VMware Mac OS X Guest Package for ESX, Workstation, Player, Server and Fusion

[Uranus]

My Snow Leo Server installation also fails to boot with the new darwin.iso. (it was using a SCSI virtual disk, but it worked)

 

I just attempted to create a new blank virtual machine, configured the .vmx properly and added an IDE virtual disk, then booted the DVD but I never get to the installation GUI. I get the dreaded "still waiting for root device" error.

[ajacocks]

Once I got past the issue above, mine booted fine. Installed and running 10.6.4, with no issues.

[Natedev]

Once I got past the issue above, mine booted fine. Installed and running 10.6.4, with no issues.

 

How did you get past the issues above? Could you summarize the changes you would make relative to Donk's documentation?

[ajacocks]

How did you get past the issues above? Could you summarize the changes you would make relative to Donk's documentation?

 

Just as I said in #1775...I connected directly to the ESX server, rather than through VirtualCenter.

 

That was it.

 

Thanks!

[Natedev]

Just as I said in #1775...I connected directly to the ESX server, rather than through VirtualCenter.

 

That was it.

 

Thanks!

 

Oh, ok. Sorry I missed that - thanks!

[Natedev]

Hmmm... odd, when I try to boot, it takes me to the boot: prompt then I hit enter and nothing seems to happen (just redraws . I have my DVD in /dev/scd0 (Connected and Connect at power on are checked). ESX 4.1. I'm connected directly to the ESX Server (not through vCenter).

 

I removed the original FreeBSD (64-bit) vm from inventory, added these to the VMX file:

guestOS = "darwin10-64"

ich7m.present = "TRUE"

keyboard.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

monitor.virtual_mmu = "software"

smc.present = "FALSE"

 

and then added it back to inventory and powered it on.

 

I gave the VM 2048 MB of RAM and a 40 GB drive (LSI Logic Parallel) and the USB controller.

 

Any ideas of what I've missed? My processor is an Intel Q9300 Quad Core. I ran Leopard on this ESX Server.

[supersven]

Unfortunately you need IDE virtual hard drive and not SCSI for Leopard. Also need to edit the vmx and remove SCSI adapter from the virtual machine.

 

Thanks Donk. I overlooked that.

 

I changed the three VMDK's to IDE (Just changed > 'ddb.adapterType = "ide"' in the .vmdk file.)

 

and it worked like a charm!

 

Another dumb question, is there a way to run 2vCPU's?

[Donk]

Hmmm... odd, when I try to boot, it takes me to the boot: prompt then I hit enter and nothing seems to happen (just redraws . I have my DVD in /dev/scd0 (Connected and Connect at power on are checked). ESX 4.1. I'm connected directly to the ESX Server (not through vCenter).

 

I removed the original FreeBSD (64-bit) vm from inventory, added these to the VMX file:

guestOS = "darwin10-64"

ich7m.present = "TRUE"

keyboard.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"

monitor.virtual_exec = "hardware"

monitor.virtual_mmu = "software"

smc.present = "FALSE"

 

and then added it back to inventory and powered it on.

 

I gave the VM 2048 MB of RAM and a 40 GB drive (LSI Logic Parallel) and the USB controller.

 

Any ideas of what I've missed? My processor is an Intel Q9300 Quad Core. I ran Leopard on this ESX Server.

 

Is this ESX 4.1?

[Donk]

OK here we go with the latest and possibly last version of darwin.iso that works with:

 

VMware Workstation 7.x

VMware Player 3.x

VMware Fusion 3.x

VMware ESXi/ESX 4.1

 

http://www.filedropper.com/vmware-darwin310-macosx1064

 

Use the original manual for now regarding installation. One important change is that ESX 4.1 added more support for Mac OS X and you can now use darwin10 and darinw10-64 for the guestos setting when running Snow Leopard. The darwin.iso also includes a modified kernel from 10.6.4 for some older processors. Details have already been posted elsewhere in the thread.

OK I'm not too happy with the way this works, and it is using a hacked version of Chameleon rather than the original VMware loader. My view is that I revert to the VMware loader, but this then restricts support to only ESX 4.1. How do you feel about that?

[MSoK]

OK I'm not too happy with the way this works, and it is using a hacked version of Chameleon rather than the original VMware loader. My view is that I revert to the VMware loader, but this then restricts support to only ESX 4.1. How do you feel about that?

Donk,

As ESXi 4.1 is the latest version, and has more relevant hooks for OS X, and is free, surely that is the way forward, especially as your original aim was to be as Vanilla as possible, so let's go with the VMware loader, and restrict support to 4.1.

 

UPDATE: Plus I see the console (Enable Local Tech Support) is now a supported option in 4.1, and can be enabled or disabled as an administrator task, as well as SSH (Enable Remote Tech Support). I guess this is in preparation for the dropping of ESX in the next full release.

 

Cheers,

MSoK.

[Natedev]

OK I'm not too happy with the way this works, and it is using a hacked version of Chameleon rather than the original VMware loader. My view is that I revert to the VMware loader, but this then restricts support to only ESX 4.1. How do you feel about that?

 

All of my ESX Servers run 4.1 so I'm game. If you're a person experimenting with running Snow Leopard on ESX, you're not likely to have major objections to upgrading ESX to make it work. You're more likely to be willing to jump through some hoops.

 

Is this ESX 4.1?

 

Yep - ESX 4.1. This was the same ESX Server I used to run Leopard on (months ago when I was still on ESX 4 but I got rid of the VM). I do have several 64-bit guest operating systems running on the box (Windows 2008 R2, Windows 7 x64, and Ubuntu 10.04 x64).

[Donk]

OK I'm not too happy with the way this works, and it is using a hacked version of Chameleon rather than the original VMware loader. My view is that I revert to the VMware loader, but this then restricts support to only ESX 4.1. How do you feel about that?

 

So based on the 2 replies I will start work on a different version. Spent many hours hacking and testing but agree not good enough.

[MSoK]

So based on the 2 replies I will start work on a different version. Spent many hours hacking and testing but agree not good enough.

Sorry mate,

 

I was thinking it was a minor change to go to a VMware loader version, not a complete re-build! Appologies MSoK.

[Donk]

Sorry mate,

 

I was thinking it was a minor change to go to a VMware loader version, not a complete re-build! Appologies MSoK.

 

Oh it is pretty simple rebuild, which will get onto tonight and try tomorrow. Did quite a bit of coding for the other one, but c'est la vie!

[MSoK]

Oh it is pretty simple rebuild, which will get onto tonight and try tomorrow. Did quite a bit of coding for the other one, but c'est la vie!

Glad the rebuild is not to painful, but I know how it feels having spent a lot of time going down what proves to be a blind alley, so to speak, indeed c'est la vie! But be reassured your continued effort is "legendary" in this forum, and on a personal note given me a new a valued friend.

 

Keep up the great work, MSoK.

 

P.S. I have just re-built an ESXi 4.1 Server "Virgin" and ready to try your latest dawrin iso, drop me a PM if relevant.

[ajacocks]

Donk,

 

I really appreciate the work that you have put in to this project. Definitely don't think that you are not appreciated!

 

Thanks!

[Donk]

Donk,

 

I really appreciate the work that you have put in to this project. Definitely don't think that you are not appreciated!

 

Thanks!

Not a problem for me, honest! Chameleon code is great but actually overkill for VMware. Needed it for ESX4 but changes in ESX 4.1 make it less useful for the job. Have built the new ISO and will test tomorrow. If all goes well I will post later in the day.

[Uranus]

I changed the three VMDK's to IDE (Just changed > 'ddb.adapterType = "ide"' in the .vmdk file.)

 

and it worked like a charm!

 

I tried doing that and when I re-added the disk to the machine it now reported itself as IDE. However, Snow Leopard still fails to boot. I can see the VMware bootloader (with the progress bar on the bottom), then it switches to the gray apple but almost immediately reboots and goes back to the vmware logo.

[Natedev]

Not a problem for me, honest! Chameleon code is great but actually overkill for VMware. Needed it for ESX4 but changes in ESX 4.1 make it less useful for the job. Have built the new ISO and will test tomorrow. If all goes well I will post later in the day.

 

Outstanding! We really appreciate everything you've been doing. Please let me know if I you need any help testing.

[Donk]

Outstanding! We really appreciate everything you've been doing. Please let me know if I you need any help testing.

Arrrghhhh! The original VMware loader doesn't work due to HPET errors. Now stuck between 2 ways forward. I will think about this and get back to you all.

 

P.S. Thanks for the support. This issue is beginning to me off.

[Donk]

Arrrghhhh! The original VMware loader doesn't work due to HPET errors. Now stuck between 2 ways forward. I will think about this and get back to you all.

 

P.S. Thanks for the support. This issue is beginning to me off.

 

Well I have retested the original Chameleon based loader on both IDE and SCSI based virtual drives, from clean install to applying 10.6.4 and worked fine. As the fix for the HPET errors is likely to have be loading a new DSDT.aml file, which would require Chameleon, don't see much point in going back to old loader.

 

So let's track down the issues on the one I posted. For those with errors can you make sure you have posted some more details as laid out here:

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...p;#entry1189918

[turkleton]

Hi guys!

I don't usually post a whole lot but I just wanted to say that I managed to get it working with the Darwin ISO that Donk just uploaded.

I have 10.6 server running on ESXi 4.1.

I used these settings in the VMX:

guestOS = "darwin10-64"
	 ich7m.present = "TRUE"
	 keyboard.vusb.enable   = "TRUE"
	 mouse.vusb.enable = "TRUE"
	 monitor.virtual_exec =   "hardware"
	 monitor.virtual_mmu = "software"
	 smc.present = "FALSE"

I then removed all SCSI devices and added a IDE hard drive (using the ESXi client interface).

At first I was getting the "still waiting on root device" thing but I was able to get it to boot with these options:

rd(0,1)/legacy_kernel -v rd=disk1s3 busratio=7

Right now the install is running so I'll post back with the results of booting and doing a software update. But so far so good!

Also wanted to thank you all for your hard work, especially Donk. You are a genius sir!

[mjung]

Hi,

 

first of all I would like to thank especially Donk for the great work!

 

Yeah, I was trying to start it from a vCenter client. It works fine, connected directly to the ESX server.

 

As I would like to use the bit more sophisticated features like VMotion, HA, etc. I depend on the ability to start VMs using the vCenter. Any ideas if there is a undocumented configuration flag to make it ignore the darwin10-64 error? Any guesses if VMware will make this an beta feature soon?

 

Thanks!

Horst

 

 

PS. I would prefer an VMware boot loader approach. If you provide me the required tools and scripts I would be happy to help creating and testing ISOs with the original VMware boot loader as I am working with an ESX 4.1 only environment.

[omf]

Just wanted to report my success with the following:

 

Machine: Sony VAIO Z (i7-620M, 6GB RAM)

Host OS: Windows 7 x64

VMware: Workstation 7.1

 

Installed Snow Leopard using 32-bit option from original DVD after following instructions here. Applied all updates from Apple without a hitch. The only annoyance so far is that audio doesn't work (even after adding the AppleAC97 kext).

 

Instructions say that SL will not work with Workstation, but that information seems to be out of date.

 

Thanks!

 

P.S. Surprisingly, Photo Booth works with the Sony's built-in web cam.

 

P.P.S. VMware prompts me with "The installed VMware Tools is not up to date." (I did install the tools as instructed, and Shared Folders is working.) Choosing to update the tools results in "Could not find component on update server."

[Donk]

Hi,

 

first of all I would like to thank especially Donk for the great work!

 

 

 

As I would like to use the bit more sophisticated features like VMotion, HA, etc. I depend on the ability to start VMs using the vCenter. Any ideas if there is a undocumented configuration flag to make it ignore the darwin10-64 error? Any guesses if VMware will make this an beta feature soon?

 

Thanks!

Horst

 

 

PS. I would prefer an VMware boot loader approach. If you provide me the required tools and scripts I would be happy to help creating and testing ISOs with the original VMware boot loader as I am working with an ESX 4.1 only environment.

 

Currently you cannot use nay of the other technologies with Mac OS X. This stuff is all for fun really as VMware do not support this currently. The only way it would be supported is in accordance with the Apple EULA, which would mean ESXi running on Apple hardware. Now I think there is code in ESXi 4.1 specialized for Apple machines, but there is no known roadmap of them formally supporting this. Maybe market pressure can bring this forward; e.g. Parallels Bare Metal Server for Apple.

 

To anyone who wants to do serious work using Mac OS X virtualized on non-approved platforms, think again. VMware and Apple could easily compile this stuff out of the software and only have it in Fusion. If you need to do real work my only advice is get real Apple kit.

 

I have no patch or fix or switch to disable the error message.

 

Don't worry about it not being the original boot loader from VMware as it is a version of the same code used by Chameleon. They are all derived from the same Apple code called boot-132, and indeed VMware contracted someone who has worked on other implementations of boot-132. As it stands it won't work so have to continue with the Chameleon code base. (Note the source code is on the darwin.iso, so others can see it, and to be compliant with APSL).