Replace the screenshot/OCR/keystroke driving of Apple's Recovery with a
"PE": BaseSystem.dmg (a journaled HFS+ volume, writable from Linux) with one
LaunchDaemon added (makeRecoveryPE) that runs /Volumes/VMIX/run.sh as root at
boot, records the status and powers off. launchd loads it alongside its signed
cache (verified on Tahoe 26.6.2); same idea as AutoNBI/Imagr NetBoot images.
- makeImage: the PE runs vmix-install.sh (erase, installer app, SharedSupport
pkgdmg, startosinstall). Progress is read from the serial console
(boot-args serial=3 -v, VMIX-* markers) and screenshots (brightness only).
Fully offline; prepare now takes ~5 min instead of ~10.
- customizeImage: boots the PE with the image attached and runs the template
offline against the mounted System/Data volumes; OpenCore ScanPolicy
restricted to HFS+/SATA so only the PE can boot. One PE boot ~30 s. The
installed macOS is never booted for customization, so nothing depends on
launchd/BTM approval or a first-boot agent (removed).
- templates rewritten for offline use: generalize creates the user with
dscl -f (admin, home, auto-login kcpassword, Setup Assistant suppression,
hostname, locale, timezone, keyboard type, container resize); remote-access,
no-updates, performance edit the target's plists.
- makeBootDisk: build-time OpenCore variant (serial console, ScanPolicy).
- vm-driver.py rewritten: passive observation only (serial markers, kernel
boots, panics, brightness), disk+serial-aware hang watchdog, reboot-death
reset, halt/loginwindow detection. No OCR/tesseract.
- OpenCore: four SMBIOS DIMMs for MacPro7,1 (no "Memory Modules
Misconfigured" warning).
- tools/soak.sh: repeatability harness.
Verified on daku: base install 23 min end to end; basic + generalize in three
~30 s PE boots; the result auto-logs into the desktop with the created user.
Root cause of the "first-boot hang" (from the serial log): the guest's restart
path panics (IOPlatformHaltRestartAction -> AppleSMC, SMCWDT smcWriteKey
kSMCBadCommand, nested panic) because the pinned OSX-KVM Lilu disables itself
on macOS 26, so VirtualSMC never loads. Handled by the driver (reset within
60 s); kext update to follow.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01XsESshRCoBoUVWV9qKURUF
Add a macOS image pipeline mirroring the Windows one: unattended install,
generalization and user creation, driven end to end in QEMU on a KVM host.
lib/images/macos:
- makeOpenCore: OSX-KVM OpenCore ESP with a config.plist rewritten per image —
SMBIOS model + serial/MLB (macserial) + UUID + ROM=en0 MAC (built-in NIC pinned
to PciRoot(0x0)/Pci(0x12,0x0)) for Apple ID / iMessage / App Store; boot disk;
OpenCore self-entry hidden. ident.nix derives MAC+UUID from a seed so the NixOS
module and CLI know the NIC MAC at eval time.
- makeImage: one QEMU session driven by vm-driver.py (QMP + screenshot settle
detection + OCR of the menu bar) — boots the recovery via OpenCore, opens
Terminal (Ctrl-F2 -> Utilities -> Terminal), types the bootstrap command;
vmix-install.sh erases the disk as APFS, lays down the host-extracted installer
app skeleton + a byte-exact SharedSupport.dmg (raw disk mapped to that byte range
of the pkg, dd'd in — Recovery's xar truncates an 18 GB member), runs
startosinstall with the vmix agent pkg. OpenCore is then copied into the image's
ESP so it boots standalone with OVMF.
- customizeImage / templates: boot the image with a FAT-then-HFS+ VMIX volume; the
vmix agent (LaunchDaemon) runs a script as root, records status and powers off —
the macOS counterpart of Windows Audit Mode. generalize creates the admin user +
auto-login (kcpassword), suppresses Setup Assistant, sets hostname/timezone,
grows APFS, and assigns a fresh SMBIOS identity. Templates: noUpdates,
performance, remoteAccess (ssh + screen sharing).
- fetchRecovery: Apple recovery BaseSystem, retried until the pinned Tahoe build
(osrecovery load-balances Sequoia/Tahoe during the rollout). makeAgentPkg builds
a distribution flat pkg on Linux (xar+bom+cpio) for startosinstall --installpackage.
CLI: vmix build/copy/run for macOS (run --macos --vnc, reads the image's MAC from
its ESP), and a `vmix macserial` helper. NixOS module: disks.os.file carrying
_vmixOsType="macos" auto-enables the macOS QEMU profile (AppleSMC+OSK, Skylake
CPU spoof, AHCI system disk, VMware SVGA, pinned NIC); macos.{enable,cpu,mac}.
Status: proven through the installer prepare phase (SharedSupport.dmg mounts,
version 26.6.2 read, SU catalog loads). Two blockers remain, documented in
lib/images/macos/README.md: (1) startosinstall's OSISVerifyBaseSystemOperation
rejects the byte-identical plain-UDIF SharedSupport as "pkgdmg missing a footer"
in this Tahoe recovery/VM; (2) Apple's CDN unreliably serves the Tahoe recovery
during rollout (self-hosting the verified BaseSystem is the robust fix).
Co-Authored-By: Claude Fable 5.1 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01XsESshRCoBoUVWV9qKURUF
