How to start up in safe boot or safe mode INSIDE a virtual machine?

[VirtualMac2009]

How to start up in safe boot or safe mode INSIDE a virtual machine?

Mac OS X: What is Safe Boot, Safe Mode?

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht1564

In a Mac, you do it pressing the Shift key until you see some icon moving, but that does not work when opening Mac OS X Server 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) in VMwareFusion 5.0.3 on OS X 10.8.3 (Mountain Lion).

The safe boot is good to force the Mac to repair itself.

Thanks.

[VirtualMac2009]

Thanks for the reply.

1. Yes, I have tried that with other Macs and it does work in general (see next paragraph). But it is not possible to use such procedure in the login window (no option there to do it). How to force reboot? How to ssh login and reboot? Sorry for my ignorance.

I must say that the lowercase and capitalcase usually work as expected under normal use of the virtual machine, but sometimes (inconsistent behavior) they work in reverse way (lowercase keyboard generates capitalcase and vice versa) and other times as in the login example above, it gets stuck in uppercase independently of the keyboard (physical hardware keyboard) status for lowercase/capitalcase.

2. Thanks for the advice. I did not know that. You said that it is safe to backup the full VMware Fusion disk images manually in the Finder (drag and drop over the backup disk), but could they be backed up also with applications like SuperDuper!?

Thanks again for all your help.

[VirtualMac2009]

Someone knows? Thanks.

[WoodyZ]

VirtualMac2009 wrote: 1. Yes, I have tried that with other Macs and it does work in general (see next paragraph). But it is not possible to use such procedure in the login window (no option there to do it).

What do you mean "(no option there to do it)"?  I can use Virtual Machine > Send Key > Cap Lock right no in the OS X Server Login!

How to force reboot?

Have a look at: Switch Power Commands from the Default Options

How to ssh login and reboot? Sorry for my ignorance.

You have to have Remote Login enabled to ssh into the system.  Suggest you look in the Mac OS X Server Help and either Google ssh or in a Terminal type man ssh and press enter.

[donnyh02]

WoodyZ,

What did you do to get Snow Server installed on your MBP Retina? This has stumped me.

[WoodyZ]

donnyh02 wrote: WoodyZ, What did you do to get Snow Server installed on your MBP Retina? This has stumped me.

I installed it the same way I install every OS in a Virtual Machine, from an ISO Image.  What about it has you stumped?

[donnyh02]

When I start the install on the Retina, it gets through the first couple of screens, then it says it can't install on the computer. I am guessing this might be because it's older (maybe less than 10.6.3). Do you know if you used a 10.6.3 installer? Maybe that's my problem.

[WoodyZ]

I installed Mac OS X Server 10.6.3 from an ISO Image I created of the disc purchased directly from Apple, not of a disc that came with a Mac.

[donnyh02]

Well that may be the problem. I've got a 'retail' 10.6.3 server installer. I'll try making an image of that and see how it goes. Thanks for your input

[donnyh02]

Woodyz: I tried it your way, albeit with a 10.6.0 disc. It worked! Imagine that! I had to change a line in the .vmx per vmware in order to upgrade to 10.6.8, but it seems OK. Now to see how well it will work as a DeployStudio server in virtualization.