I'm running Parallels 16.1.0 (48950) on a Mac Pro. I have Mojave running natively, but I also have Mojave running under Parallels with no issues. Apple doesn't seem to offer Catalina upgrades from Mojave now - the Software Update feature says I can go to Big Sur. I thought "What the heck?" I backed up the .PVM file, fired up Mojave in a Parallels VM, and tell it to upgrade to Big Sur. It downloads, restarts for the installation, and eventually comes to a desktop under Parallels. Desktop looks fine, clock display in the upper left corner of the screen updates, and in general, it looks good. But, neither the mouse or keyboard appear to be working. I've rebooted a few times, but no change. prl_disp_service seems to be using some cycles on Mojave where the VM is running, but nothing excessive. The Activity Monitor for the Parallels VM shows normal CPU activity - maybe 2 to 20 percent. Suggestions? Bug?
OK, I successfully installed Catalina, and then tried the Big Sur upgrade from there. No joy, Big Sur still hangs up. Some of the processes, I'm sure, are running, but mouse and keyboard do not respond.
I'm seeing the same behavior when attempting to install Big Sur within a Parallels 16 VM. Initially I was hoping this was a bug in Parallels 16.1.0-48950. But I just upgraded to 16.1.1-49141, and I'm seeing the same behavior. Anyone else?
thanks for the heads-up, Chris. As mentioned, mine is working perfectly well -- I installed BigSur in a Parallels 16 VM on a MacPro 5,1 running Mojave without any trouble. I do recall that before installation finished -- when I was agreeing to the license, and doing the initial installer setup -- that the mouse and keyboard were sluggish, and delayed in movement. But once it installed, and Parallels' Tools installed, all was great and it's been full steam ahead since then. No issues. I gave it 8 processors and 16GB of Ram to play with. I am not 100% sure how to best set the VRam, but after reading bits here and there, I set it to the lowest suggested setting as there is something about it no really using that VRam setting for VRam -- which is confusing if true, but that is based on random forum postings.
Attached is a screenshot of what I'm seeing, when my Big Sur VM starts up. I've tried a few workarounds -- including giving the VM full control of my USB keyboard and mouse -- but still can't go any further. Watching the VM in Activity Monitor, the CPU usage is negligible -- less than 1% of a single core -- so that's a positive sign...
Given that Parallels 16 works beautifully otherwise -- no matter what type of guest OS I've tried -- this is a tad frustrating. That said, I typically prefer to wait at least six months after Apple releases a new OS, before trying to work with it. (Essentially the Microsoft Windows philosophy... which is to wait for SP1. )
Quick update: I was hoping this might be fixed with a Big Sur update, but version 11.1 presents the same issues. Given that Big Sur patches for older hardware have evolved rapidly over the past two months, I'll try that route. Updates to follow over the coming days.
Any updates? I'm installing the latest Big Sur today on a Mojave VM. I'll let everyone know the status in a bit. Note that Parallels Support has not provided any updates to my original ticket since December 11, 2020 and the ticket is now closed.
Nope, Big Sur is still not working on Parallels Version 16.5.0 (49183). Quite frankly, I'm getting weary of the lack of support.