Mac OS X guest unlocker for VMware

[Kykkuss]

Hi, thanks for the software to you and to donk that do darwin.iso.

 

But i have one problem: when i have to boot it vmware worstation tells me: There is not operative system and every time i turn on the vm the cd is disconnect.

 

For booting Snowleopard i have to open the VM, press F2 connect CD/DVD (IDE), boot from darwin.iso and after that i can use snow leopard.

 

There is a easier way to boot?

 

I use donk's darwin.iso and i have install your software.

 

Thanks

[Donk]

Hi, thanks for the software to you and to donk that do darwin.iso.

 

But i have one problem: when i have to boot it vmware worstation tells me: There is not operative system and every time i turn on the vm the cd is disconnect.

 

For booting Snowleopard i have to open the VM, press F2 connect CD/DVD (IDE), boot from darwin.iso and after that i can use snow leopard.

 

There is a easier way to boot?

 

I use donk's darwin.iso and i have install your software.

 

Thanks

 

You don't use my darwin.iso with the patcher. They are alternative approaches.

[Albert Nietsnie]

This is not true. It is indeed possible to run 10.6 in vmware fusion without VT. Just a small patch in vmware-vmx and vmware iirc.

Interesting. Which version of WS do your patching offsets work with?

 

And once you have patched, does a Mac OS X guest boot fully, up until it starts WindowServer and shows the graphical interface in the VM? My experience with forcing non-VT has always been that processes would die left and right in the Mac OS X guest, and I could never see the graphical desktop.

 

- VM wasn't starting until host reboot(just hangs)

- After reboot VM was failing to start with ""W32AuthConnectionLaunch: Reply error "Cannot power on the virtual machine. This may be because you are running inside a Terminal Services or Remote Desktop session or are in Fast User Switch Mode." Solution was to use 'run as administrator' for VMware Workstation

Mmm, it is annoying to have to run WS as Admin all the time.

 

I suspect there is a file permission issue on your box, somehow something is different than on everybody else's box.

 

Here is how you can help me improve the unlocker:

1) Run the unlocker. Make a note of the 4 files it modifies.

2) Uninstall WS 7.1.

3) Re-install WS 7.1.

4) For each modified file, get the exhaustive list of access control permissions for it.

5) Run the unlocker.

6) For each modified file, get the exhaustive list of access control permissions for it.

Then send me the output of steps #4 and #6.

 

ESXi version would fine but unlikely...

Time will tell. I'm waiting for ESXi 4.1 to be released.

 

There is a easier way to boot?

 

1) Install WS.

2) Run the proper unlocker for your host OS (see the unlocker's README.txt)

3) Create a new VM using the UI (select the "Apple Mac OS X / Mac OS X Server 10.6 64-bit" OS in the list)

4) Connect the virtual CD of the VM to your 10.6 install DVD or .dmg

5) Power on the virtual machine

 

It should work like a champ. To partition the virtual HD, read the FAQ section of the unlocker's README.txt.

[Alan L.]

I am trying to install OSX 10.5 into Fusion 3.1 on MacBookPro 10.6 with Core i7. I need to use an app that will only run under 10.5.

 

I point to CD to an image file of OSX 10.5 install disk. I am choosing MacOSX Server 10.5 (tried both normal and 64bit options.) Once I press start it shows the grey apple logo with spinning wheel, then after a bit the apple logo is replaced with a circle/slash. Attached is the vmx file and vmware log.

 

Thanks for the great work and any help you have.

Archive.zip

[Donk]

I am trying to install OSX 10.5 into Fusion 3.1 on MacBookPro 10.6 with Core i7. I need to use an app that will only run under 10.5.

 

I point to CD to an image file of OSX 10.5 install disk. I am choosing MacOSX Server 10.5 (tried both normal and 64bit options.) Once I press start it shows the grey apple logo with spinning wheel, then after a bit the apple logo is replaced with a circle/slash. Attached is the vmx file and vmware log.

 

Thanks for the great work and any help you have.

 

So let's clear some points up:

 

1. There wasn't an attachment so can you attach the vmware.log and vmx files.

2. You have patched Fusion so you can run a non-Server version of Mac OS X 10.5?

3. The installation image is from a retail copy of Leopard, not a grey system specific DVD?

[tommy17]

is it normal that,after updated to 10.6.4, drivers still doesn't work (audio for example)?

[Albert Nietsnie]

is it normal that,after updated to 10.6.4, drivers still doesn't work (audio for example)?

It is normal for sound: you need to install Zenith432's driver, then go to VM > Settings and enable the virtual sound card and connect it to your physical sound card.

 

Are there other drivers that do not work?

 

I am trying to install OSX 10.5 into Fusion 3.1 on MacBookPro 10.6 with Core i7. I need to use an app that will only run under 10.5.

I'm not sure that will work. Some late builds of 10.6.3, and 10.6.4 (which came out today) were the first versions to support the i5/i7 processors. Trying to run any earlier version in a VM is unlikely to work, simply because it is software that was written at a time i5/i7 did not exist. You could try cpuid masking techniques (Google for that) in your .vmx file to downgrade the virtual processor, i.e. make 10.5 guest think that it is running on an older processor.

[tommy17]

thanks . It works perfectly now

[Inimical]

Anyone having issue's with VM freezing if idle for about 15 minutes?

[Donk]

Anyone having issue's with VM freezing if idle for about 15 minutes?

 

Yes and know issue when virtualized.

 

1. Disable screensaver.

2. Disable all energy saving and sleep settings.

3. Install the Caffeine application and let it run at startup.

[Alan L.]

So let's clear some points up:

 

1. There wasn't an attachment so can you attach the vmware.log and vmx files.

2. You have patched Fusion so you can run a non-Server version of Mac OS X 10.5?

3. The installation image is from a retail copy of Leopard, not a grey system specific DVD?

 

1. Modified original post to include attachments.

2. Yes.

3. Yes, retail disc image, NOT system restore.

[Inimical]

Yes and know issue when virtualized.

 

1. Disable screensaver.

2. Disable all energy saving and sleep settings.

3. Install the Caffeine application and let it run at startup.

 

 

Thank I'll give it a try. I already disabled the screen saver thinking that might be the issue, but have not tried any of the other steps.

[Ranguvar]

Thanks very much for your work!

Especially since you not only made a Linux binary, but also a 64-bit Linux binary

Source is always best, but I understand why you don't want to reveal it.

[modbin]

Interesting. Which version of WS do your patching offsets work with?

 

And once you have patched, does a Mac OS X guest boot fully, up until it starts WindowServer and shows the graphical interface in the VM? My experience with forcing non-VT has always been that processes would die left and right in the Mac OS X guest, and I could never see the graphical desktop.

 

I patched fusion not WS. And yes it boots to the desktop just fine. This is just some marketing {censored}, if OS X is detected the software virtualization is disabled and you get the nice message box about OS X needs VT.

 

btw with this patch fusion uses the 32bit EFI firmware.

[d.kiran]

Albert,

 

Looks like there is a virus in the tar file. Screenshot attached. Not sure if this is a false positive.

 

-DK

[HOLLYW00D]

thanks for this! installed 10.6.0 and updated through Software Update to 10.6.4 with no issues. i have the vmware tools installed on the VM from a Fusion 3.1 installation, but do not have the drag/drop capability between host and VM. the drag/drop option is enabled in the VM settings. is this a known issue? thanks again!

[ArgVega]

This is not true. It is indeed possible to run 10.6 in vmware fusion without VT. Just a small patch in vmware-vmx and vmware iirc.

 

greets

 

 

edit for xforce/OmegaX:

 

Could you explain how you found this by looking at the vmware-vmx in hex? I was looking to do the same in Workstation 7.1, but it seems that it is not the same as yours, because the offsets do not match up. Probably because my vmware-vmx.exe is from windows, and yours is from MAC

 

If you could provide me with any insight, it would be greatly appreciated!

 

 

Interesting. Which version of WS do your patching offsets work with?

 

And once you have patched, does a Mac OS X guest boot fully, up until it starts WindowServer and shows the graphical interface in the VM? My experience with forcing non-VT has always been that processes would die left and right in the Mac OS X guest, and I could never see the graphical desktop.

 

How were you able to force a non-VT, I was interested in giving this a shot. If you could explain how, so I may try it.

 

Thanks

[Albert Nietsnie]

I patched fusion not WS. And yes it boots to the desktop just fine. This is just some marketing {censored}, if OS X is detected the software virtualization is disabled and you get the nice message box about OS X needs VT.

 

btw with this patch fusion uses the 32bit EFI firmware.

I don't think it is marketing {censored}, as non-VT did not work for me before. Maybe they fixed it without noticing it.

 

Maybe you have a special setup. Which version of Fusion does this patch work against? Which exact guest OS version are you using (build number, client or server), and what is guestOS set to in your .vmx file?

 

VMware defaults to using the same bit width (32 or 64) for EFI as what guestOS is set to.

 

Looks like there is a virus in the tar file. Screenshot attached. Not sure if this is a false positive.

Weird. I compile the exact same code on all platforms, so if the virus was in my code, it would be found in the 4 executables files (macosx, linux_32, linux_64, windows_32.exe). The virus could be introduced by the tool chain I use to build my Windows binary, but that is unlikely.

 

I'm pretty sure it is a false positive. Does VirusScan give you more information on what Artemis!2962EF1DB9F7 is and what is does?

[Donk]

I don't think it is marketing {censored}, as non-VT did not work for me before. Maybe they fixed it without noticing it.

 

Maybe you have a special setup. Which version of Fusion does this patch work against? Which exact guest OS version are you using (build number, client or server), and what is guestOS set to in your .vmx file?

 

VMware defaults to using the same bit width (32 or 64) for EFI as what guestOS is set to.

 

Agreed not marketing BS. The code for Mac OS X support is designed for Macs and Fusion, which apart from some very early Mac Mini models, have had 64-bit VT-x enabled processors. Why support code paths that are not meant to be used? I agree with Albert though I have tried without VT-x and performance is horrible.

[Albert Nietsnie]

i have the vmware tools installed on the VM from a Fusion 3.1 installation, but do not have the drag/drop capability between host and VM. the drag/drop option is enabled in the VM settings. is this a known issue?

VMware hasn't implemented drag/drop in their Mac OS X tools (yet?). So yes it is a known issue, but that is VMware's issue

 

How were you able to force a non-VT, I was interested in giving this a shot. If you could explain how, so I may try it.

Fusion 2 did not have the message box, so I could run Mac OS guest on my non-VT box, but as I explained earlier, I could boot but I could very rarely reach the graphical desktop because processes inside the VM were being killed.

[polski]

Albert,

 

It is quite a nice achievement. System restore works (on a brand new Imac27) using time machine and workstation 7.1 under win7 ultimate (using retail snow leopard disc), and the virtual machine is quite snappy under Windows 7. Sound solved with ensoniq driver driver from a Donk iso. Sound is "shaky", but it already nice to have 10.6.4 (update is no problem) under win7. Copied that virtual machine to a windows PC with core 2 duo and it works there without a problem OK too (not that I will use this, as I want to stay with Apple hardware and should be legally OK). Virtual machine seems to use quite some CPU resources, but no matter what, this is by far the most convenient solution for a virtual mac under windows using Mac hardware for me so far. With minimal and simple instructions, your 1 page A4 tells it all. Preview seems to break with this all. I am no expert myself, and find it already amazing what is possible now. Have tried linux, but my old PC with AMD processor does not do virtual, but trust that it will work too. Right now trying this with my setup on early 2008 Mac Pro, and after some troubles to get it going it is making the virtual machine there right now. This also works with (real) server 10.5, but it will not let it copy to another PC (no problem for me, server is too difficult for me anyway), just playing around and testing. Amazing what you made.

 

Big kudos and congratulations! And thanks. Polski

[hiccup]

Actually there are real issues with the VMware USB key board in Mac OS X, even in Fusion, which I have reported to VMware. Can't map everything to a PC keyboard even with a new keyboard layout file. Some also have keyboard repeat errors where characters pump out across the screen. Better in 7.x but still not perfect.

did you manage to map the key between SHIFT and Z? My problem is after applying keyboard.vusb.enable = "FALSE" my keyboard stops working

[Donk]

did you manage to map the key between SHIFT and Z? My problem is after applying keyboard.vusb.enable = "FALSE" my keyboard stops working

 

Don't do that using the unlocker keep it set to TRUE. If you want to set it to false you will need to install PS2 keyboard driver in the guest first, such as VoodooPS2.

[kykkys]

1) Install WS.

2) Run the proper unlocker for your host OS (see the unlocker's README.txt)

3) Create a new VM using the UI (select the "Apple Mac OS X / Mac OS X Server 10.6 64-bit" OS in the list)

4) Connect the virtual CD of the VM to your 10.6 install DVD or .dmg

5) Power on the virtual machine

 

It should work like a champ. To partition the virtual HD, read the FAQ section of the unlocker's README.txt.

 

thanks for the answerd

 

1 done

2 done

3 Maybe i don't know what is UI, i search in internet and i see that it is someting of vcenter server, but it's impossible to install vcenter server in windows 7 x64, it a week that i try...

4 i have already install 10.6

5 i have the problem of there isn't os...

 

my problems are in the third poi of you list. Can you explain me better what i have to do?

 

 

(please don't hate me....)

[Donk]

thanks for the answerd

 

1 done

2 done

3 Maybe i don't know what is UI, i search in internet and i see that it is someting of vcenter server, but it's impossible to install vcenter server in windows 7 x64, it a week that i try...

4 i have already install 10.6

5 i have the problem of there isn't os...

 

my problems are in the third poi of you list. Can you explain me better what i have to do?

 

 

(please don't hate me....)

 

3. Means "User Interface". In VMware Workstation when creating new virtual machine or when editing settings select Apple. See the screenshot.