Parallels Desktop for Mac (issues thread)

[Minghold]

Set-up: 2015 MBP running Monterey natively, with Parallels 20, into which Macos Mojave has been installed. Particulars: SIP is disabled, Parallels Desktop Tools are installed, and vrious necessary permissions have been granted to Parallels in Monterey's System Preferences' Security and Privacy. Creating VMs proceeds without a hitch.

Issue #1: internal drives and external USB volumes do not appear ac accessible mounted devices on VM's desktops. Needless to say, this prevents using Migration Assistant to pull in apps and settings from existing Mac drives.

So, looking for a solution to enable mounting volumes in VMs generally, and enabling a MacOS VM's Migration Assistant to pull from applicable Mac volumes in particular.

 

[Boyd01]

Guess it's an issue with Mojave? Have been using Parallels on my 2018 (intel) Mini since 2020 with Windows 10, MacOS Mountain Lion and Sierra. Never saw these problems, never did anything special like disabling SIP. I have 4 external USB SSD's, they are all accessible.

Was running Catalina initially as the host operating system on the Mini, upgraded to Monterey later and still runing it now. Am always concerned about things breaking in Parallels, so even though I have the pro subscription, am reluctant to upgrade. Still running 18.1.1. now. Planning to upgrade to Sequoia before long and worried about what that might break.

FWIW, I don't use the Mac VM's very often anymore but need them from time to time for some very expensive old CAD and 3d modelling software. I initally created those VM's from clones of old Macs that I don't use anymore. When I start one of the VM's, there are a variety of issues based on the way iCloud was configured on those old machines, generating annoying alerts on all my current Apple devices.

My primary use of Parallels is Windows 10, which I use very heavily with professional GIS software. It has been surprisingly robust for that.

 

[joevt]

Disconnect the USB drive. When you reconnect it, Parallels should ask if you want to connect the drive to the Mac or the virtual machine.

Internal drives can be accessed using Parallels Shared Folders, but I don't think that's good enough for Migration Assistant.

What if you try to mount the internal drive by using File Sharing on the host machine? In the guest machine, connect to the host and select the internal drive.
I don't know if Migration Assistant will look at mounted network drives. I don't know if a guest can connect to host. I know a host can connect to guest using one of the guest network options but the reverse might not be possible.

You could use Disk Utility to create a GPT formatted disk image and restore a partition to the disk image. Then convert that to a Parallels Virtual Hard Disk.
I've done this with HFS+ formatted partitions. But not APFS partitions.

#=========================================================================================
# Create a hdd which points to a dmg using a relative path

cd "/Volumes/FreeBig/DiskImages"

# Create the dmg files with sizes larger than the source partition rounded up to the nearest MiB.
mkfile -n $(((41000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) Tiger.dmg
mkfile -n $(((44000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) Leopard.dmg
mkfile -n $(((44000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) SnowLeopard.dmg
mkfile -n $(((70000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) Lion.dmg
mkfile -n $(((65000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) Yosemite.dmg
mkfile -n $(((65000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) ElCapitan.dmg
mkfile -n $(((60000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) Sierra.dmg
mkfile -n $(((66000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) HighSierra.dmg
mkfile -n $(((71000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) MountainLion.dmg
mkfile -n $(((92000000000 + 0x100000 - 1) & -0x100000)) Mavericks.dmg

# Create a GPT partition map using gdisk
for thedisk in Tiger Leopard SnowLeopard Lion MountainLion Mavericks Yosemite ElCapitan Sierra HighSierra ; do
	printf "%s\n" 'printf "o\nY\nw\nY\n" | sudo gdisk "'${thedisk}.dmg'" > /dev/null && echo good || echo bad'
done

# Erase the disks using diskutil to create EFI and single partition
for thedisk in Tiger Leopard SnowLeopard Lion MountainLion Mavericks Yosemite ElCapitan Sierra HighSierra ; do
	printf "%s\n" 'diskutil partitionDisk $(hdiutil attach -nomount "'"${thedisk}.dmg"'" | sed -n '"'"'1 { s/ .*//p ; }'"'"') GPT HFSX "'"${thedisk}New"'" 0'
done

# Use the asr command to restore the source partition to the destination dmg
# Be careful here. The source and destination might have similar names.
# Do this command manually or use Disk Utility.app to perform the task.
#asr restore --source sourcevolume --target destvolume

# Use prl_disk_tool to create a hdd wrapper for the dmg (requires you to keep the dmg
# but you can mount the dmg in the Finder when it's not being used by Parallels Desktop).
for thedmg in *.dmg ; do
	prl_disk_tool create --hdd "$(pwd)/${thedmg/.dmg/.hdd}" --dmg "$(stat -f %R "$thedmg")"
done

Tiger and Leopard require further modification (details are elsewhere) to make them compatible with Parallels Desktop for Mac.

 

[Minghold]

Guess it's an issue with Mojave? Have been using Parallels on my 2018 (intel) Mini since 2020 with Windows 10, MacOS Mountain Lion and Sierra. Never saw these problems....

Well, I can confirm that it doesn't work in VMs of either Mojave 10.4.4 or 10.4.6 in either Parallels 18 or Parallels 20 (wither either's VM opened in either, since they're compatable). Will explore other MacOSes shortly.

Was running Catalina initially as the host operating system on the Mini,

My condolences.

upgraded to Monterey later and still runing it now. Am always concerned about things breaking in Parallels, so even though I have the pro subscription, am reluctant to upgrade. Still running 18.1.1. now. Planning to upgrade to Sequoia before long and worried about what that might break.

Well, I don't think P18 is going to run in Sequoia (let alone run fast under that bloated sow, since nothing else will either).

Monterey is, AFAIA, the last fully-clone/bootable (via CCC 6.1.1) version of the MacOS, and I'll eventually be squeezed out sometime later in the decade. But I'm fine with that, seeing as I'll never buy a Mac with a soldered-in drive.

Disconnect the USB drive. When you reconnect it, Parallels should ask if you want to connect the drive to the Mac or the virtual machine.

It does so ask (after rooting through settings to flip the appropriate switches that one would think ought to have been default in the first place for any VM that's not a "guest" running on a slave device or monitor). But it still doesn't work (at least not with Mojavel see above).

Internal drives can be accessed using Parallels Shared Folders, but I don't think that's good enough for Migration Assistant.

What if you try to mount the internal drive by using File Sharing on the host machine? In the guest machine, connect to the host and select the internal drive. I don't know if Migration Assistant will look at mounted network drives...

It will, provided they're mounted as drives, not folders (which is what Parallels does).

...You could use Disk Utility to create a GPT formatted disk image and restore a partition to the disk image. Then convert that to a Parallels Virtual Hard Disk.

After considerable effin' around, I discovered that a Mojave VM's Migration Assistant would indeed import from an externally-hosted Disk Utility-made image into which I'd cloned a Mojave partition. I also discover that, instead of using the Migration Assistant, I could use the VM's Disk Utility to create a new volume (in the VM's APFS container), it would pop up on the VM's desktop, then I could run CCC5 to clone the mounted external image to the new volume. (Then I restarted with Option held down...and that failed miserably, BUT I could still select a different Startup Disk, and that worked!)

 

[Minghold]

Next issue: Is anyone having any success making Parallels MacOS VMs in which 32bit games and other apps that require OpenGL function correctly?

 

[Minghold]

So... ...no OpenGL in any Parallels intel-era MacOS VMs? (I've tried Mojave, High Sierra, and Mountain Lion.)

 

[joevt]

So... ...no OpenGL in any Parallels intel-era MacOS VMs? (I've tried Mojave, High Sierra, and Mountain Lion.)

This note https://kb.parallels.com/124095 says you need a host and guest OS that is Big Sur or later to get any kind of graphics acceleration.
I suppose Big Sur is Apple Silicon era.

 

[Minghold]

This note https://kb.parallels.com/124095 says you need a host and guest OS that is Big Sur or later to get any kind of graphics acceleration.

I doubt that's the correct answer. For example, Mojave runs natively on a 2019 iMac, and a 32bit game like Angry Birds launches just fine. But a Parallels Mojave VM running inside Monterey or Ventura (note: both newer than Big Sur) on the same machine won't launch Angry Birds due to OpenGL not being correctly configured.

In the example so described, I'm pretty sure that this is a failing of Parallels, not of anything on the Apple side.

 

[Patrice Brousseau]

Monterey is, AFAIA, the last fully-clone/bootable (via CCC 6.1.1) version of the MacOS, and I'll eventually be squeezed out sometime later in the decade. But I'm fine with that, seeing as I'll never buy a Mac with a soldered-in drive.

I can make a bootable clone (MacIntel) of Sequoia, just saying!

 

[Minghold]

I can make a bootable clone (MacIntel) of Sequoia, just saying!

<nod> Note that CCC cloning attempts will fail if OCLP root-patches are installed (so they'll have to be reverted first). You'll probably also need to *fully* disable system updating (uncheck everything).

 

[Patrice Brousseau]

<nod> Note that CCC cloning attempts will fail if OCLP root-patches are installed (so they'll have to be reverted first). You'll probably also need to *fully* disable system updating (uncheck everything).

Sorry, I hadn’t read carefully that you were running OCLP! I apologize…

 

[Minghold]

Sorry, I hadn’t read carefully that you were running OCLP! I apologize…

Speaking of new junk on old junk and vice-versa, does anyone know what's the highest version of Parallels that will run on each of Snow Leopard, Lion, Mavericks, El Capitan, and High Sierra? (I'm trying to see how far backwards compatible Parallels VMs are. For example, VMs made in P20 seem to run perfectly in P18, and vice-versa.

 

[kostka]

Speaking of new junk on old junk and vice-versa, does anyone know what's the highest version of Parallels that will run on each of Snow Leopard, Lion, Mavericks, El Capitan, and High Sierra? (I'm trying to see how far backwards compatible Parallels VMs are. For example, VMs made in P20 seem to run perfectly in P18, and vice-versa.

You can check here for Parallels Desktop and MacOS compatibility table: https://kb.parallels.com/114381

And here to download each of the latest versions: https://kb.parallels.com/en/5802

 

[joevt]

Speaking of new junk on old junk and vice-versa, does anyone know what's the highest version of Parallels that will run on each of Snow Leopard, Lion, Mavericks, El Capitan, and High Sierra? (I'm trying to see how far backwards compatible Parallels VMs are. For example, VMs made in P20 seem to run perfectly in P18, and vice-versa.

Alternatively, you can make VMs for old macOS versions using the current version of Parallels (v20). You can go as far back as Leopard but you need Parallels Tools from the prl-tools-mac.iso of ParallelsDesktop-19.4.2-54991 since v20 removed support. You also need a script to get the non-server version of Leopard to boot. I couldn't figure out how to get a Tiger VM to work in Parallels - I had to use VirtualBox.app with some non-default settings.
All older versions of Parallels are downloadable - you just need to construct a link with the build number you want. Each version of Parallels has a document that lists all the build numbers.

 

[startergo]

This note https://kb.parallels.com/124095 says you need a host and guest OS that is Big Sur or later to get any kind of graphics acceleration.
I suppose Big Sur is Apple Silicon era.

OpenGL in macOS virtual machines​

Parallels Desktop doesn't provide a native support of OpenGL in macOS virtual machines (VMs).

• All macOS virtual machines up to and including macOS Catalina don’t have a graphics processing unit (GPU) that was a known limitation, and all the graphics calculations are managed by the virtual central processing unit (CPU).
• Starting with macOS 11 Big Sur, Apple has introduced the Paravirtualized Graphics framework, which finally enables a virtual GPU inside macOS virtual machines powered by the Mac computer’s real GPU.

This greatly increases performance because instead of making the CPU handle all the graphics, guest applications can finally utilize the host graphics card by means of the Metal API. For this feature to work, both the host and the virtual machine must be running macOS Big Sur or above.



It is important to note that since this virtual adapter only supports Metal API, guest applications that require OpenGL will still not run.

As opposed to Windows/Linux virtual machines, this virtual GPU is entirely managed by Apple, and therefore there aren’t many details available.

macOS virtual machines on Mac computers with Apple silicon​

In contrast to the macOS virtual machines created to run on Mac computers with Intel processors, macOS virtual machines on Mac computers with Apple silicon (macOS Arm VMs) are built using Apple's Virtualization framework, and all the virtual machines' components are managed by the framework.

macOS Arm VM bundle has .macvm extension instead of .pvm which macOS virtual machines for Mac computers with Intel processors have. You can learn more about Parallels Desktop for Mac with Apple silicon in KB 125343.

 

[Minghold]

Alternatively, you can make VMs for old macOS versions using the current version of Parallels (v20).

The problem here is that OpenGL will purportedly only work in those VMs if you're running on silicon in Big Sur or higher. (I've tried v20 VMs of Lion, ElCap, HighS, and Mojave run in Monterey, Ventura, Sonoma, and Sequoia from a variety of OCLP set-up intel-era Macs.

In other words, Parallels fails at its "one job" passing-though OpenGL support on machines that the VM OS is natively designed for. (Running a multiplatform game in a Windows VM is likewise denied OpenGL. So, you need silicon...and isn't it just oh so convenient for Apple that the only way to saatisfy your nostalgia itch is with one or their newer machines running a newer bloat/spyware OS?

~ ~ ~

Refrain: MacOS 10.x needs to be deconstructed and forked yesterday.

 

[startergo]

OpenGL will purportedly only work in those VMs if you're running on silicon in Big Sur or higher

On Linux VM's. On macOS guest applications that require OpenGL will still not run:

It is important to note that since this virtual adapter only supports Metal API, guest applications that require OpenGL will still not run.

As opposed to Windows/Linux virtual machines, this virtual GPU is entirely managed by Apple, and therefore there aren’t many details available.

 

[bogdanw]

Has anyone tested "USB device support for macOS VMs on Apple silicon Macs"?
https://www.parallels.com/blogs/parallels-desktop-20-3-0/

 

[startergo]

Has anyone tested "USB device support for macOS VMs on Apple silicon Macs"?
https://www.parallels.com/blogs/parallels-desktop-20-3-0/