OS X 10.10 DP as a VM in Fusion 6.0.3: it works!

[SvenGus]

Just create an OS X 10.9 VM with the 10.10 DP installer: everything then proceeds exactly as with a Mavericks VM; the Tools install and work, too: but the VM is slooooow, from a graphics point of view.

So, the Yosemite Developer Preview can be run as a VM already now, but of course not yet in an optimal way...

[MacsRule]

Sven G wrote:

...So, the Yosemite Developer Preview can be run as a VM already now, but of course not yet in an optimal way...

The graphics can be improved even though the speed can't.

First, take a snapshot!! Don't skip that step because I don't think it's possible to recover if things go wrong.

Then, check out this link and download and install the 10.9 driver and guest_d package. I ran both of those, restarted, reinstalled VMware Tools and restarted again (all with very long boots and with weird VM window shapes). The first couple of times the VM Window filled the screen sideways and when the desktop appeared, it looked like a Retina MBP at full native resolution. But opening the Display preferences showed a full range of resolutions, from the good old 1024x768 to 2360x1770 when Scaled was chosen and picking a resolution within the limits of your monitor gives good results. Going to Full Screen expanded the window only vertically since the aspect ratio didn't change. Rebooting still takes a long time and uses the weird window configuration but when booting is finished, it looks like your average VM.

[iiToby]

Hi SvenG,

Can you provide some more detail on how you got it installed?

Ripping the InstallESD.dmg out of the package or installing Mavericks and then Yosemite over the top.

Cheers

iiToby

[kevinsgill]

Sven,

          Thanks for the post.  Can you provide some details on how you got this working.  I am able to get it all the way to where the installation begins and then immediately errors out.  Thanks in advance.

Cheers,

KG

[SvenGus]

I created a new OS X 10.9 VM, pointed it to the "Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview" application (the one downloaded from the Mac App Store), and then everything worked as usual (Fusion automatically created the installation image, I customized the VM settings, the installation started, completed after some time, and finally I also installed the VMware Tools, which seem to work as usual): exactly as for a new Mavericks guest installation, in other words.

[SvenGus]

See my previous reply...

Perhaps it doesn't always work...?

If it doesn't, here is a link to an alternative method of installing Yosemite in a VM:

http://www.macg.co/os-x/2014/06/tuto-creer-une-machine-virtuelle-os-x-yosemite-82399

(in French, but translatable with Google).

[ColoradoMarmot]

Good news, thanks.  Unfortunately, a whole lot of the new stuff probably won't work in a VM, since it requires 3d acceleration (which no virtualization engine provides).

[kevinsgill]

Sven G,

              Thanks for the reply.  I was trying it out another way.  Thanks again.

[SvenGus]

Another link (in Italian, from Macity):

http://www.macitynet.it/virtualizzare-os-x-10-10-yosemite-come

... with a Google translation here:

https://translate.google.com/translate?sl=it&tl=en&js=y&prev=_t&hl=it&ie=UTF-8&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ma...

... which is exactly what I did (before they published this very simple procedure).

[finaluser]

Hi Toby,

I can't use the the "Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview.app"

But I found the following easy and useful method, to create the installer image.

http://pastebin.com/6pWGSB5b

Hope it works for you,

[MacsRule]

finaluser wrote:

Hi Toby,

I can't use the the "Install OS X 10.10 Developer Preview.app"...

So, as Sven G described, you picked "New" and the "Create a Virtual Machine" window opened, you clicked on "Install from disc or image" and then picked the Install OS X 10.10 app as the source and let Fusion automatically create its own .dmg from the installer app, and that didn't work?

[SvenGus]

Here's another link on how to make a clean install:

[Guide] Install OS X 10.10 Yosemite

[SvenGus]

I didn't try with the VMsvga2 drivers, because I had some problems with them in the past (windows wouldn't autofit anymore, IIRC); but I noticed that the 10.10 DP in a VM is significantly faster on a new Mac (e.g., on a 2013 Retina MacBook Pro, vs. a 2010 Mac mini Server), especially for things like Launchpad and other graphics-intensive tasks.

[finaluser]

Does not work for me, but the script create a bootable image.

[ColoradoMarmot]

That's the intel iris pro graphic chip - it's not '3d accelerated' but much much faster than the old ones.

[SvenGus]

Anyway, also on my late 2013 rMBP (with discrete graphics, too), for example, after putting the Applications folder in the Dock and setting it to grid view, clicking on it locks up the VM for more than a minute, with effects à la super-slow "halted animation", before you actually can see the grid; Dock list view is OK, however (also on older machines)...

[jason_farrow]

I applied the two patches as indicated in the second post of this thread. The screen options do have multiple scalable choices but all of them are 4:3 ratio and not the 16:9 or whatever my MacBook Retina has.

No amount of resizing or full-screen changes the VM display from 4:3 ratio.

[MacsRule]

jason_farrow wrote:

...No amount of resizing or full-screen changes the VM display from 4:3 ratio.

The drivers aren't supposed to; what they give are a number of choices for more VM screen real-estate within the confines of your monitor's resolution, which the basic installation of Yosemite didn't have. Even full screen retains that aspect ratio, as mentioned.

[thingi]

Actually this isn't a driver limitation, it's OSX hiding its display settings that is the real problem. 16:9 and 4:3 ratios can be easily selected inside a vm and Fusion will resize its output according.

Before installing the 10.9 driver and guest_d packages from the 2nd post in this thread I also enabled kext dev mode in Yosmite first:-

"sudo nvram boot-args="kext-dev-mode=1" from a terminal after the install completed.

The command disables Yosmite's kext driver signing checks which is useful for running kexts not implicitly designed for Yosmite.

To enable resolution switching in your vm install "Display Menu" from the App store (its free) or use RDM:- Set your retina Macbook Pro's resolution to 3840x2400. Wait, what?? : apple Both allow Yosmite's desktop to be set to most common resolutions (windowed or full screen) in Fusion.

Enjoy

[mpoint4u]

Hi guys (and girls),

I am actually on Vmware Fusion 6.0.3 (1747349), I am not primarily interested in the removal of the so called  'Heardbleed OPENSSL library' bug (which update 6.0.4attempts),

and can report the following results for installing OS X 10.10 DP Beta in a Virtual machine with 2GB of RAM and 2 processor cores on an  2012 iMAC host system...

Installing went pretty straight-forward (as described above by others) with the standard 'Install OS X Yosemite Beta.app' (which is a little about 5 GB in size). Fusion knows how to handle

this installation source and creates the necessary temporary installer image (if I remember right, it made a .dmg image, not an .iso) all on its own (and even removes it after successful installation

automatically again). So nothing to worry about here...

Straight after installation I also noticed some lag in mouse movement (stuttering mouse cursor and the like) in the freshly installed image. After a look on the status of the VMware tools it appeared that they were not even the latest (even if I choose MacOSX 10.9 as type of OS when asked by the vmware installer - the latest offered version it gave at this point).

So, I took a snapshot in Fusion,  choose 'Update VMware tools' in the 'Virtual machine' menu of Fusion (for the actual vm) and Fusion then mounted it's VMware tools image (maybe there's even a newer one with the 6.0.4 version of VMware Fusion ... but I doubt that).

I ran the uninstaller first, rebooted the vm, took a snapshot again (just to be sure), and ran the 'VMware tools installer' ... AND ... it installed successfully a newer version of VMware tools and ...

... the lagging display problems are (mainly) gone, it more or less now behaves like any other VM that I have in place here. Not exactly the fastest, but also not the slowest ...

Changing monitor resolutions seems to work fine, second monitor is at this point of time not yet supported, but ... it's a Beta ... who cares...

I can live with that so far at the moment and just wanted to share (maybe it helps somebody out there)...

Cheers,

Marcus

ps:   as I just detected, the 10.10 Yosemite Beta just takes (US) English as System language....

       (you are able to choose different languages, or even delete english as a standard, but then you keyboard input is going to be ignored totally....)

       given that it's a Beta, that's understandable, too ... (who want's to maintain 30 ore more languages at this - early - point of time...)