The Disk should be formatted with a case insensitive file system (default).

Install VMWare tools daemon.

  - The UI is supposed to be able to do this automatically, but it's broken as of writing.
  - Instead, mount darwin.iso from ISO/VMWARE TOOLS and run the installer from there.
  - open security preferences and click "Allow" on blocked software install from VMware
  - reboot
  - make sure you can run and see:

    $ /Library/Application Support/VMware Tools/vmware-tools-daemon --cmd "info-get guestinfo.name"
    No value found

Download Go 1.13.4 or newer tarball via curl (bootstrap version of Go must be signed and notorized in macOS version >= 10.15).

tar -xf <go.darwin-amd64.tar.gz>

mv go $HOME/goboot

System Preferences > Software Update > off

System Preferences > Desktop & Screensaver > never screensaver

System Preferences > Energy Saver > never sleep

System Preferences > Sharing > enable ssh (enable for administrators)

Create executable $HOME/stage0.sh with:

   #!/bin/bash
   while true; do (curl -v http://172.17.20.2:8713/stage0/$(sw_vers -productVersion) | sh); sleep 5; done

chmod +x $HOME/stage0.sh

Automator:

    File > New > Application
    [+] Run shell script
    [ open -a Terminal.app $HOME/stage0.sh ]
    Save to desktop as "run-builder"

System Preferences > Users & Groups > auto-login "gopher" user, run Desktop/run-builder (automator app)

passwordless sudo:

   sudo visudo
   Change line from:
    %admin ALL=(ALL) ALL
   to:
    %admin ALL=(ALL) NOPASSWD: ALL

install xcode
  - Version < 10.9: search and install an older compatible version of Xcode.
  - Versions 10.10, 10.9: running git first time will prompt for install.
  - Version => 10.15: download Xcode from the Apple Developer site:
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/10335747/how-to-download-xcode-dmg-or-xip-file
    (You don't want to log in to your account on the machine, so don't use the App Store.)
    Extract it, move the resulting Xcode folder to Applications, and run xcode-select:
    sudo xcode-select --switch /Applications/Xcode.app
    Then run xcodebuild -version and wait for Xcode to be verified.
    Finally, accept the license:
    sudo xcodebuild -license accept

verbose boot: (text instead of apple image)

    sudo nvram boot-args="-v"