Replies: 27 comments 20 replies
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As far as I know, this project isn't abandoned. It's just very quiet at the moment. Can you provide more details on how you achieved it? I would imagine that doing so would increase the chances of this project being able to make it work! |
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Really? The main page says project abandoned, figured that was the end. I used the AMD opencore , added the cpuid flags for AMD to the vmx, installed from sequoia iso and updated oc and kexts to latest version. No issues other than the one I mentioned above. |
Oh, that's my bad. I didn't realize that the README had been updated to state that the project was abandoned. 😕 |
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I may change my mind and bring it back but just for VMware. QEMU on anything other than macOS is extremely flakey. I have tried VMware Workstation recently and it does seem OK. |
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I should add I had some VMware issues on Intel macOS but it was entirely my fault. I now only have a 2014 Mac mini and 2017 MacBook Air for any form of Intel testing as I have moved to Apple Silicon machines. Mac mini has OCLP installed to allow it to run a later version of macOS, specifically Sonoma. That works great except for messing up VMware Fusion. |
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If you decide to have another go just for vmware, I am willing to test and support where possible. |
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OK I've re-opened and committed a bunch of changes I made on my private repo. I will create a V1 release but need to make the readme a bit more coherent first. |
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@DrDonk thanks for adding the vmhide.kext. Do you know if it is possible to launch the OC picker and boot into macos using an esxi vm profile other than a version of Mac OS as listed in vsphere? For example, choosing Other Linux 64bit, EFI boot and adding some vmx parameters? I have this really weird issue that I need to restart the OSX VM about 4-6 times before it actually boots to the OC menu. There seems to be no consistency to the number of attempts. It might work on the 2nd or 3rd attempt for example. When it does boot to the menu, the VM seems to work fine. |
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FYI VMHide is disabled by default, so you will need to edit the config.plist on the OC image and change the boot-args vmhState=Enabled or Force. I've written a little script to change boot-args and that will be in V1 when I release it. It is coming the last thing to do is write some docs. I didn't want it to be enabled by default as it does affect other things like size of macOS updates from 2GB to full installer size. Are you using the VMX template I provide or have you just added the OC VMDK to an exiting VM? I can create an ESXi 8 VM and run nested to test. I no longer have access to vSphere/vCenter after Broadcom. |
Didn't use the template, is it in the repo? |
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It's all generated when run make.sh. However I just tried running a macOS vm with FreeBSD 64-bit as guest setting and works on Fusion so try that. vCenter checks the ESXi host that it is running on Apple kit before allowing macOS guests to start. ESXi does not care. You can have a look at my now archived ESXi Unlocker on how to patch that, but don't think it will work on latest ESXi as much more locked down. https://github.com/DrDonk/esxi-unlocker |
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Update: it crashes the VM after awhile and no mouse and keyboard. I'll try something else for guests setting. |
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I'll share my vmx for you to look at if that's ok? Apart from that odd power cycle issue it runs seq perfectly fine (when the VM finally boots). My system is am5 7900 and esxi 8.0u3c. |
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Sure no problem. Just attach it rather than copy it inline to the post. |
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MACOS01.vmx.txt |
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I see quite a few lines which come from older days of running macOS on VMware, but mostly not needed for the OC4VM disk image. For example the cpuid lines, smc.version plus a few more. One question have you actually built the OC4VM images and templates yourself using the make.sh script on a macOS system. The vodkas in the repo are base images that have to be modified during the build phase to add settings and patches. I've never heard anyone successfully basing thru GPU on ESXi to a macOS guest. (I've been doing this stuff for 18 years now. |
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OK, i compiled from make.sh since the build is for vmware workstation, what do I need to patch/modify to get this working in esxi 8? |
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You'll have to test it out as I don't have anything to try on ESXi. Upload the template, call it something meaningful and see if you can add your existing macOS VMDK to it. Make sure you use the AMD template. |
Look slike SMC.PRESENT was set to TRUE in my vmx, modified to FALSE and the issue with powering on the VM is fixed. I tried to update seq to 15.3.1 but greeted with the apple logo on boot and hangs there.
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i used an OC from a KVM repo updated it to 1.03, grabbed a 15.1.1 installer ISO and installed the OS that way. I had to add the AMD and other bits to the vmx manually. Might explain why i'm running in to a few issues. As for GPU, i defo got it working some time ago, think it was a GT710 using OCLP or might have been the radeon 4100. Whichever it was, i had to disable the svga in the vmx otherwise OC would throw a wobbly at the point of initialising vmtools on boot. |
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Hang on found an issue with the make process for AMD. |
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If you want t try mine you can build again from latest commit. Otherwise looks like you may be OK. Not sure about updating the VM. Maybe disable VMHide so that Apple knows it is updating a VM, otherwise it may try firmware updates as you have spoofed a real machine in your VMX file. |
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thanks, i should be OK with what I have now. |
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@DrDonk David, can we expect a release soon? I have trouble building from the source on a M3 Mac. |
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@DrDonk I'm really struggling getting passthrough to work for either my WX4100 or W6600 GPU. |
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Wanted to revive this - I was able to use the intel oc vmdk @DrDonk shared Apr 27, 2025 on Esxi 7.0u3 (has smc unlocker on it but not sure if important for this setup). Running Sonoma 14.8.7 with a WX4100 GPU and Fresco FL1100 USB card passthrough, very little issues (see below). Got 2 screens going, full acceleration. I'm actually using the vm right now to write this. Set 16 vcpu and 32g memory, surprisingly, no issues. Was banging my head on wall for several hours (multiple re-installs) trying to get it to run on Ivy Bridge but once I moved the VM over to a Broadwell system (also Esxi 7.0u3), it started working fine. Just needed smc.present=false, eth0 set to vmxnet3 @DrDonk The only issue I ran into is pressing enter on the OC picker screen. I usually run with svga.present = false (oc picker came up on the external screens on wx4100 gpu) but had to turn it on so that I could actually press enter from Esxi remote console. The Fresco card isn't initialized until Sonoma boots. I'm stuck with a dead remote console screen that is blacked out and I can't really get to it unless I "mirror" it. Anyway to add Fresco USB to OC picker or set it to auto boot? This setup is almost perfect, highly usable as a desktop, looking to upgrade GPU and go to Sequoia or Tahoe. |
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@DrDonk never mind - I updated the timeout integer under Boot in config.plist to 2. VM boots straight up using the GPU. Audio from the displays aren't showing up but I guess I don't mind right now. Bluetooth doesn't seem to be working with the adapter I plugged in. OC didn't like when I used odd cpu counts (14) and hung the video card until the Esxi host was completely turned off. Otherwise, it looks to be working well. Thanks for your contributions! |
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I am not in a position to test ESXi anymore and I can only test on macOS, Linux and Windows. Basically I have one Intel Mac mini left everything else is Apple Silicon. Also I have no experience in using passthru in ESXi, well not since I was an alpha tester of the very first version of ESXi! Perhaps the OpenCore config needs to be made more like a real hackintosh as real hardware being passed into guest, rather than the VMware Virtual SVGA adapter. Maybe someone else can help out. In the meantime perhaps need to look at this https://dortania.github.io/GPU-Buyers-Guide/modern-gpus/amd-gpu.html and may be need https://github.com/acidanthera/WhateverGreen. Can you send me your latest VMX file and I will tell you how to use the debug level version of the OC4VM image. |
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Thanks, see attched. |
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Attached is a test OC4VM with all the OpenCore and macOS kernel debugging switched on and sent to serial port. The VMX file has been altered to add a serial port which outputs to serial.log in the VM folder. This means once you start the VM and select macOS screen output will stop as it's going to the serial port. I also edited the CPUS back to 2x2 as I tested that this boots in QEMU and cannot run 8X8. Please leave that just for the moment. I sorted the lines in the VMX so I could check it and added my changes to the top of the file. The OC vmdk has debug WhateverGreen.kext added and should load from Catalina onwards. Also debug parameters for this kext are enabled and the agdpmod=pikera boot arg added. Look for "WhateverGreen" in the serial logs to help debug any issues. That's as much as I can do for you as no ability of knowledge to test AMD Radeon GPUs. So in the zip is VMX and opencore.vmdk. Of course you will need to copy them to ESXi. I'm sure you know to copy originals somewhere else so you can rollback. |
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will give this a go and feedback, thank you. |
Can you please zip up the opencore for me, saves me having to convert vmdk for esxi, thanks |
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Attached 2 zips one with raw DMG in it, second with ESXi flat vmdk. Used:
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Tried booting the attached one above. 
Running on a Dell R430 (dual E5-2680 v4) in ESXi-8.0U3e, the VM has 2 sockets with 2 cores each and 24GB RAM. |
Are you able to test GPU passthrough with this opencore? My second system is dead so unable to test for the moment. |
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You can only do passthrough on ESXi and as I said I have nothing to test it on. IRL I have actually retired and do not have kit available like I used to do. |
I know, I replied to the OP since they are running ESXi and using your OC albeit on Intel. |
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I have made a mistake and sent you an AMD image as I thought you were on AMD. I'm not around kit to build a new one but maybe you can attach the vmdk to another VM Windows or Linux and edit the config.plist file. You will need to remove all the Kernel Patches section. |
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I can do it later this evening UK time if you want to wait. |
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Thanks, been able to run successfully a Sequoia 15.0.1 VM with everything working !!! |
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Hi ! |
Excellent. Would you mind sharing your EFI with me please? |
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Just used a one a little bit above, for Intel 😃 |
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The one from DrDonk |
oh ok, i was using AMD and could not get passed the OC boot picker. Thanks. |
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@DrDonk I'm curious if you can help me out with just previous knowledge. I am running ESXi 6.7(I know you can't test on it anymore), and I was trying to run one of the unlockers you've built in the past. I believe it was for ESXi 7.0. I'm running that one because I can't find one that will work with 6.7. That being said, your unlocker keeps trying to run python 3.6 using f strings, but 6.7 only has python 3.5. I'm having a hard time finding out if the unlock works, as running the check says that smcPresent is true, but when I try to load MacOS Sonoma or Sequoia onto it, I get stuck in a boot loop. I suppose my question is, do you have an older version that may work with this, or is there a way that I can run that newer python on something like that that you know of? I'm running on older hardware and I believe 6.7 is the newest ESXi version that I can use. Thank you! |
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It's a shame this project is abandoned. Today I had another go at running sequoia on esxi 8 with AMD 7900 CPU and managed to get it installed, added vmhide kext to get around the apple account issue, installed VMtools and it seems to be working ok. Next step is for me to try w6600 pro GPU passthrough for gfx acceleration.
One really odd issue that I never saw before is that it can sometimes take a few attempts to boot from the oc picker. It's completely random. Sometimes it just goes into a boot loop until the 3rd or 4th attempt at which point it boots ok. Strange.
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