This is just an add on update for my previous post Install Mac Snow Leopard in VMware Player. I couldn’t test the earlier method in AMD processor computer. After several days with some user comments, this post shows how to install Mac Snow Leopard on AMD PC by same VMware Image.
The boot loader came with this download works with Intel 32 Bit host only. To run SL in AMD PC, we need different boot loader. Thanks to Santosh for mentioning it.
Steps for Snow Leopard in AMD Processor PC
1) Download darwin legacy boot loader here.
2) VMware image, mentioned in this post.
3) Extract the both downloads.
4) Open VMX file in VMware player or workstation.
5) Browse darwin_snow_legacy.iso to CD Rom of virtual machine. Make sure CD Rom set as first boot device.
6) Start Snow leopard virtual machine. I’m sure you will land on desktop with out any issues. Recently a user confirmed this method worked for AMD and 64 Bit Host with following configuration.
500GB Hard Drive
AMD Athlon II 620, 4 cores @ 2.6 GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM
Windows 7 Home Premium x64
7) Follow the other steps mentioned here to change language, sound, mac admin password, networking, upgrades and VMware tools.
Read Also,
How to Install Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard on VirtualBox 3.1.4
Install Mac Snow Leopard on Oracle VirtualBox 3.2 in Non Apple, Intel PC
How to Increase Mac OS X Virtual Machine Screen Resolution in VirtualBox, VMware Player
Run Mac OS X on PC, Free and Easy with VMware Player 3
I don’t have AMD PC to demonstrate these steps but I’m hoping this will work as reported by some users.
Please do share your issues with this method, don’t forget to drop a comment if Snow Leopard 10.6.3 VMware image works in AMD processor computer.
@Dinesh,
Thanks very much for your guide following it carefully made it work like a charm on my pc.
@Dave
Thanks Dave for your info it helped me very well, at least I won’t think about why my installed mac has a lag everytime, CHEERS!!!!
I’m runin MAC on the following specs:
AMD Sempron 140 single core
2 GIG DDR3 memory
ECS M6P61M-M3 motherboard
No graphic card
Thank you so much this is perfectly working on my compaq with amd cpu. Be sure that your pc has hardware virtualization and it is enabled. To check h/w virtualization you can download s/w(i used securable.exe) and if it is not enabled you can do it in bios settings.Thank you so much for this author
pura vida! funciona perfecto!!!
me salvó la vida
I had no luck with this
I have Athlon 620 Quad core and I followed these steps with Snow Leopard 10.6.7 version but it does not work. Any new suggestions?
I too had the Athlon 620 quad core. It was successfully done on my pc. Better you try it again.
Tell me exactly where are you getting problem, after installation or before itself.
Tell me clearly i can help you
I get the “The cpu is turned off…” message on boot screen (when apple logo comes up). I set first boot device to be CD drive with darvin_snow_legacy.iso but I think it doesn’t boot it. I should get some menu when darvin iso boots? I use Snow Leopard 10.6.7 with Vmware 8 version. Also tried with Lion
…before installation that is.
is it saying about virtualization
To all you guys having trouble with Snow Leopard versions. Its a bit pointless trying versions after 10.6.6, as the benefits are minimal, and very often will not boot! Until someone releases a darwin snow iso for running Lion (10.7) on an AMD machine, because Apple reworked the kernel and kexts (drivers), it will not run on AMD cpu`s.
It seems a few people had some success running versions 10.7 and 10.8, but I think they may be lucky enough to have compatible motherboards/drivers, as most often these versions have trouble running on most setups, (mine included).
Although you may have a pre-made Vmware SL, it doesn`t mean it will automatically run!
You MUST have virtualisation turned on in the Bios, and your machine (mostly) will have this option, (which usually is turned off by default), so make sure this is set on, otherwise you WILL get the dreaded `cpu is turned off` message!
Make sure when booting that darwin_snow_legacy is in the cd drive.
See if this helps….also have a look at my(and others) older posts on installation.
OOPs….made a boob….I meant 10.6.7 and 10.6.8….Duh1
No nothing. My hardware supports hardware virtualization I checked it. Maybe the problem is because darvin iso isn’t booting. Don’t know why. I tried several different iso.
I think your problem is in trying to boot SL 10.6.7 in the first place. Its a difficult beast to get running at all, if you don`t have compatible hardware.
(as a tip, make sure you have VMWare version 7.1 or higher, lower versions might lock up)
Its best to try the tried and tested SL 10.6 first, to see if your machine will boot that up. You can then be sure that your machine will (happily I hope) run it. Then try later versions of SL VMware images.
Whtever you do, DO NOT run the Apple udate packages. If you do, or if you try to install/run the VMware 10.6.6 image, you lose the mouse and keyboard functions!
I described how to restore the mouse/keyboard functions & restoring a lost Admin Password using v10.6, in an earlier older post.
Also how to go about installing Snow Leopard using the SETUP DVD SL10a432 (you can browse for it) which installs the system from base, together with the SL 10.6 setup files (again browse for it…freely available).
I know VMware images save time setting up, but this is an alternative if all else fails. I hope this helps, let me know if it works.
If it doesn`t, I think your cpu may be the culprit. Make sure you have AT LEAST, 2Gigs ram, or it will run painfully slow……if at all.
Windows 7 is still better….
I am having a problem with this , I am using window 7 32 bit with vmware player 4.xx(latest for vmware player)
Windows xp and darwin ISO can boot and work well as virtual machines , but when i run mac snow leopard (posted torrent) actualization not supported error comes, What is the problem with my system
I am having a problem with this , I am using window 7 32 bit with vmware player 4.xx(latest for vmware player)
Windows xp and darwin ISO can boot and work well as virtual machines , but when i run mac snow leopard (posted torrent) virtualization not supported error comes, What is the problem with my system
My cpu is AMD athlon 64 x2 4800
are you getting enable hardware virtualization. software is available in net to check whether your mac supports virtulization.is it say yes, then you can go to bios settings while booting windows and enable hardware virtualization, it works
Yes i enabled virtualization , And other OSs are working fine in the virtual machine
“software is available in net to check whether your mac supports virtulization” what is it ?
As i am using an AMD cpu i thing the OS must load through the AMD compatible darwine iso(which i have)then the os must load , How to set the vmware player virtual machines first boot drive as my darwine ISO
Are you making sure you are using the darwin_snow_legacy iso? The ordinary darwin_snow is only for Intel cpu`s. Snow Leopard will only load successfully with the legacy file. Make sure when you select the cd drive, that you have browsed to the files location, and selected it.Just select the drive,click on the right-hand select option,and browse to the sl legacy iso, click on it to mount it…simples!
If you stll get a virtualisation error i.e, then if your doing everything else right, then your cpu/mb may be unable to correctly initialise it, sorry!
Do MAKE SURE that cpu virtualisation option is selected (ticked) in the bios options.
Also you have not said what version of Snow Leopard you are trying to boot. Try 10.6.0 first.
Look at previous posts to see how.
I’m interested in as to whether any one has tried this on an amd laptop?
Yes,my Acer Aspire 7530 Turion Mobile x2 core 2.1 Ghz runs everything I throw at it. It has run VMware versions 7.1 & 8 with Windows (all versions), Snow Leopard 10.6, 10.62, 10.66 (desktop/server), & all different Linux versions at quite acceptable speeds.
Netbooks will probably not run anything useful.
I am getting the Error: Invalid front side bus. 660000…. Plz help
Atanu…if you need help, tell us what your system is, what exactly is your cpu,motherboard, how much memory.etc. Also what you are trying to do, boot Snow Leopard (what version?), and how you are trying to do it.
Hi atanu, if you need help, you have not said what your system is, what type is your cpu & motherboard, how much memory, etc. Also what are you trying do do, boot snow leopard (what version?), and how?
Have you made sure you have enabled virtualisation in the bios settings? If you let us know as much info as possible, will try to help
Would really like to use this on my really crappy personal hp dv9000 amd 64bit proc I have bios setting on but it says “The Host does not support all of the hardware virtualization features required by vmware works” can anyone help please contact me
Hi Sean. Whats your cpu? Late Athlon/Phenom cpu`s should run it. Also what version of Snow Leopard are you trying to run? There`s a lot of factors that you have to have right before you can run SL. Make sure you`re running VMWare 7.1 or greater, as earlier versions can have problems with this.
I`ve found its best to try and install SL 10.6.0 first, to see if that will work.. Have a look at all the previous posts for help on installing, to save yourself a lot of grief.
Please don`t expect it to run as fast as the host system, (unless you`ve got a super whizz-bang hot-rod Formula 1 setup!).
If you have set your cpu`s virtualisation setting ON in the bios,and its definetely set, it may be that your trying to install SL versions higher than 10.6.0. I`ve found most peoples problems are from trying to install 10.6.6, 10.6.7, 10.6.8, and even Lion. (which currently doesn`t work on AMD cpu`s).
Just a thought, are you using the Snow Leopard legacy iso in the cd drive? It does require that.
Dave thanks boss for posting I have used the 10.6.4 image linked above and 10.6.7 which i realize now would not have worked i am running 32 bit win 7 and havdetectiontool.exe claims my virtualization is on for my machine but no luck. I cannot seem to find an image for 10.6.0 but it ok i will go from there thanks so much for this i really only want this ability to assist clients who has this brand os as all my machines are win boxes helps me visualize not worried about speed at all thanks for helping
Hi Sean, if your having trouble installing, have a good look on previous older posts.(Look underneath where it says “Older Comments”). I gave a guide to setting up using the Snow Leopard 10a432.iso disk from scratch, try the http://www.isohunt.com site or other sites torrent downloads for it, (naughty,I know!).
If you`re still looking for a step-by-step guide, I`ll try to help if you need it.
Oh…Info tools (like detectiontool.exe) do not always tell the truth! Always check in the bios!
Hi,I tried booting up with darwin_snow_legacy.iso. The Empire EFI boots up but I don’t know how to proceed after that. It says eject your EMPIRE EFI boot disc and Insert your MAC OS X Snow Leopard Disc and then Hit F5 to continue. Do I have to create a MAC OS X Snow Leopard Disc or something else. How can I proceed after that?
Thanks
Hi Mandy. Are you trying to boot a VMWare image, if so, what version? If you booted up the the snow legacy/EFI iso, you should see on the screen another snow leopard icon next to it.Select that and try installing.
If not, if you have a snow leopard disk (like the 10a432 iso version, eject the boot disk and insert that to install.
I strongly suggest you have a good look at all the older posts which advise about installing snow leopard, (look below where it says “post comment” and look for `older comments`. You will find if you scroll back amongst all the older stuff, a load of information about installing snow leopard, and a lot of solved problems people have had.
Hope this helps, but if you get stuck, will try to help.(PS. always give as much info about your setup as possible, i.e. cpu, cpu speed, memory size, vmware version,etc)
I just got this to work on windows 7 64bit amd x4 640 3.6ghz 4 gig ram. I did have to update it to workstation 8 and knock down the number of processors running from 1/2 to 1/1. That got rid of the disabled cpu message. Does not run the fastest but it does run now.
Thank you for all the info on here.
What the password?
123
Mr DInesh, it worked perfectly, from the start, on my machine.
My specs:
Athlon II 250 (dual core at 3 GHz)
Corsair 2 GB at 1333 MHz
MB Asus 785G EVO, integrated sound card (VIA)
XFX GeForce 9600 GT
I’ve mounted the image in VM Workstation, it allocated one core, 1 GB of memory to the virtual machine.
It hadn’t recognize my grafic card to full extent, but it rendered desktop normaly. Audio is chopy. I must emphasize that all this is “out of the box” state, without tampering with the system.
All best regards, thank you!
First of all thanks a lot for the nice tutorial….. I did the exact same thing on my ( AMD athlon II neo K325 1.3GHZ,4GB ram, VM version : 8.0.0 build-471780) laptop and it doesnt even go to the apple logo screen and i keep getting the following message,
“A fault has occurred causing a virtual CPU to enter the shutdown state. If this fault had occurred outside of a virtual machine, it would have caused the physical machine to restart. The shutdown state can be reached by incorrectly configuring the virtual machine, a bug in the guest operating system, or a problem in VMware Workstation.Click OK to restart the virtual machine or Cancel to power off the virtual machine.”
what does it mean? thanks….
should i go with a previous version of apple os?? so far i have tried lion and snow leopard,and had no luck with them. I just want to run xcode and develop iphone stuff for “mobile application development” module in my college. could you recommend me a good version?? ( its a pain to download big files, as here in sri lanka internet connections are damn slow, mine is only 512kbps :/ ) thanks.
Please answer this question. I have searched high and low for the answer and can’t find it anywhere.
I HAVE THE SAME ERROR…. “A fault has occurred causing a virtual CPU to enter the shutdown state. If this fault had occurred outside of a virtual machine, it would have caused the physical machine to restart. The shutdown state can be reached by incorrectly configuring the virtual machine, a bug in the guest operating system, or a problem in VMware Workstation.Click OK to restart the virtual machine or Cancel to power off the virtual machine.” HOW CAN I TROUBLESHOOT IT?
It has worked for me !!! on:
AMD Phenom X3 8750 2,4Ghz
ASUS M2N68-CM
2GB RAM DDR2 800
Thank you guys !!!
after upgrade to 6.1.8 system does not boot up anymore
Any help will really appreciated, I need 6.1.8 to run XCODE
works for me except sound
gigabyte ga ma785gm us2h
amd athlon x4 620 overclock to 3.5 ghz
window 7 ultimate
2gb ram 800
i had to use vm workstation 7, n use snowy vmware files, for open existing vm or team in vmworkstation
i set darwin snow legacy iso for iso image file in cd/dvd(ide) then power on
it will boot to the darkvader screen with 1 center box , then the bottom right, right click the mouse on cd drive to diconnect after diconnect clik on setting go to iso image again and change to snow leopard 10.6.3 (NOTE after downloading snow leopard 10.6.3 retail from media get u have to change it to iso image usein (power iso) after switiching to 10.6.3 enter f5 wait it will pop out another box with snow leopard clik ur left mose on the screen use ur right arrow to go to the box then hit enter, then it will load up to snow leopard installation,
You will be lucky to get sound working properly at all funkyy, due to audio lag. As far as I know, everyone has choppy or lagging audio, although video may be useable. It`s due to emulation drivers/components causing a signal lag, which is difficult to overcome.
Computer music programs musicians know about audio lag, which is the time taken by the audio signal to travel through the systems audio chips, (either on-board chips, or pci audio cards), to reach the speakers. If you can get an audio lag of about 4ms, it wont be noticeable. Most audio lag is much greater than this, and, as above, is due to lag times “chopping up” the audio signal. The less the lag, the better the audio.
I had this working the other day on VMWare 7.1.3 then decided to try to get Lion working. I installed VMWare 8 and everything stopped working. I went back to 7.1.3 and nothing works. I did everything the same as before but it never gets to the Darth Vader screen anymore. It doesnt seem to recognise the darwin legacy image anymore (I dont get the lines of ……………………… that i used to get) It seems to be using darwin, but no the legacy one. I deleted the orignal darwin one to be on the safe side but still no luck. Any suggestions?
Hi Dave.
Don`t bother to try and get Lion going on an AMD cpu. You will not have any luck until someone releases new drivers for it. Apple reworked the Kernel and kexts (drivers) for Lion, and its incompatible with current setups.
You will have to re-install your old setup from scratch if you tried to install Lion over it, as it screws it up.
I keep saying to people on this site, NEVER use Apple updates, they seldom work properly, and either won`t start at all, or you lose keyboard and mouse functions.
Have a look through the (much) older posts on tips for updating. Also the sound almost always is rubbish, due to latency and driver problems.
I get the Star Wars screen after it says Darwin was mounted successfully for Snow Leopard 10.6.1-2. The screen then says only the VMWare tools. It then says at the bottom: “Eject your Empire EFI Boot Disc and insert your MAC OS X Disc Then hit F5 to continue”. What do I do? I have Windows 7 on a AMD Athalon II X2 M300. Virtualization enabled!
Thank you, guys! It works on my Phenom x4 PC, btw menus in Russian, i’ve used VMWare image from mentioned post.
I’ve had Dart Waider screen too with panic error, then used Rony’s advice to remove CD-ROM then press F5 and press Enter when HDD icon appeared and everything works now.
Btw, having Windows 7 x64 and it works for me.
Hi Oleg,
Can you explain what you mean by removing the CD-ROM? I’m kind of confused as there is nothing in the CD-ROM drive since this is a virtual image….
Thanks!
Just one thing — I’ve added 1 Gb more memory, so now it has 2Gbytes. But MacOS still shows that it has only 1Gb. How can I fix this?
Hi Oleg, you really do need, at the very least, 2gigs ram memory to run this emulation, and preferably more if you want to run it fairly quickly.
MacOS will only show I gig memory if you only have 2 gigs in your system, as Windows 7 x64 requires 2 gigs on its own to run properly, so you cannot allocate more memory to MacOS than you already have! Windows must have its own memory to run, and you`re asking it to do the impossible!
Don`t forget that you are running a system on top of another!
Hi!
Thanks for reply! I have 6 Gigs memory on my machine and wanted to give 2Gigs for MacOS. I’ve chanaged memory setting in VMWare, but MacOS still shows 1 Gig.
Now I’ve found another, newer developer VMWare image(with Xcode preinstalled) and it works perfectly with legacy loader ISO.
Hi Oleg,
glad you got it sorted! Misunderstood how much memory you had! 6gigs is more than ample. Snow Leopard is a quirky beast to get running properly at the best of times, and VMware does a mostly good job of running it, but you do need patience to set it up correctly, and try different setups.
SL legacy iso I have found to be the best emulation for me, but there are so many different PC machines out there, what works on one, may not work on another. Its strictly try it and see…….
My setup (Phenom 4-core 3.4Ghz 4gigs ram Asus M4A88T-V EVO USB3 MB) runs it pretty quickly, but few people seem to have good sound.
If anyone has found a way around poor sound playback, let me know. I have looked into various sound drivers available, but always come up against high latency problems causing crackling.
Work like a charm on win 7 x64 Ultimate AMD Phenom II X4 955 8 gigs of ram and xfx radeon hd 9650
I am having an issue getting this to work on a new build of mine. I am able to get it to work on my Intel i3 laptop with no issues but cannot seem to get it to work on this computer. I am getting this error with the Starwars screen and it says:
“Eject your empire EFI Boot Disc and Insert your MacOS X Snowleopard Disc Then Hit F5 to continue”
Once i hit F5, nothing happens but if i hit enter some stuff happens on the screen real quick and VM player exits promptly. anyone have any idea how to fix?
Computer:
Windows 7 x64
AMD FX-8150 8 core 3.60GHz
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 Motherboard
AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series Video Card
Patriot 8GB DDR3 1866 RAM
Thanks!!
Hi Colby, what vmware image are you trying to start? And what kind of EFI boot? Don`t forget that some snowleopard boot images such as the darwin and EFI, are only for Intel cpu`s. Try using the snowleopard darwinlegacy.iso boot and/or make sure the EFI boot is definetely for AMD cpu`s. Also booting some later SL vmware images, such as 10.2 to 10.6.0 can be difficult to start unless everthing is properly set up
Have a look at previous posts, where you might find a lot of help there. If not, will try to help you get set up if poss. but need all details. Hope this helps.
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the reply…I am trying to boot Snowleopard 10.6 using the Darwin boot loader recommended for AMD processor at the link listed on step one of this page…I’ve already gone back to the beginning of these comments and unfortunately i did not see a a fix to the problem i am having. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!
Colby
after i power on the virtual machine….two options appear…mac and vm player…i click on ne one of them and my mouse stops working…please help..please….
after i power on the virtual machine….two options appear…mac and vm player…i click on ne one of them and my mouse stops working…please help..please….thankyou
what is the password?
Hi Dave,
Thanks for the reply…I am trying to boot Snowleopard 10.6 using the Darwin boot loader recommended for AMD processor at the link listed on step one of this page…I’ve already gone back to the beginning of these comments and unfortunately i did not see a a fix to the problem i am having. Any help is GREATLY appreciated!
Thanks!
Colby
If you`re having trouble with VMWare booting up, or upgrading Snow Leopard on AMD processors? .
MAC OSX SL 10.6.6 INTEL_AMD VMWARE IMAGE. (NOTE: this image does sometimes work on some machines without all these work-arounds!)
The following is a work-around if all else fails………….
You definitely need the following to start, or, if you`re trying to udate, skip this bit and go to 4)
1) A (64-bit) AMD processor capable of running hardware virtualisation mode, probably most late Athlon/Phenom cpu`s. I`m not sure, but don`t think Semprons will.
Mostly, multiple-core processors (dual-core +), are advised, because of the heavy workload placed on it, together with about 4Gigs of memory. Less than this, it will probably run excruciately slowly, if at all.
Other AMD processors will mostly only run software emulation, and will NOT run Snow Leopard of any version, although other vmware images like Win98/XP/Linux should run ok
**Make sure you have the hardware virtualisation setting turned on in the BIOS.**
A lot of people have trouble starting SL v10.6.2 or higher from scratch, and I`ve found this method for AMD CPU`s to work best, by first trying the base SL 10.6.0 version to see if Snow Leopard will work on your machine.
Now, the nuts and bolts….
2) You will need version 7.1 or higher, of Vmware Workstation/Player. Versions lower than this will usually have some difficulty running Snow Leopard, so save yourself some grief.
3) Next you must beg/borrow/steal/download the following software:
a) the (iso boot file) darwin snow legacy. (Essential for initial booting, do not use the normal darwin snow, or the (easy)EFI files, these are only for Intel cpu`s).
b) The Vmware Image, Mac OSX Server 10.6.0 (experimental), as this sets up VMWare. You can browse/Google for this (or get the torrent from http://www.isohunt.com) (Naughty I know!)
c) The Mac Snow Leopard 10a432 install DVD, the ISO version,( NOT the DMG, as Windows won`t recognise it. You may be able to convert the dmg image to iso, if you know what your doing).
d) In Vmware, load Mac OSx Server(experimental), set up your options, set the dvd option for darwin snow legacy, and start.
e) Once the initial boot is done, eject the darwinsnowlegacy.iso, and make sure you have the SL10a432 install dvd loaded, go to the new disk icon on screen and click on this to install, or press F5.
There are loads of blogs about installing SL, so I wont repeat it all over again. Assuming you`ve followed the on-screen install instructions, and have plenty of patience….you`ve got SL successfully running…. thats it isn`t it?…. well yes…and no.
UPDATING/RESTORE MOUSE&KB & ADMIN PASSWORD RESET
4) Assuming success, you now have SL v10.6.0 up and running. Its fine for most things, but some Mac software will only run on later versions, like 10.6.6. Whatever you do DON`T run any software updates! (for example to 10.6.6 ).
If you do, you`ll lose the USB functions, i.e mouse & keyboard.
**Loss of mouse/keyboard function, and FORGOTTEN ADMIN PASSWORDS, are the most common problems in SL, and yet are fairly simple to overcome, and I`ll tell you how….
DOWNLOAD the VMWare image: MAC OSX SL 10.6.6 INTEL_AMD VMWARE IMAGE, (browse for it).
**(NOTE: this image does sometimes work on some machines without all these work-arounds!)**
Extract the image into some folder if its compressed, so you can see the normal files. Do NOT load into VMware. (This is the image you will eventually use in VMWare.)
Next, DOWNLOAD the file IOUSBFamily-378.pkg. You`ll need this later.
**You now have the tools to be able to update to the SL 10.6.6 version, AND reset your ADMIN PASSWORD! (In passing, don`t upgrade past this version, as its minor, and only prepares INTEL cpu`s for LION 10.7)
5) Start VMWare and select Mac OSX 10.6.0, select Shared Folders, making sure that the file IOUSBFamily-378.pkg is in it.
Open the options, make sure darwinsnowlegacy is in your cd/dvd drive. At the bottom of options, select add(+) and new hard drive.
Browse to the folder you saved MAC OSX 10.6.6 in, and select the Mac OSX 10.6.6-0 vmdk file. It will now show up as a second drive in options.
**IMPORTANT! When selecting, you must select `persistent` as an option, in order to save settings on the drive.
Boot up SL 10.6 and you will see the Mac OSX 10.6.6 hard drive on screen as well.
Now, assuming you have set up Shared Folders, and the file IOUSBFamily-378.pkg is in it, run this package, follow the prompts, and SET THE DESTINATION TO THE MAC OSX 10.6.6 HARD DRIVE. Once it tells you install is complete, you`re nearly done. What has happened is that the (non-working)10.6.6 USB Kexts (drivers) have been replaced by the v10.6 ones, re-enabling the mouse and kb in 10.6.6.! Don`t power down yet…read the following…
RE-SETTING THE ADMIN PASSWORD:
This can be done by deleting the file .APPLESETUPDONE. You CANNOT do this in a running Snow Leopard to its own hard drive, BUT you can on a second drive, sneaky,eh?
In VMWare, with an AMD cpu, you can`t boot up into single-user mode like Intel can, and delete it. So…. while you`re still in your SL 10.6, and you`ve got the SL 10.6.6 hard drive on screen….open it, and look for .APPLESETUPDONE. Its usually somewhere like library/system/db/var directory. Found it? Delete it by moving to the trashcan and emptying. (What this does is trick the system into believing its in a first time boot-up state, and gives you the option to create a new ADMIN account, and you can then delete the old one after).
All thats left is to power down SL 10.6, go to options and remove the second 10.6.6 drive from the options for 10.6.
YOUR NEW SL10.6.6. In VMWare, select `browse for machine`, go to your new SL 10.6.6 folder, and select the Mac OSX SL 10.6.6-0 vmdk, set up your memory options,etc. making sure that darwinsnowlegacy is in the cd/dvd drive.
Power on SL 10.6.6 and you should be rewarded with the Snow Leopard desktop!
All these steps worked for me, so do have patience if it doesn`t work first time. It took me some time to get a smoothly running Snow Leopard system.
Hi Dave,
Do you happen to have instructions on how to make a MAC image for the AMD processor? a friend of mine gave me his snow leopard 10.6 install DVD…
Thanks for your help!
Hi Colby, erm…how do you mean, a Mac image? You can only run Snow Leopard on an AMD machine via Vmware (preferably version 7.1.4 or higher) Do you mean how do you install your SL 10.6 Mac install disk to use it on your AMD machine? Also, what version/type of Snow Leopard is your disk. You see if its a Mac type dmg (the file version system that Mac machines use,as against the normal ISO disk for PC`s), then Windows won`t recognise it, and you would have to convert the dmg disk to an iso type.
Also, if its an iso type, and windows can read it, a disk version 10.6.0 to 10.6.6 should install ok.
But……..why not download a pre-made VMWare image from somewhere? There are various versions on the web.
If you really want to set this up from scratch, (why re-invent the wheel?) let me know, and I will give you step-by-step instructions
Hi Dave,
The disk only says 10.6 on it…i meant to ask if there were instructions to make a vmware image using the MAC install disk that i have. Can you tell me the exact file name for the image that will work on my machine? I have a good image that works fine on my i3 laptop but it just wont play on my AMD desktop…If there is a pre-made image that will actually work on my machine i would def like to go that route…
My computer spec are below:
Windows 7 x64
AMD FX-8150 8 core 3.60GHz
GIGABYTE GA-990FXA-UD5 Motherboard
AMD Radeon HD 6600 Series Video Card
Patriot 8GB DDR3 1866 RAM
Hi Colby, the image you`re using on your Intel machine certainly won`t work on your AMD cpu. Newer Mac machines now use Intel cpu`s, the same as most PC`s,and its therefore its easier to get Snow Leopard running on Intel PC`s. than AMD. So you need a different set of boot files to run SL on AMD cpu`s. I did give a bit of info on doing this on previous posts.
If your install disk is a Mac type, I would ignore it, and download a Snow Leopard pre-made Vmware image off the web. Any version from 10.6.0 to 10.6.6 should work on your setup, 10.6.7 is a bit problematic (Try http://www.isohunt.com for images, but ALWAYS do a virus scan on downloads, and beware of pop-ups!). or Google for images.
I`ve got a similar setup to you, and SL runs fine using vmware images. I currently run SL 10.6.6 desktop and server without problems on my AMD desktop and laptop.
If you have difficulty finding an image, I`ll try to find one for you if all else fails and point you to it. If you are using an image on your intel laptop, you shouldn`t have difficulty using it on your amd desktop.
If you have trouble firing it up, let me know, and I`ll take you thru` the setup procedure.
Hope this helps a bit.
Hi Colby, if you cannot find any suitable images, I am making arrangements to put a highly compressed SL 10.6.6 image on DROPBOX that you can download. It may take a day or two before I can upload it. It is a self-extracting RAR archive.
Once extracted, it will be ready to use.
Let me know if you want it, and I will give you the download link.
Dave
Dave, you are awesome. I would most def like a link if you can provide for me. I can give you my email address if you want to email ti to me.
Thanks again!
Colby
Hi Colby, haven`t forgotten! Had to compress SL 10.6.6 vmware image down to less than 2.5gigs allowed by Dropbox, which takes forever….Also takes forever to upload 2.3gig file. Should be available in about the next day or so. If you would like to send your email address to systemlink@ntlworld.com I will email you the link as soon as the upload has finished.
Also will send some setup tips.
Dave
hey i would like to install mac lion on my non mac core i3 laptop…. so plz help me in this….
So what might be wrong if I can’t get the VM to boot the darwin_snow_legacy.iso? I have the boot order set correctly, and have tried both mounting the ISO as the drive and using UltraISO to mount it to a virtual drive.
I switched the boot order to load the Internal shell second to confirm it was not booting the snow_legacy ISO. It does however show up as a block device and I can get a directory listing from it in the internal shell. Can’t figure it out, it’s driving me nuts! I’m using VM Workstation 8.0.1 on an Athalon 8 core with 8GB of ram.
I should note I’m trying to install Snow Leopard 10.6.7, but that seems irrelevant since I can’t get the darwin_snow_legacy.ISO to boot.
Hi Mike, interesting problem! Try making sure in your VMware setup options, that too many cores have not been set. It seems that sometimes this can affect the boot-up sequence, so may not even start.
Try setting 1 cpu and 1 or 2 cores. (You`ve got 8 cores? Seriously? wow! makes my 4-core Phenom2 look a bit under-powered).
Are you using darwinsnowlegacy as an iso image file? That is, don`t use the physical drive, but insert it as an iso image file?
Also try reducing the amount of allocated ram to about 2-4 Gigs. Its a tempation to maximise all the settings, but Snow Leopard runs ok with this on a real Mac.
Do not try to boot up using SL 10.6.7.Its unlikey to boot this version, without a lot of fiddling around. If you want to try out SL, see the above help I gave to Colby, it gives more detailed instructions on installing. Use these to see if SL will run at all on your machine.
As before, the machine (cpu & motherboard) MUST be capable of HARDWARE NOT SOFTWARE virtualisation, so doubly check this in your Bios settings.
Most people with Athlon/Phenom cpu`s seem to run it ok, so most problems do seem to be down to settings.
As I said previously, try the Snow Leopard v10.6.0 server(experimental) vmware image, with the UserDvd10a432 setup dvd, and darwinsnowlegacy.iso.
I`ll repeat the above instructions a bit…..
So, initially load the SL10.6.0 image. This sets up vmware. Adjust the cpu/ram settingsto suit, set the option to have darwinsnowlegacy.iso inserted.
**(DON`T use the main dvd drive, use the ISO IMAGE OPTION, browse to where darwinsnowlegacy iso is, and insert it as a Iso Image File!).**
Then start it, and it should come up with the main boot screen.Insert the SL userdvd10a432 dvd, in your main dvd drive,and it should show up on screen (assuming the dvd options are set).
Browse and open/run it to start the main installation. You will get a series of scrolling texts running down the screen, be patient if it seems to stick, its only thinking about it, and it does take some time!
Hopefully, some of these hints might help.
Let me know if this helps at all, but if this doesn`t work, will try to give more assistance if possible.
Hey guys i am new to this , i want to install SL on my VMware , i have Athlon 620 X4 and Gigabyte mother board , umm i found this t0rrent
http://the
pirate
bay.se/
torrent/
6348816
Can anyone tell me if it will work and what all i have to do to make it work? Thanks a lot
Hi. without examining the torrent file, and you don`t say what its downloading, can only assume its for a versionof Snow Leopard and NOT Lion. AMD cpu`s (unless someone knows different!) currrently don`t support Apple Lion. With your setup, you should be able to run SL of some version under VMWare.
If the torrent is for a premade VMWare setup, you should be able to open it in VMware and run it.
If you need help, first have a look at all the previous question/answer posts, including all the `older comments`, these should help you understand how to get it running.
Hope this helps a bit
Hi and many thanks for the tutorial!
This worked for my desktop (AMD Phenom II X4, 4GB ram) but I have a problem with my internet connection. I have a wireless adaptor in my Windows OS it works fine. How do I make it work for MAC OS?
Thanks!
Hi Theo, have a look in your VMware settings for Snow Leopard. In the Internet settings, try selecting `bridged` connection. This simply links up to your main pc internet connection and `piggy backs` onto it..It works whether your`e using wireless or wired, VMWare simply uses whatever connection you`ve got.
It works ok on both my desktop and laptop.
Let me know if you still have problems
Everything works perfectly fine!
Thanks again!
Works great on my pc.
AMD Turion II P520 Dual Core – 2.3 GHz
4GB RAM
ONE THING- CAN’T UPDATE TO 10.6.8.
IF ANYONE CAN HELP, PLEASE COMMENT.
Hi, if you used an Apple update from a previous version to 10.6.8….don`t….they almost never work on amd cpu`s. Best to try and find a pre-made 10.6.8 image….but why? SL 10.6.6 is mostly stable, and the upgrade really doesn`t give that much more functionality.