My journey on the M1

A positive step today. I've finally got Windows emulation using the Parallels technical preview and Windows 10 on Arm 64.

Getting this up and running was fairly straightforward and the speed of Windows 10 on the M1 MacBook Pro is quite awesome. However, the key factor has been the release of Windows 10 Insider Preview Build 21277 (RS_PRERELEASE), which includes x64 emulation.

Although not totally straight forward, I now have FileMaker 19 and 16 running (with plugins) on this, allowing support of clients who haven't yet upgraded to the latest versions that isn't possible running only the M1 (Rosetta) compatible Mac versions.

FileMaker 17 installed OK, but I used the wrong license, which I need to correct. FileMaker 15 did install but currently won't run, so as yet can't provide full support for the few clients we haven't got off the MDI versions as yet.

It will be interesting to compare performance with the HP laptop I've had to use while working on this.

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Is that FileMaker 16 and 19 for Windows in the Windows ARM OS in Parallels on the M1?

Yes Christian, so far Iā€™ve got FMPA 16, 17 (havenā€™t tried 18 yet, but would expect it to work) and FMP19.

I will look at FMPA 15 again, as it was the last MDI version and there are still a few old Windows system where the customers havenā€™t invested in the upgrading as yet.

After getting Windows build 21277 with the x64 emulation, the key step to succeeding with the previously failed FileMaker installation attempts was to remove all Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable entries in the Apps & Features list (in Control Panels), then install the preview version of the ARM64 C++ redistributable from:
https://aka.ms/arm64previewredist and install this.

Then install FileMaker Pro 19 as standard, allowing it to also install its standard Microsoft Visual C++ 2017 Redistributable (x64) 14.13.26020, so there are 2 entries in Apps & Features. We never install Bonjour, hence have not for this.

FileMaker 16 installed OK, but launching it initially resulted in ā€˜The application has been installed incorrectly or modified by another program Please run the installer to get a fresh copy of the application after determining the caseā€™ but selecting ā€˜Modifyā€™ for this in Apps & Features and ā€˜Repairā€™ sorted out whatever the problem was.

Iā€™ve a few utilities I rely on as well, such as S3 Browser which is worked straight away.

At the moment, I canā€™t believe the speed of it compared to my previous experience of Parallels, although I tended to opt for the less powerful MacBooks and MacBook Air in the past, so perhaps it was as quick on the Intel MacBook Pros?

A quick update. Iā€™m now on Big Sur 11.2.3 and it looks as if the bluetooth issues have largely been resolved.

The key progress has been with Parallels 16 Technical Preview. Iā€™m currently on Version 16.3.2 and Windows 10 Pro for Arm build 21327. I now have FileMaker Pro 15 through to 19 running, so have complete legacy support for all clients.

The key thing is that this virtual machine is seriously fast on the M1. I pretty much use Windows as a ā€˜spareā€™ app, as it is so responsive.

Weā€™ve had our issues, Microsoft did release one Insider Preview version of Windows 10 that broke the 64-bit emulation, but keeping regular snapshots allows instant rollback, so no great problems.

The M1 MacBook Pro is rapidly becoming one of my favourite all time models Iā€™ve owned (and since 1985 Iā€™ve owned a lot!).

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FileMaker is a special beast, do you thing Parallels is/will be trustworthy enough as a viable solution to run the Windows version on M1 ? If so that mens going through a translation and emulation is quite incredible !

sounds promising, really promising!

Do You have any expierience with FMServer on the M1?

Hi Markus

Iā€™m afraid I havenā€™t tried FM Server on the M1. From what I can remember from what Iā€™ve read, it is currently nothing to write home about. I believe the nature of the M1 system and of course Rosetta 2, means there isnā€™t any radical improvement in performance. When I have a moment, Iā€™ll try to dig out the information I read.

Kind regards
Andy

Development server moved to M1 Mac Mini mid-December 2020. No issues encountered and with macOS 11.2.3 it is a perfect match.

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I've been using FileMaker 19 on an M1 MacBook Pro for some months now. In general it is the best (fastest, power efficient) laptop I've had myself or experienced (other customers)

FileMaker works almost without hiccups and appears to have only one small problem: the graphic buttons for which corners will be rounded (in Layout mode) appear somewhat strange on-screen.

Best,
Ernst

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This is the only issue I observed, too.

I was under the impression the round corner inspector glitch was tied to Big Sur and not exclusive to M1 hardware. Can anyone confirm?

I have Big Sur with Intel Mac and I don't see that issue (or cannot reproduce it :grinning:)

Yes, I see it on Big Sur on an Intel MacBook.

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It's easy to see: click on a field in layout mode and give that field rounded corners by inputting a value in the corner radius box.
Bobino has got a point though that it would be more likely tied to Big Sur then to Apple Silicon.

I was going to try this as I have an M1 MacBook Pro and Intel MacBook Air on Big Sur, but the screenshot is from my M1 MacBook and I can't see this behaviour using FMP 19.2.2.234
Screenshot 2021-04-08 at 10.41.29

Ah, that was useful, now added a line to it and the bottom right corner is squared (now reaching for the Air, but useful to know this is only if a border is added):
Screenshot 2021-04-08 at 10.45.09

It looks as if this is an M1 issue, could not recreate the problem on the Intel MacBook Air, albeit it was running FMP 19.1.3.315, which I'm now going to update:

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I have a M1 Mac mini and canā€™t see this behaviour. @AndyHibbs I see on your first screenshot that the lower right corner selector is deactivated. This may happen if you accidentally hit one of the corner selectors when clicking outside of the field. In my case the corner selectors behave as usual.

Or it depends on the theme used. My theme is based on Apex Blue from which I made a copy and modified the css file. Which theme did you use?

@mipiano you may be right. Iā€™ve just double checked and on my screen the buttons to the right of ā€˜Corner radiusā€™ are almost invisible. I hardly do any development natively on the Mac, so it would be easy to accidentally click one. Are these tiny buttons the norm for everyone?
Interesting that FMP on Windows has very obvious buttons (albeit I struggle with the border icons this time), I can certainly replicate both behaviours using the buttons. Apologies if I misled anyone and well done.
Mac
image
Windows
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@AndyHibbs I believe before macOS Big Sur these corner selector buttons were bigger and better to see. Unfortunately all my Macs are now on Big Sur so I canā€™t check if Iā€™m right.

I think @ernst meant to point out those buttons, not a misbehavior. However, I admit that I had also misunderstood him at first. :blush: