMware Workstation has more features than Player.  I do not know if above steps work on Player, I assume they do but may be wrong.

Edited August 22, 2019 by Naki

[fusion71au]

On 8/23/2019 at 5:00 AM, tarasis said:

Using the aforementioned steps (with the pregenerated vmdk and also with a empty vmdk), I get to Step 5 and the system just sits with an Apple Logo and no progress....

 

If I set the Guest Type to Windows 10x64 and reboot then the installation process continues and I can select Country, Input Languages, Network Configuration, user details

 

However when I go to enter the Network Configuration details I find that the keyboard has stopped working but the mouse continues fine (Have tried both a USB 2 and USB 3 socket for the keyboard).

 

@tarasis,

 

Clean install method should work without stalling if you remember to boot back into the installer ISO CD on the first reboot (press <F2> at VMware logo to choose CD boot device) ---> open terminal and run copyprelinkedkernel script (step3 under "Installation" in the guide post).

 

A stall at step 5 means a problem at rebuilding kext caches.  You can again fix by booting back to the installer ISO and opening terminal, typing the following commands...

cd /
touch /Volumes/macOS/System/Library/Extensions && kextcache -u /Volumes/macOS   //assuming macOS is name of your Catalina Volume
reboot

 

Alternatively, as you described, temporarily changing the Guest Type to Windows 10 X64 also works but did you remember to switch it back to macOS (from Windows 10 X64) after you get past the stall and reboot to final end user setup?

 

Re memory panic with Clover: often a reboot fixes it .

 

Not sure about your specific keyboard issues...do you have another (different brand) USB keyboard to try?  Some people reported a Caps lock problem on their logitech keyboards ---> disconnecting/disabling their keyboards in DP4/DP5 (but fixed in DP6).

 

Also with Catalina's new "read only" system volume and security settings, you may need to disable System Integrity Protection (SIP) + OSX gatekeeper before running the package installer for VMware tools - see previous post.

 

 

 

 

@Naki,

 

Firefox bug fixed in DP6_19A536g.  I have no problems with installing VMware tools and can change macOS guest window size/screen resolution on the fly. 

 

Do you have System Integrity Protection (SIP) in Catalina disabled?  Besides using Clover, you can also disable SIP by booting to macOS Recovery or the Catalina Installer ISO (press <F2> at VMware logo to choose CD boot device) and disabling it from terminal...

csrutil status  //  This command shows whether SIP currently enabled or disabled
csrutil disable // This command disables SIP when used in Recovery/Installer terminal and needs System Reboot.  Reversed with csrutil enable

 

Are VMware tools kexts loading?  What is the output from terminal after typing

kextstat | grep -v com.apple

Do you see VMwareGfx.kext?......if not, it means SIP is disabling the kext from loading ---> need to disable SIP.....

 

then rebuild kextcache/prelinkedkernel with terminal commands

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions && sudo kextcache -u /

before re-enabling SIP if you want the added security (optional).

Edited August 27, 2019 by fusion71au
Added screenshot for DP6_19A536g, show how to disable SIP

[Naki]

Thanks for responding!
YOU said/asked:

1) Do you have SIP disabled (boot to Recovery and disable it)? 

--> No idea what that is, and how to disable it. I do not use Clover, nor intend to, at least for now.
How to do I "boot to Recovery and disable it"?

2) What is output of csrutil status command in terminal?

--> Sorry, no idea how to switch to bash? Can you tell me how? All I see is zsh prompt. ??

EDIT: OKay, tried to manually type now - copy/paste did not work, says it is Enabled, so I guess I must disable it.

 

The 2nd command you asked to run shows this: https://s.mail.ru/72oh/wsgQVtgcH

EDIT #2: Okayy, your screenshot shows a graphics KEXT running for you, why does it not show here on my VM!? 

EDIT #2: My VMware Workstation version is NOT latest. It is 15.0.3 or something. No way I can update it now, as going on sea holiday in TWO days.
There is an issue with the VMware installer on my PC that breaks VMware Workstation trying to update it, so I have put off updating it to AFTER my holidays.
I do have 15.1.0 version on my laptop, maybe I can try that later today and tomorrow on that one.

 

Copy/paste works, Shared folders work, so VMware Tools seems running, at least partially.

Edited August 23, 2019 by Naki

[Naki]

Hello?? Any help, please?
What is wrong with my VMware Tools and resolutions missing?
Shall I try your fix of uninstall Tools, disable Gatekeeper/system protection, reinstall Tools?
Should not VMware Tools or macOS itself warn me Tools is running only partially without the GFX kext somehow? 

Edited August 26, 2019 by Naki

[fusion71au]

On 7/9/2019 at 10:07 AM, fusion71au said:

 You should be able to rescue the current installation by booting to Catalina with Clover in safe mode and disabling System Integrity Protection (Clover Options/System Parameters/SIP set to 0x0277, Allow Untrusted Kexts, Allow Unapproved Kexts) ---> uninstall old VMware Tools, reinstall new Tools...

 

1.  Attach Clover-v2.5k-5051-X64.iso to your Catalina VM as a virtual CD/DVD

2.  Close the VMware program, then edit the virtual machine's vmx file with WordPad to add the line bios.bootDelay = "3000" ---> allows the virtual machine enough time to register key presses during boot up

3.  Start the VM, press <F2> when you see the VMware logo to access the VMware BIOS, choose to boot from the CD ---> will see Clover main GUI ---> choose Catalina volume (or Preboot volume) to boot, then <Spacebar> for extra options, check Safe Mode (-x), then select "Boot macOS with selected options" + <Enter>... 

 

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Carefully observe the verbose output for errors.

 

Sometimes EFI memory error may be seen.  Usually OK to reboot VM and try step 3 again.

 

There is a saying:  "You can lead a horse to water but can't make it drink" 

 

On 8/23/2019 at 9:29 PM, Naki said:

Do you have SIP disabled (boot to Recovery and disable it)? 

--> No idea what that is, and how to disable it. I do not use Clover, nor intend to, at least for now.

 

 

9 hours ago, Naki said:

Shall I try your fix of uninstall Tools, disable Gatekeeper/system protection, reinstall Tools?

 

Yes.  In fact just booting once to Catalina with the Clover ISO provided above in normal mode will disable System Integrity Protection ---> probably fixing the issue (by allowing VMwareGfx.kext to load from /Library/Extensions).  Safe mode is only required if you have outdated 32bit, "Catalina unaware" VMware tools preventing the VM from booting at all (by stopping all third party/non Apple kexts from loading) and you want to uninstall them.

 

Check /Library/Extensions in Finder to confirm you have the latest VMwareGfx.kext v10.3.10 dated 20 Feb 2019....

Spoiler

 

Once the kext is loading and you can resize the macOS guest, you should rebuild kext caches in OSX terminal so that VMwareGfx.kext is now incorporated into the prelinkedkernel...

sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions && sudo kextcache -u /

Then simply detach the Clover ISO from the Catalina VM after shutdown.

 

 

"Should not VMware Tools or macOS itself warn me Tools is running only partially without the GFX kext somehow? "

On 6/8/2019 at 12:16 AM, Donk said:

I wouldn't expect proper support until Catalina is released which is usually when VMware release a new version of Fusion/Workstation. September timeframe.

Edited August 26, 2019 by fusion71au

[tarasis]

Thanks @Naki and @fusion71au Have DP6 now up and running. Booted into the Installer ISO again, touched the extensions directory and ran the kextcache command, rebooted and created the user.

 

Looking good so far, redraw of Safari tabs isn't great and download speeds are about 1/5-1/6 my normal speeds (getting 1.7-2.1MB/s rather than 10-13MB/s).

 

Thank you both for your help!

[Naki]

@tarasis -- you are welcome! Glad to hear it works now.

 

@fusion71au -- thanks! Reasoning to not tinker with my VMware and VMs much for now was I was about to leave for sea holidays, where I am now at present.  

Usually, if I do something quickly hardware or software-wise just before a holiday, I tend to majorly screw things up. 

(holidays from Aug 25th Sunday to Sept 1st Sunday)

 

Me away from home now makes any potential for tinkering low, as I am on a (very) limited Internet connection here.

When I am back, I will try the steps you sent ASAP  and let you know how it works out.

Good to hear I need Clover just to boot to once, if so, that should not be hard to do.

Edited August 30, 2019 by Naki

[tarasis]

@fusion71au thanks for the prelinkedkernel for DP7. Worked a treat, VM successfully updated.

[Naki]

@fusion71au- finally had the time to try this.  Worked great - thank you so much. 

Here is what I tried first - edited VMX file as told to put a delay on boot of 3 seconds (3000 ms).

Then I tried to add Recovery Boot to VMware Boot menu, could not do it, as the screens I got matched with those given for only 3-4 first screens, and then not anymore so I could not do/choose what was shown.

 

So, I gave up on that and tried to use Clover ISO instead. You list steps to do there, but it booted very fast and I could not do any mouse or keyboard actions in Clover.

However, after the Catalina Beta VM having booted, I checked SIP again and it was disabled now.  

So, next I reinstalled the NEW, 64-bit VMware Tools - no uninstall, just reinstall on top of previous installation - and now the resolution automatically jumped from 1024x768 to my native 2K (1440p) monitor resolution, as well as being able to change it too. 

I will do the Rebuild kext cache step now...

 

I will also try to update to latest Catalina Developer Beta later today or tomorrow. Thanks again!

@tarasis - I get the same thing with Internet/network speed here too - I have a relatively fast 80 Mbit Internet connection here and in my Windows 10 Host OS speed matches exactly when tested (or also when downloading files from an unlimited web server/etc). 

And in my macOS VMs the speed I can get is at least ~6-7 times slower.

Edited September 4, 2019 by Naki

[Naki]

Okay, I am not being able to do the Kext rebuild here! Please could you help me? First, it said it is Read-only.

 

So, I followed the steps of disabling the macOS Catalina Gatekeeper to get out of the read-only mode, listed a bit earlier in this thread.

Now it kind of works, but I get this output:

Naki-Yosemites-Mac:~ NakiYose$ sudo touch /System/Library/Extensions && sudo kextcache -u /
Password: *******
Warning: /AppleInternal/Library/Extensions: No such file or directory
KernelCache ID: B05F889FE35EE6DDF98DE8014BA3293C

Naki-Yosemites-Mac:~ NakiYose$ 
----

Is this Okay? Or does it mean the command failed, please? 

What is the usual/correct output I should get here?

(Note: Says Yosemite for my user name, because this Catalina Beta VM was upgraded from a 10.10 Yosemite VM.  )

 

EDIT: What is the benefit of the above command(s)? If I do not do it/them, what is the worst that could happen?

Edited September 4, 2019 by Naki

[fusion71au]

1 hour ago, Naki said:

Warning: /AppleInternal/Library/Extensions: No such file or directory
KernelCache ID: B05F889FE35EE6DDF98DE8014BA3293C

Naki-Yosemites-Mac:~ NakiYose$ 
----

Is this Okay? Or does it mean the command failed, please? 

 

EDIT: What is the benefit of the above command(s)? If I do not do it/them, what is the worst that could happen?

 

That warning can be ignored, your prelinkedkernel was successfully rebuilt, since it shows KernelCache ID.

 

The advantage of rebuilding the plk is to incorporate VMwareGfx.kext into it, so optionally you can re-enable SIP (if you want the extra security) and things should still work ie VMwareGfx.kext will now load, even with SIP enabled.

 

Re Catalina Recovery

The path to boot.efi is different from El Capitan, since it is an APFS volume.  Instead of "com.apple.recovery.boot", boot.efi will be inside a folder with long number "UUID" name eg \UUID\boot.efi...

 

Spoiler

 

Also since the Catalina Recovery volume has the original Catalina prelinkedkernel, it will need to be replaced by my provided prelinkedkernel or it will hang during boot like with the vanilla installer made with createinstallmedia.

Edited September 4, 2019 by fusion71au
Added screenshot of Catalina Recovery APFS Volume

[Naki]

fusion71au -- it works!! 
-----

My huge thanks for all your help here!  I did the already well-know steps of turn off Catalina Beta VM, power on/resume an older macOS VM (Mojave in my case), shut that down, attach disk from Catalina to the old "Rescue" VM as 2nd disk. Then the copy tool could not locate the required folder, so I manually copied the file(s) necessary as explained by you.

Then power down "Rescue" VM, detach disk from it, run the Catalina Beta VM again. 

It all works fine now, with latest Beta too and not the very old one I had! - with Firefox working too, plus display resolutions, as well as Mac App Store.  

Maybe some minor fixes/cleanup to do now only.  

 

Another question:

As this used to be a Yosemite VM, my Terminal still shows the older Naki-Yosemite tag.

Is there a way to change this to say Naki Catalina Beta now?
I tried to change user folder in the macOS Preferences, but the Catalina OS told me if something goes wrong my user cannot login, so I stopped there. 

 

Edited September 5, 2019 by Naki

[tarasis]

On 9/4/2019 at 12:15 PM, Naki said:

 

@tarasis - I get the same thing with Internet/network speed here too - I have a relatively fast 80 Mbit Internet connection here and in my Windows 10 Host OS speed matches exactly when tested (or also when downloading files from an unlimited web server/etc). 

And in my macOS VMs the speed I can get is at least ~6-7 times slower.

 

Thanks for the confirmation, dang. I wonder what is up with that. I know on the Macrumors unsupported Macs there has been some recent mention of Catalina misreporting download speeds, (although it looks like it might be for certain wifi cards) but for you and me it is actually downloading slower.

[Naki]

You are welcome.

To clarify - I get very similar slowdown of download speeds not only in Catalina Beta VM, but my other Mac VMs too.

(I have them ALL - from 10.8 to 10.15 Catalina Beta now, use for testing for my work)

(And even have 10.7 too, but it is not used and just sits there, just in case   )

[fusion71au]

2 hours ago, Naki said:

Another question:

As this used to be a Yosemite VM, my Terminal still shows the older Naki-Yosemite tag.

Is there a way to change this to say Naki Catalina Beta now?

 

To change Computer Name (and therefore the name that appears in terminal), go to System Preferences/Sharing...

 

 

47 minutes ago, Naki said:

Thanks, however, does not quite work.

Screenshot:

https://s.mail.ru/7W6q/zpUtxZVqL

 

You mean changing the name immediately to the left of the $ in terminal?...eg

 

fusion71aus-MacBook-Pro:~ fusion71au$

 

That is the currently logged in user! 

 

Just create a new admin user account eg named NakiCat (System Preferences/Users & Groups), backup data from old NakiYose account to USB, then logout of NakiYose account and log into the new NakiCat account.  If desired, you can now delete the old NakiYose account while logged in as NakiCat.

 

If you want to start from scratch (mimicking when you setup a new admin user after clean install), follow the linked guide but using Clover to boot to Catalina in single user mode ---> delete file /var/db/.applesetupdone.

Edited September 5, 2019 by fusion71au

[Naki]

Thanks, however, does not quite work.

Screenshot:

https://s.mail.ru/7W6q/zpUtxZVqL

[Naki]

Thanks! Will try this soon.
No, no need for anything drastic such as clean (re)install - adding 2nd user, then copying data from old to NEW user is quite sufficient for me, thanks again.

[Naki]

fusion71au --

can we please get a fixed Kernel/Prelinked Kernel files for the latest 19A602 version from Oct 15th 2019? Seems missing from your list?

 

EDIT: Can somebody fix the damned thread title already??  This mention of Catatalina gets me into a catatonic state every time I see it.  To many TA's here.

Also, you can drop Beta from the title, we have TWO stable versions already.  

 

EDIT #2: I must say, I was eagerly awaiting macOS Catalina RTM to come, so we can "drop the rhythmical gymnastics", but now I am very disappointed. We did NOT have to jump through these hoops updating High Sierra, Mojave all the time!? Updating those was fairly easy & mundane. 

Do we have to keep turning off, using a Rescue VM until end of time now!? Even if not on the Catalina Beta channel anymore? This is not very convenient, to put it mildly.

OR does VMware Workstation 15.5 fix this, please? For several reasons, could not try out 15.5 version of VMware Workstation yet on any of my 3 Windows 10 computers with VMware here (1 other has MS Hyper-V instead).

(my main, most powerful remote Windows 10 PC is dead yet again after another botched up Windows 10 update, my 2nd PC I use here has issues with the VMware installer/uninstaller so if left on 15.0.3 version for now, and my laptop works fine, but I have no time to update & unlock with modified Unlocker due to crisis with our Mac Desktop app on Catalina  in my work currently)

Edited October 16, 2019 by Naki

[fusion71au]

9 hours ago, Naki said:

fusion71au --

can we please get a fixed Kernel/Prelinked Kernel files for the latest 19A602 version from Oct 15th 2019? Seems missing from your list?

 

OR does VMware Workstation 15.5 fix this, please? For several reasons, could not try out 15.5 version of VMware Workstation yet on any of my 3 Windows 10 computers with VMware here (1 other has MS Hyper-V instead).

 

VMware Workstation 15.5.0 build-14665864 now has full built in Catalina Support, patched with modified unlocker from this post and latest VMware tools darwin.iso.  Awaiting @Donk for "official" update to v3.0.2. 

 

For older VMware versions, attached is the prelinkedkernel

copyprelinkedkernel_19A602.zip

macOS_iso_creator_19A602.zip

 

Edited October 17, 2019 by fusion71au

[Naki]

Thanks! Great. Please note I was about to ask what the sentence in your post with the ZIP files means, i.e. the one saying "latest VMware Workstation 15.5 has official macOS Catalina support now".

IF what that means is we will no longer need the "gymnastics" with Rescue VM to update the macOS Catalina VM to newer versions/builds, this is great!  

 

Guys, now that Catalina RTM is out, we can drop the Beta participation and switch to Stable channel, right?
What do you guys usually do about this? I guess maybe some of you need to be on the "bleeding edge", but I tend to stop the macOS Betas when a RTM comes, and switch to the Stable releases.  I tend to do the same with iOS Betas too, assuming I can get them in the first place (not any more, as Apple decided to drop my iPod touch 6th gen finally and release a new iPod touch model/generation - so mine will remain on iOS 12.x).
(as most of our customers in my work would use a Stable version of macOS & iOS anyway)

Edited October 19, 2019 by Naki
Grammar/clarity, adding iOS

[Naki]

fusion71au -- works!  

Had the time now to try this on my HP Workstation laptop. Updated VMware Workstaion from 15.1 to latest 15.5, then used the unofficial, non-Donk latest Unlocker to unlock again.

The Catalina non-Beta/RTM OS VM works great, and updating from the initial to newer version of Catalina RTM worked fine too.  

Maybe placebo effect or maybe it is real, but I noticed download speed being much faster now.

(Usually and up to now I got 5-6 times slower downloads in all my macOS VMs compared to what I can get on the Windows 10 host OS.)

[XenonKilla]

On 10/16/2019 at 10:13 PM, fusion71au said:

 

VMware Workstation 15.5.0 build-14665864 now has full built in Catalina Support, patched with modified unlocker from this post and latest VMware tools darwin.iso.  Awaiting @Donk for "official" update to v3.0.2. 

 

For older VMware versions, attached is the prelinkedkernel

copyprelinkedkernel_19A602.zip

macOS_iso_creator_19A602.zip

 

 

What happened to the "modified unlocker" post?