macOS Monterey Black screen after update

[gnc-tibo]

Describe the issue
Black screen after macOS Monterey VM minor update (12.6.5). Problem reproduced on 3 VMs

Configuration

• UTM Version: 4.2.5 (81) from GitHub
• macOS Version: 13.3.1(a)
• Mac Chip (Intel, M1, ...): M1

Crash log
Not sure if this crash log is related to this issue. UTM_2023-05-12-171144_GNC-Thibaut-5.cpu_resource.diag.zip

Upload VM
config.plist.zip

[vishakh-abhayan]

It seems that you are encountering a black screen after a minor update (12.6.5) on three VMs. Here are a few steps you can take to troubleshoot the problem.

• Reboot the VMs: Sometimes a simple reboot can resolve minor software glitches. Try restarting each VM and see if the black screen issue persists.

• Verify Compatibility: Make sure that UTM and your version of macOS Monterey are compatible with each other. Check the UTM documentation or the GitHub repository for any known compatibility issues or recommended configurations.

• Update UTM: Ensure that you are using the latest version of UTM. Newer updates often address bugs and compatibility issues. Check the UTM GitHub repository for any new releases or bug fixes and update your UTM installation accordingly.

• Check Virtual Machine Settings: Review the configuration settings for your macOS Monterey VM. Ensure that the settings align with the recommended specifications for running macOS Monterey on UTM. Pay attention to parameters like CPU, RAM, and disk space allocation.

[gnc-tibo]

Thanks for your reply.

• Restart already done, of course
• Compatibility is different btw macOS 12.5.1 and 12.6.5 ? If I make VM with 12.6.5 IPSW, no problem. It seems it happens with macOS software update workflow.
• UTM Version: 4.2.5 (81) seems to be the latest
• I use defaults settings for all my macOS VMs

[tonyarnold]

I'm seeing this in all products that use Virtualization.framework. I don't believe that this issue is specific to UTM.

[kMikaZu]

I'm having the same issues here. Updating a virtual machine in UTM worked before, now the machine gets corrupted after an update.

[brennadev]

I'm seeing this issue too. Host is on macOS 13.4, UTM 4.2.5, and I was upgrading the VM from macOS 12.3.1 to 12.6.6. I tried restarting the VM and restarting the host, both of which didn't help.

I'm not seeing any issues when upgrading Ventura.

A couple months ago, when I was upgrading Monterey VMs in UTM, I was seeing a different, less-severe problem: https://github.com/utmapp/UTM/issues/5112.

[CLBarajas]

I can reproduce this, by performing a minor update for macOS 12.6.1 to 12.6.6. (Hosted on macOS 13.4.)

I got an IPSW via Mr. Macintosh (https://mrmacintosh.com/apple-silicon-m1-full-macos-restore-ipsw-firmware-files-database/) and tested two scenarios after setting up the OS clean from the IPSW:

• major update to 13.4
• minor update to 12.6.6

The update to 13.4 was fine, but 12.6.6 resulted in a black screen on the second reboot of the VM, with the com.apple.Virtualization.VirtualMachine process repeatedly reporting Guest requested binary version: 0, setting binary version to: 0 once followed by Device reset twice.

[kMikaZu]

I hope this issue will be fixed with the upcoming release of 4.3.0...

[wdormann]

Note that this is likely not UTM-specific, but rather in the Apple Virtual Machine Service. Parallels (which uses the same service) has the exact same problem.

[ajludgate]

Has anyone found a solution to this yet? I did some fiddling, and it appears the disk image update is fine, but the update messes something up in AuxiliaryStorage. The issue with VMWare Fusion appears to be different, as it can be bypassed by setting automatic login. Doing that here makes no difference.

[adespoton]

Well, I just attempted to upgrade to 12.7 after getting the black screen with 12.6.8 and 12.6.9.... This time, it got slightly further, in that after the update, instead of rebooting to a black screen, it rebooted to an Apple icon and progress bar. And when that progress bar finished, it rebooted to a black screen, and is now just as borked as the others.

[jafd]

The issue with VMWare Fusion appears to be different, as it can be bypassed by setting automatic login. Doing that here makes no difference.

Almost as if something was messing up the virtualized NVRAM?

[hzhua]

I'm seeing this issue too. Host is 12.5 MacBook Air M2, UTM is 4.4.4. Guest Image uses 12.6_21G115. After update to 12.7.1 in guest, it restarts, showing the desktop wallpaper, and crashes. Rebooting the VM enters the recovery back to 12.6.

[CLBarajas]

This may be fixed by the macOS 14.3 RC:

Virtualization

Resolved Issues

• Fixed: Resolved an issue where virtualized macOS Monterey guest fails to boot after installing software update. (111970030)

[jafd]

Apple may think it got fixed, but my testing reveals it ain't :-( To the black screen it went.

There could be factors like the VM had been made by an older version of the Virtualization.framework (I haven't tried creating a VM from scratch and then upgrading), but even if so, a trillion dollar company should be ashamed for calling that a "fix".

[kMikaZu]

I had no more problems since the release of Sonoma.

[rxhfcy]

This may be fixed by the macOS 14.3 RC:

After updating my host macOS to 14.3, I was now indeed able to successfully update a newly-created macOS 12.6.1 (Monterey) VM to macOS 12.7.3

So probably not a UTM bug per se, but maybe UTM should show a warning when running Monterey guest VMs on pre-14.3 macOS versions that still have the buggy Virtualization.framework...

...and/or better yet, "drop UTM support" for Monterey a bit prematurely (because not everyone will be running UTM on the latest version of Sonoma, and Monterey security updates will most likely end later this year anyway), here's a UI mock-up:

[miniak]

It looks like it works now with macOS 12.7.5