Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Big Sur on Mac Mini 2012 via Parallels 16 VM
- Thread starter nollimac
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Well, it seems that I might be the first to try however; I post in the unsupported thread before I try.
According to this article: https://www.parallels.com/blogs/macos-big-sur-beta-vm/ it can be done ... of course, it didn't say how. I just installed Parallels 16 on Catalina ... tried to install Big Sur; however, I am not getting to the installer interface so I could select Terminal or run the micropatch so, no luck (yet)! Note the article mentioned installing the beta version ... I had and tried the Big Sur release version.
Okay, found this:https://kb.parallels.com/en/125105 and it seems that I need to upgrade Parallels 16 to the latest version in order to see the "boot from recovery." Will need to do another time as the Internet is down (Hot-spotting from phone.
Still no luck ... all I get is boot from the Catalina recovery, not the Big Sur recovery. Note my host is Catalina. So, it seems that to boot from the recovery is only if one is already running a Big Sur host.
Attachments
Last edited:
It seems to me that you're trying to reboot the system and boot into an installer in order to install Big Sur as a VM in Parallels. Maybe there's an extra step you need to do in the recovery environment that I'm unaware of?
You won't get the option to boot a BS recovery environment unless it's installed on your system.
Maybe I'm missing something?
Normally to create a VM in Parallels you'd need an .iso file or a VHDX file of the OS you want to run. Parallels will then create a VM using that file. Do you have such a file? I'm not sure an installer file will work.
Sorry if this is all obvious to you but I don't really get what you're doing
You won't get the option to boot a BS recovery environment unless it's installed on your system.
Maybe I'm missing something?
Normally to create a VM in Parallels you'd need an .iso file or a VHDX file of the OS you want to run. Parallels will then create a VM using that file. Do you have such a file? I'm not sure an installer file will work.
Sorry if this is all obvious to you but I don't really get what you're doing
I did this successfully on a 27" 2020 iMac with latest Catalina prior to upgrading following the Parallels instructions. You have to download the Installer app as per information and then point to it. It all worked fine but operation was slow as there is no graphics acceleration so windows etc opened more slowly and any app requiring acceleration had a blank screen which limited usefulness for testing.
Since upgraded and all working fine but it was a useful exercise to test a few programs.
Since upgraded and all working fine but it was a useful exercise to test a few programs.
Ah thanks. I didn't know Parallels could make a vm from the installer app. Now I do
Having visited the Parallels page I now see that the OP is trying to make a vm out of the BS recovery partition but he hasn't got one because it isn't installed on his system. I think!
So maybe he should download the BS installer app and go from there.
Thank you members for the feedback ... so, this morning I decided to make a VM of Big Sur from the Big Sur partition on the 2012 Mac Mini; however, I got this, see image below, as I was not connected to the Internet. The plan was to create the VM with Big Sur, then move the VM to the Catalina partition, test and if all is good, then remove Big Sur from the Mac Mini and go back to Catalina. I tried and was successful in installing Mojave on Parallels 16 on the Big Sur partition hoping to continue to play music on my iPod Nano (2006 and playing since then); however, even after passing through the Nano directly to Mojave, it still recognized the APFS of Big Sur like daw! I'll try Big Sur recovery and report later.
The problem going back to Catalina is I am not sure I can reverse the firmware created to install Big Sur on the 2012 Mac Mini.
The problem going back to Catalina is I am not sure I can reverse the firmware created to install Big Sur on the 2012 Mac Mini.
Last edited:
Just remembered that Big Sur on 2012 Mac Mini doesn't have WIFI so cannot tether to phone ... bummer! To add, Bluetooth is also not working for the Internet (WIFI); however, Bluetooth works for external Bluetooth keyboard and trackpad.
I could connect the Mac Mini to the phone by USB cable for the Internet ... Big Sur recovery never showed up in the Parallels 16 assistant.
I could connect the Mac Mini to the phone by USB cable for the Internet ... Big Sur recovery never showed up in the Parallels 16 assistant.
Last edited:
Does anyone knows how to use createmedia to reverse the Big Sur from a bootable flash drive back to the application folder? I cannot download it from the app store because Mac doesn't support. I would like to the Bug Sur.app.
Last edited:
No, sorry.
You can make an iso file from the macOS installer.app though (if you still have it in Applications).
https://osxdaily.com/2020/07/20/how-convert-macos-installer-iso/
I have only it on the flash drive as I had to download Big Sur on a friend's machine; however, the link you provided should help when I see my friend soon.