157 replies to this topic

[thefinalprophecy]

I have a working install of Lion in VMWare 8 but it runs slow as all hell.  I have virtualization enabled in BIOS.  Is there something I'm doing wrong?

[Donk]

Mac Son of Knife, on Sep 7 2011, 10:26 AM, said:

I have created this topic as an installation guide and consolidated view for installing OS X  10.6 "Snow Leopard" and OS X 10.7 "Lion" under VMware vSphere Hypervisor (ESXi) 5 it  is based on Donk's topic "ESXi 5 Mac OS X Unlocker" link below:

http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1745191

[UPDATED: 22/SEP/2011]
VMware Workstation 8.0.0 and Fusion 4.0.1 were released 13/14th September 2011, Donk's "Unlocker" is now available. A new "How to Install Retail OS X 10.6 "Snow" and OS X 10.7 "Lion" under VMware Workstation 8 and Fusion 4" topic specifically for the desktop vistualisation products, i.e. Workstation 8, Player 4 (when released) and Fusion 4 is now released, see link below:
[UPDATED: 22/SEP/2011]

Please use Donk's topic for questions regarding the Unlocker and this topic for questions regarding Mac OS X installation and guide update requests.

[UPDATED: 19/SEP/2011]
Please note Donk's "ESXi 5 Unlocker" is build specific and this is indicated in the unlocker patch name, as VMware have now released a patch for ESXi 5 "ESXi500-201109001.zip" this changes the ESXi 5.0.0 build number from 469512 to 474610. Donk has released an updated version of his "ESXi 5 Unlocker". A link to the new version is posted on Donk's topic "ESXi 5 Mac OS X Locker", see link below.

The recommended installation method is to uninstall the "ESXi 5 Unlocker" update ESXi to the latest build version 474610, a re-boot will be required, install the updated "Unlocker" again a re-boot will be required. The option to choose Apple Mac OS X as a Guest operating system will be present when creating a New Virtual Machine.
[UPDATED: 19/SEP/2011]

"The guide will appear here shortly, just need a little more time to iron out some of the new 'oppotunities' Apple have given us with trying to install Lion"

Links to all the relevant and related topics in the InsanelyMac forum:

Donk's ESXi 5 Mac OS X Unlocker:
http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1745191

Donk's Workstation 8 and Fusion 4 Mac OS X Unlocker:
http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1750629

MSoK's How to Install Retail OS X 10.6 "Snow" and OS X 10.7 "Lion" under VMware Workstation 8 and Fusion 4:
http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1750634


MSoK's How to Install Retail OS X 10.6 "Snow" under VMware Workstation 7 or Player 3:
http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1622074

[UPDATED: 20/SEP/2011]
Link(s) to darwin.iso from ESXi 5 (current version 5.0.0) and Fusion 4 (cuurent version 4.0.1) to install VMware Tools:
http://rapidshare.co...4/darwin500.iso
http://rapidshare.co...5/darwin401.iso

  "Official Mirror" for Donk's "Unlocker" files:
  http://rapidshare.co...i500-469512.tgz
http://rapidshare.co...i500-474610.tgz
http://rapidshare.co...-windows-u1.zip
[UPDATED: 20/SEP/2011]
  
Special thanks to Donk without who's continued time and commitment none of this would be possible.

Regards MSoK.
(I will try to keep this post updated, with all relevant contributions gratefully received and credited)

Can I add to this the information we require to help sort issues out?

1. The VMX file associated with the guest
2. The latest vmware.log file found in the same folder as the guest

Please attach the files to a post, do NOT copy them inline as that only slows us down. Without this information it is hard for us to work out what may be going wrong.

[val_halla]

Hi,

the unlocker works great on workstation 8, well....

Only the mouse is a little bit spuky. Sometimes i have to press buttons two times and more. Also on option boxes. When i move the mouse from one option box to another and click again the last clicked option box goes on and off. Looks like the computer moved the mouse cursor, but the click position is still from a second before.

Maybe i take the wrong darwin.iso to install vmware tools?

Where can i find the right darwin.iso for workstation 8 os x lion guest?

Thanks,

ValHalla

[MSoK]

Donk, on Sep 24 2011, 01:29 PM, said:

Can I add to this the information we require to help sort issues out?

1. The VMX file associated with the guest
2. The latest vmware.log file found in the same folder as the guest

Please attach the files to a post, do NOT copy them inline as that only slows us down. Without this information it is hard for us to work out what may be going wrong.

Donk,

Thanks for the reminder, added to the first post in this topic.

MSoK.

val_halla, on Sep 24 2011, 09:13 PM, said:

Hi,

the unlocker works great on workstation 8, well....

Only the mouse is a little bit spuky. Sometimes i have to press buttons two times and more. Also on option boxes. When i move the mouse from one option box to another and click again the last clicked option box goes on and off. Looks like the computer moved the mouse cursor, but the click position is still from a second before.

Maybe i take the wrong darwin.iso to install vmware tools?

Where can i find the right darwin.iso for workstation 8 os x lion guest?

Thanks,

ValHalla

ValHalla,

Please see the post from Donk above it references the relevant darwin.iso for both Workstation 8 / Fusion 4 and ESXi 5, including download links.

[zSprawl]

I loaded the unlock, installed OS X 10.6 (workstation, not server) on ESXi5. I then updated to 10.6.8, and then updated to 10.7 via the App store. Lastly, I updated to 10.7.1 and everything is running great!

Thank you everyone. Now I can mess with iPhone dev again!

Attached Files

•  macesxi.jpg   181.79K   48 downloads

[SCSI_2k]

Can this be used to install OSX 10.6 Server also?

[lionpack]

Hi,

I'm about to try and install Mac OS X Lion in a new 8 node cluster and I'd like to make sure I understood everything...

By the way, each node is made up of two Quad Core Xeon E5620 CPUs with Intel 5520 chipsets.

I'd appreciate any corrections. This is what I have done so far:

- Install ESXi 5 in each of the 8 machines.
- Prepare a bootable USB for Mac OS X Lion using "Lion DiskMaker".

This is what I understand that I have to do now:

- Patch each of the ESXi hosts with the unlocker.
- Create a new Mac OS X 10.6 VM in one of the hosts using vSphere Client.
- Start the VM and connect the bootable USB drive to it using vSphere Client.
- Enter the BIOS of the VM using "Boot to BIOS" option of vSphere Client.

(this is where I lost track of what I'm supposed to do)

- Somehow add "-v npci=0x2000" to the boot process (where do I enter this information?)

Then I will be able to perform the install of Mac OS X Lion. After install, I should change the VM type to Mac OS X 10.7, install VMWare tools and finally clone the VM to the other nodes in the cluster. Am I right? Can I use vSphere Client to export the VM and deploy it in the other nodes?

I'm sorry if the process is detailed somewhere else, I have been unable to find a "guide".

Thanks!

LP.

[23adam23]

I have successfully installed 10.6.8 workstation and 10.6.8 server under esxi5
I have also successfully installed 10.7 and 10.7.1  workstation under esxi 5
( thanks to Donk and others for there posts regarding this)

Now unfortunately when i install the latest 10.7.2 update to lion, My virtual machine gets stuck on the apple logo on boot up.
Has anyone else had the same result. I have tried twice so I'm guessing its not just a bad update experience.
I have seen posts regarding 10.7.2 and fusion4 failing, the answer being disable 3d graphics, esxi5 vm's for mac have 3d graphics disabled by default.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated

[yozh]

23adam23, on Oct 15 2011, 06:30 AM, said:

I have successfully installed 10.6.8 workstation and 10.6.8 server under esxi5
I have also successfully installed 10.7 and 10.7.1  workstation under esxi 5
( thanks to Donk and others for there posts regarding this)

Now unfortunately when i install the latest 10.7.2 update to lion, My virtual machine gets stuck on the apple logo on boot up.
Has anyone else had the same result. I have tried twice so I'm guessing its not just a bad update experience.
I have seen posts regarding 10.7.2 and fusion4 failing, the answer being disable 3d graphics, esxi5 vm's for mac have 3d graphics disabled by default.

any feedback would be greatly appreciated

Here you go http://www.insanelym...p...d=1759090

[lionpack]

Okay, things are looking bright, this are the steps I have followed:

- Install ESXi 5 using a DVD.
- Create a bootable USB for Mac OS X Lion.
- Patch the machine with Donk's unlocker script.
- Create a new Mac OS X 10.6 VM using vSphere Client.
- Boot the VM into BIOS mode using the vSphere Client.
- Connect the USB device to the VM and resume the boot process.

The VM  will boot from the USB and the installation of Mac OS X Lion will start.

The installation is taking a while (I'm using the USB method and installing from a virtualized Windows box, so no wonder this is slow as hell) but it has reached 75% or so in the progress bar and things are looking bright.  

Does anybody know if I'll be able to export an OVF and deploy it in the other machines?

Thanks!

LP.

[lionpack]

Well, it turns out that although the first machine works flawlessly, exporting a OVF of it and deploying it in a second machine produces a non-booting VM. I just see "Loading Darwin x86", the grey screen with the Apple logo and then it reboots and cycles through these screens...

Any hints anyone?

LP.

[savestheday]

Product: ESXi 5.0 469512
CPU: Intel® Xeon® CPU E31230 @ 3.20GHz
10.7 USB stick via vSphere

Hi Donk,
Applied your patch for 469512, rebooted, started up a VM for 10.7.  I ran the EFI command line and started it like so

boot -v npci=0x2000

This works.  I get to the spot where it would boot into the gui and it just freezes.  It's a white screen with a beach ball.  Have you ever seen this before?

Attached are all required files.  Thanks!

http://cl.ly/2h0L1Y1...M2o0E/Files.zip

Attached Files

•  stuckatwhitescreen.JPg   140.13K   54 downloads

[sebus]

In fact (under Workstation 8 on Windows) one CAN boot from DVD created from Lion GM InstallESD.dmg using instruction

Just create Lion 64-bit VM with 2 CDROMs both pointing to the SAME physical drive ie D:

One CDROM is IDE & the second one is SCSI Legacy emulation

Boot to EFI Shell, change to IDE CDROM, run boot -v npci=0x2000

VM will boot from IDE, but then mount SCSI CDROM & carry on with installation

It is a bit slow till it gets to GUI (once in GUI it is OK-ish)

One could use till install (shutting down before reboot) & then copy it to esx Xi

sebus

[Donk]

New unlocker for all current VMware products http://www.insanelym...howtopic=267296

[SeqR]

New Unlocker works great after ESXi 5.0 patch to 504890

[hellpup]

Follow the instructions, I have the Lion installed on an ESXi5 machine, but I have 3 problem below, can somebody help?
1. On the begining , entering the EFI interal shell , I input 'boot -v', got reply with
"
Shell>boot -v
'boot' is not recognized as an internal or external command,operable program, or batch file  
exit status code:Invalid Parameter
"
I have tried installing EvOreboot.kext / OpenHaltRestart.kext separately,disabling appleintelcpupowermanagement.kext，replace FakeSMC , but it had no effect at all.
 boot_error..png   18.74K   30 downloads
here it's the crash report detail.
 shutdown_error.txt   8.51K   2 downloads
 shutdown_error2.txt   8.59K   0 downloads
 shutdown_error3.txt   8.61K   1 downloads
2.after finish installation(using SCSI CDROM device with DELL iDrac virtual media remotly,it's so slow!but it did finish.)
I found that the Lion is hang on when shutdown or restart, with the famous screen
 shutdown_error.jpg   47.02K   22 downloads
3.the E1000 network card is inactive everytime the Lion launch, active after I enter some scripts below:
$sudo ifconfig en0 down
$sudo ifconfig en0 up
after that, it became active. So I am so confuse , is anybody have the same 3 problem like me?

[CDub50]

I keep getting the error in the screenshot  Lion_error.jpg   91.57K   47 downloads is there a way to force the install without downloading the files?

[d00m]

Hello.

I have server i7-2600 with 16Gb of RAM.
I installed the ESXi 5 504890 and patch unlock-all-v101, then rebooted and created VM: Typical -> Other -> OSX 10.6 x64.
But I can't start this VM via vCenter, I've got error:
"The suest operationg system 'darwin10_64Guest' is not supported"
Ok, I try to start this VM via vSphere Client, but got another error:
"A general system error occured: The virtual machine could not start"

what am I doing wrong ?

[MSoK]

d00m, on Nov 15 2011, 12:33 PM, said:

Hello.

I have server i7-2600 with 16Gb of RAM.
I installed the ESXi 5 504890 and patch unlock-all-v101, then rebooted and created VM: Typical -> Other -> OSX 10.6 x64.
But I can't start this VM via vCenter, I've got error:
"The suest operationg system 'darwin10_64Guest' is not supported"
Ok, I try to start this VM via vSphere Client, but got another error:
"A general system error occured: The virtual machine could not start"

what am I doing wrong ?

vCenter Server is not supported for Apple Mac OS X guestOS's, you can only use vSphere client directly connected to an ESXi 5 host, the relevant vCenter DLL's have not been "Unlocked" yet. I would delete your guestOS and recreate from within the vSphere client directly connected to an ESXi host rather than via vCenter. Also you will need the CPUID mask to allow 10.6.3 to support your Core i7 processor, see the link below:

http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1622074

[d00m]

Mac Son of Knife, on Nov 15 2011, 06:03 PM, said:

vCenter Server is not supported for Apple Mac OS X guestOS's, you can only use vSphere client directly connected to an ESXi 5 host, the relevant vCenter DLL's have not been "Unlocked" yet. I would delete your guestOS and recreate from within the vSphere client directly connected to an ESXi host rather than via vCenter. Also you will need the CPUID mask to allow 10.6.3 to support your Core i7 processor, see the link below:

http://www.insanelym...p...t&p=1622074

Thank you !
I just create new VM via directly connected to ESXi 5 and all the same - when I power on VM I've got error "A general system error occured: The virtual machine could not start"