hoakley December 28, 2022 Macs, Technology, Updates

macOS virtualisation refactored and sandboxed in Viable updates

Christmas Day was ideal for the refactoring I wanted to do in my free macOS lightweight virtualisation app Viable. As a result, I have a new version, still a beta-release but hopefully edging ever closer to full release quality. I also have a sandboxed and locked-down version dubbed ViableS.

Refactoring should make it easier for Viable to handle errors more gracefully, and enables the app to close its VM window when a guest macOS has shut down. I’ve been working on further improvements to its handling of bundles and UTIs, have augmented the information given in the main window about VMs, and added a checkbox to control shared folders. If you don’t need your VM to be run in a sandbox, but want to isolate it from the host file system, this should be ideal.

Several of you asked for a sandboxed version of Viable, so you can keep your VMs completely isolated from the host. ViableS uses the same code as Viable, but is sandboxed, has shared folder code removed, and removes code supporting the clipboard too (even though that currently doesn’t appear functional). It retains NAT-based networking and Viable’s other Virtio and macOS devices.

Viable and ViableS VMs are identical, enabling you to build your VM with the convenience of shared folders to move apps and tools into it, then shut it down, and start it up in ViableS for you to undertake your research in isolation from the host.

In case you think that the two apps can be used together to run more than two macOS VMs at the same time, I’m afraid that macOS remains one step ahead of you, and enforces Apple’s licence limit across virtualising apps.

viable1072

Viable beta 7 (1.0.7) is now available from here: viable1b7
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

The locked-down ViableS beta 7 (1.0.7) is now available from here: viables1b7
from Downloads above, and from its Product Page.

Please let me know if there are any further features you want added, or other changes, and of any problems you encounter, so that I can continue progressing these to their first full release.

17Comments

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1

Maurizio on December 28, 2022 at 7:32 am
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Thanks for the sandboxed version !

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- 2
  
  hoakley on December 28, 2022 at 1:37 pm
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  It’s my pleasure. I’ve been using it a lot recently, as you’ll hear next week.
  Howard.
  
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3

Alan B on December 28, 2022 at 10:18 am
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Much appreciated updates. Hope you found time for some Christmas pud!

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- 4
  
  hoakley on December 28, 2022 at 1:39 pm
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  Thank you. No pud yet, but plenty of good eating.
  Howard.
  
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5

hstriepe on December 28, 2022 at 6:54 pm
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I tried to install over an existing bundle no longer recognized and it failed to delete it despite my order to do so in the Install… dialog.
It downloaded the IPSW. Where does it store that until used?

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- 6
  
  hoakley on December 28, 2022 at 6:58 pm
  Reply
  
  Please don’t try installing over an existing bundle: that’s a use I hadn’t even considered anyone would try!
  When it makes the bundle, it neatly stores the IPSW inside it. It doesn’t use it once the bundle has been installed, so you can remove it and store it elsewhere, or simply trash it.
  Howard.
  
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  - 7
    
    hstriepe on December 28, 2022 at 7:56 pm
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    I gathered.
    Where does it store the IPSW temporarily downloaded? It must still be there, since it could not put it in the bundle.
    
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    - 8
      
      hoakley on December 28, 2022 at 8:12 pm
      
      The completion handler for the download tries to copy the IPSW into the bundle. If it fails to do so, then the download is automatically deleted, I’m afraid. There’s no way around that.
      Howard.
      
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    - 9
      
      Alan B on December 29, 2022 at 9:55 am
      
      I now download a copy of the appropriate IPSW file and back it up to an external drive before using it with Viable to create a VM. If I mess up the VM creation process (which I do quite frequently!) I have a backed up
      IPSW file I can restore.
      
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    - 10
      
      hoakley on December 29, 2022 at 5:47 pm
      
      I’m sorry to hear that you have problems creating VMs. Perhaps if you can explain what catches you out, I can smooth the path for you and others.
      Howard.
      
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    - 11
      
      Alan B on December 29, 2022 at 6:06 pm
      
      Actually it’s mainly down to not allocating a large enough Virtual Disk size for what I want to do with the VM. I often realise this half way through the creation and so abandon the process. I guess I’m used to being able to increase the size after creation as per Parallels and VMware Fusion for instance. So it really is my own fault. Thanks.
      
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    - 12
      
      hoakley on December 29, 2022 at 6:09 pm
      
      Unfortunately there’s currently no way to change that in lightweight VMs, even in Parallels.
      I now use shared folders more: their write performance is much better too.
      But they’re only available in Ventura.
      Howard
      
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    - 13
      
      hoakley on December 28, 2022 at 8:16 pm
      
      Thinking about this: the only two options for dealing with this would be to completely replace the existing bundle (i.e. to delete the whole bundle before creating a new one), or simply to refuse as an error. Which would you prefer?!
      Howard.
      
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    - 14
      
      hstriepe on December 28, 2022 at 10:01 pm
      
      Would it be normal behavior for the save dialog to delete (perhaps) after a Confirmation dialog.
      
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    - 15
      
      hoakley on December 28, 2022 at 10:09 pm
      
      Yes, I think that’s a given. However, knowing what’s in that bundle I’d be inclined just to refuse to trash it. I put shared folder contents inside, and there’s the IPSW if the user hasn’t moved it. That’s why it never occurred to me that anyone would try overwriting the bundle – most of mine are more than 100 GB of VM, IPSW and shared files.
      I keep them on a dedicated OWC Envoy Pro FX 4 TB SSD. I’ve been living a lot in VMs!
      Howard.
      
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16

Adam S on January 19, 2023 at 7:25 pm
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Hi Howard,

Have you looked into virtualizing USB devices in an Apple Silicon VM? It appears it’s possible (https://developer.apple.com/documentation/virtualization/vzusbmassstoragedeviceconfiguration), but I haven’t seen it implemented yet?

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- 17
  
  hoakley on January 19, 2023 at 9:53 pm
  Reply
  
  Thank you.
  Unfortunately, Apple hasn’t provided any documentation that I’ve seen beyond identifying the API calls. If someone could explain how this works, I’ll gladly write it into my apps. It’s related to the disk image device used to read the VM’s disk image, but looks to me as if it works below file system level, or perhaps with a virtio file system. Your guess is as good as mine.
  Howard.
  
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