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

[pepetops]

Sorry but I try install Capitan on VMware with Opensuse Host and can't boot it. Use last VMware version and last unlocker version too

I use also the script to convert dmg to iso image that I see in this forum

[steelrat]

I have a dell poweredge running esxi5.5.... I have a osx 10.9.5 with AMD kernel vm that I have from different esxi host. I did try the in place upgrade. Which didn't get very far, likely due to the permissions and other changes required for the kernel.

 

So I created a fresh new vm, and started with the 10.9.5 ISO.... (the 10.10 one I made didn't seem to work well). Since then I was able to in place upgrade from 10.9.5 to 10.10.5, and now 10.11.1 (and 10.11.2). All thanks to the unlocker version 1.3.1. 

 

The remaining issue that I've been facing with the 10.11.1/2 is the app store. I can logon to itunes, icloud and everything else and it seems to work fine, but the app store logon gives me a lot of spinning. Especially if it's to "buy" a new app. I can download purchased and patches.... Otherwise, graphics on 10.11 seem much more responsive then with 10.10....

 

What version of vmware tools is recommended these days? I don't think I have any presently installed.... 

[LuXs]

I use the latest version at this time 8.1.0 with el captin 10.11.2

https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/8.1.0/ 

[mylovelyhorse]

Hello.

 

I have a copy of OSX 10.6.3 Snow Leopard on DVD and I'm trying to run a VM of in it WMware Workstation Pro 12 (on W10 Pro 64-bit). I have installed unlocker 2.0.8 and am attempting the install from an ISO image of the disc. I note that after running unlocker the lowest version that VMware Workstation knows about it 10.7 - is that an issue? I have selected Mac OS X 10.7 as per the attached settings screenshot.

 

I have allowed 8Gb of my machine's total 16Gb for the VM & allocated 2 x 2 cores. My CPU is an Intel i7-4790K. I saw the note that that these were unsupported in 10.6.x and have added the cpuid.1.eax string. I was getting the vcpu-0 error message when I attempt to run the VM but after adding smc.version = "0" to the VMX file that has stopped.

 

I am now, oddly, getting an error message that the guest operating system is not OS X Server. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

the attached zip file contains my vmx file.

OS X.zip

[MSoK]

Hello.

 

I have a copy of OSX 10.6.3 Snow Leopard on DVD and I'm trying to run a VM of in it WMware Workstation Pro 12 (on W10 Pro 64-bit). I have installed unlocker 2.0.8 and am attempting the install from an ISO image of the disc. I note that after running unlocker the lowest version that VMware Workstation knows about it 10.7 - is that an issue? I have selected Mac OS X 10.7 as per the attached settings screenshot.

 

I have allowed 8Gb of my machine's total 16Gb for the VM & allocated 2 x 2 cores. My CPU is an Intel i7-4790K. I saw the note that that these were unsupported in 10.6.x and have added the cpuid.1.eax string. I was getting the vcpu-0 error message when I attempt to run the VM but after adding smc.version = "0" to the VMX file that has stopped.

 

I am now, oddly, getting an error message that the guest operating system is not OS X Server. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

the attached zip file contains my vmx file.

This is because of the Apple EULA for OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which only allows virtualisation of the OS X 10.6 Server version not the workstation version you are trying to install, this was changed from OS X 10.7 (Lion) forward to allow virtualisation of the workstation versions of OS X.

 

If you are looking to use Snow Leopard as a stepping stone to the latest version of OS X El Capitan then you could install either Workstation 10 or Player 6 with unlocker 1.3.x which includes the patch to remove the server check, then once upgraded to a later version of OS X, reinstall Workstation Pro 12 and unlocker 2.0.8.

 

Alternatively a patch was created by Donk to resolve this issue, it has been degraded and is no longer included in the latest unlocker 2.0.8, but may still work and was still included in unlocker 2.0.7 in a folder called firmware, the topic and readme have instructions for deployment, see link below:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/303311-workstation-1112-player-712-fusion-78-and-esxi-6-mac-os-x-unlocker-2/

 

I would not recommend uninstalling unlocker 2.0.8, instead just copy the relevant ROM file to your guest folder and add the relevant line to the VMX configuration file from the firmware folder in the unlocker 2.0.7 zip file.

[mylovelyhorse]

This is because of the Apple EULA for OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard) which only allows virtualisation of the OS X 10.6 Server version not the workstation version you are trying to install, this was changed from OS X 10.7 (Lion) forward to allow virtualisation of the workstation versions of OS X.

 

If you are looking to use Snow Leopard as a stepping stone to the latest version of OS X El Capitan then you could install either Workstation 10 or Player 6 with unlocker 1.3.x which includes the patch to remove the server check, then once upgraded to a later version of OS X, reinstall Workstation Pro 12 and unlocker 2.0.8.

 

Alternatively a patch was created by Donk to resolve this issue, it has been degraded and is no longer included in the latest unlocker 2.0.8, but may still work and was still included in unlocker 2.0.7 in a folder called firmware, the topic and readme have instructions for deployment, see link below:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/303311-workstation-1112-player-712-fusion-78-and-esxi-6-mac-os-x-unlocker-2/

 

I would not recommend uninstalling unlocker 2.0.8, instead just copy the relevant ROM file to your guest folder and add the relevant line to the VMX configuration file from the firmware folder in the unlocker 2.0.7 zip file.

 

Thanks for the swift reply. My plan is indeed to use Snow Leopard as a step to OS X El Capitan. Before I go down the Workstation 10 route, I'd quite like to see if the fix in unlocker 2.0.7 still works. I have got myself a download, retrieved efi64-srvr.rom and placed it in the same folder as my vmx file. I've added 'efi64.filename = "efi64-srvr.rom"' to my VMX file however regrettably the fix doesn't seem to work. I got the attached error.

[MSoK]

Thanks for the swift reply. My plan is indeed to use Snow Leopard as a step to OS X El Capitan. Before I go down the Workstation 10 route, I'd quite like to see if the fix in unlocker 2.0.7 still works. I have got myself a download, retrieved efi64-srvr.rom and placed it in the same folder as my vmx file. I've added 'efi64.filename = "efi64-srvr.rom"' to my VMX file however regrettably the fix doesn't seem to work. I got the attached error.

Before you revert to Workstation 10 or Player 6, try uninstalling unlocker 2.0.8 and installing 2.0.7, re-booting between each stage, Donk made some changes in the latest unlocker and a conscious decision not to include support for OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard workstation, if you had OS X Server media it should work.

 

As a second alternative you could do the following to fool VMware in to thinking the source ISO is Server rather than Workstation/Client:

 

The secret for installing OS X 10.6 in a virtual machine is to trick OS X into thinking you have the server version of it by creating an empty file at /System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist on the installer DVD/ISO and on the final hard drive image.

[mylovelyhorse]

Before you revert to Workstation 10 or Player 6, try uninstalling unlocker 2.0.8 and installing 2.0.7, re-booting between each stage

 

Unfortunately that didn't work. Thanks for the suggestions and all the help - plus this thread in general is brilliant. A kind user shared a copy of 10.11.x with me and that has worked nicely though. Thanks to them!!

 

The only problem I have left is getting my screen resolution sorted out. The display menu only allows 1024 x 768, which is somewhat annoying as my screen is actually 1920 x 1080.

 

The host has an Nvidia graphics card but I don't suppose the VM can actually see that so I'm guessing installing Nvidia drivers isn't the answer. Any suggestions?

[LuXs]

https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/8.1.0/3272237/packages/
download darwin tools from here already linked to latest version

[mylovelyhorse]

https://softwareupdate.vmware.com/cds/vmw-desktop/fusion/8.1.0/3272237/packages/

download darwin tools from here already linked to latest version

Thank you. I have the VMware tools installed and am just trying to get into recovery mode (CTRL+R instead of cmd+R I assume) to disable SIP & install SwitchResX. Can I catch the right moment? Can I heck

[mylovelyhorse]

Hmm. I've added a 5 second delay to boot (bios.bootDelay = "5000") and I can get to the Boot Maintenance Manager by pressing CTRL+R. I can't get to the recovery mode. I'm using a pC keyboard (naturally) so I don't have a CMD key and I thought that perhaps CTRL or ALT would function as a substitute but regrettably not

 

I am determined to get this up and running properly & right now as far as i can see the only thing stopping me from having an OS X VM that will run full screen as it should is getting into recovery mode. More googling required, clearly...

[LuXs]

think its the windows button you need to press try that or alt key since it still based on a mac keyboard. 
Forgot what key it was but its one of them on the bottom left of the keyboard

[mylovelyhorse]

think its the windows button you need to press try that or alt key since it still based on a mac keyboard. 

Forgot what key it was but its one of them on the bottom left of the keyboard

 

Thanks for your advice. I've tried Alt, Windows, Ctrl & Shift - they all take me directly to the boot maintenance manager.

[MSoK]

Thank you. I have the VMware tools installed and am just trying to get into recovery mode (CTRL+R instead of cmd+R I assume) to disable SIP & install SwitchResX. Can I catch the right moment? Can I heck

Have a look at following over at VMware:

 

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-24932

 

However I am sure I have read somewhere that sometimes in a virtual install of OS X the recovery partition is not created, you can check by issuing the diskutil list command in a terminal session and hopefully it will return the "Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB" partition as well as at least the "EFI" and "Apple_HFS" partitions.

 

See the link below for a "How to Create Recovery Partition in OS X":

 

http://www.hongkiat.com/blog/recovery-partition-os-x/

[JJTagy]

However I am sure I have read somewhere that sometimes in a virtual install of OS X the recovery partition is not created

 

Correct, El Capitan did not create a recovery partition when installing from the DMG.

[mylovelyhorse]

Have a look at following over at VMware:

 

https://communities.vmware.com/docs/DOC-24932

 

However I am sure I have read somewhere that sometimes in a virtual install of OS X the recovery partition is not created, you can check by issuing the diskutil list command in a terminal session and hopefully it will return the "Apple_Boot Recovery HD 650.0 MB" partition as well as at least the "EFI" and "Apple_HFS" partitions.

 

Yeah, the link to the vmware site is what gave me the idea of adding in the timeout. Thanks for the diskutil tip - running diskutil list gives me this output:

 

/dev/disk0 (external, physical):

   #:      TYPE NAME                       SIZE           IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme     *85.9 GB     disk0

   1:      EFI EFI                                209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:      Apple_HFS OS X                 79.7 GB     disk0s2

   3:      Apple_Boot Recovery HD    650.0 MB   disk0s3

 

So the recovery drive is there, I just can't seem to access it. Given that I'm using a Windows keyboard, do I need to map command to anything in the keyboard settings? Attached is a pic of how things are set at the moment. I have set the keyboard type to 'British - PC'.

[MSoK]

 

Yeah, the link to the vmware site is what gave me the idea of adding in the timeout. Thanks for the diskutil tip - running diskutil list gives me this output:

 

/dev/disk0 (external, physical):

   #:      TYPE NAME                       SIZE           IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme     *85.9 GB     disk0

   1:      EFI EFI                                209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:      Apple_HFS OS X                 79.7 GB     disk0s2

   3:      Apple_Boot Recovery HD    650.0 MB   disk0s3

 

So the recovery drive is there, I just can't seem to access it. Given that I'm using a Windows keyboard, do I need to map command to anything in the keyboard settings? Attached is a pic of how things are set at the moment. I have set the keyboard type to 'British - PC'.

 

If you're using a keyboard made for Windows PC's, use the Alt key instead of Option, and the Windows logo key instead of Command. This is taken from the following Apple document, link below:

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201236

[Donk]

 

Yeah, the link to the vmware site is what gave me the idea of adding in the timeout. Thanks for the diskutil tip - running diskutil list gives me this output:

 

/dev/disk0 (external, physical):

   #:      TYPE NAME                       SIZE           IDENTIFIER

   0:      GUID_partition_scheme     *85.9 GB     disk0

   1:      EFI EFI                                209.7 MB   disk0s1

   2:      Apple_HFS OS X                 79.7 GB     disk0s2

   3:      Apple_Boot Recovery HD    650.0 MB   disk0s3

 

So the recovery drive is there, I just can't seem to access it. Given that I'm using a Windows keyboard, do I need to map command to anything in the keyboard settings? Attached is a pic of how things are set at the moment. I have set the keyboard type to 'British - PC'.

 

 

BTW if you ever want to get into the firmware and the boot manager, you can use the menu VM-->Power-->Power On to Firmware. 

[mylovelyhorse]

If you're using a keyboard made for Windows PC's, use the Alt key instead of Option, and the Windows logo key instead of Command. This is taken from the following Apple document, link below:

 

https://support.apple.com/en-gb/HT201236

 

Yeah, I've read that but thanks for the link anyhow. I was just checking (and in a way hoping) that I hadn't done a schoolboy error somewhere. I've been using WIN+R to try to get to the recovery partition but all it leads me to is the boot manager. Very peculiar. Later (when work permits) I'll do some more googling.

[Donk]

Yeah, I've read that but thanks for the link anyhow. I was just checking (and in a way hoping) that I hadn't done a schoolboy error somewhere. I've been using WIN+R to try to get to the recovery partition but all it leads me to is the boot manager. Very peculiar. Later (when work permits) I'll do some more googling.

 

That won't work in VMware as I am pretty sure the VMware EFI firmware does not have support for it. Remember you are not running on an exact equivalent of Mac EFI firmware and the Mac boot keystrokes won't work.

[fusion71au]

Thank you. I have the VMware tools installed and am just trying to get into recovery mode (CTRL+R instead of cmd+R I assume) to disable SIP & install SwitchResX. Can I catch the right moment? Can I heck

 

@mylovelyhorse,

 

I can confirm that pressing and holding down simultaneously the <Windows> and <R> keys when you see the VMware logo will boot the OS X recovery partition - this is using a Windows keyboard and running vanilla OS X on a Windows host.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you have added bios.bootDelay = "5000" to your vmx file, then you might find that the VMware boot manager screen loads instead.  If that is the case, then follow the procedure in @EMR's post here to add an entry for the Recovery HD to the VMware boot manager screen eg

 

 

then select that entry to boot into the Recovery HD ---> run the csrutil disable command from terminal to disable SIP...

 

 

Another workaround is to simply attach your El Capitan installer ISO to your virtual machine ----> boot to the El Capitan installer ---> open terminal and run the csrutil disable command ---> reboot into El Capitan with SIP disabled (you can select Startup Disk from the Apple menu and choose the El Capitan volume).

[mylovelyhorse]

@mylovelyhorse,

 

I can confirm that pressing and holding down simultaneously the <Windows> and <R> keys when you see the VMware logo will boot the OS X recovery partition - this is using a Windows keyboard and running vanilla OS X on a Windows host.

[..]

If you have a third party boot loader or boot manager in the EFI eg Clover or Refind, then you might find that the Vmware boot manager screen loads instead.  If that is the case, then follow the procedure in @EMR's post here to add an entry for the Recovery HD to the VMware boot manager screen

 

Brilliant - thank you very much indeed! I used @EMR's method and have added the Recovery HD boot option & used it successfully. Really, really pleased - the support from this forum is absolutely excellent and much appreciated

[veta]

I've got a problem with my iPhone not connecting to the VM.  It shows up:

 

But the Mac doesn't detect it as a connected device. The only thing that seems to fix it is playing musical chairs with the USB ports until it works.  Restarting everything might help too. In any case, it's unpredictable.  And right now I have an app to test.

http://imgur.com/jAoHkqe 

[JJTagy]

Open your VMX file and check if your USBs are correct and not virtualized as a different type of USB port.

[veta]

Open your VMX file and check if your USBs are correct and not virtualized as a different type of USB port.

Good idea, I'm going to tinker with it tonite.  Is there any guide on how to interpret the VMX USBs relative to my Windows device manager?

 

VMX:

http://pastebin.com/TtDNfCZD

 

I had a perusal and it shows 3/4 USB ports.  I'm running the machine off a thumb drive so that might explain why one is missing.

 

I'm not sure how to interpret the various boolean parameters relating to USB. They look fine but maybe there's an error of omission.  According to stackoverflow this can happen with a corrupt iTunes install so I'm going to try reinstalling that next.

 

The USBs do seem to register, actually the iTunes explanation might be explain why musical chairs with my USB ports works.  Plugging in a non-iDevice causes something other than iTunes to read the port.

Also want to add this was a wonderful guide, thank you OP!