Parallels not running at all on Big Sur

Hi,
I understand that Big Sur is a beta and is thus not expected to work correctly, but still was hoping that someone might have a workaround, since there are many posts here where people have Parallels running.

I installed the Big Sur beta and tried to run the latest version of Parallels. It brings up a message saying to restart the computer to complete the installation. Whichever option I click (restart or quit), Parallels hangs. If I do a manual restart and launch Parallels again, the same thing happens. The first time, I also received a message saying to approve the extensions to start from System Preferences, which I did.

I checked the logfile at /Library/Logs/parallels.log, and it seems like the extensions are still failing to load. Here are the relevant entries:

06-24 12:24:48.437 F /prllog:3581:19c46/ pdfm-bootstrap: service[3520]: Failed to load kernel extension prl_vnic.kext with error code 1
06-24 12:24:48.441 F /prllog:3582:19c48/ pdfm-bootstrap: service[3520]: Executing: /usr/bin/kmutil load -p /Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Library/Extensions/10.9/prl_vnic.kext -r /Applications/Parallels Desktop.app/Contents/Library/Extensions/10.9
Error: Error Domain=KMErrorDomain Code=1 "Kernel request failed: (libkern/kext) kext (kmod) start/stop routine failed" UserInfo={NSLocalizedDescription=Kernel request failed: (libkern/kext) kext (kmod) start/stop routine failed}
06-24 12:24:48.455 F /prllog:3587:19c53/ pdfm-bootstrap: service[3520]: Loading kernel extensions exit status: 1
06-24 12:24:48.461 F /prl_client_app:3477:19b33/ [BOOTSTRAP] Services are NOT running (mode=service_start). Exit code is 1

However, the extensions are already loaded:

tattar8@MBP Resources % kextstat |grep parallels

112 0 0xffffff7f9efc9000 0x5000 0x5000 com.parallels.kext.usbconnect (15.1.4 47270) B61070B1-5096-3B17-ADA1-D0EB011D4AB1 <63 8 6 5 3 1>

168 1 0xffffff7f9ef9e000 0x16000 0x16000 com.parallels.kext.hypervisor (15.1.4 47270) 2808E2EB-57ED-3AA0-8103-B2F97805D5EC <8 6 5 3 1>

169 0 0xffffff7f9efbc000 0xb000 0xb000 com.parallels.kext.netbridge (15.1.4 47270) E484B890-DC3D-3C33-B052-929FED5F9BEE <168 6 5 3 1>

171 0 0xffffff7f9efd0000 0x2000 0x2000 com.parallels.kext.vnic (15.1.4 47270) 6A368CDB-25CE-3D1C-AFD2-830348A37397 <6 5 3 1>

Any suggestions?

 

Hello @tattar8sp At the moment Parallels Desktop compatibility with macOS Big Sur hasn't been tested yet as it has been just released. As many other software vendors, Parallels Engineering team is looking to make the required tweaks to make sure you can run your virtual machines on macOS Big Sur, as well as install it in a virtual machine. Since the beta version of macOS Big Sur has just been released, the compatibility of Parallels Desktop and macOS Big Sur hasn't been fully tested yet by the Parallels Engineering Team.

At this time, we do not have the exact ETA when Parallels Desktop will fully and officially support the newly released macOS. However, we are working hard to make sure macOS Big Sur works with Parallels Desktop for Mac.

Feel free to share your feedback with us on Parallels Forum dedicated thread ( https://forum.parallels.com/threads/macos-10-16-big-sur-and-parallels-desktop.350219/ ) if you encounter any compatibility issues between Parallels Desktop and newly released macOS Big Sur installed on a Mac or used as a virtual machine.

If your feedback includes technical data (http://kb.parallels.com/en/9058) along with a description of the encountered issue it will make further troubleshooting and resolution more efficient.

Stay tuned for more updates on official support for macOS Big Sur.

 

@Abishek@Parallels, why then did you release version 16 stating that it is ready for Big Sur, when it clearly is not? Could not be more disappointed and have wasted a LOT of time trying to get it to work, only to find that it won't work because it was released pre-maturely.

 

In your own announcement, you state, "Though macOS Big Sur 11 is not officially released yet, Parallels Desktop 16 already supports the upcoming operating system and, in some scenarios, delivers even better performance compared to macOS Catalina. In macOS Big Sur, Parallels Desktop offers an easier onboarding experience by using the native macOS system extensions instead of the deprecated kernel ones."

I have uninstalled, rebooted, installed, rebooted, tried to launch, and I get the following error message every time.

 

Yep, I was fine with Parallels 15 not working on the beta, but I rushed to install v16 since I read the exact same statement. But - a far fetched hypothesis here - it might be the case that the cause of this bug is in macOS itself, so maybe Parallels 16 supports macOS 11 GM/RTM and not the betas. At least I'm writing that to pre-empt an identical comment from the staff. However, the KB article on this exact bug in Beta 3&4 says that v16 is the solution and previous workarounds were removed from that article. So I'm confused as well, since as you quote v16 is supposedly supported on macOS 11 AND at the same time it is supposed to fix a handful of bugs with v15 running on macOS betas. So which one is it? I hope Parallels staff could clarify this for us.

 

Same here, I am wondering if it's certain mac models only that are having issues. It seems for some it works and others we are getting the exact same issue.

 

If anyone successfully gets Parallels 16 to work with Big Sur, please post here and let us know, so that we can try to use Parallels too.

 

This worked for me as well. I find it incredibly odd that I have to install the competition, uninstall it a certain way, before Parallels works, but I am grateful that I got it working. There is a reason why I'm am using Parallels. Thank you for sharing, @EricW21.

 

To be completely fair, now that I have the ability to launch Parallels 16 for the Mac, I have installed Linux mint and windows 10 and I am completely blown away with how little system resources it requires for Windows to run as if it had 8gigs of RAM. It's only utilizing 3gig. There is ZERO delay when navigating the Windows Start Menu. VERY impressed with this version of Parallels.

 

Unfortunately this did not work for me.

 

This also worked for me.

 

With Big Sur, Beta 5, I can run Windows (that already was installed prior to beta 5), but I can't install any other distro. Is anyone else having this issue?

 

I stand corrected. I am able to install distros.

 

Running Beta 5 of Big Sur. It now crashes my imac every time. Previous. Beta worked great. Anyone got any suggestions?

 

Same here with Big Sur public beta 2 using Parallels Desktop 16.0.0 : Kernel panic and reboot each time I start a VM. I switched to Apple Hypervisor instead of Parallels and it works.

 

I've been having the same problem, and this fixed it. I only just started using Big Sur and from the other thread it appears to be a change in the new macOS beta that triggered it.

 

I have spent the entire weekend trying to get Parallels to work with BigSur Beta 5, and was not able to get it to work no matter what I did. So, taking extreme measures, I reset removing all partitions on my Mac in Disk Utility, and then reinstalled macOS BigSur Beta 5. Only after doing that, have I been able to install Manjaro Linux 20.03, (the OS that I have been trying to install all weekend using Parallels 16). I also installed Windows 10. No issues whatsoever. Hope this helps someone.

 

Thanks all! Simply changing the Hypervisor from Parallels to Apple is letting my Win 10 VM start up without the dreaded Kernel Panic on Big Sur Public Beta 2. Cheers!

I'll try moving it back the next go around but it's nice to be able to run my tuning software for my truck again. Had to pony up the cash since I was still on version 11 on Catalina still happily moving along until it went full stop on Big Sur.

 

This worked for me until they get this fixed. It is not perfect, as things run slow and graphics are blurry. The official support is hiding behind Big Sur being a beta, but Parallels 15 worked perfectly on it for me. The 16 update borked my hole ability to run it, until I did this. This is not a perfect solution, but works.

1. Locate the virtual machine's file as described in this article: https://kb.parallels.com/en/117333
(It is usually in your user folder under Parallels folder)
2. Right-click on it > Show Package contents.
3. Inside you will see a config.pvs. Right-click config.pvs > Open with TextEdit.
4. Inside of it find (CMD+F) the following part:
<HypervisorType>0</HypervisorType>
and change it to
<HypervisorType>1</HypervisorType>
Save the changes.
5. Run Parallels Desktop. Run the virtual machine. If prompted to reset the virtual machine, do it.