Upgrade to macOS Beta within VirtualBuddy?

[blackketter]

I can't seem to figure out how to upgrade a working Sonoma install in VirtualBuddy rather than downloading a full restore image and starting from scratch.

Am I missing something simple?

[insidegui]

macOS Sequoia Beta

For instructions on how to update a VM to macOS Sequoia, see @lukele's instructions: #194 (comment)

macOS Sonoma Beta

Installing betas now requires signing in with an Apple ID that's enrolled in the beta program (be it the developer, customer, or public betas), and unfortunately signing in with an Apple ID inside a macOS VM is also not supported.

However, I have found a workaround that allowed me to update a macOS VM running macOS 14 beta 2 to macOS 14 beta 3.

Enabling macOS 14 beta updates in a virtual machine

The commands below must be run within the virtual machine

• Open Terminal (Applications > Utilities > Terminal)
• Run the commands below:

sudo defaults write com.apple.MobileAsset MobileAssetAssetAudience -string 77c3bd36-d384-44e8-b550-05122d7da438
sudo defaults write com.apple.MobileAsset MobileAssetServerURL-com.apple.MobileAsset.SoftwareUpdate -string "https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-14seed-14-13-12-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz"
sudo killall -HUP mobileassetd
sudo killall -HUP betaenrollmentd
open "x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.Software-Update-Settings.extension"

I've only tested in macOS Sonoma, but it's possible it works for updating a macOS Ventura VM to macOS Sonoma as well.

Disclaimer: highly experimental, might break in future updates, etc etc

PS: If you'd like to DISABLE beta updates within the VM, replace the first two commands by the ones below:

sudo defaults delete com.apple.MobileAsset MobileAssetAssetAudience
sudo defaults delete com.apple.MobileAsset MobileAssetServerURL-com.apple.MobileAsset.SoftwareUpdate

[mag911]

Champion! The vanilla Parallels macOS image still responds positively to the set of commands listed here 🥇 , upgrading itself to Sonoma 14 Beta 3.

[codecaffeine]

Works for Beta 4 as well!

[blackketter]

I was offered and am now downloading Beta 7

[lukele]

Thanks! I deleted the comment after it suddenly appeared after a few more attempts.

[wAuner]

Great, that worked, thank you! Worked for me for updating my UTM VM Sonoma Beta 7 to RC. Unbelievable that Apple requires developers to jump through so many hoops. They really don't want us to properly test our software.

[kjacobsen]

Are there any updates if this works for Sonoma 14.3 Beta 3?

[lukele]

Yes, works perfectly.

[lukele]

For anyone wanting to upgrade an existing macOS Sonoma VM to macOS Sequoia, following are the new commands:

sudo defaults write com.apple.MobileAsset MobileAssetAssetAudience -string 98df7800-8378-4469-93bf-5912da21a1e1
sudo defaults write com.apple.MobileAsset MobileAssetServerURL-com.apple.MobileAsset.SoftwareUpdate -string "https://swscan.apple.com/content/catalogs/others/index-15seed-15-14-13-12-10.16-10.15-10.14-10.13-10.12-10.11-10.10-10.9-mountainlion-lion-snowleopard-leopard.merged-1.sucatalog.gz"
sudo killall -HUP mobileassetd
sudo killall -HUP betaenrollmentd
open "x-apple.systempreferences:com.apple.Software-Update-Settings.extension"

[alienator88]

Ahh that is unfortunate!

[lukele]

@andalman Not sure to what beta you are trying to update. b2 has not yet been released, or has it? developer.apple.com says Jun 10 as latest release which was b1. If you're talking about Sonoma betas, you have to use the commands from @insidegui's original post.

[andalman]

Wow. Thanks, @lukele! I thought I read that b2 was already released. But I was totally mistaken! Sorry for the confusion. How embarrassing.

[lukele]

Ah ok, no worries :)

[thecrypticace]

Confirmed this works for updating Sequoia beta 1 to beta 2

[ArthurValiev]

Has anyone figured out how to update to macOS 15.1 beta inside the VM yet?
Steps for enabling updates to 15.0 betas don’t seem to work.
Looks like it has a separate asset audience uuid. I tried to take the uuid from the host which is running 15.1 already but VM still does not offer 15.1 as an available update.

[aaron-gray]

I thought it might also be published to a different catalog URL, but I haven't been able to guess the naming convention for 15.1

[ArthurValiev]

yeah.. at least the URL that I see (defaults read com.apple.MobileAsset) on my MacBook Air M2 running 15.1 is the same as in 15.0.
My main suspicion is that the audience uuid might be somehow personalized? Was that the case with 15.0? I mean that it’s not the same for everyone or all Mac models?
I wonder if the reason why audience uuid taken from Air does not work on VM is because of difference in model name..

[shoopg]

@ArthurValiev do you mind sharing the MobileAssetAssetAudience uuid that you have for 15.1?

[aaron-gray]

1831c3e6-1dc4-4f6b-a9dc-7ae6a41d9af4

…

On Aug 13, 2024 at 3:16:04 PM, shoopg ***@***.***> wrote: @ArthurValiev <https://github.com/ArthurValiev> do you mind sharing the MobileAssetAssetAudience uuid that you have for 15.1? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#194 (reply in thread)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB2J6ZYZKLTANXMRBQCEUXDZRJLPJAVCNFSM6AAAAAA2DVBN5WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTAMZSHE3DONA> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[shoopg]

Thank you!

This allowed me to update a Mac that I am unable to enroll via the normal method.

[agrieco]

I'm unable to get Beta 3 to upgrade to Beta 5 using these commands and this MobileAssetAssetAudience. Anyone have any success on these releases?

[lukele]

Same here. From the Sequoia b7 release notes - Virtualization

Installing the latest beta of macOS in a virtual machine on a host Mac running macOS Sonoma might fail. (109234128)
Workaround: Install the latest beta of Xcode prior to installing the latest beta of macOS.

[mcnahum]

Did you find the id for 15.2?

happy to learn the process to look for it too :->

[pthexton]

The tricks here don't seem to work anymore as of the latest Sequoia releases... does anybody have any working UUIDs to specify with the defaults commands? I tried retrieving them by temporarily enrolling my real (personal) mac in to the beta program but those values didn't work for me from within a VM :(

[aaron-gray]

I have been using another workaround. Download MIST from Github https://github.com/ninxsoft/Mist and the day after Apple releases beta firmware, they will be added to the catalog feed and show up in MIST. If you export the list as json, you can see the direct URL to download the install assistant pkg manually and then install in place. Not as elegant as downloading via Software Update in system settings, but it’s been working for me.

…

On Wed, Jan 15, 2025 at 08:25 pthexton ***@***.***> wrote: The tricks here don't seem to work anymore as of the latest Sequoia releases... does anybody have any working UUIDs to specify with the defaults commands? I tried retrieving them by temporarily enrolling my real (personal) mac in to the beta program but those values didn't work for me from within a VM :( — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#194 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AB2J6Z3WSLVY5Y5LFFDMEX32K2DZLAVCNFSM6AAAAAA2DVBN5WVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43URDJONRXK43TNFXW4Q3PNVWWK3TUHMYTCOBUGUYDSNI> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[pthexton]

@aaron-gray thanks, that's super useful!