10 replies to this topic

[SkepticalHippo]

I'm not sure how right or wrong my idea is, but I have been wanting to share this with someone for ages now. It may sound crazy and impossible to some but pretty possible to others. Anyway, let this thread be open for discussion.

So here is my idea:

Creating a really stripped down version of Linux with just the drivers and the modules to run OS X in a virtual environment (Xen or VirtualBox). Linux would disable the need for some drivers on the system, since it would be able to simply interpret all it needs in its own way, acting as one big driver?

Such a Linux setup would leave loads of resources for the guest OS to use.

I will admit I am unaware of how the main OS deals with the guest OS and its request, such as sound playback, pluggable devices etc.

So, would this be possible and useful, at all? Or should I forget it and carry on with my life?

[NSCXP2005]

I would like to know if this would be possible and be the best feasible setup to run OSX in a VM under Linux.

[AnnC]

Take a look at KVM or Xen. Google searches seem to indicate that some people have success run osx as a guest os.

[SkepticalHippo]

I know that Xen is able to run OS X with a bit of fiddling around (requires ###### and some other tweaks). What I am really interested in is say, having a battery status icon, having sound output and input and QE running. Would all this be possible, and if anyone knows, what does it require to make it possible?

[Donk]

SkepticalHippo, on 04 January 2013 - 02:10 PM, said:

I know that Xen is able to run OS X with a bit of fiddling around (requires ###### and some other tweaks). What I am really interested in is say, having a battery status icon, having sound output and input and QE running. Would all this be possible, and if anyone knows, what does it require to make it possible?

XEN & QEMU-KVM have relatively little success with newer versions of OS X (10.7 and 10.8). It is possible to have a cut down Linux installation and run a VM. (IBM wrote some papers on this a few years ago) I would suggest using VMware Player 5.0.2 if you do not want to pay for for the virtualization software. You should be able to run using my unlocker (see this forum). Please not though that there is no product that support QE/CI in a virtualized OS X, and sound quality can be variable.

[SkepticalHippo]

What's the reason behind QE and sound not working on the guest installation of OS X?

[Donk]

Sound is pretty good on VMware, but no vendor has written video driver for OS X that supports QE/CI. Zenith432 looked at it here but said there was years of work to make it happen.

[Zenith432]

Donk, on 05 January 2013 - 11:22 AM, said:

Sound is pretty good on VMware, but no vendor has written video driver for OS X that supports QE/CI. Zenith432 looked at it here but said there was years of work to make it happen.

Just to be a little bit more optimistic - if Apple approved of this, provided header files and some sample source code for one of their GL drivers, this could be done in 2-3 months.  The reason it needs "years" is because 1) w/o Apple's support, it requires reverse engineering one of their graphics accelerators, which are huge.  and 2) They keep changing the undocumented GLD interface every few OS revisions - so it's a full-time job keeping up.  [It would be a full time job even if Apple supported this.]
Anyhow, I don't believe VMware have Apple's permission to do it.

[BNO]

Hi everyone,

sorry for bringing this thread back to top, but I am working on this scenario right now.

The best way for OS X virtualization on non Apple Hardware would be running VMWare ESXi with DirectPath.
I read on the web that running an OS X VM with a GeForce card piped through DirectPath works properly including QE & CI.

Although I am going to test OS X on a Debian 7 + VirtualBox headless environment in the next few days.

I'll post my progress here.

[EDIT]
I have to correct myself, it wasn't VMWare ESXi, it was on a Debian + XEN Setup:
http://www.bisente.c...-on-a-xen-domu/

[sebus]

Smallest distro to run Workstation (and OSX) that I tried was FatDog64
Ofcourse (sadly) without QE/CI

sebus

[BNO]

Hi everyone,

so, using VirtualBox it works.
For headless setup I used phpVirtualBox ( link ).
Setup is easy using apt and it is working properly.

[Update 03/01/13]
I played around with XEN 4.1.2 and 4.2.1 without success.
So I'll build my Linux VM Setup using VirtualBox.

On the VirtualBox forums I found some Guest Additions stuff which can be used:
Base guest additions:
https://forums.virtu...=43330&start=15
Audio driver:
https://forums.virtu...hp?f=30&t=53259

On the guest additions thread I posted the reference to the vmware-svga driver, which originated in this forum. Perhaps it is possible to use some of that code on VBox as well. All 3 approaches combined could provide a nearly complete set of guest additions for OS X.