Tutorial: Install Retail Leopard on VMware Workstation

[Scorched]

Sorry not been around but been dealing with a bereavement. I am making progress on a new set of templates, which hope to test in the next couple of days.

 

Sorry for your bereavement Donk. Just wanted to say I admire the work you've done.

[moodjbow]

Hi to all and especially Donk for the great work. I still have no success in making Mac go with 10.5.4 retail DVD but that is another topic I am going to post soon: with three different Latitude D620 CPUs.

Now for the current case: If you decide to clone a real Mac HDD to an external USB drive - CCC3 V 3.1.2 obviously doesn't work if you copy the whole disk using the "Backup everything" method and the "Erase items on the target that are not on the source" option. I could very well map the USB drive to the virtual machine and start it from the donk iso as 80. Still it would hang with grey desktop and spinning logo. With boot option -v there are multiple lines with the same error message ending: "Dyld_shared_cache i386‘): owned by uid=99 instead of 0". Obviously it is a Carbon Copy bug and not Donk's as you could read from this thread: http://www.bombich.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=50621

So enough bollocks - don't try to be as clever as me and simply use the default options. Probably you will then have more success.

Cheers

[flyingfishfinger]

Hi-

First, I want to say thanks Donk, this works nicely.

However, there are two (three) minor issues:

1) Automate boot? (Never mind, I'll follow what people have done in the above posts).

2) Boot is HORRIBLY slow (I can go get a cup of coffee and come back in the meantime). The system itself runs normally though...

3) I can boot the VM from Windows perfectly fine. When I try booting it from VMWare in Ubuntu, it shuts the VM down and tells me "Installed guest OS is not Mac OS X Server"...o_O

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

Rafael

[Donk]

Hi-

First, I want to say thanks Donk, this works nicely.

However, there are two (three) minor issues:

1) Automate boot? (Never mind, I'll follow what people have done in the above posts).

2) Boot is HORRIBLY slow (I can go get a cup of coffee and come back in the meantime). The system itself runs normally though...

3) I can boot the VM from Windows perfectly fine. When I try booting it from VMWare in Ubuntu, it shuts the VM down and tells me "Installed guest OS is not Mac OS X Server"...o_O

 

Any ideas?

 

Thanks

Rafael

 

VMware Linux versions actually ships with a darwin.iso. Need to get rid of it and then use my technique. This will all go away with next templates. I am still waiting on new Chameleon boot loader which is due at same time as Voodoo kernel release.

[flyingfishfinger]

Cool, I'll just wait for the next template then.

Thanks !

 

Rafael

[moodjbow]

So here is the promised inventory of different Latitude hardware scenarios.

 

@Donk: Latitude can be purchased with almost every Intel CPU you can think of.

 

OK then, I've tried on three different hardware configurations all having VMWare Workstation 6.5 installed and using a Leo 10.5.4 retail DVD:

 

LATITUDE D630 INTEL CORE 2 DUO T7700 2.4GHZ with Vista x32

LATITUDE D620 CORE DUO T2400 1, 83 GHZ with Vista x32

LATITUDE D620 CORE DUO T2300 1, 66 GHZ with XP x32

 

Although all three CPU support VT-x (also enabled in BIOS) only T7700 supports also x64 OS virtualization. That is what VMWare test tool says about it. This was also the only configuration that installed Mac smoothly. Both T2400 and T2300 Mac would hang for hours with a gray background and spinning wheel. Yes, for hours. The proposed detour changing darwin-64 to darwin in VM config and booting with -legacy switch didn't help at all. I didn't bother using -v since I wouldn't understan anything from the output

 

I presume earlier Mac versions supporting x32 would have behaved better...

 

Still: when installing Leo - it would not be too bold to suggest that you first check if your Intel CPU supports x64 virtualization.

 

Cheers.

 

PS: still some questions to Donk. 1) You suggest a config using Eth behind a NAT. Actually I tested it and the Eth works well also on a bridge. 2) are there any ways of using shared folders (when enabling them VMWare complains about not installed tools and I cannot install them - they cut off with the warning "cannot write to vmdonk.iso"). 3) Although copy & paste between VM and host is enabled it doesn't work in any direction. Is this normal behaviour?

 

Thanks for the reply

[Simba B.]

Although all three CPU support VT-x (also enabled in BIOS) only T7700 supports also x64 OS virtualization.

 

All Core 2 Duos support VT-x technology on both 32 and 64 bit, however only the very latest iterations support page table virtualization, which means that if you use VT-x you will have a software (emulated) MMU. This means that translating memory addresses is done in software, leading to rapid context switching between the host and the guest, and this is the number one source of poor performance and overhead for VT-x, both on 32 and 64 bit.

 

This, besides the increased memory requirements of 64-bit, means that VT-x based 64-bit virtualization performs especially badly unless you can virtualize your MMU with page table support, which is why the '-legacy' switch improves performance for most people.

 

For Windows and Linux, VMware's software virtualization performs very well, better than using VT-x, which is why VMware did not support it's use on 32-bit guests until recently. OS X is far from the generic i386 OS that Linux and to some extent Windows is, so VT-x is better.

 

For all but the latest generation of CPUs, VT-x is only useful for cases where traditional x86 virtualization does not work at all (e.g. oddball or unmaintained OSes, such as OS/2). If software works, then it almost always performs better.

[Chimera]

I've managed to get retail leopard installed using Donk's method in Workstation 6.5 on my Dell Precision M6400 laptop. However, on first boot I get the "no keyboard detected" message once it's booted into OSX. The keyboard works in the Darwin boot loader. I've tried plugging in a USB keyboard (even one from a real Mac) and that doesn't work. The keyboard doesn't work in single user mode either. I'm sure it's something with a Kext but I don't know how to fix it since I can't use a keyboard. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

[Scorched]

I've managed to get retail leopard installed using Donk's method in Workstation 6.5 on my Dell Precision M6400 laptop. However, on first boot I get the "no keyboard detected" message once it's booted into OSX. The keyboard works in the Darwin boot loader. I've tried plugging in a USB keyboard (even one from a real Mac) and that doesn't work. The keyboard doesn't work in single user mode either. I'm sure it's something with a Kext but I don't know how to fix it since I can't use a keyboard. Any help would be appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Try editing Darwin.vmx and remove these lines:

 

USB:1.deviceType = "hub"
usb:1.present = "TRUE"

 

This was Xordan's solution and it worked for both him and I.

[moodjbow]

All Core 2 Duos support VT-x technology on both 32 and 64 bit, however only the very latest iterations support page table virtualization, which means that if you use VT-x you will have a software (emulated) MMU.

 

 

@ Simba, many great thanks for the synopsis and if possible I would like to discuss this in further detail (bot probably in other blog or emails). What I still don't get is - how can your statement contribute to this tutorial? I simply didn't get the point - and I read your contribution 3 times - is it that only latest iterations of Core 2 Duo have emulated MMU whereas T2400 and T2300 don't emulate it and that is why Mac froze off during install? For the sake of the discussion I can tell that I probed a Mac install on both T2400 adn T2300 CPUs without the BIOS Virtualization activated but experienced the same installation freeze.

 

Could be I simply misunderstood. In such case please excuse me and explain as for a six-year-old.

[waleof]

First let me say thanks for the great turorial and work 

 

now just a couple questions :

 

1. can I install use tis method to install Leopard on a notebook with 32-bit Intel SSE2-capable CPU (namely Pentium M)?

 

2. can I modify the RAM amount to 512M?

 

Thanks a LOT

[itry2hide]

I can't get this to work with VMWare Workstation v 6.5 build 126130. I've tried several different setups with the same results.

 

Here is my system

Dell Latitude D630

2 gigs of Ram

Intel T7500 @ 2.2 Ghz

Windows XP SP3

Retail DVD of Mac OS X 10.5

Bios V A13

 

I get everything to work, VMWare attempts to install from the DVD, but as soon as the Apple Logo comes up, the Virtual machine restarts and tries to boot from a network drive.

 

The error messages I get are:

PXE-E53: No boot filename recieved

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM

Operating system not found

 

Is this because I'm trying to boot from the DVD itself rather than an ISO image?

 

I'm wondering....

 

 

Windows thinks this is a Bootcamp DVD. I don't see any of the Mac files. I'll make an ISO image with Diskutility and see what happens...

[moodjbow]

First let me say thanks for the great turorial and work

 

now just a couple questions :

 

1. can I install use tis method to install Leopard on a notebook with 32-bit Intel SSE2-capable CPU (namely Pentium M)?

 

2. can I modify the RAM amount to 512M?

 

Thanks a LOT

 

1. I'm not quite sure, read the input on page 13 from Simba

2. Read the input on page 13 from Corona

 

I can't get this to work with VMWare Workstation v 6.5 build 126130. I've tried several different setups with the same results.

 

Here is my system

Dell Latitude D630

2 gigs of Ram

Intel T7500 @ 2.2 Ghz

Windows XP SP3

Retail DVD of Mac OS X 10.5

Bios V A13

 

I get everything to work, VMWare attempts to install from the DVD, but as soon as the Apple Logo comes up, the Virtual machine restarts and tries to boot from a network drive.

 

The error messages I get are:

PXE-E53: No boot filename recieved

PXE-M0F: Exiting Intel PXE ROM

Operating system not found

 

Is this because I'm trying to boot from the DVD itself rather than an ISO image?

 

I'm wondering....

 

 

Windows thinks this is a Bootcamp DVD. I don't see any of the Mac files. I'll make an ISO image with Diskutility and see what happens...

 

I'll leave the specialists here speaking but where do you get this AMD from?

 

Probably a little more info: What VMWare product? Are you using the Donk's zip without any changes? Do you have any "special" constellations on VMWare Network Settings?

[hug0]

During my installation I kept running into the Showstopper ***virtual machine kernel stack fault (hardware reset)*** over and over again in VMWare Workstation 6.5. I think I spent close to 24 hours searching up and down the Internet for a solution. I tried everything including

 

- Setting paevm = "TRUE"

 

- Guest OS to Darwin instead of Darwin-64

 

- Making sure the disk was of type IDE

 

- I changed Virtualization Technology settings and Dynamic Processor Speed in BIOS

 

- I changed available memory to 1024 MB

 

- I used Windows NT as Guest OS

 

 

 

But I kept running into the problem again and again. I was so frustrated. I was certain that my Dell Latitude D630 with a T9300 Core 2 Duo CPU would suffice.

 

Anyway, I was very close to giving up. Then I finally realized what a stupid mistake I had been doing over and over again.

 

Over and over again I kept Creating a New Virtual Machine when I should just have Opened an Existing Virtual Machine, i.e Donk's Darwin.vmx. Judging from questions posted on forums around the Net (and around here at InsanelyMac) it seems a lot of people are doing the same mistake, i.e opening vmdonk.iso from a New Virtual Machine. Since VMWare Workstation 6.5 does not complain it seemed like a good idea at the time.

 

When I chose "Open Existing Virtual Machine" everything went like a song and a dance. I could not believe that I did not realize this at an earlier point.

 

Some of the settings I did, such as changing Darwin-64 to Darwin and setting paevm = "TRUE" was probably not so good or meaningless, but some of the modifications I believe were positive and perhaps necessary, such as setting the disk to IDE and setting the memory to 1024 (4 GB are installed, but only 3.5 GB are accessible to Windows XP). Not sure about the BIOS changes, though.

 

The installation is still ongoing but everything looks great. Thanks Dave/Donk for your great work!

[Donk]

All

 

I have just finished the scripts and templates for the next version. I am proposing to start a separate thread for it so not to get it mixed in with this version. I expect to upload tomorrow.

 

New features are:

 

1. Boot CD is mounted transparently as in VMware Fusion. No way around the boot CD, but doesn't do anything except chain to the hard disk. This has been documented elsewhere, but basically scripts ensure darwin.iso is correctly signed for the native boot mechanisms in VMware.

2. Hard disk template uses EFI Partition Booter from Munky, which means simpler modification to boot parameters. No need to hack CD images. This is all pre-built so no work needed on your part, but if you want to hack around, e.g. add other kernel such as Voodoo, much easier to accomplish.

3. Templates are now SCSI hard disk based, following VMware's recommendations.

4. 32-bit and 64-bit templates. Not a big deal but thought would be useful.

 

As before this is for retail Leopard installs from retail media on a supported CPU e.g. Core 2 Solo/Duo and whatever else is compatible these days. I guess Voodoo kernel may help the others, and I will be interested on how AMD and older Intel processor users maybe make this work.

 

Sorry for the delay, but personal circumstances and waiting for the next Chameleon boot loader has dragged things out. I will likely update with the next Chameleon boot loader, which does EFI partition, DSDT overrides etc., once it comes out.

 

Dave

[waleof]

All

 

I have just finished the scripts and templates for the next version. I am proposing to start a separate thread for it so not to get it mixed in with this version. I expect to upload tomorrow.

 

New features are:

 

1. Boot CD is mounted transparently as in VMware Fusion. No way around the boot CD, but doesn't do anything except chain to the hard disk. This has been documented elsewhere, but basically scripts ensure darwin.iso is correctly signed for the native boot mechanisms in VMware.

2. Hard disk template uses EFI Partition Booter from Munky, which means simpler modification to boot parameters. No need to hack CD images. This is all pre-built so no work needed on your part, but if you want to hack around, e.g. add other kernel such as Voodoo, much easier to accomplish.

3. Templates are now SCSI hard disk based, following VMware's recommendations.

4. 32-bit and 64-bit templates. Not a big deal but thought would be useful.

 

As before this is for retail Leopard installs from retail media on a supported CPU e.g. Core 2 Solo/Duo and whatever else is compatible these days. I guess Voodoo kernel may help the others, and I will be interested on how AMD and older Intel processor users maybe make this work.

 

Sorry for the delay, but personal circumstances and waiting for the next Chameleon boot loader has dragged things out. I will likely update with the next Chameleon boot loader, which does EFI partition, DSDT overrides etc., once it comes out.

 

Dave

That's great news! Can't wait to try it.

 

again one little question, will it be able to boot in 32-bit SSE2-only environment? do I need to modify it in some way? thanks!

[Donk]

Only if the CPU is compatible, so best check out these forums to find what is and isn't usable.. Otherwise you will need to use something like the Voodoo kernel. What I will probably do is setup a secondary template with the final release of Voodoo when it is available.

[Donk]

Please see this topic http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=139178. I will now be supporting that from now on.

[Ha Duyen Hoa]

I have good news

I've installed successfull on VMWare 6.5.0.118166 + Vista with Leo4all v3 without any probleme. Network, sound, CPU 2 core (2CPU) work.

It run very fast, confirmed

I've installed directly from .iso file in VMware

I think you should try with that version of Vmware

Good luck

 

in windows XP, I've used JaS.OSx86.10.5.4.Client.Server.Intel.SSE2.SSE3

[Ha Duyen Hoa]

sorry, for VIsta, it works but for XP, I just can install the system, I can not boot into Leopard after installation

[Ha Duyen Hoa]

the version that I've used in vista is 6.5.1 Build 126130 indeed,

the 6.5.0.18816 is in XP and it does not work

[Donk]

the version that I've used in vista is 6.5.1 Build 126130 indeed,

the 6.5.0.18816 is in XP and it does not work

 

This thread is for running the vanilla retail version of Leopard. You seem to be using non-standard version such as Leo4all & JaS. Not sure my work here will support that, as I now only use retail versions of Leopard.

[ozbeklar]

I just installed this OS X Leopard using retail DVD (.iso), and its so sweet. However after an update (10.5.5 combo) My VMWare Workstation 6.5.1 build 126130 shows me pop-up error and what I see on the screen is "Operating system doesnt exist" or "missing". Donk, you said "Search for darwin.iso and darwin.iso.sig. Copy or rename them, then create 2 zero byte files with the same name. You will find the popup error message disappears. There is an error message in the vmware.log file but that can be safely ignored. Note that Fusion 2 beta 2 and Workstation 6.5 beta 2 for Linux actually ship with these files, whereas currently Workstation 6.5 beta for Windows does not. " But where can I find it? Can you list me the things which should I do and where to find darwin.iso and darwin.iso.sig? "BIG PLEASE" IS ATTACHED TO THIS REPLY

 

Your help is appreciated!!!

[orobin]

Hello,

 

I try your iso, and vmware files, but it doesn't work :

I do it on a macbook, under vista (I use it at work).

vmware 6.5, last version.

 

I know that I can boot on osx directly, but I need a virtual machine to work...

 

anyway :

 

I can boot on your iso : vmdonk.iso

I change the DVD in the menu, and use my original disc of Leopard (not leopard server, it is leopard standard) : 10.5.5

when I press enter, it ask me to press f8, or boot.

I press enter.

then, I have several texte displaying, the DVD start turning (I heard it), and then, I obtain a crash.

 

I did'nt made any modification in you vmx file.

 

do you have any idea of what I am doiing wrong ?

 

thank you

Olivier

 

 

 

 

I have spent the last 2 weeks testing many different combinations to build a minimal BOOT-132 CD to allow retail Leopard to be installed on VMware Workstation 6.5 beta 2 build 99530. This works very reliably for me on a Dell latitude D620. The work was prompted by all the other great work on these forums and by David Elliot for the original modifications. See this post for more information http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=113288.

 

David's work was commissioned by VMware and is well documented at his website Darwin/X86 http://www.tgwbd.org/darwin/. After all the testing I did it was great timing that I finished it the night before VMware released Fusion 2 beta, which actually proved my minimal set of extensions would work. Fusion 2 beta 2 makes use of boot-132 by having a helper cd image darwin.iso which loads extensions to boot the retail system. Unfortunately there are hard coded restrictions in it that mean it can't be used to boot on Windows or Linux Workstation systems or with anything other than Leopard Server. That may change but for now the most useful thing is the inclusion of tools for Leopard on VMware.

 

Some things to remember:

 

1. You will need a processor supported natively by Mac OSX as VMware virtualizes the CPU not emulating a specific version . So this won't work for anything other than supported Intel processors - no AMD or other processor.

 

2. The VMX settings here are crucial unlike for Hackintoshes where frequently you could alter things such as guest os being set to Solaris or FreeBSD.

 

3. The CD will have to remain mounted during boot, as none of the ways of copying the boot-132 code to the hard disk works. Trust me I have spent 2 weeks trying!!!

 

4. You must copy the vmware-vmx.exe to vmware-vmx-debug.exe (back up the original) or you will get a triple boot fault. this is because debug code is always enabled in beta version from VMware. This shouldn't be a problem after release of 6.5. This should probably work on Server 2 and Fusion 2 betas.

 

To install download the template for the guest and a cd image from http://www.mediafire.com/?1zyfhhmlckc. Extract to a folder. To install:

 

1. Boot the system with the vmdonk.iso attached. You will see a VMware error pop-up which you can ignore safely whenever you are booting the system. You should see the first screen below.

 

2. Change the loaded cd image to the retail Leopard image by using the VM-->Removable Devices menu item.

 

3. Enter 9f at the next screen and you should now be taken to the leopard boot line. Enter any parameters you want here, but for me it loaded with no additional boot parameters. See the second screen.

 

4. Install leopard using the usual installation method of partition the virtual disk using Disk Utility. Stick with GUID Partition and all should be OK.

 

5. When the system restarts you must reset the cd image to vmdonk.iso for it to boot. When prompted for the device to use specify 80 as in screenshot 3.

 

One thing I have found is to ensure the guest does not go to sleep. Use the Energy settings to switch off any sleep settings, and switch the Screensaver off as well. I have found that Leopard locks up if it enters any sleep or screen saver states.

 

If you download Fusion 2 beta 2 you can install the tools from the extracted darwin.iso, but in my experience there are errors showing up in the console logs that lead me to believe they are not functioning. Also I can't get sound to function, but other than that the performance is great. One last tip if you update then the first reboot is best done with -v -f -x boot flags.

 

Enjoy!

 

Donk

 

Update 1 2008-08-01 - Boot physical Leopard image

 

I have successfully run a Carbon Copy Cloner image from an external USB drive. To do this take the basic template I uploaded and remove the virtual hard drive. I also deleted the VMDK files from the folder. Then add a new virtual disk and select physical drive. You must select the whole drive. This is advanced usage of VMware so you really need to know what you are doing. For example if on Windows ensure that the USB drive does not have a drive letter associated with it, which happens if you are running MacDrive.

Update 2 2008-08-05 - Guest memory settings

 

If you have slow performance and/or in installation (mine took about 30 minutes) you may need to change your guest's memory settings. I have 4GB in my Dell D620 and set the virtual machine to 2GB. Your system may be paging as the virtual machine memory is equal to the physical RAM on the host. Try reducing it to say 1GB in virtual machine options.

 

Update 3 2008-08-11 - VMware Fusion 2 beta 2

 

If you are running Fusion you can use this procedure for all versions of Leopard. Rename the /Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/isoimages/darwin.iso to something else. Then when you start it up there is an error message about the tools CD but just ignore it and off you go!

Update 4 2008-08-11 - Stop the popup error message

 

Search for darwin.iso and darwin.iso.sig. Copy or rename them, then create 2 zero byte files with the same name. You will find the popup error message disappears. There is an error message in the vmware.log file but that can be safely ignored. Note that Fusion 2 beta 2 and Workstation 6.5 beta 2 for Linux actually ship with these files, whereas currently Workstation 6.5 beta for Windows does not.

[Donk]

Will need more information? Is the DVD the one that came with your MacBook? If so that is a restore DVD and can't be used for installing in a VMware session. You need the retail DVD.

 

Also suggest you use this http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=139178 as I have stopped using this method.

 

I just installed this OS X Leopard using retail DVD (.iso), and its so sweet. However after an update (10.5.5 combo) My VMWare Workstation 6.5.1 build 126130 shows me pop-up error and what I see on the screen is "Operating system doesnt exist" or "missing". Donk, you said "Search for darwin.iso and darwin.iso.sig. Copy or rename them, then create 2 zero byte files with the same name. You will find the popup error message disappears. There is an error message in the vmware.log file but that can be safely ignored. Note that Fusion 2 beta 2 and Workstation 6.5 beta 2 for Linux actually ship with these files, whereas currently Workstation 6.5 beta for Windows does not. " But where can I find it? Can you list me the things which should I do and where to find darwin.iso and darwin.iso.sig? "BIG PLEASE" IS ATTACHED TO THIS REPLY

 

Your help is appreciated!!!

 

I would start using this http://forum.insanelymac.com/index.php?showtopic=139178. Unfortunately it would mean re-installing. Otherwise just create 2 zero byte files with the names I mentioned in VMware installation folder.