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Virual Mac OS X on KVM


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I came across this rather interesting webpage:

 

http://alex.csgraf.de/self/?part/projects&...s/id=Qemu%20OSX

 

It is mostly interesting because it results in a pretty speedy MacOS X install (albeit virtual) on pretty much any PC hardware, although it is of course against the EULA to run it on non-Apple hardware. But theoretically, there is no reason why this wouldn't work at all.

 

The patches that are provided at that site do need a bit of tweaking to get them to apply against the latest KVM release. I'll try to find a place to make them available for download, since I already did the forward-porting work anyway.

 

There are some things that do not work right, like the 'About my Mac...' application. I also haven't really tested sound just. Networking works perfectly, which is the main thing in my case anyway.

 

Due to issues with mouse pointer handling between vncviewer, QEMU's VNC server, and mouse acceleration handling between host and guest system, quite annoying discrepancies between mouse pointer positions happen. But... Since MacOS X (at least Leopard) includes a remote desktop feature using VNC anyway, you can just enable that, tell QEMU to redirect a host port to the VNC server in Leopard, and you end up with access to the virtual Leopard without mouse issues :)

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Well, you can do that also of course. But VMWare is a commercial product that doesn't always manage to keep up with the Linux kernel development. I do appreciate the advantage of being able to test things on current kernels, and not lag behind. In my case, it also means that I can fix problems I run into without needing to file bugs that may or may not be addressed in the near future. But it is for sure a personal choice, and I do realize that using KVM as virtualization layer may not be for everyone.

 

If you want a virtual OSX, why not run it in VMware? Retail Leopard works flawlessly if you have the right CPU/setup to do it.
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If you want a virtual OSX, why not run it in VMware?

 

No offense, I'm sure VMWare works fine for you, but KVM is the target plaform for what I'm trying to achieve, for precisely the reasons aedil made.

 

My intention is not just to get OSX running as a VM, but also understand why and how it runs as a VM. KVM provides that learning curve.

 

Thanks anyway.

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