Documentation

[DrDonk]

Can I ask is anyone reading the wiki? I am trying to add more to it but seems few people read release notes or readme. I want to add more but this is a hobby project I started for myself and I’m beginning to wonder if it is worth the effort.

I have been answering the same questions for years and frankly it’s pretty tiring. Spoofing and Apple IDs always the same questions. I stopped the unlocker project and being in InsanelyMac for this reason.

Any thoughts?

[Daviddcm]

I'm new to Github and Opencore. Was only alerted to wiki by your comment asking if anyone uses it. Had not realised it would be a detailed step by step guide with screenshots. Some use Readme as user guide. Wiki is great, tells me exactly what to do and exactly how, which is rare. I'd put a link to wiki in the Readme to ensure everyone knows what it contains.

Now trying to follow Wiki steps, but some issues encountered. Guessing it may not be up to date.
In the pre-install script the tools called are not found. Added Path environment variables and was able to create DMG etc.

[DrDonk]

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I have made the link to the Wiki bigger on the front page of the repo. Please note the wiki is still being written and unfortunately there is no way to hide pages being worked on. The macOS from Scratch is indeed still a work-in-progress.

[DrDonk]

Sound works out of the box, no need for VoodooHDA, for everything except Tahoe. I just retested my VMs and they all worked. You should not need anything else but make sure you use the ISO from 2.0.1 or preferably 2.5.0. I am assuming you are using the templates I provide? There should be lines:

sound.autoDetect = "TRUE"
sound.fileName = "-1"
sound.present = "TRUE"
sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio"

Also make sure the VM sound card is connected to the host in the VM settings.

Check out the settings and also check inside the vmware.log file to see if there are any issues there relating to sound. If there are post the relevant file as an attachment and I will take a look.

Good job on being a Digital Champion, excellent thing to volunteer to help others.

[Daviddcm]

Thanks for your reply.
I finally cracked it after a couple of hours researching the multiple Powershell and BCDEdit scripts needed to fully disable all of Windows Hypervisor and Credential Guard components, then uninstalling and reinstalling VMWare 25H2.
Now in my OC4VM Sequoia VM, audio works and Youtube video plays. Previously that only worked fully in Catalina. So I no longer need the Sonoma and Catalina VMs used for testing. I'll give Tahoe and VoodooHDA a go next.
That way, for my purposes I'll have a VM that matches the OS that would come with a new Mac, and a Sequioa one that matches the previous version.

You mentioned using the ISO from 2.5.0. Is that the Opencore.iso? Do I need to update anything else, and do I neeed to rebuild the VM and reinstall MacOS afterwards to be fully up to date?

[DrDonk]

If you are up and running I would leave the opencore.iso with the one you are using as it's not going to give you much more as it is essentially 2.0.1 re-released. Also just be aware Tahoe is not good in VMware.

https://github.com/DrDonk/OC4VM/wiki/Tahoe-Limitations

[Daviddcm]

Others, like me, may not realise that some Windows 11 25H2 default features such as Device Guard and Credential Guard rely on certain Windows Hypervisor features, even when Hypervisor has supposedly been unintalled or never enabled. These need to be turned off in settings and also in firmware. Otherwise, Windows itself effectively runs in a virtualised environment for security reasons, and VMWare runs as a second layer of virtualisation with impaired performance.

Microsoft documentation:-

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-client/application-management/virtualization-apps-not-work-with-hyper-v

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/security/identity-protection/credential-guard/configure?tabs=intune

A Powershell tool from Microsoft which can check status, enable, or disable Device Guard and/or Credential Guard. Also can check hardware compatibility with these features.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53337

In my case, due to hardware features, all of the steps detailed were needed, without which some MacOS Sequoia issues could not be resolved: Sound device present but not functional. General slow performance.
Addendum:-
I found a useful Broadcom forum thread, where the first post describes all the steps needed to disable Hyper-V and virtualisation based security, to ensure VMWare runs in CPL0 mode. The subsequent posts document various issues found and solved by others executing the steps.
https://community.broadcom.com/vmware-cloud-foundation/discussion/disabling-hyper-v-hypervisor-on-windows-11-pro-host-to-get-vmware-17s-cpl0-vs-ulm-monitor-mode

[DrDonk]

VMware will work on Windows when the hypervisor is running and is called ULM mode which you can find in the vmware.log file if you need to check. You are right that VMware works much better using its internal hypervisor monitor and that will appear as CPL0 in the log file.

I am adding a sort of KB page and will add something there about the issue.

[DrDonk]

https://github.com/DrDonk/OC4VM/wiki/Tahoe-Sound-Support-with-VoodooHDA

[cvandeplas]

I found the wiki macOS From Scratch pretty comprehensive.
A few issues I encountered:

• had to run the regen.sh script even if it was not mentioned in the guide, as otherwise Sequoia said my system is not compatible
• had to format the disk to Mac OS Journaled manually. (may have been caused because I made the disk bigger)

Currently the install is ongoing (downloading the packages) so all seems to be well for now.

[DrDonk]

It's still a work in progress and the changes I was asked to make yesterday for Apple IDs now means the region script needs to be run. I will add that to the wiki. The main disk is pre-formatted for installation so it will be because you increased its size.

I have the screenshots for the post-installation task now and so will work on that the next couple of days.

Thanks for the feedback.

[cvandeplas]

ok, bummer, the install failed, MacOS tried to upgrade local firmware which failed and killed the installation

[DrDonk]

Please read #77