The base image (macos.images.tahoe.upstream) now installs and boots end to end
with no dependency on Apple's servers — proven on the KVM host: the finished
qcow2 boots standalone (OpenCore from its own ESP) to the macOS 26.6.2 loginwindow.
Install driving (vm-driver.py, screenshot + OCR over QMP):
- map the whole InstallAssistant.pkg as a raw disk and dd it byte-exact into the
app as SharedSupport.dmg (it is a pkgdmg: xar + koly footer — the bare xar
member fails startosinstall with "pkgdmg is missing a footer")
- offline install: no NIC + /etc/hosts blackhole of Apple install/verify
endpoints so startosinstall's calls fail fast instead of hanging
(SecureBootModel=Disabled allows the sealed-volume install offline)
- keep the recovery display awake with a tiny mouse jiggle; coarse settle
fingerprint so the cursor is not seen as a change
- guest watchdog re-erases/retries a startosinstall attempt that stalls or runs
too long (prepare is intermittently slow)
- disk-aware boot watchdog: QMP system_reset only when the screen is dark AND the
disk is idle (never interrupts a slow-but-working boot); recovery-restart if a
post-prepare reboot lands back on recovery
- detect the bright loginwindow and power the VM down (install complete); a
black + disk-idle screen is treated as a completed halt
- copy OpenCore into the image ESP so it boots standalone
recovery.file pins a content-addressed local BaseSystem.dmg (Apple's CDN
load-balances Sequoia/Tahoe during the rollout). fetchRecovery retries to the
pinned hash when used instead.
Not yet done: .generalize (user creation) — the first-boot agent LaunchDaemon is
blocked by Ventura+ Background Task Management on headless boots; next step is
offline user injection from the agent pkg postinstall.
Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 4.8 <noreply@anthropic.com>
Claude-Session: https://claude.ai/code/session_01XsESshRCoBoUVWV9qKURUF
Git Sagar
58a317f5d2