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Install Snow Leopard in VMWARE 7 Windows Edition

25 December 2009 by Vinay 100 Comments

How to install Snow Leopard in VMWARE 7 and Windows host ? Virtualization of Snow Leopard (Client) is not officially supported/allowed by any virtualization solution. However a few modifications to the .vmx file and use a modified install disk as this will save a lot of trouble. Let me clear Apple licensing does not allow for the virtualization of OSX Client on any hardware and only allows for the virtualization OSX server on Apple hardware. Anything else is in violation of the license agreement. This article is for informational purposes only, you can never achieve full utilization of Mac OS X on VMWARE. So if you like the Mac then go ahead and buy a Mac.

Also Check — Snow Leopard in VMWARE Post Installation Fixes and Tweaks for sound, graphics related mods after installation.

More Article of Interest

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Requirements

  • VMWARE 7 and Windows XP, Vista or 7
  • Retail DVD of Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6
  • Intel Based Machine, AMD isn’t supported.
  • Patience, a Cup of coffee or Energy drink whatever you like.
  • A pre-made Snow Leopard VMDK, dariwn_snow.iso Download (Rapidshare), (Rapidshare 1)(Mediafire) Or (Megaupload)

Instructions

Step One : Launch VMWARE Workstation and load the .vmx that came with the package you downloaded above. Now edit virtual machine settings for advance options.

SL_VMW_1 Step Two : Edit the VMWARE settings eg: Memory, Processor, Networking Adaptors etc. Select CD/DVD drive options and in Connection select Use ISO image file and browse the Darwin_Snow.iso

SL_VMW_2 Step Three : Now power on the virtual machine and keep your finger on F8 key.

SL_VMW_1 Hit F8 very quickly on your Keyboard you will be prompted with the following screen

Capture

Step Four : Like Boot 132 method now you need to replace the boot cd with the Snow Leopard Retail Install DVD. Right click on the CD icon in bottom of the VMWARE windows and click on Settings option.

Capture

Now change the options from ISO image to use physical drive and make sure you have Retail DVD already installed.Capture 2 Save and Exit

Step Five : Now navigate to boot screen and press “C” on your keyboard to select “Boot DVD”, again press F8 for advance options and type -v at the boot prompt then hit enter for booting with verbose mode.

Step Six : Now wait for 2-3 minutes and your Installation screen will appear. Now you can install Snow Leopard as usual.  Before choosing the destination open Disk Utility and erase your Vmware HDD in to “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” format type. Under customization deselect printer drivers and language translations for trouble free installation.Once installation finishes your virtual machine will reboot automatically.

Step Seven : Follow Step Two again “Select CD/DVD drive options and in Connection select Use ISO image file and browse the Darwin_Snow.iso” now you can boot in to Snow Leopard you may need to force restart 2-3 times if Kernel Panic happens, once machine boot successfully you can set your preference etc.asdd

Credits

Major credit goes to Prasys a.k.a. Pradessh you can follow prasys on Twitter @prasys and his blog here.

You can follow us on twitter @ihackinjosh You can also subscribe to our daily free e-mail news letter.

Known Issues

  1. Some .dmg aren’t opening
  2. Kernel Panic on every shut down so just force shut down after every kernel panic.

Also Check Snow Leopard in VMWARE Post Installation Fixes and Tweaks for sound, graphics related mods after installation.

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100 Comments »

  • zeros said:

    I wrote how to do this on another site a couple months ago, you need to get a kernel and edit a file to stop the dmg error and the kernel panic

    get this file
    http://xnu-dev.googlecode.com/files/voodoo2_alpha3_intel.zip

    get it in your mac environment on the root

    then open the console and put this in
    sudo pico /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist

    Make it look like this
    <key>Kernel</key>
    <string>hd(0,2)/mach_kernel.voodoo.alpha3</string>
    <key>Kernel Flags</key>
    <string>rd=disk0s2</string>

    now your dmg files will open and you can even run pwnage tool

    (previous post removed all the <> signs

  • Peter said:

    Works fine under ubuntu 9.10 also, with workstation 7. Thnx for the how-to

  • aatkco said:

    As i told you on twitter there are other issues :
    1. Doesn’t always load , stuck at the circle of death , you have to restart a lot .
    2. After upgrading to 10.6.2 it took 15 minutes to load snow leopard .
    3. many people who upgraded can’t control the mouse anymore , it moves but doesn’t click ( happened with me but after upgrading safari to latest version )
    4. It never shut down or restart successfully from the system you have to shut down from vmware .
    i think that this version works more stable on free Vmware Player 3 .
    i also hope you can share how to force quit the system .
    Thanks for the tutorial .

  • colin said:

    it aint finding my snow leapord disk am i missing something

  • Bryan said:

    I am stuck on step 5. I see the screen from step 4, i switch the CD drive to the physical drive with the Snow Leopard Install disc, then when I hit the “c” key to boot from DVD it says insert CD. I don’t know what i am doing wrong.

  • seth said:

    I am thinking of using this to sync my iphone under ubuntu. Does anybody know if the usb drives work correctly with this setup?
    Thanks lazyweb.

  • NiteCrawla said:

    I was wondering… .If you do this would you be able to run things such as Imovie or final cut pro?

  • Scott Brothers said:

    Excellent write up – thanks for the information. I’ve wanted to “test drive” OSX for a long time.

  • Russell said:

    I’m getting an error when I start the snow leopard install:
    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz”

    VMWare then says the CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system and I need to power off.

    any ideas?

  • psyntium said:

    Hi.. I’m getting this when booting up the first time:

    “Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Fusion supports hardware virtualization.”

    I’m not able to do anything..

    Any suggestions??

  • Blogger Den said:

    Really nice post! I appreciate the share, this should be really useful and I know some of my friends who would be happy to use this information. Thanks!

  • Nick said:

    i’m getting the following “Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Workstation supports hardware virtualization.” when trying to boot off the darwin snow image.

  • Jerry said:

    I’m attempting this now and I keep having problems with the step involving the f8 key, regardless of how many times and when I push it, I keep getting the same “Mac OSX isn’t supported with software virtualization”

  • Nick said:

    Anyone know if this is possible with VirtualBox? It seems viable just wondering if anyone has had success with that.

  • Jono said:

    I get a ‘Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Workstation supports hardware virtualization.’ error when I try to power up the machine…what am I doing wrong?

  • Hemick said:

    No idea why, but after trying repeatedly to get mine to boot with zero success rate, booting with the -v option has allowed me to boot every time without issue.

  • todd said:

    Can anyone comment generally on what performance is like? I did this recently under Ubuntu 9.10 on a quad core box with 8G of RAM and performance was pretty poor. I can see using it for occasional testing, but not for everyday use. What’s been your experience?

  • :P said:

    Worked for me. Fun stuff. But I couldn’t get the screen resolution to anything but 1024×768

  • Notlolo said:

    @ Bryan

    For your problem, after choose the original CD of Snow Leopard, clic on CD icon and select “Connect”. (Like Step Four)

    Ok ?

  • Evinho said:

    if u get the virtualisation problem is because your CPU doesnt support hardware virtualisation and you’re out of luck?

  • Ben Onono said:

    Installed this easily on i7 920 W7 Ultimate 64bit. however, how can I increase resoltuion to 1920×1080 ?

  • Bob said:

    I told the machine to boot my existing 10.6.1 system (on an MBR partition), and it worked, flawlessly! I’m amazed. I wonder if it’s because VMWare 7 just works, or you tweaked the VMX file.

  • Eric said:

    I’m getting “Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Workstation supports hardware virtualization.”

    VMware Workstation 7.0.0 build-203739
    Windows 7 Professional X64
    GA-P35-DS3L
    Q9550

    Any help? For those of you that this has worked for, what VMware client and version are you using?

    Thanks!

  • Bryan said:

    @ Notlolo

    Thanks! I feel stupid for not doing that.

    @ zeros

    “get this file
    http://xnu-dev.googlecode.com/files/voodoo2_alpha3_intel.zip

    get it in your mac environment on the root”

    where is on the root? i have downloaded the file and unzipped it in my Macintosh HD, but should it be in a specific folder?

  • smokes said:

    Is it possible to use the Snow Leopard disc that came with my Macbook? Or possibly make a Retail Disc from that disc?

  • Anil Samuel said:

    i am trying this on a 13″ Dell Studio XPS from Windows 7 and VMWare Player. I opted to boot with -v; all looked good till it switched to Graphics mode as seen at http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4063/4226731468_dfb18b1eeb_o.png. It remains so forever. Anyway I can remain on verbose mode or to check the log files ?

  • 1buprofen said:

    I’m getting the same error as Russel:

    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz” when I start the install.

  • Kamakzie said:

    Okay got this working on my windows 7 PC and it boots in like 15 seconds on my SSD. However no sound. How do I fix it. I have an onboard Realtek card.

  • Colin said:

    I’m getting the same error as many above:
    “‘Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Workstation supports hardware virtualization.”
    It seems this is a common problem. Does anyone know the answer?

  • Christian Delgado said:

    For those that keep getting the “Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Fusion supports hardware virtualization.” error. I was having the same thing, it means your processor does not support virtualization, you would probably get the same thing on if you try to use virtual pc with xp mode on windows 7. So I was really curious why my intel core 2 duo processor did not support it. Then I was checking out my BIOS Settings, and the virtualization feature was off on my BIOS. WOW!! I did not even know it had that option, so try to see if that fixes your problem, if you don’t have any setting about virtualization it could be because your processor does not support it. As I am writing this post MAC OS X 10.6 is installing as a virtual machine, hopefully it works. THANK YOU!!!!!

  • miki said:

    I’ve followed your guide and it has turned out great.

    Hope someone can figure out how to increase the resolution soon. I’ve tried to do it in the VM settings but when I go back to the mac settings, it still only has one resolution to choose from.

    Also has anyone updated the system (apple updates) or will this mess things up?

  • Ron Alden said:

    Is it possible to change the resolution? Only option is 1024×768

  • Ash McConnell said:

    I tried zero’s voodoo drivers suggestion, but I get a kernel panic “unable to find driver for this platform: \”ACPI\” “. Any idea of how to fix this?

    Thanks!
    Ash

  • Swift Kick said:

    Thanks for your walkthrough of the Snow Leopard install process.
    I tried it and it worked like a charm. Here’s a screenshot of my running VMware machine.

    I’m curious to see if it’ll install successfully when the virtual machine is configured with more than 1 processor. I may try it soon.

    Cheers,

    Swift Kick

  • aatkco said:

    @psyntium,@Nick,@Jerry,@Jono,@Evinho,@Eric,@Colin
    To fix the issue “software virtualization you have to rnable this feature on bios settings like this :
    http://www.aatkcoblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/boot-virtualization.jpg

  • PetSUS said:

    I did everything as described in tutorial but my setup can`t boot up after setup. It`s stops on a line:
    ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin::start – waitForService(resourceMatching(AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement) timed out
    It will be very nice if someone could help with that :)

  • PetSUS said:

    after restarting 2 times it boots up! Thanks for your tutorial.

  • v-tec said:

    this is awsome!

    got it goin on a Dell Studio XPS Laptop

    running resolution 1920*1200!!! on a dell monitor

    sound is working great too!

  • vodka357 said:

    Anyone else getting this error: ‘/library/preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist’ not found

  • Sam said:

    I have enabled the virtualization feature in my bios put i still get the “Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization” error. My PC is
    Studio XPS 17, 6GB RAM, Intel 2.9 GHz Duo, Win7 Ultimate (64-bit). what am i doing wrong?? please help

  • StationStops said:

    I wonder how many people were immediately stopped in their tracks by being pointed to a bz2 archive to start a windows project.

  • Thomas said:

    I built my computer a year ago in hopes of making it a Hackintosh. I chose the wrong hardware and ended up making it just a PC. This is the first method I have seen that actually worked with my setup. Thanks! Now, is it possible to install VMware tools?

  • Emil said:

    What is “Hardware Virtualization”? I mean – what technology ? So my cpu ( http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=29761 ) support VT-x virtuaization , what is type of that virtualization technology ?
    Because I m little flustered .

  • Thomas said:

    @zeros

    I downloaded the file and put it in my root folder (which I believe is just “/” on the file location, right?) I then went into terminal and put exactly what you had. When I shut down it gave me the kernel panic, but I expected that. However, what I did not expect is that when I restarted, on the screen with the apple logo, it gave me a message saying:

    Please contact the Voodoo Kernel dev-team with a photo of the information printed below, along with a description of your system configuration and what you were doing at the time the kernel panic occurred. I will attach a link to a screen shot of what happened.

    My system config is 4096MB of RAM, 250GB Virtual expanding Hard Drive, 1 CPU with 4 cores. Other than that, everything is unaltered from the original setup.

    Here is the screenie: http://tinyurl.com/ygfn469

  • Jeff Thomson said:

    I downloaded the package but can’t see any .vmx file. Is it on the iso image? What am I missing?

    Thx!

  • Anil Samuel said:

    The vmware log might help vmware gurus to diagnose the issue.

  • Astol said:

    I’m getting the same error as Russel and 1buprofen…

    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz” when I start the install.

    i have successfully got tiger working in a VM, but would love to have snow leopard.

    looking in the log: (and summarizing)
    CDROM READ FAILED
    the CPU has been disabled by the guest operating system. you will need to power off the vm at this point

    will post full log if need be

  • miki said:

    *Update*

    If you have it running fine after the initial install, don’t use software update. I applied the apple updates and now my VM doesn’t start up anymore. It just hangs at the grey screen with the apple logo

  • Thomas said:

    I talked to prasys and he told me that if you want to update to 10.6.2, you first need to update to 10.6.1 (find it in the support section on the Apple website) and then you can update to 10.6.2. Also, it is always a good idea to take a Vmware snapshot between updates in case something goes wrong. If it does, you can just revert and its will be just fine. I did the incremental update and I seem to be having no problems

  • Eric said:

    @Christian Delgado: Thank you — My bios needed to be updated for my new processor.

    Has anyone been able to do this using a virtual disc instead of physical disc for OSx? I have a OSX 10.6 retail dmg on my desktop and tried renaming it to a ISO. Will I have to burn it? I don’t have any dual layer discs around the house.

  • Sully said:

    I am stuck on step 5. I see the screen from step 4, i switch the CD drive to the physical drive with the Snow Leopard Install disc, then when I hit the “c” key to boot from DVD it says insert CD. I don’t know what i am doing wrong.

    I have the same issue.

  • Mija24 said:

    If you’re stuck at the circle of death try using only 1 CPU

  • Sam said:

    I am also getting this error:
    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz”
    what do i need to do?

  • mo rock said:

    Do you actually have to have the snow leopard install dvd and choose the dvd option? Or can i just have an iso of the install dvd and choose the iso instead of the physical drive option?

  • bedros said:

    for those who got ACPI time out message and stuck at it after a reboot after a complete installation; do the following

    press F8 after a reboot
    press h to reboot from hard drive
    press F8 again for boot options
    at boot prompt enter

    cpus=1

    then Enter; it worked for me. I have to enter it once, then now every reboot works without entering anything.

  • jhonka232 said:

    Same error as Astol, Russel, and 1buprofen…please help!!!! Error happins after loading CPU APCI kext

  • Fish said:

    Is there a difference between having a processor that supports virtualization and one that is accelerated using Intel VT? I have run XP before in a VM, but I’m getting the error many have gotten and couldn’t find the BIOS setting that @aatkco mentioned. Any explanation for this?

  • Jeffk said:

    Hi for those who dont wana waste a DVD dual layer use Power iso to convert snow leopard DMG to iso and install from it,

    open power iso and click tool from the menu and click convert…

  • JayG said:

    Thanks for the instructions!!

    @miki – I also applied the Software Updates and got the gray wheel of death under VM Workstation 7. BUT when I ran the VM under VM Player if works!!!! Dunno whats the difference but it does, so dont care!!

    Also noticed Spotlight does not work.

  • Umar said:

    Hell yeah installed this shit and works like a charm. Just the problem as a starter is I only have 1 res i.e. 1024×768 how to change that??

  • Jam3s said:

    I’m getting the same error as Russel and 1buprofen…

    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz” when I start the install.

    =[ If it makes a difference as nobody has posted their CPU yet, I have a Q9450.

  • Fabozzi said:

    I’ve got .DMG and at Step 4 I try to use virtual drive (Daemon Tools). When I press ‘C’ it says “You should eject this CD and insert an OS X disc. Do you want to continue booting this CD (probably won’t work)?” and after pressing ‘Enter’ the same boot menu appears.

    Any suggestions?

    @Jeffk: When I conver DMG to ISO using PowerISO, it says “No conversion is needed.” How did you manage to do this?

  • mxarun said:

    Thank you all for such a great idea to run MAC on PC. I was able to install Snow Leopard on my HP laptop fine. It supposed to have created “mackintosh_HD” 40 Gb drive some where.
    I Installed the MAC OS from my ISO image and it went just fine.
    After finishing up installed, it asked me to restart and I did. But now it says “cannot find Operating system.”
    What can I do?
    Any ideas please?
    i cannot find that “mackintosh_HD” drive too.
    Please help.
    So close.
    Thanks
    mxarun

  • Jam3s said:

    ahaha I have figured out how to fix the program with

    “Invalid Front-side bus requency 6600000Hz”

    CPU has been disabled… etc

    If you use VMware 6.5 it doesnt detect the darwin, so I select other OS and changed it.

    I upgraded my VMware to 7 and redownloaded it and it works fine.

    Only thing I changed was set it to 1 CPU and 1 core. But it might work with more than that, just wanted OS X really.

  • Matt said:

    Still getting the “Invalid front-side bus frequency 66000000 Hz” error message.

    T2500 Core Duo 2.0 ghz virtualization locked on, 32 bit processor <- does this make a difference?

  • A Lz said:

    Gracias por la informacion. Instalacion exitosa, y trabajando muy bien el OS X.

    PC: VAIO FE750 core 2 duo, 2 GB RAM, 1280×800 (modificando BIOS.plist). Windows XP
    Activar VT-x en BIOS por symcmosc ( Registro. 0195 -> 0001)

  • Bob said:

    Stuck on teh AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement thing here myself.

  • Junoty said:

    If I already installed snow leopard on my pc with dual boot with win 7. Is it possible to load that snow leopard install using vmware so that I can either boot up into snow leopard regular OR use the same snow leopard install within windows using vmware?

  • Justin said:

    Great post, got this running. A few notes that might help some people.

    I too got stuck at the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement but after a few reboots it booted correctly. I can’t really reproduce this reliably and I’m not sure why it sometimes doesn’t work. It seems that after you finally get it to boot successfully it doesn’t happen on subsequent reboots. However after updating OSX from 10.6.0 – 10.6.1 it happened again. Once again it eventually came up, however when I updated to 10.6.2 I could no longer get past this error. I tried safe mode, clearing the kext cache a few other tricks to no avail. I’d recomend not updating to 10.6.2 without first making a backup or snapshot if you’re seeing this same error. For now I’m gong to stick with 10.6.1

    Regarding screen resolution you can edit /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and add
    a key called “Graphics Mode” and a string of the resolution you want like 1280×1024x32@60 then save the file and reboot. This will force the resolution you want on restart. It’s working great for full screen res on my machine

    As for performance I’m getting very good results on Win Xp using Vmware Player 3. My desktop is about 2 years old, it’s a custom rig with a 3.0Ghz Intel E8400 processor and 2GB of RAM. With my OsX virtual machinge only having 1GB of ram available to is, this outscored my macbook pro with 4g and a 2.2ghz core duo in Xbench.

    All and all the UI is snappy and responsive, applications open quickly and run well. I was able to use 64 bit handbrake to rip a dvd about twice as fast as my MBP can so I’m pretty happy with the results.

    The last thing I’d love to resolve is the lack of sound so I can test out Final Cut. Anyone solved the sound issue?

    Thanks again for a great post.

  • Renaud said:

    for all people who have ACPI_SMC timeout, open your vmx file et change smc.present = “TRUE” to smc.present = “FALSE” and normaly the sytem will boot, and even you can shutdown et reboot without hang up ! (it works for me)

  • carlo said:

    Hi,
    does anyone has tried successfully to take a screenshot of the desktop from Snow Leopard?
    In my experience, when I press the key shortcut Command (⌘)-Shift-3, I hear the “click” meaning that photo has been taken but after that nothing is saved on the desktop.

    Any ideas please?

    Thanks.

    Carlo

  • kornhash said:

    Renaud’s post regarding ACPI_SMC timeout resolution by editing your vmx file and changing the smc.present = “TRUE” setting to “FALSE” worked for my setup. Thanks! VM is working great, but did have an issue with the screensaver causing the VM to freeze. Disabled saver, but still get things freezing up when the VM has been inactive for a while. Disabled power management and will see if that fixes the issue. Will be trying to get sound and printing to work now.

    ~kornhash

  • Robb said:

    To all with “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz”

    Try setting at the boot prompt busratio=XX -v

    replace XX with the ratio i used 20 idk if thats good or not lol but it worked

    eg.
    busratio=20 -v

  • Terence Law said:

    I success to upgrade 10.6.1; no problem at all. I downloaded the patch file from official Apple website.

    Upgrade to 10.6.2; some problems… same as the others… the USB Razor mouse click doesn’t work anymore. I have a bluetooth set keyboard and mouse which is keyboard 7000 by Microsoft. They are working fine. I can’t find bluetooth device setting in 10.6.2 . Anyone help?

  • Random person said:

    Hello, I’m with iso and dmg files for Snow Leopard.

    I converted the original dmg file, as well as the expanded version, to iso, but they both ended up as similar files.

    And I tried to run the Snow Leopard Disc as a virtual drive, but it does not work, at the menu when they ask you

    boot from
    1. disk
    2. hard disk
    3. forget what’s supposed to be here

    then you press some letter (i think c is for the disk drive), whenever i press c i keep getting the same menu repeating itself, coz it can’t find the disk.

    Why is it like that?

    Oh btw, I am using a Pentium 4 processor…

  • Max said:

    Hello,

    Thanks for the excellent instructions. I upgraded to 10.6.2 without a problem and installed iLife and iWork.

    The only problem I have is that I can’t get iMovie to run. I get the error message “QUARTZ EXTREME REQUIRED”.

    Does anyone else have this problem? How can I fix it?

  • nx3d said:

    Great, thx fpr this ;)

    @Nick:

    turn off cpu virtualizion, then it should run

  • i7 said:

    I got the AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement error, help please!

  • Random said:

    Crap, all of a sudden, my Mac OS X doesn’t wanna boot up anymore. It’s stuck now at the grey Apple loading page! :S :( Anyone?

  • Random said:

    Okay, grey Apple loading page fixed! I restarted my Host, and then I managed to get into Mac OS X again. Also turned off screensaver and energy saving in the Mac OS X.

  • Random said:

    Okay, first of all, thank you! It works just fine! I can use Mac OS X, have sound, have internet, etc! Secondly, I’ve got questions:

    1. Can we install VMware Tools?
    2. I installed iLife, but I can’t seem to view the workplace, the place on the right, where I see my work. It’s just plain white. When I try to run a full slideshow, I get an error, saying insufficient VRAM. Anyone?

    Thank you!

  • papgo said:

    Hey i installed is but i can hear anything, then check an their is on output or input visible in “System Preference\Sound”.
    Plz Help!!!!

  • p-k said:

    i was using iso too gay thing didn’t wana boot it up but i got the cd from my friend first it was keep repeating the same menu to boot from dvd

    so i ejected the cd and put it bk in and it worked lol

    thanks for the guide now i will be able to make iphone apps

  • casper said:

    TO ALL WITH “Mac OS X is not supported with software virtualization. To run Mac OS X you need a host on which VMware Workstation supports hardware virtualization.” AND “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz” USE LINUX OR A VERSION OF VMWARE BELOW 7.0.0 build-203739

  • June8 said:

    Hi

    I’m stuck at pink wallpaper with running colored circle. The installation sreen doesn’t come up.
    Resolution down to 1024×768 and/or disabling 2nd. 7″ touch screen monitor doesn’t help.

    Any advice
    Thanks

  • jnov said:

    I would like to suggest that the author include the bit about enabling hardware virtualization in the BIOS. The problem was not probably not run into by him because he probably already had it enabled in BIOS from previous tinkering for other projects. But other users may not have it enabled and it is not immediately obvious what the problem is.

    Other than that, fantastic post!!!

  • @June8 said:

    @June8 keep trying… it worked for me.
    Try several times and if nothing change reboot your computer and then try again.

  • martin said:

    For those who are getting “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz”

    Put:

    guestOS = “darwin10-64″

    on your VMX file. And be sure you have enabled VT in the BIOS.

    And for those who get stuck with ACPI_SMC_PlatformPlugin::start, do the smc.present = “FALSE” trick and try another bootloader. I could boot with EFI for AMD but not with others.

    Good luck!

  • Bassie said:

    Installed snow leopard last weekend and it’s working like a charm. Thanks for the guide. VMware tools is also installed without any problems. Using @ core i7, 1920×1200 with sound and networking.

    Confirming update from 10.6.0 > 10.6.1 > 10.6.2 is working. But as said before in the comments, don’t use the updater within OS X but download the separate packages from the apple website.

  • DK said:

    Perhaps a mod can remove all my previous posts… to solve all my problems only 3 real things needed to be done:

    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz” problem:
    set guestOS = “darwin10″ in the .vmx file in the directory/partition you installed your OSX VM.

    Hanging on AppleATADISKQUEUEManager:
    converted the dmg to an ISO using PowerISO and it was fine from there.

    Mouse not working:
    In VMware I had to right click on my Snow Leopard VM and click settings, then the options tab then devices, and then I had to add a USB controller.

    After that, it’s all good and runs a treat. Here’s a tip if you want higher res:

    Set the following in your vmx file:

    svga.maxWidth = “1920″
    svga.maxHeight = “1200″
    I used the native resolution of my monitor, I suggest you guys do the same.
    Then you power your Snow Leopard VM and open TextEdit (just type it into finder) and then file->open and navigate to /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist
    Add the following lines (you should be able to tell where to put them):

    Graphics Mode
    1920×1200x32

    obviously you can set a different string if your monitor has different resolution.

    Save the file to your desktop, make sure you add the .plist extention and ignore the warning that says you should save it as .txt
    open /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration and drag your modified com.apple.Boot.plist into it, you’ll have to enter your password.

    Restart and voila, native resolution in full-screen mode :)

  • FreddiePhuzz said:

    This worked GREAT. This has been by far the easiest way to get OSx86 up and running. I am still tying to figure out how to get my sound going and I am trying to figure out how to install to one of my host drives but as far as out of the gate this was on the money. Thanks for the help!!

    Freddie

  • indi89 said:

    “Invalid front-side bus frequency 6600000 Hz” Same error.

    I have a question, I have an e5200 CPU, supposedly it doesn’t support Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x), but I am able tu run VMware 7 to run Ubuntu, Windows 7, and XP, what gives?

    Is it that virtualization for x64 guests it’s not supported with my CPU? If my CPU doesn’t support VT, then how can it run VMware 7 with x86 based SO’s? (I thought Ububtu was x86 and x64, no so clear on that)

    Thanks for any help.

  • indi89 said:

    I’m sorry for double posting, I forgot to mention that there is no option in BIOS to enable VT.

  • Tomas said:

    Will this work with OS X 10.6.2?

  • kelly said:

    Worked for me! Thanx. For those looking for a little more detail:

    –make sure to turn on the virtualization in your BIOS (if available)
    –to edit the vmx you need to open it with Wordpad

    Thanx again!

    Now if I could get the Hackintosh to recognize my built in webcam and mic….

  • kelly said:

    Sorry forgot to add my PC details:

    Dell XPS M1730 (4GB, quad core, GeForce 8700m GT)
    Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit

  • ZipZapp said:

    Just one question: will this work only under 64-Bit OS?
    Having W7 home premium 32bit on an Acer Aspire 8730ZG.
    Still stuck at the front side bus error like others above….

  • ZipZapp said:

    And… will it ever work if cpu does not support hardware-virtualization? Only Software-Virtualization does not work?
    Anyone knows this? Thanks! (My cpu i dual core T3400 does not support H-V)

  • namtrig said:

    I installed on Dell XPS 8100 with Intel i7 8 cores and 8GB of memory. Followed the directions exactly for this page and fixes and tweaks page. It all works!!! It is amazing fast! Video, sound, everything. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!!!

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