Starting Up Boot Camp Partition for Mac Users without Admin Rights

[jpanattoni]

I am using Fusion with my Boot Camp partition to run Windows XP. I can startup the VM with no problems because my account on the Mac has Admin rights. I have another account on this Mac that does not have Admin Rights though. I would like this other account to be able to startup and run the Boot Camp partition VM. When I attempt to do this, it wants the admin credentials. Are there files that I can modify the permissions for, so that this other user can start this up without having to enter Admin credentials?

[BP9906]

The reason is the mount/unmounting rights that standard users dont have. The only way around this is to manually edit Unix permissions to allow certains users to have this ability.

Are you prepared to do something like this? I know this has come up before and I believe Eric (ETung) has instructions...

[admin]

Edit: The method suggested below won't work, since admin privileges are needed for more than just unmounting.

I have something which should theoretically work, but I don't have a Boot Camp partition to test with. I have not heard reports about the success one way or the other.

Edit /etc/sudoers (you'll need to have superuser privileges) to include the line

ALL localhost = NOPASSWD : /usr/sbin/diskutil mount /Volumes/YourBootCampPartitionName, /usr/sbin/diskutil unmount /Volumes/YourBootCampPartitionName

This should allow any user to mount or unmount the Boot Camp partition without providing a password. Then create a script that unmounts the Boot Camp partition before starting the Boot Camp VM, e.g.

#!/bin/bash
/usr/sbin/diskutil unmount /Volumes/YourBootCampPartitionName
open "/Users/YourNameHere/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/Virtual Machines/Boot Camp/%2Fdev%2Fdisk0/Boot Camp partition.vmwarevm"

Replace YourBootCampPartitionName, YourNameHere, and %2Fdev%2Fdisk0 as appropriate.

[octa_octa]

I have tested the above suggestion and can confirm that it does not work. Adding the line to the sudoers and the first command in the bash script work correctly. i.e. I am not asked for an admin password to unmount the bootcamp Volume, however, as soon as Fusion loads, it asks for a password. It's as if the password is prompted by Fusion for another purpose, or it just doesn't recognise that the Volume has been unmounted. Maybe VMWare should add a line in their code to first detect if the Volume is mounted or unmounted.

[pablos]

I can also confirm that this solution does not work. VMWare Fusion requests admin privileges even when the Boot Camp partition has been unmounted prior to running the VM.

I believe this represents a major usability concern with using VMware to run a Boot Camp partition as a VM. It precludes running the VM as a startup or background item. As far as security concerns go, if the user is expected to log in every time (many times with the same credentials as the session with which he/she logged in), I think there should be a way to allow VMware the same access every time it runs, after the initial privileges have been granted.

[admin]

I just checked with the experts and I had misunderstood why the privileges are needed - the problem is not unmounting the partition, it's getting raw access, so my suggestion will not work. Sorry for the confusion.

[francisd]

Can you confirm this is working?

I did not understand where you should write the script....

[admin]

Can you confirm this is working?

As I noted in the original post, I don't have a Boot Camp partition and could not test to see if it worked. In fact it does not work, because I misunderstood why admin privileges are needed.