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Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Installation of Mavericks as VM in Fusion 8.5 Halts at Install Copy of OSX

I have Fusion 8.5.10 running on a late 2015 iMac with Sierra 10.12.6 installed.

I am trying to install Mavericks as a new VM to run some older Mac software that wont run on Sierra. I am using an Install Mavericks OSX app dated 8th Feb 2014 as a source. This was originally downloaded legitimately from the App Store on a Mac running Snow Leopard several years ago as I cannot currently download Mavericks from the App Store on Sierra even though it shows up in my purchased items list as it complains it wont install on this version of Mac.

I have tried installing using the wizard which creates a virtual machine of 40Gb using 2 cores and 8Gb ram. OSX then boots and I can select my language in the installer and then next which takes me to the install options.

  1. Restore from Time Machine Backup
  2. Install OSX
  3. Get Help Online
  4. Disk Utility

I choose 2 Install a new copy of OSX but the installer does not proceed to next stage. If I select Disk Utilities this works as does Restore from Time Machine but don't want that option.

Is this a Fusion issue or is Apple preventing people installing older versions of OSX. I read somewhere that you can install up to two additional copies of OSX on a MAC?

Also I seem to remember on my Hackingtosh days that the time stamp of the installer image might be an issue?

Has anyone experienced this issue and found a workaround?

Many thanks

17 Replies
ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

It sounds like you may not have the full installer - back then apple would download bootstrap loaders that would then have to connect to the internet to download the entire OS. 


If you have a developer license you can get a full installer.

FWIW, might want to remove the reference to things that shouldn't be discussed here.

Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Do you think so? It's a 5.31Gb application?

Ps thanks for other advice

John

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

What's odd is that it seems to be booting into recovery mode instead of the installer.  Can you try just drag/dropping the installer into the new VM window and see if that works?

Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Many thanks dlhotka,

I;ve tried as you suggested but it still won't progress. Ive even tried moving the installer file into the applications folder where OSX might expect the file to be located. I've also reset the time on the MAC to 2014 but still no joy.

I've got to find a way of re-downloading the image from the app store, unless this is a restriction placed by Apple on downloads of older OS?

John

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Yeah, the app store got too smart for it's britches on that one.

Can you build a sierra VM?  That should then let you download the mavericks installer.

Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thats a good idea. I'll try that.

I think I have found out what the problem with my 2014 installer file is though. Its the Apple Worldwide Developer Relations Intermediate Certificate as explained here https://tidbits.com/2016/03/02/previously-downloaded-os-x-installers-no-longer-work/

Thanks again for your interest and help

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Ahh, interesting, but that makes sense.  Developer program is probably the best way to get a new (legit) installer.  It's $99 for the year.

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dempson
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I'm a member of Apple's developer programme and I can't see any way through that channel to get an installer for 10.7 Lion or later, apart from a beta release of the latest OS version (currently 10.15 Catalina) and a link which redirects to App Store to get the latest release version (10.14.6 Mojave).

The "more" downloads page has disk images for 10.5 Leopard and 10.6 Snow Leopard (not the server versions needed for a VM), but only updates for 10.7 Lion and later.

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dempson
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

To get an updated copy of your 10.9 Mavericks installer, you need to re-download it from your purchase history in App Store, on a Mac running 10.13 High Sierra or earlier which is able to boot into Mavericks. I just tested it on a 2012 Mac Mini running 10.12.6 Sierra: this model is able to boot 10.8 Mountain Lion or later, so App Store will let me re-download 10.8 Mountain Lion or later, but not 10.7 Lion. I'd need to use an older Mac to get the Lion installer.

A VM running Sierra or High Sierra can re-download older versions back to Lion (just tested with my 10.12 Sierra VM).

App Store in macOS 10.14 Mojave is not able to download older macOS versions at all. That raises a catch-22: if your Mac is running Mojave (or later) and you have no installers for older versions, you can't download one. To get started, you will need help from an older Mac (or if your Mac is old enough, use Internet Recovery to install the original OS that came with your Mac, then use that to download an older installer).

Note also that for 10.9 Mavericks or 10.10 Yosemite, you must already have those versions in your App Store purchase history to be able to download the installer. It was not possible for a newcomer to "get" those versions after they were superseded. (10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion can still be purchased. 10.11 El Capitan and later can be downloaded anew via support.apple.com articles which link to hidden pages on App Store. Again, none of these methods work if you are running Mojave or later.)

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Wow, so they pulled the installers from the developer program?  That's painful.

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dempson
Hot Shot
Hot Shot

I don't think "pulled" is the right description. This is not a new situation. It has not been possible to get 10.9 Mavericks or later via the developer programme after the point the next version was released to the public, which for Mavericks was late 2014. You had to "get" Mavericks or Yosemite in App Store while they were the current version. (El Capitan and later are still available to the public via support articles which link to a hidden App Store page, with access restricted depending on model compatibility and current OS version, most of which I noted in my previous reply.)

For 10.7 Lion and 10.8 Mountain Lion (which were not free), Apple supplied developers with an App Store redemption code as part of the developer programme membership, but those codes were removed from the developer portal soon after the next OS was released, so developers also had to get those versions while they were current in order to get the "free" developer licence.

Note also that the licence agreement only permitted the use of the developer copy of the OS for development and testing, not for general use.

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ColoradoMarmot
Champion
Champion

Hmmm, I recall being able to download previous versions, but it's been a while since I did that.  In any case, it's unfortunate as it prevents developers from being able to test on older OS versions.  I'm all for pushing people to upgrade, but, as with many things about Apple's design practices, sometimes real-world usage isn't a top requirement.

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Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for the information Dempson, however it doesn't appear to be working for me. I am running Sierra on a late 2015 iMac which should be capable of booting Mavericks, Yosemite and High Sierra and possibly Mountain Lion. All of these (accept High Sierra which is an update) appear in my Purchased tab of the App Store here

App Store.png

As you can see each has Download against the file but if I click on any of them I get the following message(s)

Mountain Lion.png

Mavericks.png

Yosemite.png

I can perhaps understand Mountain Lion not being compatible but not Mavericks or Yosemite. I don't believe creating a VM of Sierra would make any difference although I am happy to try. I think this would have to be done from Time Machine backup?

John

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SvenGus
Expert
Expert

Late 2015 means that it probably came with OS X 10.11 El Capitan preinstalled: so, it cannot boot Mavericks or Yosemite.

Personally, I was able to re-download all my purchased OSs (10.7+) from within a High Sierra VM, so that should work...

Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Thanks for that. I will try High Sierra. In the meantime I appear to have found a copy of Mountain Lion that will install.

However this sounds like a completely daft question but does Fusion automatically name the Virtual Hard drive "Macintosh HD" for OSX installations? I stopped installing when it showed the target disk as Macintosh HD which is the same name as my actual iMac boot drive.

When I checked the properties of the Virtual Machine settings it does show Virtual Disk.vmdk as the SATA hard drive but just wanted to clarify before I ploughed ahead. With windows its obvious but when installing the same OS as the host machine its a bit unnerving the first time ha ha!!

John

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wila
Immortal
Immortal

Hi,

It is expected that you see the same name for the hard disk. It will have a different size though!

--

Wil

| Author of Vimalin. The virtual machine Backup app for VMware Fusion, VMware Workstation and Player |
| More info at vimalin.com | Twitter @wilva
Fozzie_Bear1
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Hi Wila,

Thanks for the info. I guessed that was correct and the host OS would probably prevent it being overwritten but wanted to double check before i pressed Install.

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