Virtualizing Lion desktop (not server)

[rx-sp]

Nowadays Apple allows us to virtualize the Lion desktop verion. I know the VMware developers are looking into supporting this in a future release. Fusion can presently virtualize a server install of OS X.

Until the new release, can this thread serve as a repo of knowledge about how to hack a virtualized desktop install of Lion? I'm NOT talking about installing VMware on Lion.

I've managed to create a virtualized install of desktop Lion on VMWare Fusion running on Lion. The instructions on the following page work with a handful of caveats:

http://www.r2x2.com/users/lsb/weblog/b41f7/

Caveat 1: The InstallESD.dmg file the tutorial talks of is contained in the "Install Mac OS X Lion" installer downloaded via App Store. Look in the installer package contents (right click "Install Mac OS X Lion" in Applications and select Show Package Contents), and then look in the SharedSupport folder. Click and drag InstallESD.dmg to somewhere else, holdling the Command key so you make a copy. (This file is essentially the entire Lion installer -- all the other files can be ignored.)

Caveat 2: When creating the virtual machine, you'll need to set 2GB of RAM, rather than 1GB. Lion won't install otherwise.

Caveat 3: After the install, there's no need to mess about with the VMware boot menu to add the vital server plist file. Once installation has finished, shut down the new virtual machine when it prompts you to reboot, and then mount the new disk VMware disk image using the disk mounter, something like this (my vmware machine is called "Lion"):

$ /Library/Application\ Support/VMware\ Fusion/VMDKMounter.app/Contents/MacOS/vmware-vmdkMounter /Users/john/Virtual\ machines/Lion.vmwarevm/Lion.vmdk

$ cd /Volumes/Lion.vmdk/System/Library/CoreServices/

$ sudo touch ServerVersion.plist

The tutorial refers to a hacked install package you can download, but this can be ignored. You will need the hacked nvram file though.

The guide seems to work OK but it's very clumsy having to pretend to be a server install. If nothing else this might mean you get the wrong updates, or no updates at all. The graphics are a little screwed too.

Does anybody know a better way of doing all this?

[rx-sp]

VMware Tools seems to install and work OK too although the graphics are a litle laggy.

[donmontalvo]

I'm finally able to start testing Lion client. Been holding off since most of our key apps are not yet compatible. I'd like to virtualize Lion (willing to pay for the additional license of course). This thread is still open so I wanted to see if anyone found an easier way to virtualize Lion?

Thanks,

Don

[BuzzMega]

I'm new to this. I just acquired Fusion 4.1.1 and I have Snow Leopard on one drive, Lion on the other.

Of course, what I really want to do is boot up one, then run the other as a virtual OS X. I need both in order to enjoy the benefits of each without the preclusion of features I'm used to.

So, being a noob, it would help to be able to see some sort of step by step process to get this to happen. The Fusion Get Started Docs are all about Windows or Boot Camp. Nothing there seems logically to apply.

Which OS X should be the host? Which the virtual? How do I get Fusion to look for the OS X on a drive inside my Mac Pro?

A lot of folks want to have legacy programs AND Lion at the same time. Will this work on my 8-core Mac Pro? (V 3.1, 6GB memory)

Thanks in advance.

[admin]

One thing you could do is to run a Lion VM on your Snow Leopard Mac partition.  If you are happy with that, and move anything you have over, you could delete your Lion Mac partition after that and just have Lion in a VM.

[BuzzMega]

I can't see in the instructions how to tell Fusion to look for Lion, which is on a different disk from the Snow Leopard OS that's running Fusion. The instructions are good at telling how to make a VM out of Windows, or how to run Boot Camp, but where would one find a step-by-step to have Fusion load in Lion?

Like I say, ...a complete noob.