Virtual machines and OS X

[James Linder]

> On 19 Nov 2014, at 4:00 am, macports-users-request at lists.macosforge.org wrote:
> 
> I'm running OS X 10.5 Server, 10.6 Server, 10.7 and 10.8 in VMWare Fusion. Been doing that since running OS X 10.7 as host and am now at 10.10.
> 
> You can download Fusion and trial it before paying and get an unlock code (AFAIR you need to register to receive the trial unlock code).
> 
> I'm using Fusion because back in the days Of 10.6 I needed to use some obscure USB device in a Windows XP VM and Fusion was the only one running it correctly while Parallels and Virtualbox failed.
> 
> If you are on the paid Apple developer program you can download 10.5 Server and 10.6 Server.
> 
> Good luck
> 
> Dominik
> 
> 
>> Am 17.11.2014 um 22:33 schrieb Michael Crawford <mdcrawford at gmail.com>:
>> 
>> I don't think shared folders are implemented as network shares, some
>> other method is used.  However if you do export a host folder as a
>> share, your guest should be able to mount it.
>> 
>> I was about to say that the folder is made to look like a regular disk
>> drive but I'm not so sure, that would require the guest to manage the
>> filesystem structure - allocating sectors &c. - and that's not done
>> with any of the VMs I've used.
>> 
>> VirtualBox works on my MacBook Pro (Model Identifier MacBookPro10,1),
>> but the one time I tried to install a Mac OS X guest, the guest
>> panicked during boot because it was incompatible with the host
>> microprocessor.
>> 
>> I remain puzzled as to why that would be a problem.  What I wanted to
>> do was run an earlier OS X so I could develop my iOS App with an older
>> Xcode version, so I could use the iDevice Simulator to test my App
>> with some now long-deprecated APIs.
>> 
>> VirtualBox' doc specifically warns that a guest might not run on a
>> later CPU model than Apple tested it with during development.  I still
>> find that surprising, as all the CPU vendors work really, really hard
>> to enable upward compatibility - like the Xeon in my desktop box can
>> still do 16-bit MS-DOS just fine.  I've never known Linux, Windows nor
>> BSD to ever have a problem with later CPUs.
>> 
>> However if it's a kernel panic, xnu - the OS X kernel - might have
>> used a supervisor-mode machine instruction that works differently than
>> it does on earlier model of CPU.  Because Apple makes both the
>> hardware and the software they might not be so concerned about making
>> their code run on just anything:
>> 
>>  Installing Linux on a Dead Badger
>>  http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20040405/badger.shtml
>> 
>> I don't recall clearly but I think I wanted to run Snow Leopard in a
>> VM.  Either 64- or 32-bit would be fine.  If either Parallels or
>> VMWare would work for me I'd really like to hear about it because I
>> really do want to support the older iDevices with Warp Life, but I
>> don't want to have to buy yet another Mac just for that.  It's not the
>> money it's that I already own a whole bunch of computing devices, I
>> don't want to have another taking up space.
>> 
>> Parallels offers a free demo, I'll give that a try sometime soon.  Does VMWare?
>> 
>> Mike
>> Michael David Crawford
>> mdcrawford at gmail.com
>> http://www.warplife.com/mdc/
>> 
>>  Available for Software Development in the Portland, Oregon Metropolitan
>> Area.
>> 
>> 
>>> On Mon, Nov 17, 2014 at 10:07 AM, Marko K?ning <MK-MacPorts at techno.ms> wrote:
>>> Hi Michael,
>>> 
>>> eventually I had to purchase Parallels 9 because VirtualBox wouldn't allow
>>> to successfully run Mavericks guests on my Mavericks host running on an i7-iMac.
>>> 
>>> Parallels usually works fine if you _disable_ power saving on the guests!!
>>> 
>>> Sometimes but I experience hanging guests! Only chance to recover from that is
>>> to kill the VM in question from within the host system and restart it (which
>>> means a cold reboot). This usually happens when there is a lot of load with
>>> e.g. two VMs running with 7 cores each on the i7 (which has 8 real cores only).
>>> This can also happen when you're creating a snapshot, while the 2nd machine is
>>> very busy.
>>> 
>>> Sometimes also the keyboard's CAPSLOCK is engaged, although the keyboard's
>>> CAPSLOCK LED isn't lit. Recovering from that you will be pressing the key a
>>> couple of times until the LED is back in sync with what you type.

VirtualBox is a bitch to get working, but it is possible, I have done it. Parralels and fusion are easy but they won’t install anything in violation of the license, in particular they won’t install Snow Leopard (and presumably anything earlier)
Also, without doubt baby duck, VirtualBox is much easier - more intuitave, they are much more doan-toucha-da-buttons.

James