Mac OS X as a GuestOS under VMware Workstation 7 or Player 3

[MSoK]

A consolidated topic for guidance installing OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard as a GuestOS under VMware Workstation 7 or Player 3, with thanks to Donk, Zenith432 et al. The relevant topics have become large making navigation hard and finding the most up to date information difficult, and frustrating.

 

It is my intention to post a simple set of up to date instructions, followed by a comprehensive manual (approved and vetted by Donk), based on Donk’s topic and original manual link below:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1186508

 

EDIT: Following a reported problem downloading the manual from Donk's original post, please refer to the following post link below:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1431750

 

Mac Son of Knife (MSoK).

[ssg31415926]

I wonder if you can help me with a couple of questions about virtualising a Mac onto VMware.

 

First, is it legal? I don't know anything about Mac licensing.

 

Second, is it realistic for someone with no Mac experience to attempt it?

 

I'm a Windows user (yeah, I know). I've created a couple of intranet sites but our Mac users are having problems with them. My boss isn't going to want to pay for a whole Mac and I don't have a spare network port, anyway, so I was looking for an easy solution.

[MSoK]

I wonder if you can help me with a couple of questions about virtualising a Mac onto VMware.

 

First, is it legal? I don't know anything about Mac licensing.

 

Second, is it realistic for someone with no Mac experience to attempt it?

 

I'm a Windows user (yeah, I know). I've created a couple of intranet sites but our Mac users are having problems with them. My boss isn't going to want to pay for a whole Mac and I don't have a spare network port, anyway, so I was looking for an easy solution.

OK, running OS X on anything other than a Mac is not legal, see the post I did on another topic link below:

 

http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index.php...t&p=1426408

 

If your Windows PC meets the requirements, see Donk's topic, the link is in the first post in this topic, then it is possible to get OS X running under VMware Workstation 7.xx or Player 3.xx, which I and many others have done with either no or only minor problems.

[MSoK]

A consolidated topic for guidance installing OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard as a GuestOS under VMware Workstation 7 or Player 3

Following a reported problem downloading the manual from Donk's original post, please find below an alternative link for Donk's manual, which also includes the latest full set of darwin tools (currently 301), and text files with the updates required for your VMX file for both Leopard and Snow Leopard:

 

http://rapidshare.com/files/365613323/VMwa...est_Package.zip

 

So no need to download multiple darwin.iso files, all you need is in the one zip file at the link above, enjoy.

 

MSoK!

[cypherx]

Wow this is great, thanks! I got 10.5.2 up and running. But when I try to update to 10.5.8 using the system update program, the system doesn't boot anymore. It kernel panics. Any idea why or how I could update it to 10.5.8? I can't update safari to the latest version on 10.5.2. I'm primarily using this to test webpages and see how they look on a real mac. Not to mention, get the hang of the Mac OS so I can somewhat support it.

 

Luckily with VMWare, I easily backup my VHD file prior to doing any system updates, so I am able to restore a working 10.5.2.

[MSoK]

Wow this is great, thanks! I got 10.5.2 up and running. But when I try to update to 10.5.8 using the system update program, the system doesn't boot anymore. It kernel panics. Any idea why or how I could update it to 10.5.8? I can't update safari to the latest version on 10.5.2. I'm primarily using this to test webpages and see how they look on a real mac. Not to mention, get the hang of the Mac OS so I can somewhat support it.

 

Luckily with VMWare, I easily backup my VHD file prior to doing any system updates, so I am able to restore a working 10.5.2.

Cypherx, quite a few people have reported problems with using system update, better to download the 10.5.8 directly from the Apple site and do a manual update, hopefully once at 10.5.8 other system updates will work. The only other reason is if you are not running the vanilla kernel, i.e. EFI or Chameleon, these can aslo give issues as the 10.5.8 update updates the kernel.

[cypherx]

Cypherx, quite a few people have reported problems with using system update, better to download the 10.5.8 directly from the Apple site and do a manual update, hopefully once at 10.5.8 other system updates will work. The only other reason is if you are not running the vanilla kernel, i.e. EFI or Chameleon, these can aslo give issues as the 10.5.8 update updates the kernel.

 

Ok thanks for that info. I never even thought about the Kernel. I used the Kalyway disc and I guess it's not the stock kernel, uname -a states it's the ToH kernel.. I suppose I'll be stuck at 10.5.2 forever. Wish we could get snow leopard working good, and also quartz extreme. Silly thing is VMWare workstation 7 has a 3D Acceleration feature which I always enable. In Windows 7 or Vista guests, I have full Aero effects. Wonder why it's so difficult to port that to Linux and Mac OS? At least with your instructions and driver pack, the 2D performance improved IMMENSELY, and also the VMWare Shared Folders work.

 

One thing I can't do is specify darwin or darwin-64 as my machine type. It works fine when specified as freebsd. VMWare 7 says my CPU doesn't support virtualization, but alas, it's a Core i7-920 with 6GB DDR3 RAM and an Asus motherboard. I know it's turned on in the bios. Oh well, it seems to work just fine when specified as freebsd.

[MSoK]

Ok thanks for that info. I never even thought about the Kernel. I used the Kalyway disc and I guess it's not the stock kernel, uname -a states it's the ToH kernel.. I suppose I'll be stuck at 10.5.2 forever. Wish we could get snow leopard working good, and also quartz extreme. Silly thing is VMWare workstation 7 has a 3D Acceleration feature which I always enable. In Windows 7 or Vista guests, I have full Aero effects. Wonder why it's so difficult to port that to Linux and Mac OS? At least with your instructions and driver pack, the 2D performance improved IMMENSELY, and also the VMWare Shared Folders work.

 

One thing I can't do is specify darwin or darwin-64 as my machine type. It works fine when specified as freebsd. VMWare 7 says my CPU doesn't support virtualization, but alas, it's a Core i7-920 with 6GB DDR3 RAM and an Asus motherboard. I know it's turned on in the bios. Oh well, it seems to work just fine when specified as freebsd.

OK, first things first, as you are using a non vanilla kernel, guestOS has to be freebsd, as you say, and unless you can find a Kalyway version of the 10.5.8 update, you are stuck at your current version.

QE is not an option under VM currently, the 3D acceleration is part of the VM specification, but has not been developed for OS X, as it is only legally licensed for use under Fusion on Apple Mac hardware, and then only the server version so no requirement for 3D!

Not sure why if you buy a retail copy of SL from Apple (£25.00, €35.00), you should not be able to run a Vanilla kernel, along with the Darwin301 tools. Where is Workstation 7 telling you, you do not have VT-x enabled? Your i7-920 has VT-x as part of the spec, unless the systm board has an issue, the VMware Hypervisor talks directoy to the BIOS. May be worth checking if there is a later firmware for your system board, also have you run the Securable program, just to cofirm all is well on VT-x front, link below:

 

http://www.grc.com/securable.htm

[cypherx]

Great link to that GRC Securable program.

 

For hardware virtualization it says Yes. When I click on More Info I get:

 

 

Hardware Virtualization

 

This processor does offer advanced hardware support for virtualization. However, while running under a 64-bit version of Windows this program cannot execute its 32-bit kernel code to determine whether Intel's VMX virtual machine extensions are being locked on, locked off, or neither. Since there's a chance that your system's BIOS may be deliberately disabling support for hardware virtualization (some do) you should re-run this program, if possible, with administrative privileges under a 32-bit version of NT, XP, or Vista. That will allow SecurAble to run a bit of kernel-mode code in order to determine exactly what's going on. (Note that you can also poke around in your system's BIOS to see whether you're able to find any references to "hardware virtualization" or "VMX", etc.

 

 

I don't have a 32-bit version to try and run this on, with 6GB ram, I have Windows 7 64-bit installed.

 

I have to say, despite the lack of Quartz Extreme, my 10.5.2 install works pretty well for checking out web pages and simple get to know OS-X tasks.

[smarty94]

As cool as all this stuff is, you can get safari for windows, and that would be much easier

Great link to that GRC Securable program.

 

For hardware virtualization it says Yes. When I click on More Info I get:

 

 

Hardware Virtualization

 

This processor does offer advanced hardware support for virtualization. However, while running under a 64-bit version of Windows this program cannot execute its 32-bit kernel code to determine whether Intel's VMX virtual machine extensions are being locked on, locked off, or neither. Since there's a chance that your system's BIOS may be deliberately disabling support for hardware virtualization (some do) you should re-run this program, if possible, with administrative privileges under a 32-bit version of NT, XP, or Vista. That will allow SecurAble to run a bit of kernel-mode code in order to determine exactly what's going on. (Note that you can also poke around in your system's BIOS to see whether you're able to find any references to "hardware virtualization" or "VMX", etc.

 

 

I don't have a 32-bit version to try and run this on, with 6GB ram, I have Windows 7 64-bit installed.

 

I have to say, despite the lack of Quartz Extreme, my 10.5.2 install works pretty well for checking out web pages and simple get to know OS-X tasks.

[MSoK]

As cool as all this stuff is, you can get safari for windows, and that would be much easier

But what fun is there in that, it will work first time, no messing with drivers, configurations, etc! LoL!!

[Duarte Bruno]

Thanks for the guide. I'll use it to check whether my vm is correctly configured.