macOS Big Sur and Parallels Desktop

ClausK3 · Jun 24, 2020

I too can confirm the highly annoying lack of support for 't' and 'y' on the keyboard. Using a DK parallels keyboard. Any updates from Parallels side on why and how would be greatly appreciated.

hyph · Jun 24, 2020

Hello. I managed to install Big Sur by updating Catalina after creating the disk partition of at least 80GB (no 64GB the standard size to avoid the subsequent 'lack of space' error) and after inserting the 2 lines in Hardware -> Boot Order -> Advanced Settings -> Boot flags
The installation procedure has gone on and seems to have ended without problems, but at the moment of completion, therefore first start, a BLACK screen is displayed ... is this a problem of the Parallel version that does not yet fully support Big Sure?

BrianP12 · Jun 24, 2020

I'm also stuck at the login screen. I can get in, and the Feedback assistant shows up on screen, then it goes black and logs me back out. Bummer, but at least I have it on an external drive and can mess with it that way.

sas199 · Jun 24, 2020

DanF10 said:
I've found that installing Parallels Tools results in the Big Sur VM hanging at boot, so you might want to avoid doing that (or at least create a snapshot before trying it).

I've experienced the same thing. Even "Safe Mode" boot of the VM can't get it to start.

Technical report ID: 343273664

backslash-f · Jun 24, 2020

Big Sur runs fine (fresh VM, fresh Big Sur installation via DMG) until I install Parallels Tools via Actions / Reinstall Parallels Tools. After the reinstallation of Parallels Tools and after all permissions are granted via System Preferences / Privacy the VM gets stuck in a black screen after the reboot.

Report ID: 343276075

sas199 · Jun 24, 2020

Same issue with me on the Upgrade path. Clean install Catalina with Parallels Tools, and then upgraded to Big Sur. Ended up in black screen, even with safe boot.

Technical report ID: 343279538

DsurioN · Jun 24, 2020

Samus22 said:

I used

Code:

  sudo hdiutil create -o InstallMedia -size 20G -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J -type SPARSE
  sudo hdiutil attach InstallMedia.sparseimage -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/install_build
  sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Beta.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/install_build
  sudo hdiutil detach /Volumes/Install\ macOS\ */
  sudo hdiutil convert InstallMedia.sparseimage -format UDZO -o InstallMedia.dmg
  sudo rm InstallMedia.sparseimage

This worked, thanks! Perhaps I needed sudo for some of my commands, or maybe 10G wasn't quite big enough.

toonetown · Jun 24, 2020

BrianP12 said:
I'm also stuck at the login screen. I can get in, and the Feedback assistant shows up on screen, then it goes black and logs me back out. Bummer, but at least I have it on an external drive and can mess with it that way.

I'm seeing this as well - I think it is actually a crash in the WindowServer process. I can get it to happen every time when I click on the menubar (which is empty for me...i.e. no clock or any other icons).

JuanV4 · Jun 24, 2020

hyph said:
Hello. I managed to install Big Sur by updating Catalina after creating the disk partition of at least 80GB (no 64GB the standard size to avoid the subsequent 'lack of space' error) and after inserting the 2 lines in Hardware -> Boot Order -> Advanced Settings -> Boot flags
The installation procedure has gone on and seems to have ended without problems, but at the moment of completion, therefore first start, a BLACK screen is displayed ... is this a problem of the Parallel version that does not yet fully support Big Sure?

I had this problem with Parallels tools. I uninstalled them, and can reach the Big sur login screen. Now I'm stuck there.

JuanV4 · Jun 24, 2020

toonetown said:
I'm seeing this as well - I think it is actually a crash in the WindowServer process. I can get it to happen every time when I click on the menubar (which is empty for me...i.e. no clock or any other icons).

Me too. Any ideas on how to diagnose the WindowServer crashes?

DsurioN · Jun 24, 2020

toonetown said:
I'm seeing this as well - I think it is actually a crash in the WindowServer process. I can get it to happen every time when I click on the menubar (which is empty for me...i.e. no clock or any other icons).

Happening to me as well - not really sure what to try as a workaround!

MichalK5 · Jun 24, 2020

hyph said:
Hello. I managed to install Big Sur by updating Catalina after creating the disk partition of at least 80GB (no 64GB the standard size to avoid the subsequent 'lack of space' error) and after inserting the 2 lines in Hardware -> Boot Order -> Advanced Settings -> Boot flags
The installation procedure has gone on and seems to have ended without problems, but at the moment of completion, therefore first start, a BLACK screen is displayed ... is this a problem of the Parallel version that does not yet fully support Big Sure?

I see exactly the same problem.

ChrisH29 · Jun 24, 2020

DanF10 said:
I was able to get past the "BIErrorDomain error 3" issue in Parallels as follows:

On a real, supported Mac, run this command in Terminal:
ioreg -l | grep board-id

Make a note of the board ID (mine is Mac-551B86E5744E2388, for example)

Run this command in Terminal:
sysctl hw.model

Make a note of the hardware model (mine is MacBookPro14,3)

In the VM configuration, under Hardware -> Boot Order -> Advanced Settings -> Boot flags, enter the following (inserting the information noted above where shown):
devices.mac_hw_model="<model>"
devices.smbios.board_id="<board ID>"

That should be enough to allow the installation to proceed.

This doesn't solve the problem for me. I am upgrading from 10.15.5 as a Parallels virtual.

toonetown · Jun 24, 2020

JuanV4 said:
Me too. Any ideas on how to diagnose the WindowServer crashes?

DsurioN said:
Happening to me as well - not really sure what to try as a workaround!

Log it as a feedback with Apple. The more it gets reported, the more likely it will be to be looked at. I gathered the crash logs, gave screenshots and examples of what was going on, and mentioned it was installed within Parallels. I also offered access to a copy of my VM in case that would help them as well to find out what is happening.

hyph · Jun 24, 2020

JuanV4 said:
I had this problem with Parallels tools. I uninstalled them, and can reach the Big sur login screen. Now I'm stuck there.

how did you uninstall them? if you don't log in I don't see the disk to uninstall the tools ...

Carbonideus · Jun 24, 2020

Here is a new one:
- I resized my 10.15.5 partition to 130 GB
- I created a new partition into which I restored the installer image created as per the instructions above
- I added the 2 configuration strigns appropriate for my iMac model to the boot options
Now, I can start the VM perfectly fine from the second installer partition and (and now Parallels is running Big Sur) but when I try to install on the primary partition, I get the exact same error n° 3 ! I erased the 10.15 partition, but error 3 subsists.
Again, I can switch at leisure between 10.15 and 11, but Big Sur just won't install.
I'm still on Parallels 15.1.2, could this be the explanation?

Carbonideus · Jun 24, 2020

Here's a screenshot:

ct2193 · Jun 24, 2020

Moving forward with ARM processors, it is my personal preference that Parallels support both ARM-based guests as well as x86 / x86-64 guests. Our office relies on this for some important accounting packages. As these apps are Windows only, I doubt they care what Apple does and thus also wouldn't care to support ARM.

SureshP1 · Jun 24, 2020

I was able to install Big Sur without any issues after making some changes as advised on this forum. I did not install the Parallels Tools as it was leading to a blank screen during my previous install attempt. However I have a new issue. It would not let me login. I enter the password. The screen turns black for a couple of seconds and brings me back to the login. I am stuck here. I noticed that other people seem to be experiencing a similar issue. Any suggestions from the Parallels Technical team would help.

Roland07 · Jun 24, 2020

I've got parallels running steady, only missing '2'. The other numbers and keys seem to work. I left my parallels machines on te Catalina partition and re-installed Parallels. Performance wise, it seems to work OK, but using the on screen keyboard is an unusable solution for productivity.

The presentation Apple gave mentioned 2 relevant things: Rosetta 2 and virtualisation. Rosetta 2 doesn't support some x86_64 bit instructions, like those used in hypervisors (source Apple). Virtualisation was mentioned but nothing more. They ran a version of Debian in the video but they actually did not use it. It gave me the "look but don't touch or it will break" vibe. If Apple could have given a demo on Windows 10, they would have: after all: they also showed the Office for ARM branch that Microsoft had for years. I think the Just In Time compiler isn't ready for full scale Windows 10 support.

The future.. well Apple migrated too Intel from PowerPC by simply stopping support. So apple users will see a gradual incline in ARM based tools and decline in x86_64 tools. Those users that still need Windows 10 because that's their target platform: Linux, KVM and done.