Troubles with SL on VMWare/Linux

[Supra James]

Hello!

 

My end goal here is to have a virtualised Snow Leopard (server or client) running under VMware Workstation 7 on my Linux machine running CentOS 5.5 (8GB ram, Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 CPU).

 

I've tried two different paths so far with no luck:

 

1. Snow Leopard Server pre-built vmware image - this works perfectly on my MacBook Pro under VMware Fusion 3.1, I even updated it to 10.6.4 no problems. I expected to just be able to move this VM over to my Linux box, but it doesn't boot. It hangs right after "Loading Darwin/x86". If I boot verbose mode I get:

 

Loading Darwin/x86
Loading kernel mach_kernel
Loading HFS+ file: [mach_kernel] from 4234070.
Loading HFS+ file: [mach_kernel] from 4234070.

 

Then nothing.

 

2. Using a bootloader.iso / darwin_snow.iso with my genuine Snow Leopard Install DVD, and I get exactly the same behavior trying to load the mach_kernel!

 

I can get a little further if I manually tweak the .vmx settings, changing the OS type to FreeBSD (64-bit) - I then get quite a lot of loading drivers but then:

 

Invalid front-side bus frequency 66000000 Hz.
Disabling the CPU ...

 

Can anyone assist with either method? I feel like I'm close!

 

Cheers all!

James

[Supra James]

I've tried the failing VM image (from part 1 above) and it does boot up fine on a Windows 7 laptop I have - Core 2 Due, 2GB RAM).

 

So, VM config is OK I guess, it hyst must be something weird about my server. Anyone?

[Supra James]

Have tried upgrading Workstation to 7.1.1 today but still getting the same problem. Any ideas?