Testing for macOS 10.12 Sierra
Sierra will ship on September 20, so I’ve been testing my apps with the Golden Master (GM). Unfortunately, GM doesn’t mean what it used to. Not only is the macOS 10.12 GM different bits than customers will install (same with the Xcode GM) but there are actually multiple GMs.
The first GM that I downloaded was build 16A319. Then I heard about 16A320 and 16A322. There was probably one in between those, too.
When a new GM is released, it does not appear in the Mac App Store as an update. You have to delete the Install macOS Sierra.app, redownload the installer, and install the whole thing again.
I have been using VMware for testing. Despite the update to VMware 8.5, VMware will not automatically install Sierra for me. If I create a new VM and tell it to use the installer app, VMware reports an error: “Unable to create the installation medium.”. [Update: See below.]
There are two methods that have worked for me:
Copy and open a Mac OS X 10.11 VM, drag the installer app to its Finder, then run installer. (Then, optionally, delete the installer, empty the trash, and compact.)
Create a blank disk image called Sierra, then make an installer disk:
sudo /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Sierra --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ macOS\ Sierra.app
And tell VMware to create the VM based on the disk image.
Unfortunately, the Sierra GM is still rather buggy.
Update (2016-09-15): Another GM build, 16A323, has been released, and I’m told that the “official” release next week will be different still.
Emma Rios reports that the second GM still has an issue with slow Wi-Fi.
Update (2016-09-20): The final build from the Mac App Store is 16A323.
8 Comments RSS · Twitter
@Nicholas I think it’s integrated, but I get the error, anyway, and apparently am not alone.
What do you mean by "same with the Xcode GM" ?
The early Xcode GM I downloaded was 8A218a, and the public Xcode 8 version has the exact same version.
@Jean-Daniel It looks like you’re right about Xcode 6. In the past, I recall them being different builds.
[…] Michael Tsai notes some ongoing bugs in the GM, including a fix for a slow WiFi connection. As usual, upgrade with caution; be sure to make a full, verified backup. […]
I had this issue with the official GA release today and it was due to the fact that VMware Fusion is trying to mount and already mounted installer. When I checked Disk Utility, I noticed that the application was mounted after the initial download. Simply go into Disk Utility and unmount the installer then try again, you should have no issues creating the VM.
@Lex I think you’re right. Thanks!
[…] Previously: Testing for macOS 10.12 Sierra. […]
I used http://blogs.vmware.com/teamfusion/2016/06/fix-for-installing-macos-sierra-as-a-vm.html — surprised if this isn't integrated into 8.5. (I installed the first GM into VMware Fusion 8 that way but haven't tried upgrading to 8.5 yet.)