Tutorial: Install Retail Leopard on VMware Workstation

[Donk]

Fist let me thank you for this very nice work I got a nice leopard 10.5.5 running under VMWare Server 2.0 RC2 without any issue ! Just two small questions :

- did you progress on getting the vmware tools from Fusion 2.0 final working ? (the graphics are quite slow now ...)

- is there a way to automate the boot process after installation (I mean having to press enter, 80, enter,enter on every boot)

 

Thanks !

 

No I can't get the tools working. I may have another look at it, but not quite sure where to go to fix it. You can automate the boot process but you will need to modify the CD ISO image. I don't have the details to hand at the moment, but will update tomorrow. I have to fly home from business today.

[NemesisX64]

First of all, i just want to say thnx to Donk for all his work.

 

Now to my problem. I have the same problem as the xboy720 does, just my keyboard also gets stuck some times (especially when i try to update from 1.5.4 to 1.5.5 and need to type in my pass). I'm not sure about this but could it be that it's the problem with nforce usb controlers on my nforce mobo? I have noticed that a lot of nforce based mobos have problems with usb in Symantech Ghost 11.5 enterprise when trying to load usb support. Also sometimes when i try to install macosx my kb stops responding in disk utility(can't rename the partition), or somethimes after the installation is done on firts boot i get there is no keyboard connected.

Note: both my kb and mouse are USB

 

Does anyone get this problem?

 

Using OSX 10.5.5 and typing normally, sometimes some 'keys' would get stuck and then it just ends up spamming the VM machine.

 

It can happen with any keys, or key combinations, like CTRL C, or arrows, or ctrl-ENTER, etc.

 

And when it happens, slamming on all the keys does nothing; I can't reset the state at all!

[Nebzar]

I'm currently running into the same problem. How do you clone from a virtual IDE to a virtual SCSI drive?

 

Add a new virtual scsi disk to the Vm, and once in MacOS:

 

- initialize the new disk with Disk utility;

- use Carbon copy cloner to clone the old disk to the new one;

- exit the VM, remove the old disk and reboot the VM.

 

Regards

[Donk]

No I can't get the tools working. I may have another look at it, but not quite sure where to go to fix it. You can automate the boot process but you will need to modify the CD ISO image. I don't have the details to hand at the moment, but will update tomorrow. I have to fly home from business today.

 

To always boot to the hard disk modify the ISOLINUX.CFG on the CD to read:

 

KERNEL /mboot.c32 /boot biosdev=80 --- /initrd.img

 

assuming used my template. You may also want to change com.apple.Boot.plist to select the correct root disk and automatically boot. Plenty of topics in the forums on this.

[Ashmodai]

To always boot to the hard disk modify the ISOLINUX.CFG on the CD to read:

 

KERNEL /mboot.c32 /boot biosdev=80 --- /initrd.img

 

assuming used my template. You may also want to change com.apple.Boot.plist to select the correct root disk and automatically boot. Plenty of topics in the forums on this.

 

Thanks !

[tsdampier]

This is a nice guide.

 

I had a few additional detail questions perhaps someone can answer:

 

1) I added a SCSI disk to your default template and removed the IDE like others. However, there was no information about configuration. I assume the defaults are the best and not fully allocating the disk at creation of the disk file? The reason I ask is generally you get better performance with that implementation. Is 20gb enough of a drive size or should it be more like 30gb?

2) It saw two additional devices for the VMWare machine to use.

a) Broadcom Bluetooth

SGC Thompson Biometric Processor

Can either of these be effectively used under the virtual machine. It seems when I look at the settings the only options are to connect and disconnect from the host which I assume means that it could crash something on the Windows XP Host System?

3) Has anyone got an update on the VMWare tools? If I downloaded Fusion since it is now released would that enable me to load the right tools for running under VMWare workstation v6.5(released)?

4) I saw the clone method which I have used on MACs before but is there a way to resize the partition on a MAC? And if so can the VMWARE partition be changed without the clone and have it auto expance?

 

To help others you can do a DMG conversion on a Windows PC using UltraISO and I believe it still works with the 30 day trial. But it is only like $20 so well worth the cost. It has a conversion util from file to file and no writing to physical DVD. That is what I used.

 

Also, for questions on processor support you could use the CPUID software on your PC prior to loading from www.cpuid.com. I believe it is also linked in some of the Hackint0sh posts as well.

 

Again you saved me hours of time as I can see that you spent a lot of effort troubleshooting the proper way to implement this. And I was waiting as I did not use a Hackint0sh method as then you never can upgrade it. So this is a perfect solution for me.

 

I just finished the initial installation into VMWare 6.5 workstation took quite some time actually over an hour to finish installation to the 1st reboot. Perhaps I need to tweak your virtual memory settings

 

Thanks for all your efforts.

 

 

Running:

Host OS:

Windows XP 32 bit

VMware Workstation 6.5.0 build-118166

 

Guest OS:

OS X 10.5.0 (Original Install DVD)

Soon OS X 10.5.5 (Hope my upgrade goes as well as the others

 

ThinkPad x61

Intel® Core2 Duo CPU L7700 @ 1.80GHz

Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T

L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size

L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size

L2 cache 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Features XD, VT

Northbridge Intel GM965 rev. C0

Southbridge Intel 82801HBM (ICH8-M) rev. 03

Memory Type DDR2

Memory Size 4096 MBytes

iPhone 3g 16gb

[mtrimmer]

Ok, just a little more news and a new question:

 

News - I just upgraded my 6.5 Workstation beta to 6.5 release code (build 118166) and my existing 6.5 beta VM runs even a little zippier!

 

Question - has anyone tried to use their VMac as a media server utilizing iTunes and / or had success with ripping media without a virtual sound card working?? If so, please share!

[Tak]

VMware Tools is worth installing as it does provide some functions. Install from the darwin.iso in the VMware Fusion DMG.

 

Working:

Copy and paste host/guest

Shared Folders (appears to only work when running as super user/root)

 

Not working:

Graphics driver VMwareIOFramebuffer.kext. In Fusion I think this allows resolution changes when the window is resized. Does not appear to load properly in Workstation, most likely due to the different way Fusion and Workstation interface with the host graphics system. The following lines appear in system.log:

 

localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails

localhost kernel[0]: IOFB: startSVGADev: Init: SVGA_CAP_TRACES failed

[Donk]

VMware Tools is worth installing as it does provide some functions. Install from the darwin.iso in the VMware Fusion DMG.

 

Working:

Copy and paste host/guest

Shared Folders (appears to only work when running as super user/root)

 

Not working:

Graphics driver VMwareIOFramebuffer.kext. In Fusion I think this allows resolution changes when the window is resized. Does not appear to load properly in Workstation, most likely due to the different way Fusion and Workstation interface with the host graphics system. The following lines appear in system.log:

 

localhost kernel[0]: display: family specific matching fails

localhost kernel[0]: IOFB: startSVGADev: Init: SVGA_CAP_TRACES failed

 

That pretty much sums up my experiences. Those are the only 3 services in the Darwin tools currently.

 

This is a nice guide.

 

I had a few additional detail questions perhaps someone can answer:

 

1) I added a SCSI disk to your default template and removed the IDE like others. However, there was no information about configuration. I assume the defaults are the best and not fully allocating the disk at creation of the disk file? The reason I ask is generally you get better performance with that implementation. Is 20gb enough of a drive size or should it be more like 30gb?

2) It saw two additional devices for the VMWare machine to use.

a) Broadcom Bluetooth

SGC Thompson Biometric Processor

Can either of these be effectively used under the virtual machine. It seems when I look at the settings the only options are to connect and disconnect from the host which I assume means that it could crash something on the Windows XP Host System?

3) Has anyone got an update on the VMWare tools? If I downloaded Fusion since it is now released would that enable me to load the right tools for running under VMWare workstation v6.5(released)?

4) I saw the clone method which I have used on MACs before but is there a way to resize the partition on a MAC? And if so can the VMWARE partition be changed without the clone and have it auto expance?

 

To help others you can do a DMG conversion on a Windows PC using UltraISO and I believe it still works with the 30 day trial. But it is only like $20 so well worth the cost. It has a conversion util from file to file and no writing to physical DVD. That is what I used.

 

Also, for questions on processor support you could use the CPUID software on your PC prior to loading from www.cpuid.com. I believe it is also linked in some of the Hackint0sh posts as well.

 

Again you saved me hours of time as I can see that you spent a lot of effort troubleshooting the proper way to implement this. And I was waiting as I did not use a Hackint0sh method as then you never can upgrade it. So this is a perfect solution for me.

 

I just finished the initial installation into VMWare 6.5 workstation took quite some time actually over an hour to finish installation to the 1st reboot. Perhaps I need to tweak your virtual memory settings

 

Thanks for all your efforts.

 

 

Running:

Host OS:

Windows XP 32 bit

VMware Workstation 6.5.0 build-118166

 

Guest OS:

OS X 10.5.0 (Original Install DVD)

Soon OS X 10.5.5 (Hope my upgrade goes as well as the others

 

ThinkPad x61

Intel® Core™2 Duo CPU L7700 @ 1.80GHz

Instructions sets MMX, SSE, SSE2, SSE3, SSSE3, EM64T

L1 Data cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size

L1 Instruction cache 2 x 32 KBytes, 8-way set associative, 64-byte line size

L2 cache 4096 KBytes, 16-way set associative, 64-byte line size

Features XD, VT

Northbridge Intel GM965 rev. C0

Southbridge Intel 82801HBM (ICH8-M) rev. 03

Memory Type DDR2

Memory Size 4096 MBytes

iPhone 3g 16gb

 

Good post and thanks for taking the time to write up your experiences. Now that the final version of the products are out, I will go back and update the template and ISO. Also looking at some other options, such as the work ot use pre-Core2 CPUs such as the new voodoo kernel.

 

Some quick answers:

 

1. I wouldn't attach the devices to the virtual machine as I just don't think they will work for now.

2. You can expand the virtual disk first using the vmware-vdiskmanager utuility. Then there are tulitltes ot change partition sizes that run under OS X.

3. Not quite there with the tools. Still looking into it.

4. UltraISO didn't cut it for me, but if it works for you then that is great.

[luckyy]

So I just installed the final release of Workstation 6.5, and have a retail copy of 10.5.4 on dvd. If I attempt to install it, right after the apple logo load screen shows up, I get a "cpu stack fault" from vmware. Seems to do this no matter what I try (other, other-64, freebsd-64, etc).

 

Anyone have any ideas on why this would be? Using an Intel E8400 w/ VT enabled. I also tried a 10.5 Leopard Server dvd I have, and that too did the same thing at the same point. Even when using "darwin" or "darwin-64" guest setting.

 

TIA!

[Donk]

So I just installed the final release of Workstation 6.5, and have a retail copy of 10.5.4 on dvd. If I attempt to install it, right after the apple logo load screen shows up, I get a "cpu stack fault" from vmware. Seems to do this no matter what I try (other, other-64, freebsd-64, etc).

 

Anyone have any ideas on why this would be? Using an Intel E8400 w/ VT enabled. I also tried a 10.5 Leopard Server dvd I have, and that too did the same thing at the same point. Even when using "darwin" or "darwin-64" guest setting.

 

TIA!

 

Use darwin-64 and read the guidelines, or it won't work.

[Wuher]

Donk: First of all, thanks for the effort you've put into this thus far. Second.. have you seen any indication that this method would allow using an AMD processor, if the leopard installation disc supports AMD (i.e. iDeneb v1.3, etc)? So far the only thing I've been successful with has been ~pcwiz's vmware image, which I haven't been able to successfully update to 10.5.4+ (for iPhone SDK development).

[Donk]

Donk: First of all, thanks for the effort you've put into this thus far. Second.. have you seen any indication that this method would allow using an AMD processor, if the leopard installation disc supports AMD (i.e. iDeneb v1.3, etc)? So far the only thing I've been successful with has been ~pcwiz's vmware image, which I haven't been able to successfully update to 10.5.4+ (for iPhone SDK development).

 

Possibly, but I haven't tried the template with an AMD variant. What I am looking at it the new work on using the EFI partition to boot, and the new voodoo kernel which allows pre-Core2 and AMD support built in. However, I am pretty well time constrained at present, so no guarantees.

[cLaSic]

Hi Donk, can you tel me please where i can find the link to SCSI virtual disk as VMware ? and how can i install leopard on VMWARE 6.5 ? I have an Intel Duo Core processor

 

Best Regards

cLaSic

[Ashmodai]

Guys, I tried to move my nicely working leo vm from a windows server to a linux one and suddenly it was not possible to get it to work. After some research I found out that the Vmware server 2 linux release at least is also having the infamous darwin.iso (?? interesting no and that like for fusion it had to be renammed in order to getmy vmware to start again nicely ...

It is located at

/usr/lib/vmware/isoimages

 

Hope that it can help (still since it is included I now wonder it I could install a leopard server just with the original cd )

[Donk]

Guys, I tried to move my nicely working leo vm from a windows server to a linux one and suddenly it was not possible to get it to work. After some research I found out that the Vmware server 2 linux release at least is also having the infamous darwin.iso (?? interesting no and that like for fusion it had to be renammed in order to getmy vmware to start again nicely ...

It is located at

/usr/lib/vmware/isoimages

 

Hope that it can help (still since it is included I now wonder it I could install a leopard server just with the original cd )

 

Yes I saw that and the same with Linux version of Player 2.5 and Workstation 6.5. However it cannot be used to run Leopard on Linux.

[Ashmodai]

Yes I saw that and the same with Linux version of Player 2.5 and Workstation 6.5. However it cannot be used to run Leopard on Linux.

 

I tried to install the vmware tools under this vm and my results are quite mixed ... The interface speed was definitively better but the VM then started to have a very stable 80-100% CPU consumption on one of my core (it is running on a quadcore). I tried many things without success so I restore the snapshot I made before installing the tools and everything was back to normal (3% average usage on idle ...)

[Kurtz79]

Just popping by for a quick thank you.

 

I tried the whole week to get OsX working on vmware and your tutorial worked wonders : installed, updated to 10.5.5 and downloaded dev tools as well. Reasonably fast and responsive, for a laptop with 2Gb RAM total, everything works, except for sound, as expected.

 

I love my virtual hackintosh, thanks a million

[Simba B.]

Is trying to get the sound to work a waste of my time? Specifically, does the Maxuss ES1371 driver work with WS 6.5? Or is there some other thing I can do, like change the emulated device in the .vmx file?

 

Thanks.

[Donk]

Is trying to get the sound to work a waste of my time? Specifically, does the Maxuss ES1371 driver work with WS 6.5? Or is there some other thing I can do, like change the emulated device in the .vmx file?

 

Thanks.

 

My understanding is that VMware have said it currently doesn't work. I did try the Maxuss driver but no go. However, sound on Mac OS X isn't one of my strengths so if anyone wants to take a shot at it please do so.

[eg0nomic]

I've been digging around the forum and I have not found an answer to this yet, so if I missed the topic, hopefully you'll forgive me. I have Workstation 6.5 build 118166 and OSX 10.5.1 Install DVD. I can get the VM up and booting into the installer and each time I first see "OS X Cannot be Installed on this computer" So as the Apple support site and lots of the tutorials say, I partition a GUID partition, open terminal, run diskutil list, find the right disk and partition, load fdisk and set the first partition active. That's as far as I get. If I reboot at this point, it will say "system config file '/com.apple.boot.s/library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist' not found" I have tried with IDE, with SCSI, fully allocating all space, not fully allocating all space, Hard Drive as primary boot item, Bios Password, Disabled Floppy controllers, etc, and I have not been able to find the magic combo yet. Am I missing something obvious? My host system is a Dell Precision m6300 4gb ram, Dual-Core 2.oghz with VT enabled. Any help would be great.

 

I should also add, that I can reboot back into the installer, and it will repeat the message OS X cannot be installed on this computer. I can see the drive configured but it is not available. Also I noticed that it is never present in the Startup Disk utility.

 

It seems from the tutorials that after you finish with the disk utility that you should be able to complete the installer, but that's never been an option from my install DVD. Once I get the "Cannot be installed" message, no other options are presented.

 

Thanks.

[Donk]

I've been digging around the forum and I have not found an answer to this yet, so if I missed the topic, hopefully you'll forgive me. I have Workstation 6.5 build 118166 and OSX 10.5.1 Install DVD. I can get the VM up and booting into the installer and each time I first see "OS X Cannot be Installed on this computer" So as the Apple support site and lots of the tutorials say, I partition a GUID partition, open terminal, run diskutil list, find the right disk and partition, load fdisk and set the first partition active. That's as far as I get. If I reboot at this point, it will say "system config file '/com.apple.boot.s/library/preferences/systemconfiguration/com.apple.boot.plist' not found" I have tried with IDE, with SCSI, fully allocating all space, not fully allocating all space, Hard Drive as primary boot item, Bios Password, Disabled Floppy controllers, etc, and I have not been able to find the magic combo yet. Am I missing something obvious? My host system is a Dell Precision m6300 4gb ram, Dual-Core 2.oghz with VT enabled. Any help would be great.

 

I should also add, that I can reboot back into the installer, and it will repeat the message OS X cannot be installed on this computer. I can see the drive configured but it is not available. Also I noticed that it is never present in the Startup Disk utility.

 

It seems from the tutorials that after you finish with the disk utility that you should be able to complete the installer, but that's never been an option from my install DVD. Once I get the "Cannot be installed" message, no other options are presented.

 

Thanks.

 

HGave you used the download from my tutorial. Many have used it and it does work.

[eg0nomic]

Yes, sorry, I should have said, I am using your template and vmdonk.iso file for first boot.

[Donk]

Yes, sorry, I should have said, I am using your template and vmdonk.iso file for first boot.

 

You shouldn't need to use terminal. Use Disk Utility from the Installer menu and setup the partitions you want; ie GPT and 1 HFS+ partition. Exit Disk Utility and then install.

[eg0nomic]

Ok, I must be missing something, Here's the steps I go through;

 

-boot VM with vmdonk.iso

-switch to OSX1051_DVD1.iso

-set no options

-select 9f for boot device, select english at language screen

>recieve "Mac OS X Cannot be installed on this computer" prompt with "Ok" or "Restart" options, Can't do anything at this point until I click "Ok"

-open disk utility, select partition, options, set GUID partition table, set 1 partition, name partition, apply

-exit disk utility, no option to install

-reboot to vmdonk.iso

-switch to OSX1051_DVD1.iso

-set no options

-select 9f for boot device, select english

>recieve "Mac OS X Cannot be installed on this computer" - "OK" or "Restart"

 

I never see any option to install so I'm not sure what I did wrong.