VMWare/VirtualBox OSX best recommendations?

[panamamike]

Recently learned about the Mavericks OSX VMware solution.  Gave it a try and while neat, not sure how truly usable it will be.

 

I'd like to have a Mac available to my kids for school work.  They've used keynote as well as iMovie and a few more on the iPad.

 

I grabbed a precreated VM image and have it running on a Yoga 13.

 

I've run into a couple issues: 

 

1:  Flash not working correctly

2:  Issues came up with Safari and it stopped working. 

      + Unexpected crash while installing 10.9.1 update

      + Maybe flash related, wouldn't allow me to even go to the update page.

3:  Some oddball flakyness.  Webcam sometimes works and sometimes not.

4:  Touchpad is seen as a mouse.  i.e. no gesture support

 

I'm not a regular Mac user, I don't know if the issues are VMware related, OS related, or just the ol' user error variety.

 

I'd like to know from the experienced folks on the boards if there are any recommendations WRT using a VM based Mac.  I did see comments by the folks providing the VM that it's only really for testing for the "real thing" Hackintosh install and that some things don't work.  I'd like more insight WRT what doesn't work.

 

I've used Linux based VM for several years and have been pretty happy.  I know that as long as I don't need any fancy hardware integration, I should be fine for the most part.  I fguire since Mac OSX is really just a flavor of Unix I figured it shouldn't be that too far off..   <jk>

 

I might be tempted in trying a "dual" boot solution, but I'd be working with laptops.

Yoga and Surface Pro and my understanding is that there are siginficant issues with hardware compatibility.

AFAIK Yoga and Surface Pro WiFi devices are the key issue here.  Not to mention touch screen.   This is another key driver for the idea of using VM.

 

I know there is a virtual box solution in addtion to the VMWare solution and of course a number of different OSX variations.  If it would be much better to run an older version of OSX for stability.

 

Thoughts and recommendations would be much appreciated.

 

Regards,

 

Mike

[Pimentel]

Hello

Welcome.

Why don't you install OSX instead just emulate it?

Because Virtual Machine use a virtual hardware: chipset, graphic and CPU are all virtual, VM doesn't use your real hardware.

In forum have many guides teach how install OSX.

A complete guide to make your usb bootable: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/280756-guide-the-all-in-one-guide-to-vanilla-os-x-including-chameleon-dsdt-for-beginners/

Or you can make with Myhack.

[Laberlohe]

Hello and welcome!

 

Officially it is not possible to virtuelize OSX - except same OSX server versions while a regular OSX is the host...

 

If you can live without the touchscreen function I'd advise to get bios with removed whitelist for the Yoga, swap to WiFi card and get an external HD - and install OSX to the external HD (so you still can use the Yoga for productivity). Alternatively there is a nice guide for the Surface Pro here: http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/292645-guide-surfacepro-1-2-osx-android-windows-multiboot/

 

Or if OSX is just for your kiddies get a used/cheap but compatible notebook. I'd prefer a ThinkPad T60/T61 (less than 200 bucks) or a Dell Latitude, but there are lots of different models/vendor in the Hardware Compatibiliy Chart (see OSx86 Wiki linked in the header of this site)

 

Good luck!

[basskleff]

Hi,

 

I feel your pain.

 

I am at the starting stages of trying to run Mac OSX for the first time on non-Apple hardware.  I, too, want to play and evaluate it.

The bottom line is that it is not easy and presents many challenges and needs for kludgy tweaks and workarounds irrespective of running real physical or virtualized hardware.

It DOES NOT like to cooperate on non-Apple hardware.

I have just installed Mavericks to VMware player and VMware workstation.  However, after coming back up the first time and trying to finish off the initial Mac OSX install menus, I have serious mouse tracking/emulation inside the virtual machine.  Frustrating, because it seems so close.

 

However, with my i7 Haswell Win 7 desktop or i7 ivy bridge Win 7 laptop, it seems VMware plays MUCH,MUCH better than Oracle/Sun's virtual box with Mac OSX Mavericks,  "out-of-the-box".  

And, I am an experienced virtual box user.  I had similar problems with trying to run CentOS in Virtual Box.  I could not get gnome desktop and X to run properly.  However, it ran perfectly the first time on Vmware player.

 

I was seeing, "Missing Bluetooth Controller Transport!" error in virtual box and a hung boot.  ABSOLUTELY NONE of the boot options, flags, etc.- suggested on many forums- worked.

Booted first time in VMware player.

 

You might try looking for a good deal on slightly older Apple Macbook hardware??

 

Good luck, too,