Installing macOS Ventura in VMWare Fusion Pro 13

[Cromulent]

I need to make a macOS virtual machine, but I'm not sure where you go to download the installer required to create a virtual machine using VMWare Fusion Pro. Can someone point me in the right direction, please?

Once I have Ventura installed, I'll upgrade to the latest public beta of macOS 14.

 

[kitKAC]

The installer is the standard one from the App Store. You can even use the Recovery Volume of your current machine to create one:

 

[Cromulent]

The installer is the standard one from the App Store. You can even use the Recovery Volume of your current machine to create one:

Thank you. The weird thing is I don't get that screen at all. This is what is shown to me:

I'm not sure what I am doing wrong. I am using the latest tech preview of VMWare Fusion Pro but it was the same when I was using 13.

 

[kitKAC]

Weird, my screenshot is from 13.0.2 Player. Well if you download the installer from the App Store and drop it onto "Install from disc or image" at the top, that should kick it off.

Edit: I'm on a 2018 Intel machine, maybe that's why the recovery option is available for me.

 

[gilby101]

I need to make a macOS virtual machine, but I'm not sure where you go to download the installer required to create a virtual machine using VMWare Fusion Pro. Can someone point me in the right direction, please?

What is your host Mac?
If it is Apple Silicon, you will be very limited in what the VM can do.
If it is Intel then from an ISO image of the macOS installer you want to use. Or as @kitKAC suggests from the recovery partition.

 

[Huey_Pilot]

If you are on Apple Silicon you can also use VirtualBuddy
Virtualbuddy

 

[Cromulent]

What is your host Mac?
If it is Apple Silicon, you will be very limited in what the VM can do.
If it is Intel then from an ISO image of the macOS installer you want to use. Or as @kitKAC suggests from the recovery partition.

The host Mac is an M1 Max Studio.

If you are on Apple Silicon you can also use VirtualBuddy
Virtualbuddy

Thank you. I'll look at that.

 

[bogdanw]

Once I have Ventura installed, I'll upgrade to the latest public beta of macOS 14.

Can’t Sonoma be installed directly in a virtual machine?
Mr. Macintosh's macOS Sonoma Full Installer Database https://mrmacintosh.com/macos-sonoma-full-installer-database-download-directly-from-apple/

 

[gilby101]

Can’t Sonoma be installed directly in a virtual machine?

It certainly can on an Intel Mac and runs pretty well. But on an ASi Mac, you need to be clear about what the VM can and can't do. For example, no iCloud, no USB devices.

 

[gilby101]

The host Mac is an M1 Max Studio.

Read this https://eclecticlight.co/2023/06/20...ising-macos-on-apple-silicon-and-what-doesnt/ and other posts from Howard Oakley to get a feel of what you can do with ASi virtualisation. Whilst Howard tends to dismiss it, Fusion has the same capabilities and limitations as other vm (free or paid) products.

The days of running fully capable macOS in a VM are over.

 

[Cromulent]

That is a shame. Thankfully my primary use of Fusion Pro is to run Linux but I was hoping to run the latest developer betas in a VM so that I didn't need to update my main work machine to test everything out.

 

[chrfr]

That is a shame. Thankfully my primary use of Fusion Pro is to run Linux but I was hoping to run the latest developer betas in a VM so that I didn't need to update my main work machine to test everything out.

The suggestion to use VirtualBuddy in post 6 of this thread is a good one. It works well to virtualize macOS on Apple Silicon, although macOS limitations prevent features from snapshots from existing.

 

[Cromulent]

The suggestion to use VirtualBuddy in post 6 of this thread is a good one. It works well to virtualize macOS on Apple Silicon, although macOS limitations prevent features from snapshots from existing.

Ah, I missed that. Sorry.

 

[chrfr]

Read this https://eclecticlight.co/2023/06/20...ising-macos-on-apple-silicon-and-what-doesnt/ and other posts from Howard Oakley to get a feel of what you can do with ASi virtualisation. Whilst Howard tends to dismiss it, Fusion has the same capabilities and limitations as other vm (free or paid) products.

The days of running fully capable macOS in a VM are over.

Fusion is more limited in that it provides no macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon. Parallels Desktop allows it although it still has the same limitations of any other app using Apple’s frameworks. Fusion’s virtualization of Windows on Arm has been pretty terrible and lags far behind Parallels, although their new Tech Preview closes the gap in many ways. The initial VM setup process in the Fusion Tech Preview still requires the user to find a Windows ISO, unlike how Parallels does it.

 

[haralds]

You might want to try the VMWare Fusion Tech Preview 2023.
Still not as polished in this regard as Parallels Desktop, but it's free.

 

[Cromulent]

You might want to try the VMWare Fusion Tech Preview 2023.
Still not as polished in this regard as Parallels Desktop, but it's free.

Already using it.

 

[haralds]

Addendum: to use the beta of Sonoma on Ventura as a VM, Apple requires you to install Device Support for macOS 14 beta 4.
This is from the developer download page. I do not know the location of the public beta.

 

[bogdanw]

I do not know the location of the public beta.

For VMs on Apple Silicon, Sonoma Beta IPSW Firmware Files - Public Beta 1
https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/

 

[Cromulent]

Addendum: to use the beta of Sonoma on Ventura as a VM, Apple requires you to install Device Support for macOS 14 beta 4.
This is from the developer download page. I do not know the location of the public beta.

Very useful!

For VMs on Apple Silicon, Sonoma Beta IPSW Firmware Files - Public Beta 1
https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/

Thank you!

 

[hoodafoo]

so is virtualizing Sonoma via Fusion doable on AS?

 

[chrfr]

so is virtualizing Sonoma via Fusion doable on AS?

No, Fusion still has no support for virtualizing macOS in Apple Silicon. If you need that look at Parallels Desktop or one of the free tools like VirtualBuddy.

 

[hoodafoo]

Thank you for confirming. I was banging my head trying to get it to go yesterday. Wished VMware had a simple matrix on their product website stating this

 

[hoodafoo]

Looks like the info I was looking for was in an FAQ rather than a matrix

Fusion - VMware Cloud Foundation

View the selected document's details

communities.vmware.com

 

[hoodafoo]

UTM

Securely run operating systems on your Mac

mac.getutm.app

 

[haralds]

I own the latest versions of both Parallels Desktop and VMware Fusion since I used them for development on both Intel and Apple Silicon. I have used VMware Fusion since version 1. But today, there is no question that the best option for paid VMs is Parallels Desktop, especially on Apple Silicon. It is superior in the feature set, ease of use, and performance.

For free macOS guest virtualization, I would choose Howard Oakley's Viable, While you are there, look at all the other free utilities Howard keeps crafting.

macOS virtualization on Apple Silicon can be high-performance. But it is seriously crippled in not supporting Apple ID-related services, eg, no App Store, no iCloud.

BTW, Parallels Desktop superbly supports Windows 11 (ARM64.) This is now officially supported by Microsoft!