VMware Communities
gearacq
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-12-2011 05:14 PM

VM Fusion, Mac OS 10.7 (Lion), Mac OS 10.6 (anything with Rosetta)

I have one custom PowerPC code application that cannot be upgraded easily.   This means that I need Rosetta somehow.   Apple's iCloud etc now require 10.7.  There must be people out there who are running 10.7 in Fusion or 10.6 in Fusion?   I would like to know if that is feasible and if so, how that can be done.   Thanks in advance. 
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5 Replies
gearacq
Contributor
Contributor
‎10-12-2011 06:59 PM

The following seems possible?

* Upgrade to 10.7 from 10.6

* Install another copy of 10.7 as a virtual machine in Fusion 4.

* Downgrade the main (boot) OS version from 10.7 to 10.6

Then, I will have an OS10.6 machine with Rosetta with Fusion running OS 10.7?

Too bad, the other way around does appear possible.

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tracywang
Expert
Expert
‎10-12-2011 08:47 PM

* Upgrade to 10.7 from 10.6 -yes

* Install another copy of 10.7 as a virtual machine in Fusion 4. - yes

* Downgrade the main (boot) OS version from 10.7 to 10.6 - I am not sure, but you can install Fusion 4 on 10.6.8 and install 10.7 in Fusion.

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medorrhinum
Contributor
Contributor
‎12-03-2011 12:25 AM

Hello

what is Rosetta? Is it the application that will run old applications? I need to run LIon and Snow Leopard on the same Mac at the same time to run Rosetta and to run a medical application that is essential for my work but do not know how to do this or who to ask. I do not know how to partition a drive. I have used Macs since 1987 but I am not a techie.


Someone said try Fusion but by all accounts this is to Windows on a Mac. I do not need Windows and I do not want to learn how to use it, just two Mac systems side by side without wearing climbing boots each time.


thanks

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camner
Contributor
Contributor
‎12-03-2011 02:59 PM

Yes, Rosetta is a technology that allows applications written for the Power PC CPU to run on modern macs with Intel processors.

Given your level of expertise you may want to seek some assistance with this...

There are a variety of ways of running both Lion and Snow Leopard.

Here's the simplest one I can think of for someone who isn't too technically inclined...

Method 1: (Doesn't involve Fusion)

  1. Buy an external hard drive
  2. Use a "cloning solution" (such as SuperDuper! or CarbonCopyCloner) to copy your entire drive to the external drive
  3. After checking that you are able to boot from the external drive, upgrade your internal hard drive to Lion

This way, every time you need to run the legacy app in Rosetta, you'll need to boot up from your external drive

Method 2: (Fusion) (this is harder)

  1. Keep your internal hard drive with Snow Leopard and install a Lion client in Fusion using the information here: http://communities.vmware.com/message/1858249

This way, you'll be able to run Lion as a virtual machine and have access to Snow Leopard and Lion at the same time, without rebooting.  Note though that the virtual Lion client won't run as quickly/well as if it were installed without virtualization.

Unfortunately, as has been discussed here a great deal, it is NOT possible to install a virtual machine using Snow Leopard client (normal version), because it violates Apple's licensing agreement.

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