How to Install OS X 10.x (Snow Leopard to El Capitan) in VMware Workstation 10/11, Workstation Pro/Player 12, Player 6/7, ESXi 5/6

[Zenith432]

I installed 13A603 in VMware over existing installation of 13A598.  It works and retains settings.

vmdk file expanded about 8GB - after wipe free space and compact, shrunk back to previous size.

[MSoK]

I have created a DMG and installed OS X 10.9.0 (13A603) the released version of Mavericks in VMware Workstation 10 with the unlocker 1.2.x from the Install OS X Mavericks App downloaded free (that was unexpected, thanks Apple!) from the Mac App Store, using the script from Fusion 6 discovered by Donk, as detailed in post 25 above.

 

The DMG installed Mavericks in Workstation 10 without conversion to ISO, again thanks to Donk for the heads up, and also installed in ESXi 5.5.

Edited October 23, 2013 by MSoK

[NSCXP2005]

Donk or MSoK, would you be able to make the script in to a sh file?

 

Thanks

[sebus]

.sh IS script already

[NSCXP2005]

How do I use the bash information above?

[Donk]

How do I use the bash information above?

Create Mavericks Installer.tool.txt

 

Download the attached file to OS X. From a Terminal prompt:

mv Create\ Mavericks\ Installer.tool.txt Create\ Mavericks\ Installer.tool
chmod +x Create\ Mavericks\ Installer.tool
./Create\ Mavericks\ Installer.tool /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app osx9.dmg

You need to pass the Mavericks installer application and the name of an output DMG.

[windyboi]

Help Please

 

I have followed the Guide as described but stuck with Error: EFI VmWare Virtual SATA CDROM (1.0) unsuccessful !! (See Picture, Please)

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92809634/Error01.png

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92809634/Error01.png

I am getting exactly the same error, I have tried different converters for dmg to iso, and have even burned the dmg to a disk and tried that way and no luck.

 

I am attempting to use OSX 10.8.4 on VM Workstation 10

 

If anyone is able to help I would very much appreciate it.

 

Jamie

[Brad Robinson]

Hi,

 

I've followed a similar procedure to this - had a 10.8.5 install of OSX working fine under VMWare Player 5 with unlocker.  Upgraded to VMWare Player 6 and unlocker 1.2.  Ran the Mavericks installer - went smoothly, OSX boots up but choosing Finder -> File -> New Finder Window doesn't work.  The menu bar and icons on the desktop disappear for a second and then come back, but no Finder window.  Also the maps app crashes on startup.

 

Anyone else having these issues + any known fix?

 

Brad

[Donk]

Hi,

 

I've followed a similar procedure to this - had a 10.8.5 install of OSX working fine under VMWare Player 5 with unlocker.  Upgraded to VMWare Player 6 and unlocker 1.2.  Ran the Mavericks installer - went smoothly, OSX boots up but choosing Finder -> File -> New Finder Window doesn't work.  The menu bar and icons on the desktop disappear for a second and then come back, but no Finder window.  Also the maps app crashes on startup.

 

Anyone else having these issues + any known fix?

 

Brad

 

 

1. Make sure you upgrade the virtual hardware to version 10

2. Make sure the OS is set to 10.9 and not 10.6 for guestod

[mr.sandman]

I was able to install Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) on a fresh new virtual machine on Windows 7 x64 with VMWare Workstation 10.0 patched with the Unlocker 1.2.0 mentioned in the first post.

 

My prerequisites were a running virtual machine with Mac OS X 10.8 (Mountain Lion) and the "Install OS X Mavericks" app downloaded from the Mac App Store.

 

I took the following steps:

 

1. Added a new hard disk (ca. 10GB in size) to the virtual machine configuration of my running Mountain Lion machine.
2. Rebooted the virtual machine in order to recognize the new hard disk.
3. Used the Disk Utility to partition the new hard disk (single partition named "Untitled" with Mac OS Extended (Journaled) file format).
4. Used the following command to make the new hard disk a bootable installation media (found on this site: http://www.marekbell.com/how-to-create-a-bootable-installation-for-os-x-mavericks-10-9-and-above/ ):
   
   sudo /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app/Contents/Resources/createinstallmedia --volume /Volumes/Untitled --applicationpath /Applications/Install\ OS\ X\ Mavericks.app --nointeraction
    
5. After the process completed, shut down the machine and removed the new hard disk from the virtual machine configuration.
6. Created a new virtual machine with Apple Mac OS X, Version Mac OS X 10.9 and with custom hardware settings.
7. After this, added the hard disk prepared in steps 1-6 as second hard disk to the newly created virtual machine.
8. Powered on the new virtual machine which now booted seamlessly into the installation procedure on the second hard disk.
9. Made sure to partition the first hard disk with the Disk Utility before starting the Installation (otherwise the installer only recognizes its own disk).
10. After the successful installation, shut down and removed the installation hard disk from the virtual machine configuration.

[MSoK]

 

I was able to install Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) on a fresh new virtual machine on Windows 7 x64 with VMWare Workstation 10.0 patched with the Unlocker 1.2.0 mentioned in the first post.

 

 

Mr Sandman,

 

Thanks for your installation description, it is very similar to the method deployed by Zenith432 and others in another thread, I think we have superseded the method with the new script from Donk which creates a bootable DMG file which can be used in Workstation 10 or ESXi 5.5 to install OS X Mavericks from scratch, see the post earlier in this thread.

[GnatGoSplat]

Sounds like the description in the OP and the script are to install Mavericks from scratch.

 

Is it possible to upgrade an existing 10.8 VM in VMware Player 6?  I attempted to just do an app store upgrade, but it fails to boot, resulting in an infinitely spinning color pinwheel.

I did add this to my .vmx file, but it didn't seem to help.

cpuid.1.eax = "0000:0000:0000:0001:0000:0110:1010:0101"

 

I also made this change:

virtualHW.version = "10"

guestOS = "darwin13-64"

 

No joy.  Is installing from scratch the only way to make it work?

 

UPDATE: Might have posted this too soon.  Changed this:

smc.present = "FALSE"

to

smc.present = "TRUE"

I have no real thought process for changing it, I was just changing stuff randomly and that happened to work.

It booted and is installing.  Not sure if it'll work, guess I'll find out in 45-minutes.

 

UPDATE2: It worked.  Did not need the cpuid.1.eax line.

 

UPDATE3: Kernel panics on shutdown.  When I reboot, it says the kernel panic had something to do with a "double fault".  Any ideas?

 

UPDATE4: Fix for UPDATE3 was to turn smc.present back to FALSE.  Everything now seemingly A-OK.

[Zenith432]

Do you have VMsvga2 installed over from 10.8.5?  If so, you need to install the version for OS 10.9.  The older one causes the type of behavior you describe.  It's caused by a crash of the OpenGL loader when trying to find a hardware GL driver.

Hi,

 

I've followed a similar procedure to this - had a 10.8.5 install of OSX working fine under VMWare Player 5 with unlocker.  Upgraded to VMWare Player 6 and unlocker 1.2.  Ran the Mavericks installer - went smoothly, OSX boots up but choosing Finder -> File -> New Finder Window doesn't work.  The menu bar and icons on the desktop disappear for a second and then come back, but no Finder window.  Also the maps app crashes on startup.

 

Anyone else having these issues + any known fix?

 

Brad

[ajflav]

Help Please

 

I have followed the Guide as described but stuck with Error: EFI VmWare Virtual SATA CDROM (1.0) unsuccessful !! (See Picture, Please)

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92809634/Error01.png

 

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/92809634/Error01.png

I am having the same problem. I used the "hdiutil convert" method as described in the OP against the retail 10.9 downloaded from the App Store. I am running Workstation 9.0.2 on a Windows host. I tried changing the guest CD drive to SCSI to no avail. It just wont boot the resultant .iso. Opening the iso in ISO Buster it looks like everything is there, so I'm really confused as to why this wont boot.

 

Thanks for any help.

[Brad Robinson]

Thanks for the prompt replies.

 

1. Make sure you upgrade the virtual hardware to version 10

2. Make sure the OS is set to 10.9 and not 10.6 for guestod

I had the OS set to 10.9, but hadn't upgraded the virtual hardware.

 

Do you have VMsvga2 installed over from 10.8.5?  If so, you need to install the version for OS 10.9.  The older one causes the type of behavior you describe.  It's caused by a crash of the OpenGL loader when trying to find a hardware GL driver.

That was it.  Thanks.

 

For anyone else with same problem:

 

1. In VMWare Player, there's no UI for the virtual hardware version (although it does show it).  You need to manually edit the VMX file and change virtualHW.version to "10"

2. Since I couldn't run Finder or Safari, getting the updated VMsvga driver was a little awkward.  In the end I uninstalled the old version through terminal:

 

> curl http://waix.dl.sourceforge.net/project/vmsvga2/uninstall.sh -o uninstall.sh

> chmod 777 uninstall.sh

> sudo ./uninstall.sh

 

Follow prompts, restart OSX and then download and install new version from here:  http://sourceforge.net/projects/vmsvga2/files/Display/VMsvga2_v1.2.5_OS_10.9.pkg

 

I now seem to have a functional install of Mavericks - the only problem I've seen so far is the new maps app still doesn't work - no map display, crashes on switching to hybrid/satellite view, but I don't really need that anyway.

 

Thanks again everyone.

[MSoK]

Just a quick update, Workstation 10.0.1, Player 6.0.1 and Fusion 6.0.1 have been released and OS X 10.8 and OS X 10.9 are working OK once the unlocker 1.2.x has been re-installed. I have updated the darwin.iso in the Download section to 6.0.1 from the latest version of Fusion.

[ajflav]

Just a quick update, Workstation 10.0.1, Player 6.0.1 and Fusion 6.0.1 have been released and OS X 10.8 and OS X 10.9 are working OK once the unlocker 1.2.x has been re-installed. I have updated the darwin.iso in the Download section to 6.0.1 from the latest version of Fusion.

So will 10.9 actually run under Workstation 9.0.2? This is what I have and I cannot but the iso I made from the InstalESD.dmg as per your article (please see my other post for more information), I really don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is it worth it to upgrade to (the latest?) Workstation 10.x, or can this work in 9.0.2? Thanks.

[MSoK]

So will 10.9 actually run under Workstation 9.0.2? This is what I have and I cannot but the iso I made from the InstalESD.dmg as per your article (please see my other post for more information), I really don't know what I'm doing wrong. Is it worth it to upgrade to (the latest?) Workstation 10.x, or can this work in 9.0.2? Thanks.

ajflav,

 

I guess the simple answer is YES you can run OS X 10.9 in Workstation 9.0.2, however you cannot create an ISO, so use the upgrade method detailed earlier in this thread, but Workstation 9 can only show the virtual machine as OS X 10.8 with hardware compatibility version 9.

 

If you extract the DMG file from the App Store download of OS X 10.9 as you would for OS X 10.8 and convert it to ISO it will not boot, and this is still the case in Workstation 10, we need to use a script (see Donk's post earlier in this thread for details) to create a DMG which can then be used in Workstation 10 or ESXi 5.5 to do a OS X 10.9 install from scratch. OS X 10.9 requires hardware compatibility version 10, which is only available in ESXi 5.5, Workstation 10, Player 6 and Fusion 6. So I would say definitely upgrade to Workstation 10.

[justwii]

Hi I followed the bash method and now have a running 10.9 on player 6.01, thank you so much!

 

The only problem is the player keeps nagging me to install vmtools but I did install in by mounting the drawin.iso and successfully completed the installation and restarted the OS.

I know I can click "Never remind me again" but thats not the point, I can't set up (grayed out) vm shard folder because it still thinks I havent installed vmtools.

Another weird finding is inside the vmxf file, I got this line

<vmxPathName type="string">Mac OS X 10.9.vmx</vmxPathName></VM><tools-install-info><installError>5</installError><updateCounter>6</updateCounter></tools-install-info></Foundry>

 

It seems there was some error during or after the installation.

 

I repeated the installation twice and still the same, help is needed. Cheers!

[MSoK]

Hi I followed the bash method and now have a running 10.9 on player 6.01, thank you so much!

 

The only problem is the player keeps nagging me to install vmtools but I did install in by mounting the drawin.iso and successfully completed the installation and restarted the OS.

I know I can click "Never remind me again" but thats not the point, I can't set up (grayed out) vm shard folder because it still thinks I havent installed vmtools.

Another weird finding is inside the vmxf file, I got this line

<vmxPathName type="string">Mac OS X 10.9.vmx</vmxPathName></VM><tools-install-info><installError>5</installError><updateCounter>6</updateCounter></tools-install-info></Foundry>

 

It seems there was some error during or after the installation.

 

I repeated the installation twice and still the same, help is needed. Cheers!

justwii,

 

My vmxf file has exactly the same string and I have VMware Tools installed fine, although I am running Workstation 10.0.1, you might want to download the latest Fusion 6.0.1 darwin.iso from the InsanelyMac Download section, mount the iso manually and see if it will install. I generally do an uninstall and reboot just to clean up any issues with a previous VMware Tools install before installing the latest version currently 6.0.1.

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/files/file/31-vmware-tools-for-os-x-darwiniso/

[Hemps]

Is iMessage working for anyone under vmware workstation 10

 

Installed Mavericks 100%, tried this http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/292170-how-to-spoof-real-mac-in-vmware/

 

But still no iMessage

[bengalih]

Is this method the right way to install on ESXi (5.5) as well?  If not can someone point me to it?

 

I tried to do a clean install on a second drive from within my 10.8 install and it just sits on boot up at spinning beachball.

 

I would prefer to do a clean install - haven't yet tried to just update 10.8, but if that's my only option, I'll give it a whirl.

 

thanks.

[MSoK]

Is this method the right way to install on ESXi (5.5) as well?  If not can someone point me to it?

 

I tried to do a clean install on a second drive from within my 10.8 install and it just sits on boot up at spinning beachball.

 

I would prefer to do a clean install - haven't yet tried to just update 10.8, but if that's my only option, I'll give it a whirl.

 

thanks.

bengalih,

 

Pretty much, I will be posting an ESXi 5.5 How To, just needs some fine tuning, as the vSphere Client only supports up to hardware compatibility version 8 (virtualHW.version = "8"), which basically means OS X 10.7 (Lion), now OS X 10.8 will work with vHW v8, but for full support ideally requires vHW v9, and OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) again will work with vHW v8 but requires vHW v10 for full support, neither of which are supported by the vSphere Client! So we need to use a combination of the vSphere Client and either Workstation 10 or the vCenter 5.5 Web Client.

 

However some stability issues have been reported with unlocked ESXi hosts and vCenter Server, so unless your OS X VM will not run leave hardware compatibility at version 8 (virtualHW.version = "8").

 

In terms of a clean install of OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), you need to use the new script discovered by Donk in Fusion 6, which allows a bootable Mavericks DMG to be created, see the second post in this topic for details:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/290949-how-to-install-os-x-108-mountain-lion-and-os-x-109-mavericks-in-vmware-workstation-910-or-player-56/?p=1937757

Edited October 30, 2013 by MSoK

[bengalih]

bengalih,

 

Pretty much, I will be posting an ESXi 5.5 How To, just needs some fine tuning, as the vSphere Client only supports up to hardware compatibility version 8, which basically means OS X 10.7 (Lion), now OS X 10.8 will work with HCV 8, but ideally requires HCV 9, and OS X 10.9 (Mavericks) requires HCV 10, neither of which are supported by the vSphere Client! So unfortunately we need to use a combination of the vSphere Client and either Workstation 10 or the vCenter 5.5 Web Client, not ideal but sometimes real life sucks!

 

In terms of a clean install of OS X 10.9 (Mavericks), you need to use the new script discovered by Donk in Fusion 6, which allows a bootable Mavericks DMG to be created, see the second post in this topic for details:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/290949-how-to-install-os-x-108-mountain-lion-and-os-x-109-mavericks-in-vmware-workstation-910-or-player-56/?p=1937757

 

Yeah I went ahead and was able to use that script to create the bootable DMG.  I had a couple issues:

#1 - for some reason the DMG wasn't mounting when I browsed to it - I thought it was an issue with it not wanting to mount a DMG file, but after a bit I figured out that the vSphere client was, for some reason, not putting in a final backslash in my file path before the file name.  I had to manually fix it and then I was able to mount.

 

#2 - Takes a while to boot.  I was getting the beachball and a gray screen on my prior attempts...let is sit all night and no go.  Using the modified DMG it still sat for probably 5+ minutes, so I had abandoned hope at first, but it seemed to then start off the install.

 

#3 - I did the install using the 10.7 template and HCV 8 (default).  The install took about 6 hours...I have no idea why it took so long, but it just sat on each minute for like half an hour.

 

So - I'm not sure yet why you state that HCV 10 is needed for Mavericks...other than the long install time it seems to be running ok for me(?)  Now I won't talk about performance because I mostly use my OSX installs for some software testing so I don't really use them as production desktops.

 

I can go ahead an use the web client to upgrade to HCV 9 or 10...but why exactly is it necessary?  I have a 10.6 and a 10.8 that were running on 8 fine, but I upgraded them to 9 anyway.  The problem with 10 is that once you upgrade to 10 you can't use the vSphere client to manage those VMs *at all* - which is a bit of a problem seeing how there are reported issues using the unlocker with vSphere (I have experienced them).

 

So...for now (just finished) it looks like my install has worked, but I will be interested in your answers to the need for HCV 9/10 and any other advice you may have.

 

thanks!

[MSoK]

bengalih,

 

Glad you have Mavericks up and running, not sure why your install was so long, just built Mavericks from scratch in my nested ESXi 5.5 host, using hardware compatibility version 8 without any issues, slightly slow initial boot, 2-3 minutes, but then the install ran pretty well as estimated, 23 and 20 minutes for the two parts of the install. Maybe you can share your configuration for comparison.

 

I have updated the original post to confirm Mavericks will run OK using virtualHW.version = "8", problems have been reported when upgrading to Workstation 10 with existing OS X VMs not booting until upgraded to virtualHW.version = "10". I will monitor how my vHW v8 Mavericks runs in comparison to my vHW v10 installation.

 

In terms of upgrading to vHW v9 or v10, you can use Workstation 10 to "Connect to Server..." and "Edit virtual machine settings" with vHW set to either v9 or v10, as an alternative to the vCenter Web Client, or if you do not have vCenter Server or vCenter Server Appliance installed.