I specifically remember hearing, or reading, that OS X Lion would support OS X in a VM, as long as that copy of OS X would run on that computer normally.
My question is, how do I do this, and will it work with running Snow Leopard in a VM, or does the VM OS also have to be Lion?
MacBook Pro, Mac OS X (10.6.7), Mid 2010 model
Timothy Westman-Barth wrote:
I specifically remember hearing, or reading, that OS X Lion would support OS X in a VM, as long as that copy of OS X would run on that computer normally.
My question is, how do I do this...
You would get one of the virtualization products like Parallels, VirtualBox or VMware Fusion. I do not know the official status of running Lion as a VM in Parallels or VirtualBox, but Fusion will require the upcoming Fusion version 4 (or whatever it will be called.) The current Fusion3 does not support Lion as a VM.
...and will it work with running Snow Leopard in a VM, or does the VM OS also have to be Lion?
Only Snow Leopard Server is allowed as a virtual machine, so long as it's run on Apple hardware and has an appropriately purchased license. (Same for Leopard Server.) "Desktop" versions of Leopard and Snow Leopard are NOT allowed as virtual machines. And versions of OSX prior to 10.5 are not allowed in virtual machines.
Many people will say their interpretation of the Leopard and Snow Leopard EULAs will allow this. However most of these people are not lawyers and not specialized in this area of software law. The current official statement from VMware was that it is not allowed. VMware being the virtualization industry leader, I will respect their interpretation. (Although I do not agree fully with it.)
There also appears to be a small wording clause that the Lion VM also has to be run on a Lion host, but I'm trying to get some clarification on that.
So summary: Lion as VM = ok. Leopard & SL as VM = Server only.
Timothy Westman-Barth wrote:
I specifically remember hearing, or reading, that OS X Lion would support OS X in a VM, as long as that copy of OS X would run on that computer normally.
My question is, how do I do this...
You would get one of the virtualization products like Parallels, VirtualBox or VMware Fusion. I do not know the official status of running Lion as a VM in Parallels or VirtualBox, but Fusion will require the upcoming Fusion version 4 (or whatever it will be called.) The current Fusion3 does not support Lion as a VM.
...and will it work with running Snow Leopard in a VM, or does the VM OS also have to be Lion?
Only Snow Leopard Server is allowed as a virtual machine, so long as it's run on Apple hardware and has an appropriately purchased license. (Same for Leopard Server.) "Desktop" versions of Leopard and Snow Leopard are NOT allowed as virtual machines. And versions of OSX prior to 10.5 are not allowed in virtual machines.
Many people will say their interpretation of the Leopard and Snow Leopard EULAs will allow this. However most of these people are not lawyers and not specialized in this area of software law. The current official statement from VMware was that it is not allowed. VMware being the virtualization industry leader, I will respect their interpretation. (Although I do not agree fully with it.)
There also appears to be a small wording clause that the Lion VM also has to be run on a Lion host, but I'm trying to get some clarification on that.
So summary: Lion as VM = ok. Leopard & SL as VM = Server only.
Well, I don't particularly like that answer, mainly the part about only being able to run a Snow Leopard server in a VM. As much as I don't like it, I don't want to find some... I don't really k panic it's be illegal, but some unsupported method of running Snow Leopard in a VM.
So... That's the iPhone's autocorrect for you. The "k panic it's" should have been a "know if it'd".
There are always unsupported methods of doing things. You can Google on how to do that. We can't discuss them here since that would violate the ToU for the forums.
If you need to run SL, then best to keep an older machine around. In fact, if it's because you need Rosetta, and if the app (or whatever) will run on Leopard, then you can find G5 Macs for a couple hundred bucks. (Even Power Mac G5 towers in the $300 range.) While not portable (if you were considering a Macbook,) it would be fully supported, albiet, out of warranty.
Or dual booting SL and Lion on the same (older) Mac.
If you really must run SL in a VM, then SL Server is fully supported in a VM. (And Leopard Server.) No hacking, no illegal workaround. Many apps will work on the server version of OSX. Those that don't often have "home" and "business" versions, and don't allow the lower cost "home" version to run on OSX Server. If your app does not have that restriction, then an OSX Server VM is an option. Of course, it is expensive, but that's all that the currently accepted interpretion of the EULA allows. Maybe you can find someone selling a unused retail copy of SL Server for a discounted price.
Well, my current set up is just a MacBook Pro that came with Snow Leopard, and I upgraded to Lion two days after it was released. I knew about the lack of Rosetta, but I hadn't realized just how many things really relied on that to work completely. For instance Garry's Mod, a game available on Steam, works until I try to connect to a server, now I'm thinking this problem is unrelated to Lion, as it worked a couple times before, it just doesn't now. Also, the latest version of the Community MySQL Server database thingy needs to be activated using an option in a System Preferences pane that is added, but the preferences pane isn't compatible with Lion.
It's not so much the fact that things don't work with Lion that bothers me, these things just need updating, it's the fact that Mac OS X has been known for it's compatibility, any program made for a previous version of the OS just works. Now that's not entirely true.
But, I guess that doesn't bother many people, since Apple was the most valuable company in the U.S. yesterday, and might still be.
Well, it's been 5 years since Apple changed to Intel chips so apps that needed Rosetta are really that old. Rosetta was just the stopgap like Classic was the stopgap when Apple change from OS9 to OSX, which was 10 years ago and BTW, was a bigger change than SL to Lion. "Previous OS compatibility" is still there...to a point. No one's going to get much sympathy for an app that only works on OS9. 😉
Things like the MySQL preference are the common things that happen with any .0 release. That will get updated, but as is always recommended with any upgrade: homework, homework, homework. You said you knew about Rosetta, but you didn't appear to check all your apps for Lion compatibility. (e.g.: MySQL.)
Not that I'm not sympathetic. I was caught off guard with the compatibility of some of my printers. But if things like MySQL is mission critical, (I'm assuming since a typical user doesn't need MySQL,) then a testing strategy should be in place. My upgrade strategy involves having multiple computers. One is a "hot rod" that I install things to, watch them fail, then figure out the fixes, before applying it to the "daily driver" machine. And even then, I'm creating a clone of the "daily driver" just in case I encounter something unexpected during the upgrade to Lion. I realize that having multiple machine is not practical in all situations, my point is that having a strategy, particularly a rollback strategy for when things muck up, is always prudent because Murphy's Law will always find something that won't survive an OS upgrade. 😉
Well, I only wanted to use MySQL for a database that a plugin for Bukkit requires. Bukkit is a MineCraft thing that makes using mods, called plugins, for multiplayer servers easier.
I didn't get MySQL until a couple days ago, back when I first posted this.
I don't really need it, but it'd be preferred.
I suppose I could host the database on a Windows computer.
I wasn't aware that Rosetta kept Power PC apps compatible. That would explain why the error message said that the preference pane was incompatible with Intel processors, although it still seems odd since it's the newest version, I guess I expected the newest version to work.
Oh well.
I'll see about hosting the database on Windows.
Thanks for the info!
Timothy Westman-Barth wrote:
I specifically remember hearing, or reading, that OS X Lion would support OS X in a VM, as long as that copy of OS X would run on that computer normally.
My question is, how do I do this, and will it work with running Snow Leopard in a VM, or does the VM OS also have to be Lion?
Snow Leopard will run using VirtualBox from Oracle. The machine is labeled as the Server version but I was able to install and run a regular version. I replied to another post "Anyone running VM Virtualbox in Lion?" with the general instructions on how I did it.
Bish12
Running OS X in a VM
