installation problem on MacBook Air

[pwg]

I am attempting to install Windows XP Pro sp2 on a MacBook Air using the MacBook Air Superdrive. When Easy Install asks me to insert an installation disc I do, but nothing happens. It seems that Easy Install is not recognizing the installation disc. I have tried several different XP installation discs with the same problem.

The build is VMWare Fusion 1.1

[xacto]

Hmm... I will be watching this before I try to install!

Has anyone gotten vmware fustion to run on the MBA yet? What about Vista?

[WoodyZ]

I am attempting to install Windows XP Pro sp2 on a MacBook Air using the MacBook Air Superdrive. When Easy Install asks me to insert an installation disc I do, but nothing happens. It seems that Easy Install is not recognizing the installation disc. I have tried several different XP installation discs with the same problem.

If you are having issues installing from physical media then I'd suggest you try installing from an ISO Image of the Source Media.

To create an ISO Image using Disk Utility...

1. Insert the CD or DVD disc in your computer's optical drive.

2. Open Disk Utility (/Applications/Utilities/Disk Utility).

3. Select the CD or DVD disc in the list of disks and volumes.

4. Choose File > New > "Disk Image from (Name of Disc)."

5. Type a name for the disk image.

6. Choose "DVD/CD master" from the Image Format pop-up menu.

7. Choose "none" from the Encryption pop-up menu.

8. Click Save.

Note: When using Disk Utility in order to have a bootable ISO Image you should select CD/DVD Master with no encryption in which case by default it will have a .cdr file extension and in version 1.1 of Fusion and later does not need to be changed to .iso although one can if one chooses to. A default .dmg image is compressed and is not bootable although an uncompressed .dmg will boot if changed to .iso and of course the source CD/DVD must be bootable in the first place.

After you have made the ISO Image then eject the source disc from the optical drive and disconnect the optical drive from the MacBook Air.

Next assign the ISO Image as the CD/DVD in the Virtual Machine's Settings sheet.

After installing the OS you may need to install VMware Tools manually...

One way to get VMware Tools installed on the MacBook Air without the CD/DVD Drive attached would be, if not present to add the CD/DVD Drive to the Virtual Machine and point is directly to the VMware Tools Windows ISO file ("/Library/Application Support/VMware Fusion/isoimages/windows.iso") and then start the Virtual Machine and DO NOT SELECT "Install VMware Tools" from the Virtual Machine menu! Just go straight to the CD/DVD-ROM Drive in Windows and execute the setup.exe. When finished remove the CD/DVD Drive from the Virtual Machine's Settings sheet.

Note: Replace Windows and windows.iso with the appropriate OS if other then Windows.

[xacto]

I was able to install Vista with a ISO disk image like describe above -- worked like a charm! However, after the install, it still does not recognize any CD/DVD in the MacBook Air Superdrive. Am I missing something or is the Superdrive not compatible vmware?

I guess, I can make a ISO image of every CD I have but with such a tiny Hardrive, this will be major pain. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

[xacto]

Ahh, maybe found the reason....

Under Virtual Machine, I had to select CD/DVD>Use Physical Disk Drive.

[pieterj]

Thanks for the information; this was a great help to mitigate the lack of an optical drive.

However, now I get an error message:

PXE-E53: No boot filename received

Does that have anything to do with the image I created?

The CD boots fine on my Windows notebook ...

Thanks!

[WoodyZ]

Thanks for the information; this was a great help to mitigate the lack of an optical drive. However, now I get an error message: PXE-E53: No boot filename received

Does that have anything to do with the image I created? The CD boots fine on my Windows notebook ...

If you followed my directions on how to make a Bootable ISO Image then the image should be okay. The error your getting can be because the CD/DVD is not the first boot device in the Virtual Machine's BIOS

Add the following to the VM's .vmx file.

bios.forceSetupOnce = "TRUE"

and or

bios.bootDelay = "3000"

These will enable a one time forced boot into the BIOS where you can change the boot order and also as a 3 second delay when booting so you can click into the window and press the Esc Key which will bring up a Boot Menu in the future to make it easy to use the Menu and or enter the BIOS again.

For info on how to do this have a look at:

[pieterj]

Many thanks; that got me in the BIOS. However, when I change the boot order to use the CD first; it still reverts to a network boot:

"Network boot from AMD ..." after which I get the PXE-E53 error again ...

[pieterj]

It has been a wild ride, but it looks like the HP installation of MS Windows XP Pro was the culprit. I do not know what they have done to it, but it seemed to be at odds with Fusion.

A clean version of XP seems to be working fine, installing from an image file.

Thanks so much for your help in getting this to work!