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powerdroid
Contributor
Contributor

Sound with Snow Leopard Server on Snow Leopard in Fusion 4

How do I get an output driver to show up in a Snow Leopard Server guest that is running in Fusion 4 on Snow Leopard?  Currently, in System Preferences, it says "no output devices found".

I have installed VMWare Tools.  (at least I think they installed properly, but I don't know for certain)

7 Replies
WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

VMware Tools for Mac OS X does not provide the necessary Audio Driver at the OS X Level however there are third party drivers available on the Internet.   I have sound in my Mac OS X Virtual Machines using what I found on Google. (EnsoniqAudioPCI_v1.0.3_Common_Installer.pkg and ReleaseNotes_EnsoniqAudioPCI_v1.0.3.txt)  (Note: This is not officially supported and use at your own risk!)

SvenGus
Expert
Expert

However, sound in Fusion Mac OS X VMs is still far from perfect...

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WoodyZ
Immortal
Immortal

Which is why I said "(Note: This is not officially supported and use at your own risk!)" Smiley Wink

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borisdusek
Expert
Expert

WoodyZ: did you do any additional steps after installing the linked driver? Because I did add the sound device, then install the driver you linked, then rebooted, to no avail. (System Preferences > Sound > Output still shows "No output devices found").

I really want to test VoiceOver with one app on Snow Leopard, without sound it is nearly impossible.

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borisdusek
Expert
Expert

to add:

Host OS: OS X 10.8.4 (all updates installed)

Guest OS: Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server 10.6.8 (all updates installed)

VMware Fusion: 5.0.3

Virtual hardware version: 9 (Compatible with VMware Fusion 5 or higher)

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borisdusek
Expert
Expert

problem solved by downgrading virtual hardware version to version 8 🙂

update: one must actually downgrade to the virtual hardware version 7.

So what works is:

  1. Shut down the VM
  2. downgrade virtual hardware version to 7
  3. add sound card (if you added it previously, it got automatically removed on downgrade to version 7)
  4. immediately (without powering up) upgrade virtual hardware version back to version 9
  5. add networking adapter (it got remove on downgrade to version 7)
  6. power up the machine
  7. install the sound driver WoodyZ linked (including needed restart)

Then sound should work.

msschmitt
Enthusiast
Enthusiast

Downgrading the VM isn't necessary. What that process is doing is changing the virtual device from the default hdaudio (RealTek ALC888 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio Codec) to es1371 (Sound Blaster Ensoniq AudioPCI).

The easy way is to change sound.virtualDev = "hdaudio" to "es1371" in the .vmx file, as described in the VMware knowledge base article Enabling Sound Blaster AudioPCI device in VMware Workstation 8.x/9.x and Fusion 4.x/5.x.

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