Installing Snow Leopard (and Rosetta) in Parallels 7 in Lion - PART ONE

maybe i explained myself wrong, i have a computer that CAN'T be fully downgraded to snow leopard (or at least, that's what i read in forums), so that's why I'm wondering if making a downgraded partition would work properly, to answer your questions:

1. My computers is an imac lion 10.7.2 (I purchased it a week ago)

2. as far as I know Logic 8 is a Powerpc application (that's what my computer says when I try to install it), i don't know if it needs rosetta but what i know is that it works perfectly in a snow leopard system. (By the way, Logic 8 is a music software -like Cubase or Protools-)

3. no

4. no (i don't even know the use of this lol)

Yes, there is a newer version of Logic that actually works in Lion, but due to some other matters I am not interested in purchasing it. To me, the best solution would be to have a partition with the snow leopard system but I am not that sure if it will work, so that's why I'm asking if you are somehow sure that your proposal may work in a computer that came with lion from factory (i wouldn't have a problem paying for that snow leopard system if i'm sure it would work).

I can't seem to find a trial version for Logic 8 but well, I'm totally sure that it would work in a snow leopard system 'cause I've tried it.

aw i see, i never made a "virtualization" so I thought it was the same thing as a partition. Yes, logic works with external audio devices such as keyboards, etc. and no, i don't need to print out anything.

No, i am not really nearby (i'm in Barcelona, Spain lol). I will ask for more details of the logic software in other sites, thank you anyways, now at least I know there's a possible and sure way of running snow leopard in a lion system.

Thank you for the links, Michael!

And for moving the guide where it can be updated - I ran into the same editing, or rather lack of ability to continuously edit, issue earlier.

Anyway, here are the issues I am currently experiencing while running Snow Leopard in the (currently) latest version of Parallels Desktop, Build 7.0.15094 (Revision 749908; April 5, 2012):

1) Sound does not work

I tried all different settings in Parallels, the status is "Connected", but in Snow Leopard the Sound system preference pane shows no input/output devices.

2) Unable to share my Mac (Lion) drives with Parallels

"Sharing" under "Options" in Parallels is set to share all disks, "SmartMount" is checked, and I even added my drives (2 partitions on one drive, one is my Lion boot partition, the other is just a data partition) as custom folders. Still, no drives or folders show up in VM.

3) Issues with "Boot order"

In Parallels, I created a second, backup, hard drive to use for booting for restoring the “ServerVersion.plist” file onto my main drive, after removing it to use the Software Update (and the Sharing preferences if that gets resolved). I have not yet imlemented the script you mentioned. When I do, perhaps this will be a moot point, but until then... I used SuperDuper! to clone my main drive to the backup drive.

I have the following order in the "Boot order":

Floppy Drive

CD/DVD

Hard Disk 2 (backup)

Hard Disk 1 (main)

"Floppy Drive" is mapped to the virtual drive provided by Parallels, while "CD/DVD" is mapped to my Mac's optical drive, which has nothing in it.

If the "Floppy Drive" and "CD/DVD" are checked in "Boot order" and "Connected", (sure, I'll never need the "Floppy Disk" and will uncheck and disconnect it for normal use, but... for the sake of troubleshooting), the VM boots from the main drive, even though backup is listed first.

If the "CD/DVD" is unchecked and if the "Floppy Drive" is disconnected, whether checked or not, VM boots from the backup drive no problem. With the "Floppy Drive" unchecked or disconnected, the VM boots from the backup drive only if the "CD/DVD" is unchecked -- disconnecting it does not solve the problem, as it does with the "Floppy Drive".

Using "Select boot device on startup" didn't work at first either -- the VM always booted from my main drive, even after manual selection of the backup drive, but after I deleted the main drive, created another, cloned the former backup to the new backup, renamed the former backup to be the main drive, I can boot from the new backup drive. Perhaps a glitch fixed by repeating the process?! So, currently, "Select boot device on startup" works, while the "Boot order" configuration (without "Select boot device on startup") does not. However, I did notice that on the boot selection screen, the main drive is listed before the backup drive (makes sense, it was created first, if that's how it works) and if I don't choose the backup drive (even though it's listed as first in the "Boot order"), the VM boots from the main drive. This seems like a Parallels issue, but I can't verify it without someone else replicating these steps on their system.

I was having additional issues -- crashing System Preferences after deleting the "ServerVersion.plist" file, being unable to boot from the backup drive after deleting the same file on the main drive, but it seems these issues went away after I deleted the offending main system/drive, created a new drive, and cloned the backup to create a new backup. I don't know why this worked (the backup was after all identical to the main), but it did. However, the above-mentioned issues remain.

Ah, the first two issues were solved once I installed Parallels Tools; thank you for that tip in your guide.

Although "Boot order" issues persist, as long as "Select boot device on startup" works, and it does, all's well! There is light at the end of the tunnel! Finally! 🙂

Again, thank you! 🙂

As you are not able to post on MacRumors at the moment I wanted to ask what happened when you updated to the latest April 5, 2012 version of P7?

When followed, the MR instruction set only gets a P7 comment to use SL Server.

My experience in following up on the assistance offered by MichaelLAX has been 100% positive. In addition to solving some huge problems for me, Michael was more than generous with his time expended guiding me through the initial installation and set up.

I’m now running Snow Leopard with full Rosetta function within Parallels Desktop on an OS X 10.7.3 Lion system. It works!

For those needing Rosetta after upgrading to Lion, some have suggested continuing to run Snow Leopard on a separate partition or on an external drive. This might be a satisfactory, but somewhat cumbersome, solution for some users, but I believe this will work only on Macs which have not had Lion preinstalled. I also have an old G4 PowerMac still running Tiger OS X 10.4 11 (and not upgradeable), but this machine won’t last forever. The above “solution” will be compatible with a new Mac purchased in the future.

I’m the professional landscape photographer to whom Michael referred in some previous posts.

In early March I began investigating the implications of Apple’s iCloud (and Lion) changes, mainly because of concerns about maintaining my @mac.com email address. I have no reason to doubt the assurances of some posters on these forums that such mail will continue to work with Mac Mail in Snow Leopard after making manual account settings changes – even after June 30th. On the other hand I received four different opinions from the four Apple representatives I queried about this issue in March.

I depend on some legacy PPC only software for my business – software which will never be upgraded to Universal or Intel versions and for which there are no substitutes or alternatives.

Many high grade film scanners were long ago discontinued, or the manufacturers have exited that business. I also have many old AppleWorks drawing documents which cannot be opened in Pages. The Lion compatible (Intel) versions of some essential utilities for my Epson 4880 printer were released by Epson last December (Epson LFP Remote Panel and Epson Printer Watcher), but these updates are missing many of the useful functions of the previous PPC versions. A fully functional Intel version of the software for my i1 Display 2 colorimeter hardware, used to calibrate monitors, won't be available until September.

From June 15th until late September I’ll be in a remote location in Montana where dial-up is the only practical option. I’ve had to purchase a new modem (ZOOM 3095) since my Apple USB modem (purchased from the Apple Store in June 2009) won’t work on MacBook Pros with Lion installed (even when running the above Parallels “solution”). The “Safe Place” software that I had been using for years to store 189 encrypted passwords is PPC only. It required a full day to transcribe this data into the newly purchased 1Password application.

I could provide several further examples. This entire experience, except for my contact with MichaelLAX, has left a bitter taste and consumed an inordinate amount of time. Most of my friends and acquaintances who are Mac users have been completely unaware of these pending issues. I think that subsequent to June 30 there will be many who are completely surprised – and a resulting PR fiasco.

Hello,

seems that apple changed anything during the last updates, also for 10.7

I still use PD 7 and my installed 10.6.8 worked fine for the past years.

Since some days, it won't start - with upcoming error-Message "An invalid Version of Mac OS has been installed".

Is there any kind of ... workaround for this?

I only need SnowLew some times for the mast few apps and don't want to waste 100 bucks für the server-version...

Thanks!