Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

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_Alex_
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Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

Post by _Alex_ »

Good evening!

I have already done hours of research for this issue because I didn't want to create another thread for something that could be researched on my own, but unfortunately none of the solutions I found helped with the problem.

The situation is as follows:

I am trying to emulate MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave with Qemu on Windows 10.
I am using the newest build (qemu-w64-setup-20201124.exe, Version 5.1.92), which I have installed on my hard drive.
I created an empty disk image by using qemu-img.exe create -f raw -o size=10G MacOS.img .
The content of my .bat file looks like this:

qemu-system-ppcw.exe -L pc-bios -boot d -M mac99,via=pmu -m 256 ^
-prom-env "auto-boot?=true" -prom-env "boot-args=-v" -prom-env "vga-ndrv?=true" ^
-drive "file=Install macOS Mojave.iso,format=raw,media=cdrom" ^
-drive file=MacOS.img,format=raw,media=disk ^
-sdl ^
-netdev user,id=network01 -device sungem,netdev=network01 ^
-device VGA,edid=on

On executing the .bat file, i get the dreaded error message: No valid state has been set by load or init-program
Image

I'm running Windows 10 Pro Version 10.0.18363 Build 18363.
Processor: Amd Ryzen 5 2600
GPU: Radeon Vega 56

I have tried the following:


1. Modifying the .bat like this: ./qemu-system-ppc -L pc-bios -boot d -M mac99,via=pmu -m 512 -hda <hd image file> -cdrom <iso file of installation media> \

2. changing the media type from cdrom to disk and adding index=0 and index=1 to the disk entries (as recommended by Cat_7 in another thread)

3. writing absolute paths to iso and img in .bat.

4. Switching from Qemu Version 5.1.50 (which was only downloaded, not installed) to Qemu Version 5.1.92 which i installed on my hard drive.

5. installing on another hard drive.

6. Setting qemu directory as path variable in windows.

7. changing the iso name to the exact name that is shown when mounting the iso on Virtualdrive.


None of these solutions unfortunately fixed the issue. No valid state has been set by load or init-program still persists, no mattter what I'm trying.

Three more thoughts I'm having:
1. Due to working with the installable version, I don't have a pc-bios folder. The bios files are found throughout the main Qemu folder. However, OpenBIOS still loads to greet me with the error message. Do I need to point to a specific bios file?

2. I have received the iso. image from my company and have currently no information on how the image was created. Is there a possibility that the image was created in a faulty way? A coworker of mine stated that he used the same image with Qemu under Linux and it seemed to work just fine.

3. Is MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave even supported by Qemu?


Any support or insights would be greatly appreciated.

Best wishes and a peaceful weekend,
Alex
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Cat_7
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Re: Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

Post by Cat_7 »

Hi,

The qemu version we host and aim to "support" does not provide an Intel based machine needed to run Mojave.
Qemu-system-ppc emulates a PowerPC processor, and so the latest Mac OS version it can run is 10.5.

To run Mojave, it would be best to search for instructions on how to run it in e.g. Virtualbox.
I guess it can also be done with qemu-system-x86_64. But for that you would also have to look elsewhere.

Best,
Cat_7
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adespoton
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Re: Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

Post by adespoton »

That said, the big thing here is that your EFI bootloader likely doesn't support APFS volumes, so it can't read the EFI file off the Mojave partition. The solution is to either boot off an image that has the EFI on an HFS+ volume or boot off something that will load an EFI APFS driver and then point EFI at the Mojave boot partition.

But the instructions for doing all this are likely to be found somewhere other than here. That said, I'll probably be moving from VBox to QEMU-AMD64 for my Intel OS versions shortly. Hopefully I can figure out how to set it up in VM mode on Big Sur.
_Alex_
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Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:42 pm

Re: Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

Post by _Alex_ »

Thank you very much, your support is dearly appreciated.
This is very unfortunate, I could have saved myself a lot of work, if I would have known this sooner.
Cat_7 wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 9:52 pm I guess it can also be done with qemu-system-x86_64. But for that you would also have to look elsewhere.
Can you point me in a general direction where I could acquire more information about this? An initial google search didn't really give me anything of value.
Also, is this a solution that would actually be feasible for serious use or just something that is theoretically possible but won't allow me to really work with it?

adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:30 pm That said, the big thing here is that your EFI bootloader likely doesn't support APFS volumes, so it can't read the EFI file off the Mojave partition. The solution is to either boot off an image that has the EFI on an HFS+ volume or boot off something that will load an EFI APFS driver and then point EFI at the Mojave boot partition.
Thanks a lot, this is very interesting. Do you think that this is something that could actually be achieved on Windows 10? Also same question as above, is it feasible if I'm looking for Emulation that allows me to seriously work with it rather than playing around? I'm looking for a VM solution that will allow my company to test out software in a MacOS environment.

Best wishes,
Alex
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adespoton
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Re: Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

Post by adespoton »

_Alex_ wrote: Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:58 pm Thank you very much, your support is dearly appreciated.
This is very unfortunate, I could have saved myself a lot of work, if I would have known this sooner.
Cat_7 wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 9:52 pm I guess it can also be done with qemu-system-x86_64. But for that you would also have to look elsewhere.
Can you point me in a general direction where I could acquire more information about this? An initial google search didn't really give me anything of value.
Also, is this a solution that would actually be feasible for serious use or just something that is theoretically possible but won't allow me to really work with it?

adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:30 pm That said, the big thing here is that your EFI bootloader likely doesn't support APFS volumes, so it can't read the EFI file off the Mojave partition. The solution is to either boot off an image that has the EFI on an HFS+ volume or boot off something that will load an EFI APFS driver and then point EFI at the Mojave boot partition.
Thanks a lot, this is very interesting. Do you think that this is something that could actually be achieved on Windows 10? Also same question as above, is it feasible if I'm looking for Emulation that allows me to seriously work with it rather than playing around? I'm looking for a VM solution that will allow my company to test out software in a MacOS environment.

Best wishes,
Alex
If you're doing it on Windows, your best solution is to use VMWare or Parallels Desktop. That said, I use VirtualBox which has excellent automation, but a poor macOS desktop experience (no shared clipboards, file sharing, etc.). You should be able to do it pretty easily using the Clover bootloader, for example -- just pretend your VM is a hackintosh.
_Alex_
Space Cadet
Posts: 3
Joined: Fri Nov 27, 2020 5:42 pm

Re: Qemu won't boot MacOS 10.14.3 Mojave under Windows 10

Post by _Alex_ »

adespoton wrote: Mon Nov 30, 2020 4:34 am
_Alex_ wrote: Sat Nov 28, 2020 8:58 pm Thank you very much, your support is dearly appreciated.
This is very unfortunate, I could have saved myself a lot of work, if I would have known this sooner.
Cat_7 wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 9:52 pm I guess it can also be done with qemu-system-x86_64. But for that you would also have to look elsewhere.
Can you point me in a general direction where I could acquire more information about this? An initial google search didn't really give me anything of value.
Also, is this a solution that would actually be feasible for serious use or just something that is theoretically possible but won't allow me to really work with it?

adespoton wrote: Fri Nov 27, 2020 10:30 pm That said, the big thing here is that your EFI bootloader likely doesn't support APFS volumes, so it can't read the EFI file off the Mojave partition. The solution is to either boot off an image that has the EFI on an HFS+ volume or boot off something that will load an EFI APFS driver and then point EFI at the Mojave boot partition.
Thanks a lot, this is very interesting. Do you think that this is something that could actually be achieved on Windows 10? Also same question as above, is it feasible if I'm looking for Emulation that allows me to seriously work with it rather than playing around? I'm looking for a VM solution that will allow my company to test out software in a MacOS environment.

Best wishes,
Alex
If you're doing it on Windows, your best solution is to use VMWare or Parallels Desktop. That said, I use VirtualBox which has excellent automation, but a poor macOS desktop experience (no shared clipboards, file sharing, etc.). You should be able to do it pretty easily using the Clover bootloader, for example -- just pretend your VM is a hackintosh.
Cheers, thanks a lot for your help, I will try that out!
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