Big Sur installation

Is it possible to install Big Sur at the moment? When trying to install it using an installer app downloaded from the App Store Parallels says that it needs an ISO or a VHDX image instead.

 

I'm hoping that this is on the roadmap for the production release? It's a useful thing to be able to run a virtualized instance of MacOS, especially if I can eventually snapshot and revert after making changes. I'm impressed with what we have so far, and I'm looking forward to having it available in GA.

 

Hi,
I agree with ScottK17. By the way, within your Tech. Preview you announce solid details and also known limitations. But you haven't shared information that Big Sur as guest isn't supported, (yet). I think that's a pity Haven't you considered this would be what people maybe do test as a first step?
Best regards, Matt.

 

Actually, running Big Sur as guest will be my primary usage. I'm a consultant and like to create a virtual machine for each customer to avoid cluttering up my installation with customer specific tools, VPN, etc.

 

same here ... but I also need windows10, some M$ stuff like client teams and the ability for them to "Take over my Settings" is my primary need also .. already have started using the cloning to create new client instances , now all I seen is BIGSUR and a "desktop linux" and ill be all set ... also I bought the 8GB/512GB pro as a trial .. now that I can really use it for all my work ... looks like a 16GB/1TB will be ordered ... but it will be a Air ... as I can't even get the fans to start up on this guy and the worst I can get it to do is 20% CPU utilisation whilst compacting the OS under windows ... what a difference to before on my i7 32GB model ... way to go guys great product... I guess the delay was due to checking everything on the real production hardware v the developer kits ... but well worth the wait

 

I managed to install Ubuntu Server for ARM and then I installed the desktop by running something like
sudo apt install ubuntu-desktop
Still, vmware-tools are not ported so you only get low res desktop but it works fine. And yes, I've never heard the fans on the Mac mini spin It's really awesome

 

You can point to the /Application/Install Big Sur.app but it says that it is x86 and refuses to install from it. Even creating an .ISO you cannot boot from that.
It is a pity because the Big Sur is the ARM OS and supports all of the M1 features natively. And Big Sur x86 can be ran on an x86 VM

 

Any idea where does Big Sur support stands and any expected timelines?

 

first I registered with Windows Insider program
https://insider.windows.com/en-us/getting-started

and downloaded the below.
Windows10_InsiderPreview_Client_ARM64_en-us_20231.VHDX

then tried Parallels Technical preview...
https://www.parallels.com/blogs/parallels-desktop-apple-silicon-mac/

Now am able to run Parallels - Windows 10 on M1 Mac with Big Sur..

hope it helps..Thanks.

 

Hi Suresh, I think the posters above are wanting to install MacOS Big Sur as the guest OS, not Windows 10. So, basically, they would have a Big Sur virtual machine running in the Parallels 16 for M1 tech preview. The problem is, the current version of the M1 tech preview [Version 16.3.1 (50393)] does not support this.

 

Ouch, I hear now, after upgrading my various guest to Big Sur, and having had eGPU issues, that Big Sur isn't supported. Is this true?

by the way, is there a way to downgrade back to the prior supported OS with OSx?

 

As FaisalI2 asked, is there an estimation when Big Sur will be supported as a guest OS?

 

I was about to post a new thread, but saw this one.

Parallels sure currently indicates that it supports a macOS guest:

OK. Let's do this. Time to fire it up:

I don't believe you. I used the same thumb drive that I used to install Big Sur on the M1 Mac itself. Maybe I can try manually creating a macOS VM without providing a source, which it doesn't believe is ARM.
Time to boot it:

Well that is disappointing.

 

Note that as I look closer at my last snapshot, I see that FS0: is the blank sata hard disk, rather than my USB install media. Perhaps the problem here is that Parallels doesn't support the ability to boot from USB?

 

It suggests that it does support usb booting in the GUI, but I couldn't get the USB devices to show up in the EFI shell either.

 

I tried creating an iso from the installer media, and that doesn't show up as a bootable source either. The reason for it, as far as I can tell, is because it has no EFI files to boot macOS.
I must confess I don't know much about the macOS boot process - ie, what files the Apple EFI executes to boot it, but from the disk layout, it's significantly different to Linux or Windows so I think without additional EFI files to act as a shim (such as what a hackintosh uses to my knowledge), I doubt macOS can be booted with the edk2 EFI BIOS that Parallels is currently using in the M1 preview.

It would be good if someone from Parallels can comment on the accuracy of what I've written.

 

I think the problem exists on multiple levels.
1) This Parallels beta doesn't seem to be able to boot directly from USB devices. You can connect a USB device, but UEFI will never see it. But there is a workaround!
Add a hard disk, and when you specify the backing for the hard disk, select "Physical disk". Here you can select the USB device that has the OS you wish to boot:

As a warm-up, let's just try to boot with a bootable ARM Linux installer:

Well this is promising! We can select the UEFI boot info from our "hard disk" (that is backed by the USB disk we selected), and we boot right into our linux distro installer (or whatever we picked to test).

So let's just try the same steps, but with our Big Sur installer USB drive:

Uhh, what? In what seems to be a recurring theme, Parallels is making decisions on my behalf, assuming it knows what I really want. Maybe in this case just boot from the USB device, without trying to interpret what is on the device?

Just as a test, what if I take that same USB drive and boot a "Linux" VM with it?
Ooh... Well this is promising! Parallels sees the disk I want to boot from. Which just happens to be a USB drive with the Big Sur installer on it.

Oh. But since it's a "Linux" VM, it doesn't know how to read the filesystem of the Big Sur installer.
So to summarize:
- This Parallels preview doesn't appear to have the ability to boot from a USB device. This can be worked around by providing your USB device has a "Hard disk" as described above.
- In Booting a macOS VM, Parallels seems to be doing a bit more in manipulating your data, rewriting things, and interpreting data. But in a way that only works with Intel-based code. This is a part that presumably will require a Parallels update to support. I don't think the VM is currently behaving like a Mac-like system where it can just boot from the media you select. If that were the case, the above should just work.

 

So to summarize:
- This Parallels preview doesn't appear to have the ability to boot from a USB device. This can be worked around by providing your USB device has a "Hard disk" as described above.
- In Booting a macOS VM, Parallels seems to be doing a bit more in manipulating your data, rewriting things, and interpreting data. But in a way that only works with Intel-based code. This is a part that presumably will require a Parallels update to support. I don't think the VM is currently behaving like a Mac-like system where it can just boot from the media you select. If that were the case, the above should just work.[/QUOTE]

Thanks for all this excellent legwork. Saved me a lot of time.

 

Do you have any ETA for this? It would be very important for us. Many thanks!