Stuck on 'Still waiting for root device' during install

[rchennafi]

Originally, I wanted to replace the disk on my virt-manager MacOSX machine since I'd made the original too small, so I removed the old one and added a new one. I was then faced with this error and unable to get through the MacOSX install.

Still waiting for root device

I tried removing the VM entirely and readding it following the Getting Started guide, as well as making a new qcow2 disk and attached, the same problem occurred.

Searching for this error seems to be a lot of talk about 'disk issues' and 'usb issues' - how can I get around this problem? Is this a system issue? I had a working OSX VM until attempting to replace the disk.

If this is done via just qemu instead of virt-manager using basic.sh, I still see the same problem.

I am using Catalina here.

<domain xmlns:qemu="http://libvirt.org/schemas/domain/qemu/1.0" type="kvm">
  <name>macOS-Simple-KVM</name>
  <uuid>d06d502a-904a-4b34-847d-debf1a3d76c7</uuid>
  <memory unit="KiB">2097152</memory>
  <currentMemory unit="KiB">2097152</currentMemory>
  <vcpu placement="static">4</vcpu>
  <os>
    <type arch="x86_64" machine="pc-q35-8.0">hvm</type>
    <loader readonly="yes" type="pflash">/mnt/virtual/images/macOS-Simple-KVM/firmware/OVMF_CODE.fd</loader>
    <nvram>/mnt/virtual/images/macOS-Simple-KVM/firmware/OVMF_VARS-1024x768.fd</nvram>
    <boot dev="hd"/>
  </os>
  <features>
    <acpi/>
    <apic/>
    <vmport state="off"/>
  </features>
  <cpu mode="custom" match="exact" check="none">
    <model fallback="forbid">qemu64</model>
    <topology sockets="1" dies="1" cores="4" threads="1"/>
  </cpu>
  <clock offset="utc">
    <timer name="rtc" tickpolicy="catchup"/>
    <timer name="pit" tickpolicy="delay"/>
    <timer name="hpet" present="no"/>
  </clock>
  <on_poweroff>destroy</on_poweroff>
  <on_reboot>restart</on_reboot>
  <on_crash>destroy</on_crash>
  <pm>
    <suspend-to-mem enabled="no"/>
    <suspend-to-disk enabled="no"/>
  </pm>
  <devices>
    <emulator>/usr/bin/qemu-system-x86_64</emulator>
    <disk type="file" device="disk">
      <driver name="qemu" type="qcow2"/>
      <source file="/mnt/virtual/images/macOS-Simple-KVM/ESP.qcow2"/>
      <target dev="sda" bus="sata"/>
      <address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="0"/>
    </disk>
    <disk type="file" device="disk">
      <driver name="qemu" type="raw"/>
      <source file="/mnt/virtual/images/macOS-Simple-KVM/BaseSystem.img"/>
      <target dev="sdb" bus="sata"/>
      <address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="1"/>
    </disk>
    <disk type="file" device="disk">
      <driver name="qemu" type="qcow2"/>
      <source file="/mnt/virtual/images/macOS-Simple-KVM/mac_main_disk.qcow2"/>
      <target dev="sdc" bus="sata"/>
      <address type="drive" controller="0" bus="0" target="0" unit="2"/>
    </disk>
    <controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-ehci1">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1d" function="0x7"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-uhci1">
      <master startport="0"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1d" function="0x0" multifunction="on"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-uhci2">
      <master startport="2"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1d" function="0x1"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="usb" index="0" model="ich9-uhci3">
      <master startport="4"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1d" function="0x2"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="sata" index="0">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1f" function="0x2"/>
    </controller>
    <controller type="pci" index="0" model="pcie-root"/>
    <interface type="network">
      <mac address="52:54:00:92:d4:7b"/>
      <source network="default"/>
      <model type="e1000-82545em"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x02" function="0x0"/>
    </interface>
    <serial type="pty">
      <target type="isa-serial" port="0">
        <model name="isa-serial"/>
      </target>
    </serial>
    <console type="pty">
      <target type="serial" port="0"/>
    </console>
    <input type="mouse" bus="usb">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="1"/>
    </input>
    <input type="keyboard" bus="usb">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="2"/>
    </input>
    <input type="mouse" bus="ps2"/>
    <input type="keyboard" bus="ps2"/>
    <graphics type="spice" autoport="yes">
      <listen type="address"/>
      <image compression="off"/>
    </graphics>
    <sound model="ich9">
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x1b" function="0x0"/>
    </sound>
    <audio id="1" type="spice"/>
    <video>
      <model type="qxl" ram="65536" vram="65536" vgamem="16384" heads="1" primary="yes"/>
      <address type="pci" domain="0x0000" bus="0x00" slot="0x01" function="0x0"/>
    </video>
    <redirdev bus="usb" type="spicevmc">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="3"/>
    </redirdev>
    <redirdev bus="usb" type="spicevmc">
      <address type="usb" bus="0" port="4"/>
    </redirdev>
    <watchdog model="itco" action="reset"/>
    <memballoon model="none"/>
  </devices>
  <qemu:commandline>
    <qemu:arg value="-cpu"/>
    <qemu:arg value="Penryn,kvm=on,vendor=GenuineIntel,+invtsc,vmware-cpuid-freq=on,+pcid,+ssse3,+sse4.2,+popcnt,+avx,+aes,+xsave,+xsaveopt,check"/>
    <qemu:arg value="-device"/>
    <qemu:arg value="isa-applesmc,osk=ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"/>
    <qemu:arg value="-smbios"/>
    <qemu:arg value="type=2"/>
  </qemu:commandline>
</domain>