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Bruno Rijsman avatar Ubuntu

Ubuntu 22.04 and 22.10 report unrecoverable system error when installing in Parallels 17.1.6 on macOS Big Sur

id flag
Bruno Rijsman

When I try to create a virtual machine for either Ubuntu 22.04.2 or 22.10 from the ISO image using Parallels 17.1.6 on a MacBook Air (2020, Intel, 16GB) running macOS Big Sur (11.7.3), the installation fails 100% reproducibly reporting "the installer encountered an unrecoverable error".

Steps to reproduce (these are the steps for 22.10; the exact same problem occurs for 22.04.2):

  1. Download the ISO from https://ubuntu.com/download/desktop

  2. In the Parallels control center, click on + to create a new virtual machine

Parallels control center

  1. In the installation assistant, click on "install ... another OS from a DVD or image file"

Choose installation

  1. Select the downloaded ISO image

Select ISO image

  1. Enter the user information

User information

  1. Accept the defaults for name and location:

Name and location

  1. Click OK when the popup reports that unattended installation is not possible:

Unattended not possible

  1. Select "try or install Ubuntu" in the GRUB menu

GRUB menu

  1. Wait for Ubuntu to boot

Ubuntu boots

at a certain point the screen goes upside down (it goes back to normal in the next step)

Ubuntu boots upside down

  1. In the installer, select install Ubuntu

Installer select install Ubuntu

  1. Accept the default English keyboard:

Select keyboard

  1. Accept the installation defaults:

Installation option default

  1. Accept the installation type defaults:

Installation type default

  1. Accept the partions:

Partitions

  1. Select the location:

Select location

  1. Enter user information

User information

  1. Error message "the installer encountered an unrecoverable error..." appears:

Unrecoverable error

  1. Click OK to continue

  2. Ubuntu reboots

Ubuntu reboots

  1. The Ubuntu desktop appears. After a minute or so a popup appears: "System program problem detected"

System program problem

  1. Click report problem, and then show details. There is a crash in ubiquity:

Ubiquity crah

ubiquity crashed with SIGILL in pas_segregated_page_construct

  1. The top of the stack trace is as follows:

Stack trace

Things that I already tried:

  • Ubuntu 22.04.2 => installer crashes

  • Ubuntu 22.10 => installer crashes

  • Ubuntu 20.04 using the "free systems" option in the installer (not an ISO image) => does NOT crash

  • 22.04 or 22.10 with 4GB of memory instead of the default 2GB => still crashes

  • 22.04 or 22.10 with 8GB of memory instead of the default 2GB => still crashes (in a slightly different way; at step 18 the system automatically reboots instead of waiting for the OK button)

  • Setting the hypervisor to "Parallels" instead of the default "Apple" => still crashes

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ArrayBolt3 avatar
ls flag
ArrayBolt3
Very interesting. You're getting a SIGILL crash, which I believe means something tried to run an instruction that the virtual CPU doesn't recognize. I've never used macOS or Parallels, but I'd recommend hunting through the VM's settings for anything related to CPU features and see if you need to enable something.
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pl flag
popey
Possibly this issue which recommends more RAM to be allocated to the VM. https://kb.parallels.com/en/128883
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Bruno Rijsman avatar
id flag
Bruno Rijsman
@ArrayBolt3 Interesting observation. The only tweakable option under CPU is changing the hypervisor from the default value "Apple" to "Parallels". That sounded promising but I tried it and it did not help.
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us flag
Archisman Panigrahi
Is this an M1 Mac?
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Bruno Rijsman avatar
id flag
Bruno Rijsman
@Archisman No, as mentioned at the top, this is an Intel mac
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Bruno Rijsman avatar
id flag
Bruno Rijsman
@popey I tried 4GB and 8GB; both crash
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Score:2
Bruno Rijsman avatar Ubuntu
id flag
Bruno Rijsman

A comment by ArrayBold3 led me to include SIGILL in my Google search for a solution. This let me to https://forum.parallels.com/threads/linux-5-19-issue-with-cpu-capabilities.358140/#post-910906 which describes the following solution that did indeed work for me.

  1. Check the "Customize settings before installation" checkbox in the Name and Location dialog (step 6 in the question).

  2. When the "Configuration" dialog appears, go to "Hardware", select "Boot Order", click on "Advanced..." and enter "kernel.xsavec=0"

enter image description here

+ 1
doge99 avatar
jp flag
doge99
Thank you. It works in Mac Ventura 13.2.1 installing Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. Before setting this, the installer always crashes after formatting the disk, in the timezone setup map page. After setting this everything works.
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