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

[Donk]

In case anyone is wondering, the instructions and tools in this thread also seem to work with OS X v10.10 "Yosemite" (DP), as upgraded from a pre-existing Mavericks system.

 

They do work with a clean install as well. However performance is poor for me.

[an7oine]

Indeed. Much of the lack of performance was, for me, though, already present in Mavericks, and can be attributed to the aging, 32-bit, 3 GB Windows 7 work machine I am hosting my vm on. Talk about beating a dead horse...

[jawnskeel]

After installing the graphics packages, it seems the minimum resolution isn't small enough imo. Full screen works great though.

 

Also, I have a wired apple keyboard and I was wondering if there was any way to enable the Fn keys up top.

[trungpt]

I have just installed Mac OS X 10.9 on VMware Workstation v9. I followed the second post. It is a great post

[Zombie_ii]

Has anyone upgraded to VMware Workstation 10.0.3 and if so, did anything break?

[MSoK]

Has anyone upgraded to VMware Workstation 10.0.3 and if so, did anything break?

Yes, upgraded to Workstation 10.0.3 and all is well with OS X, since the install process un-installs the previous version as part of the "upgrade" process, the unlocker (1.3.0) needs to be re-installed once the "upgrade" to 10.0.3 has completed. I always do a cold re-boot after a workstation "upgrade" and applying the unlocker, and follow the unlocker install with another cold re-boot, just to make sure all the networking and services are running correctly.

[trungpt]

It is nice to know that VMware Unlocker v1.3 works well with VMware workstation 10.0.3

[davidm71]

Yes, upgraded to Workstation 10.0.3 and all is well with OS X, since the install process un-installs the previous version as part of the "upgrade" process, the unlocker (1.3.0) needs to be re-installed once the "upgrade" to 10.0.3 has completed. I always do a cold re-boot after a workstation "upgrade" and applying the unlocker, and follow the unlocker install with another cold re-boot, just to make sure all the networking and services are running correctly.

Weird that I did not need to reinstall unlocker though I had the VM suspended. Who knows what will happen upon a reboot..

[MSoK]

Weird that I did not need to reinstall unlocker though I had the VM suspended. Who knows what will happen upon a reboot..

david,

 

Since your OS X VM was suspended it will not have carried out the check to confirm the presence of Apple hardware, I expect you to get an error on re-boot of your VM, until you install the unlocker, but please let us know, not something I have ever tried.

[Zombie_ii]

Yes, upgraded to Workstation 10.0.3 and all is well with OS X, since the install process un-installs the previous version as part of the "upgrade" process, the unlocker (1.3.0) needs to be re-installed once the "upgrade" to 10.0.3 has completed. I always do a cold re-boot after a workstation "upgrade" and applying the unlocker, and follow the unlocker install with another cold re-boot, just to make sure all the networking and services are running correctly.

Thanks.  Went just as you said it would.  All is working well.

[CommonTk0]

Hello Great Folks,
 
This is great work and I am up and running with OSX 10.9 Mavericks in VM Player 6 on Windows 7 Professional.

 

I have question on CPU & cores the 10.9 VM sees:

• In the VMware Player, I have set Processor Cores to 4,
  • (Mac OS X 10.9.vmx) => numvcpus = "4"
• How ever the (Apple) -> About this Mac -> shows only 2 x 2.48 Ghz Unknown

 

From above does the 10.9 Mavericks in the VM see a dual PROCESSOR system or a single processor dual CORE system ? .

If it sees a single processor DUAL core system, how to overide some setting somewhere so that it sees 4 cores ? I have set these to 4 from the VMware Player control panel.

 

Thanks in advance for your help,

[MSoK]

Hello Great Folks,

 

This is great work and I am up and running with OSX 10.9 Mavericks in VM Player 6 on Windows 7 Professional.

 

I have question on CPU & cores the 10.9 VM sees:

• In the VMware Player, I have set Processor Cores to 4,
  • (Mac OS X 10.9.vmx) => numvcpus = "4"
• How ever the (Apple) -> About this Mac -> shows only 2 x 2.48 Ghz Unknown

 

From above does the 10.9 Mavericks in the VM see a dual PROCESSOR system or a single processor dual CORE system ? .

If it sees a single processor DUAL core system, how to overide some setting somewhere so that it sees 4 cores ? I have set these to 4 from the VMware Player control panel.

 

Thanks in advance for your help,

CTk0,

 

OK, this is an issue with Player only, when you select 4 cores it automatically presents two processors with two core, rather than the more likely one processor with four cores, in Workstation you can specify number of processors and the number of cores per processor.

 

When you fire up your OS X Virtual Machine (VM) go to the Apple Logo and About This Mac > More Info... > System Report... will tell you the "Number of Processors:" and the "Total Number of Cores:"

 

The additional line in the vmx configuration file missing from a Player configuration is:

 

cpuid.coresPerSocket = "4" or "2"

 

Adding the line to your vmx configuration file should allow Player to better reflect your actual physical environment, which from my experience produces the most stable VM's regardless of OS!

[goldunderfire]

Hi Guys,

 

I am new to the forum. This is my first post. 

 

Can you give an assistance on how to run the bash script for Maverick version on Windows?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Many thanks.

[MSoK]

Hi Guys,

 

I am new to the forum. This is my first post. 

 

Can you give an assistance on how to run the bash script for Maverick version on Windows?

 

Any help would be appreciated.

 

Many thanks.

goldunderfire,

 

What exactly are you trying to do in Windows, only the unlocker CMD can be run in Windows to unlock VMware Workstation or Player, all other scripts or commands are run from an existing instance of OS X either physical or virtual. If you do not have access to OS X you will need to buy the Snow Leopard DVD from the Apple Store, create an ISO and create a virtual machine, download the Mavericks Install app and install over SL or create a DMG which can be used to do a clean install in VMware Workstation 10 or Player 6. All relevant instructions are in the first two posts on this topic.

[J-Rod]

Sorry if this is a noob question.  

 

I have a Linux box running VMware Player.  I want to install Mavericks from scratch.  I have a Mac mini running OSX Lion with the Mavericks installer I have copied off onto a drive.  In reading in section 2 of the guide it goes over how to convert the .dmg fil to make it bootable from an OSX machine.  The instrctions are to run the script on an OSX machine.  It also mentions the tool from Fusion.

 

My question is can you do a scratch install of OSX with no other previous OSX VM's. Can you use that .tool script to fix the .dmg file to make it a moutable image from a Linux box?

[MSoK]

J-Rod,

 

First welcome to InsanelyMac, second you need the Install OS X Mavericks app to use the .tool script which will create a bootable .dmg for use in VMware Workstation 10, Player 6 or ESXi 5.5. Just copying the .dmg from Show Package Contents which works fine for Lion and Mountain Lion will not work for Mavericks.

 

I guess since OS X is a flavor of Linux in theory the script might work on Linux, but you would have to copy the "Install OS X Mavericks.app" to the Linux box, then run the .tool script, not something I have tried.

 

In your case you could just run the script on your Mini Mac, if you did not have access to OS X running on a real Mac or Virtual Machine, and the .tool script does not run in Linux, then the best solution is buy the Snow Leopard DVD from the Apple Store and create a Snow Leopard Virtual Machine, update to the latest patch 10.6.8 and download Mavericks from the App Store and either upgrade your Snow Leopard or create a new Virtual Machine from a .dmg created using the .tool script.

[J-Rod]

Ok, so, I tried several ways to fix the image in Linux

 

converted dmg to img with dmg2img, then tried to convert .img to .iso  it wouldn't work

tried to fix the script to run in linux, it didn't work. I think with some time and effort this could be done though

 

 

went and ran the script on my Mac mini running Lion.  Worked like a champ.  Created the .dmg file.

new .dmg file, .tool file, and .app file are on USB stick.

 

Put USB into my workstation running player and start VM, under options I have pointed the VM  to use the .dmg file as the installation media .iso for system.

 

I've pointed the VM at the .dmg file. as the boot image  It loads it and goes up to the install portion. It says it needs to verify I am eligible for upgrade, and wants to go out to the apps store. So, I had to enter my appleID.  Now it wants to go out to Apple to download "additional components", which I am assuming it is trying to re-download the .app file.  It reports 20+ hours remaining.  So, next question.  Do I copy the .app file to the disk so it can access it, or how do I make both the .dmg file and .app file available for the OS install, and not have to re-download the entire .app file.

[MSoK]

J-Rod,

 

If the .tool script has worked correctly against your App Store downloaded "Install OS X Mavericks.app" then the .dmg created should be all that is needed for Player 6 or Workstation 10 in either Windows or Linux, i.e. having installed the unlocker v1.30 you should be able to select OS X 10.9 as an option and just use the CD setting to point at your .dmg, it will want to choose a .iso, but will accept the .dmg if you choose any file (please note the .tool script creates a Mavericks .dmg file which works with both Workstation 10 and Player 6 as well as Fusion 6/7 and ESXi 5.x, this is not the case for Lion and Mountain Lion where the copied .dmg only works in Fusion and ESXi, Workstation and Player require the .dmg to be converted to .iso).

 

To confirm your .tool created .dmg is functional download the trial version of Fusion 6 or 7 on your Mini Mac and use the .dmg to create a Mavericks Virtual Machine.

[J-Rod]

Thank you I will try it again and see what it does.

[J-Rod]

Ok, looked over my terminal window from the first try, and there was an error reported.  Ran the .tool file and the .dmg file was 6.1G instead of 5.7G as it was the first time.  The installer went better (not asking for Apple ID).  It goes to install, and give 23 minutes remaining.  Then it hit an error and failed. In the error log it reports that an error occured while extracting files from Essentials.pkg and the installer then fails.

 

I went back and erased the .dmg file, ran the .tool again, and created a new.dmg file.  Same error. I can only assume the Mavericks .app download is corrupt in some fashion, and I will need to download it again, and try this again.

 

I may also test this at the same time. I am wondering if this would have the same effect as the .tool file.

 

http://www.fixedbyvonnie.com/2014/04/reinstall-mac-os-x-mavericks/#.VByjVR_Hm90

[MSoK]

J-Rod,

 

Sounds like a good plan, re-download the .app and try the .tool with the relevant additional location inputs and all should should work fine. A quick look at the link you supplied appears to do the same job as the .tool, plenty of similar instructions on the web to either create a bootable USB or VMDK, and just out of interest the latest version of Fusion v7.0.0 creates a bootable VMDK to install Yosemite as the .tool does currently work for Yosemite.

[nicholasscott]

Hey guys so this is my first post, I apologize if I leave something out or this has been answered, but I cant seem to find it.

So I have been trying to get os x 10.9.4 or later installed on my PC. Specs

 

Windows 7 SP1 X64

AMD Phenom II X6 1055T 2.8 GHz

Gigabyte GA-880GMA-UD2H

DDR3 4GB Ram

ATI Radeon HD 4250

AMD High Definition Audio Device

 

I installed VMware Workstation 10 and used the Unlocker 1.3. Added the VM for OS X 10.9, Removed the "firmware = efi" when I attempt to boot using the .vmx IDE torrent "os x mavericks 10 9 retail vmware image" I get to Loading Darwin/X86 screen and it just keeps spooling. I don't know how to get past that screen and get to the installation.

 

I installed Virtualbox 4.3.12 and used the Niresh ISO. I finally got OS X installed using the amd64 flag and added the graphics for 1080p. It runs pretty slow in Virtualbox but at least it boots. When I try to upgrade to 10.9.5 uding the app store, the purpose of having OS X is to use Xcode which needs 10.9.4+, it boots to the Guru Meditation error. I am really lost here and have been reading forums and install guides for the past week. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thanks for everything so far guys.

 

P.S what is the fasting more stable software to use VMware or Virtualbox? Can I install OS X 10.9.5 on either one using AMD?

[ssflyer]

I just updated to VMware Player 6.0.3, and my install of Snow Leopard show that the tools are not up to date. I ran the installer from unlocker 1.3, and still get the same message. Is there a newer Darwin available?

 

Thanks!

[MSoK]

I just updated to VMware Player 6.0.3, and my install of Snow Leopard show that the tools are not up to date. I ran the installer from unlocker 1.3, and still get the same message. Is there a newer Darwin available?

 

Thanks!

ssflyer,

 

You need to mount the darwin.iso (which is located in the VMware Player directory if you have installed the unlocker) via the CD/DVD option and "Use ISO image file" in Virtual Machine Settings, then select "Install VMware Tools" once mounted in OS X , if you have a previously installed VMware Tools I generally do an un-install and reboot before doing a fresh install of the VMware Tools.

 

I am not sure which version of the darwin.iso comes with the unlocker v1.3.0, but to ensure you have the latest go to the following download topic, link below, and you can download either 6.0.4 or even 7.0.0 from the latest version of Fusion, just released.

 

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

What is the fasting more stable software to use VMware or Virtualbox? Can I install OS X 10.9.5 on either one using AMD?

nick,

 

I have not had a great deal of experience of using VirtualBox, but as VMware Fusion was designed to run OS X on a Mac, and a lot of the base code is shared with Workstation, Player and ESXi, and once the unlocker is installed OS X can be installed via the wizard natively, and the latest VMware Tools from Fusion 7 appear to have improved graphics performance, it would seem the better solution.

 

Unfortunately as Apple only use Intel CPU's in Mac haredware, OS X contains no code to support AMD processors to run OS X natively, so a new, non native, kernel is required to provide support for AMD processors. Some work has been done to try and provide a set of CPUID masks to allow AMD processors to run native OS X but this is proving very tricky, and CPU specific.

[ssflyer]

Thanks MSoK,

 

The 7.0.0 build worked! I appreciate the guidance.