VMWare Installation of Snow Leopard 10.6.2 Hazard semi-successful but...

[Inzoum]

Hello,

 

I've been semi-successful installing OSX 10.6.2 as a Virtual Machine under VMWare using Hazard's disc image and Snowy_VM, but it's far from optimal...

 

Here's the host machine's config:

 

- Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3

- Intel Core i7 960

- nVidia GTX260

- 12GB RAM

- USB Mouse

- Can't remember off the top of my head if the keyboard is PS/2 or USB, think it might be PS/2 though, it's a regular Windows keyboard

- Windows 7 Pro x64

- VMWare Workstation 7.1 (VMWare tools not installed yet)

 

I followed the steps on this page for installation:

http://techexxpert.blogspot.com/2010/12/ho...-windows-7.html

 

Installation did not require any boot flags to go through.

 

Options selected during the Customize phase of installation:

- Kernels -> Legacy_kernel_10.2.0

- Graphic_Driver -> GraphicEnabler

 

I haven't had much time to mess with it yet, but here is where I stand so far:

 

- Keyboard works, but only when US Keyboard is selected. Using Belgian keyboard, I can only type letters, numbers, a few symbols and some accents (no modifier keys assides from Shift, no special characters, not even "@", no Numpad)

- nVidia GTX260 isn't recognized (the Hackintosh VM sees a generic 128Mb PCI card), so it's kind of sluggish.

 

I managed to find some resources on how to get the GTX260 to work (it seems most people are very successful getting it to 100% features), though I've seen nothing regarding the Belgian keyboard not working. I'd assume keyboard mapping must be adjusted along with everything else required for OSX to run on a PC with a Windows keyboard, so I'm inclined to believe whoever did that must have been lazy and only fixed the US keyboard layout (and maybe some others, but not Belgian), or that it has something to do with the kind of keyboard I use (PS/2 vs USB), or how VMWare handles it.

 

I'm sure I used that same keyboard in Belgian layout a few years ago on a different PC with a 10.4.6 AMD install without any issues, but it wasn't the same release. Still, there's probably a solution.

 

Now, on a different note, VMWare's Virtual Machine Settings is set to use 4GB out of my available 12GB and CPU is set to 1 with 1 core. Seeing how my machine's a quad-core i7 with hyperthreading, I guess I could up the number of cores available to the VM? Should i set this to match my machine's number of available cores, or does this represent how many cores I want the VM to see? Also, how does hyperthreading factor in? Finally, in the Display section, 3D acceleration is turned off by default, I'd assume I'd need to turn it on to get any real benefit from the nVidia GTX260 within the Snow Leopard VM.

 

Any tips on where to go from there? Are there any installation options (Customize menu) I could benefit from if I reinstall (which I don't mind doing)? I havn't installed the 10.6.7 update yet (I know I need to install the updated legacy kernel and can't just use the apple updater for that), would it help with any of these issues?

 

Edit: I'm open to following different installation instructions (using a different hackintosh installation disc) if required for my setup to work 100%

 

Thank you!

 

Inzoum

[Inzoum]

OK... Here's my progress so far:

 

- Turns out the keyboard issues were only during the installation, the actual Snow Leopard OS responds well to the Belgian keyboard layout.

- Installed the 10.6.7 update and LegacyKernel 1.7.0 from http://blog.nawcom.com/?p=640 . No problems.

- Installed VMWare Tools (didn't realize it was on the darwin iso the VM needs to boot), that helped a lot, transfering files to and from the host system is a definite necessity.

- Sound works after installing the drivers provided in the Snowy_VM zip.

- Internet works (using NAT setting in VMWare's VM settings)

- Installing the appropriate DSDT for my motherboard (tonymacx86's GA-P55-UD3 F9 aml) in the VM with [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] seems to make my mouse more responsive, but it could be just an impression

 

Saved a VM snapshot at this point.

 

I'm still having problems with these

 

- The virtual machine crashes with a kernel panic (or freezes) when I try to shut down or restart from the Apple menu. Doing a hard shutdown with VMWare seems to be the only way I can turn off the VM

 

Can't get the graphics card recognized in the VM no matter what I try.

- I tried downloading a pkg with nVidia GTX 200 series driver, no results, rolled back to previous VM snapshot.

- I tried adding the EFI key to the boot.plist using the instructions here: http://osx86.co/f36/guide-geforce-gtx-260-...-leopard-t4057/ , no results (actually it seems it didn't "stick" in the plist after reboot, so I'll try doing it again paying close attention to what's going on), rolled back to previous VM snapshot.

- I tried using [url="http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/279450-why-insanelymac-does-not-support-tonymacx86/"]#####[/url] to install nVidia drivers, NVenabler and whatnot. No success. Several attempts and rollbacks.

 

- CPU appears as Unknown.

 

- VM is still sluggish.

 

I'm begining to think VMWare won't let the guest system see my actual graphics card. Feels like I could dance on my head and it wouldn't change a thing no matter which enabling method I follow.