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My fascination about apple and their products(OS X / iPhone ) has started only few days back.
So the first thing i wanted to do is install MAC OS X on my laptop. As my laptop is already installed with three operating systems; I decided to install OSX under VMWare.

So this blog is all about installing OSX under VMWare.
I know there is lot of information on VMWare and OSX spread across internet but i just thought someone having same configuration as mine might save some time after reading this blog.

Assumption:

• Readers are assumed to be familiar with any version of VMWare workstation and has done some kind of Operating system installations.

My System Configuration:

1. 1.8 GHz Duel Core Processor
2. 2 GB RAM
3. Windows Vista

What you will need:

• MAC OS X Version: 10.4.6
• VMWare Workstation 6.0
• Virual Clone Drive ( To mount MAC OS X 10.4.6 ISO, VMWare is unable to properly mount HFS+ File System of MAC DVD.)

If you have DVD for the installation, you need not install Virtual Clone Drive. So lets get started. There are two important phases on installation.

1. Building New Virtual Machine
2. Installing OSX

Lets Build a New Virtual Machine.

• Mount Installation DVD ISO in Virtual Clone Drive. ( If you have DVD, you can insert disk in DVD Drive )
• Start VMWare Workstation, and click on Create a New Virtual Machine to launch the VM creation Wizard.
• Click on Custom and Choose Workstation 6 as Hardware Compatibility.
• Select Microsoft Windows as Guest Operating system and Windows NT from Version drop down box.
• Give Name to your virtual Machine and Select location where this VM will reside on disk ( remember this location, we need it in future.)
• Select Number of Processors as one from the next page.
• MAC OS X need at least 512 MB memrory to work hassel free. I’ll suggest use above 512 MB Memory to get good performance from OS X.
• Choose the Network Connection. I usually prefer “Host Only” Networking that allows me to setup LAN between my existing Virtual Machines.
• Select BusLogic as I/O adapter Type and click next.
• Choose to create a new virtual disk and click next.
• Use IDE as Virtual Disk type. ( This is very important, don’t choose SCSI ) and click Next.
• Leave Disk Size to default 8 GB unless you want to.
• You can change the disk name, if you want and click Finish to close the wizard.

Once the new Virtual Machine is created; we need to make some changes in the configuration file used by our Virtual Machine. Lets quicky do that:

1. Browse to the directory from above step 4 where you have stored your virtual machine.
2. Open the .vmx file in notepad.
3. Add paevm=”true” line at the end of the file. Save the file and exit.

Installing OS X:

• Go back to VMWare Workstation and choose “Edit Virtual Machine Settings.”
• From Hardware Tab, click on the CD-ROM and From left pane select Use Physical Deive and choose your virtual Drive where installation ISO is mounted.
• If you have installation DVD inside DVD Drive, let it be in “Auto Detect” mode.

Now power on your virtual machine and press F2 to enter in Setup of VMWare.

• Disable Legacy Diskette A: and Legacy Diskette B:
• Go to Advanced Tab from setup program and Enter in “I/O device configuration.”
• Disable Serial Port A:, Serial Port B:, Parallel Port and Floppy Disk Controller”

• Press F10 to save and Exit the setup Utility.
• If everything goes right, you will get MAC OS X installation prompt as follows.

• Now press any key to continue installation, wait for some time and you will be greeted with MAC OS X Installation Utility.

• The only tricky part in the installation is creating disk partitions.
• Once you are asked for installation partition, choose your disk from the Disk Utility and Click on the ‘Partition’ Tab from right pane.

• Choose Volume Scheme as: Current and Volume Format as : MAC OS Extended ( Journaled ) and give name whatever you want.
• Click on Partition Button to create the partion on the virtual disk.
• Now a new HDD can be seen on the left pane; choose that Disk and proceed further.
• Rest installation is similar to any of other OS installation.

Following are some screen shots that may help you to track your progress.

Now as your installation is done and you logged in, some questions immediately start lingetring in your mind like -

1. How to start SSH?
2. How to share files with my Windows machine?
3. Can i access OS X remotely?

For all above questions there is only one Answer. Just go to the Sharing pane in System Preferences and

1. check the Allow Remote Login option, for SSH
2. check Windows Sharing option, for Sharing files with Windows.
3. Check Apple Remote Desktop, for Accessing OS X remotely using VNC client.

Enjoy hacking on your MAC OS X

Let me know your comments and feedbacks if this guide helped you. I am planning to write a blog on Leopard under VMWare, so keeping checking….