Unable to create older VM's on macOS 26 Developer Beta 5

[p-linnane]

Hi there. I was trying to set up some VM's to do some testing, and found that no matter which OS I try it hangs on 'Preparing installation'. Clicking the terminal icon to view the logs isn't useful because there is no output at all. I've tried installing macOS 12, 13, 14, 15 , and 26. I am running VirtualBuddy 2.1-b6. Please let me know if there is anything I can provide to help triage.

[p-linnane]

Correction: macOS 26 betas are working.

[insidegui]

I don't have my beta Mac with me right now to test with, but I suspect that this is an issue with the Virtualization install process itself.

The built-in log console is not useful in this case because it only starts collecting logs once it's opened (I have it on my list to address that), so if something is getting stuck right in the beginning, it's difficult to catch.

To collect better logs, you can run the following in Terminal BEFORE starting the installation process:

log stream --level debug --style compact --color none --predicate 'process contains "com.apple.Virtualization.Installation" OR senderImagePath contains "MobileDevice" OR process contains "VirtualBuddy"' > ~/Desktop/InstallLogs.log

Leave it running for a while, then CTRL+C and send me the file.

[p-linnane]

I'm not able to reproduce this behavior now 🤦🏻‍♂️. I'll keep an eye on it and report back if it happens again. Sorry!

[insidegui]

No worries! It's possible that the issue was happening during the signing phase or before it during IPSW extraction. I've seen that process get stuck sometimes for no apparent reason 😅