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Installing Snow Leopard (and Rosetta) into Parallels on modern Intel Macs

MichaelLAX said:
Are you attempting STEP ONE on a Mac that is running Mountain Lion? If so, as pointed out in the preliminary notes at the beginning of the post, there is a known problem with Mountain Lion.
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Michael
Thank you for responding
I performed Step 1 on a OSX 10.5.8 Leopard machine (my wife's ancient machine that I hauled out of the attic and dusted off....)

My working machine is
Model Name: iMac
Model Identifier: iMac7,1
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2.8 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache: 4 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Running OSX 10.8.2 with Parallels 8.0.18101

The only deviation from your procedure that I did was that I.....
touch '/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist'
..... both on the Leopard machine, but also on the Mountain Lion machine.

I have confirmed that the ServerVersion.plist was created

I will upgrade the Leopard machine to Snow Leopard and try again....

Thanks again
Kevin
 
Kevin: If you are attempting to create a Leopard partition, I do not believe that it will work. These instruction are only for Snow Leopard.
 
KevinKarney said:
I will upgrade the Leopard machine to Snow Leopard and try again....

Thanks again
Kevin
Click to expand...


Michael
YOU ARE A STAR

I followed your steps again - slavishly - including the two Troubleshooting steps to confirm that the ServerVersion.plist was there. And I have Snow Leopard running :) and my beloved Freehand drawing package back to life:):):):):):):):)

Two minor niggles.....
- prl-tools-mac.iso does not exist with Parallels 8. Not sure what that does

- Apple Software Update offers a massive Update Combined v 10.6.8 v.1.1. No mention of the troublesome Apple Software Installation Update 1.0 which I guess is included in the Combined Update. Would you advise installation of the Combination ?

ONCE AGAIN THANKS FOR A FABULOUS THREAD. When you are next in Wales, drop in for a bottle of Champaigne.

Best regards
Kevin
 
Hey :)!

Was it Churchill who said: "Nothing beats success like success!"

I think I was told earlier that Parallels 8 incorporates all of the information needed for Parallels Tools right into the app, so no separate CD mount is needed. But be sure to do the Parallels Tools install as per the Parallels 8 instructions and let us know how it is accomplished in 8!

I do not think that Update Combined v10.6.8 v.1.1 includes the Apple Software Installation Update 1.0; but I could be wrong. I am less paranoid about Apple Software Installation Update 1.0 with the passage of time, although I personally still have not installed it. Let us know once you have installed the Update Combined v10.6.8 v.1.1, if a subsequent Software Update still offers you Apple Software Installation Update 1.0.

I'm due to be in London starting the 21st, although family health matters may delay that... How about a local Pint?!?
 
jcj2249 said:
Thank you so much MichaelLAX for your commitment in writing these guide lines.

...

May I suggest some corrections of your guide lines:
- an alias is created automatically on the Desktop during the installation : thus it is not necessary to create one.
- in Step Three - Updating the Snow Leopard Parallels environment
a. Double click the Snow Leopard alias to Start Parallels : THIS STARTS IN FACT SNOW LEOPARD !
b. Migrate the Open window to /Macintosh HD/ : THIS SHOULD BE ~/

Thanks again !
Click to expand...
These differences may be due to your using Parallels 8 and my instructions were built on Parallels 7, which I continue to use. Is that correct? If so, I may add your suggestions for Parallels 8 users.
 
This worked for me and is very useful! (Latest version of parallels 7)
Thank you so much!
 
MichaelLAX said:
Share with us what software you continue to use with Rosetta and Snow Leopard!
Click to expand...

Today I went through the whole process exactly as you described it, and it works great. Now I have all the best worlds in one iMac 2011 (12 GB Ram).
Old PPC games that cannot run on a newer system than Snow Leopard get a whole new life now.
Not to mention Classic 9.0.4 apps and games (like Civilization II and Imperialism II), that get a huge speed boost on recent hardware.

Granted, Classic on SheepShaver runs also on Mountain Lion, according to the developers, but it's nice to use it on good old Snow Leopard anyway.
Just a feature such as WindowShade makes it worthwhile :)

So: thank you, thank you MichaelLAX, great job indeed!!!

PS. For those who haven't tried to run Classic on Intel Macs yet, here's the SheepShaver method:
* http://www.emaculation.com/doku.php/sheepshaver_mac_os_x_setup
 
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Thanks for the extra info on Classic :apple:

As far as I'm concerned, I just copied my SheepShaver folders from another Mac (running Snow Leopard and Classic) into the Parallels/Snow Leopard set-up in Lion, and Mac OS 9.0.4 worked right away :p

Nice, because the first time you install Classic into Intel is a little tricky, but after that, it's stable and fine.
 
Still can't successfully 'touch' the image file...

So I'm brand new to this forum, and absolutely new to both SL and ML. I've read all 311 posts and have tried every different way I can to make the image file. I've made the image file by selecting the device, by selecting the disk...I've tried selecting CD/DVD Master, I've tried read/write...I've tried saving to the desktop, saving it to an external MacOS volume, saving it to an external MS-DOS (probably NTFS) volume... Regardless of what I try, I always get the "Read-only file system" error when I get to the 'touch' step.

I should probably go ahead and confess that I'm using Tiger (10.4.11) on an older Mac-mini to make the image. I've tried using terminal on that machine, as well as the target machine (2011 Mac-mini with ML).

The closest I've come to success was by copying the entire 'Mac OS X Install DVD' folder to a folder on my HD (using 'cp'), adding ServerVersion.plist to that directory structure, and then creating an image from that new folder. But I notice that the folder (before adding ServerVersion) isn't identical to the original install image in file number or size...I assume there are some system files that aren't being copied?? Regardless, when I try to use that new image to install in Parallels 8 it just hangs on what looks like the normal Apple startup screen.

So here are my questions:
1. Does anyone have any idea why I can't get past this read-only file system issue? I know that most people have gotten around this same issue by using terminal in either SL or Lion, but I don't have either of those to try. I assumed that if it worked in SL that it would probably work in my ancient Tiger install, but nope.... Are there any options for modifying the image on a PC?
2. I read somewhere that people were having a similar hanging issue with an unrelated install in Parallels and were able to resolve it by burning their image to a DVD and installing from there, rather than from the image on a HD. Does anyone believe this could work here? (I only ask because I don't have an easy way of burning a DVD, and wanted to gather input before sinking any more money into this endeavor)

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I wanted to try not to sound too amateurish, and wanted to make sure I included as much background info as I could.

Thanks in advance for any comments or help!

And Happy Thanskgiving! :)
 
Unfortunately we have not found a direct solution for creation of the image file and modifying it in Mountain Lion. The current workaround does require that STEP ONE be completed on a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac.

We had confirmation recently that STEP ONE will not work in Leopard and now your confirmation that it will not work in Tiger.

Is your Tiger Mac Mini PowerPC or Intel. If it is Intel, you can probably upgrade it to Snow Leopard (if it has enough RAM) and then complete STEP ONE there before moving the image file over to your Mountain Lion machine.

What are the details of your Mac Mini, including ALL information in the About This Mac under the Apple Menu, including the Model Name and Model Identifier in the Hardware Overview.

If your Mac Mini is PPC, and you say that you have no access to a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac, if you send me a fresh copy of the Snow Leopard Install DVD and a 16GB flash drive and return postage, I can do the installation for you. However, I am leaving for London tomorrow and will not return until December 10th.

I am not aware of any "burn to DVD" or "using a PC" solutions to the problem. Which model Mac do you own that has ML on it? Which PPC applications do you need to use in ML?
 
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Thanks for the response Michael, and have fun in London!

The Tiger mini is PowerPC...I'll email you the details separately. (I think it was the first generation of mini)

I may take you up on your offer when you return, if I still haven't figured it out. I'm going to look for someone who has a machine with Lion on it, and try modifying the image that way in the meantime.

The primary PPC program I'm trying to preserve is my wife's older QuarkExpress (6.5, I think)...It was many hundreds of dollars years ago. Secondarily it would also allow us to continue using Office 2004, although I may either upgrade that or finally switch to OpenOffice. She also still occassionally uses PageMaker. My Adobe CS3 suite also needs to be re-installed, which I'm trying to find my original media for... :-(

The ML mini is the mid-2011 version, but I'll include that when I send you those other details via email.

Thanks for your help!
 
MichaelLAX said:
Unfortunately Mt. Lion does not allow for the Install image file to be modified. We are still researching a way to accomplish STEP ONE in Mt. Lion, but currently no success!

The only workaround is to complete STEP ONE on a Mac with Snow Leopard or Lion and then move the modified Install image file back to the Mt. Lion Mac and complete the remaining steps.
Click to expand...

Michael, thank you for an excellent guide to getting SL installed in Parallels, and especially for staying with this long thread to answer so many questions!

I have the right type of Snow Leopard install disk (per your instructions), and prepped the image using a Lion MacBook Pro (because that is the only optical disk now in my array of Macs).

To my knowledge I followed step one to perfection, and then copied the .CDR file to my new Mac Mini where I am attempting to install SL on a Parallels 8 VM.

However, I have a question about prepping for STEP ONE to work around the Mountain Lion issue.

You indicate in the quote above that STEP ONE can be done on a SL or Lion Mac and then copied over. My question: Does that include the use of terminal to 'touch' the plist file?

Because I did not issue the terminal command after mounting the image file on the Lion machine, and when I did so (having mounted the image) on the ML Mac Mini, I get the dreaded server version complaint from Parallels 8.

Should I mount the image on the Lion machine, run the terminal commands, and then move both the image AND the .plist file over to the new Mac Mini?
 
Michael: I borrowed a friend's MacBook with Lion and the touch command worked without a problem.

Thad: the 'touch' command is the main reason you need SL or Lion. We've confirmed that in ML, and now Tiger, that you get the Read-only file system error with the touch command in those other OSes. Once the image is mounted, and you use the 'touch' command in terminal, you then unmount the image file and that effectively saves it with the new ServerVersion.plist file in it (image file becomes all inclusive at that point if it worked). You can verify that by confirming that the date/time stamp of the image file gets updated to the time you unmounted it. Make sure you use that new image file to do your install in Parellels.

I haven't tried the Parallels8 install with my new image file that I was able to 'touch' last night, but I'll report back with what I find during that exercise.

Thanks again Michael for your patience and persistence!!
 
MiTigger said:
Michael: I borrowed a friend's MacBook with Lion and the touch command worked without a problem.

Thad: the 'touch' command is the main reason you need SL or Lion. We've confirmed that in ML, and now Tiger, that you get the Read-only file system error with the touch command in those other OSes. Once the image is mounted, and you use the 'touch' command in terminal, you then unmount the image file and that effectively saves it with the new ServerVersion.plist file in it (image file becomes all inclusive at that point if it worked). You can verify that by confirming that the date/time stamp of the image file gets updated to the time you unmounted it. Make sure you use that new image file to do your install in Parellels.

I haven't tried the Parallels8 install with my new image file that I was able to 'touch' last night, but I'll report back with what I find during that exercise.

Thanks again Michael for your patience and persistence!!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the quick reply. I'll give that a try and report back.
 
ThadP said:
...You indicate in the quote above that STEP ONE can be done on a SL or Lion Mac and then copied over. My question: Does that include the use of terminal to 'touch' the plist file?

Because I did not issue the terminal command after mounting the image file on the Lion machine, and when I did so (having mounted the image) on the ML Mac Mini, I get the dreaded server version complaint from Parallels 8.

Should I mount the image on the Lion machine, run the terminal commands, and then move both the image AND the .plist file over to the new Mac Mini?
Click to expand...

YES: You should "touch" the mounted image file while it is in SL or Lion and then the image file will be properly revised (with the inclusion of the plist file) before it is moved back to Mt. Lion.
 
Success!

MichaelLAX said:
YES: You should "touch" the mounted image file while it is in SL or Lion and then the image file will be properly revised (with the inclusion of the plist file) before it is moved back to Mt. Lion.
Click to expand...

I have Snow Leopard installed after a misstep or two.

Now I have to find the work around for installing the Parallels 8 version of Parallels Tools.
 
ThadP said:
I have Snow Leopard installed after a misstep or two.

Now I have to find the work around for installing the Parallels 8 version of Parallels Tools.
Click to expand...

Parallels Tools is built into Paralels 8. Just look for it somwhere on the menu (I have not upgraded yet).

Try: Update Parallels Tools from the Virtual Machine menu...
 
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MichaelLAX said:
Unfortunately we have not found a direct solution for creation of the image file and modifying it in Mountain Lion. The current workaround does require that STEP ONE be completed on a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac.

My solution is to go via a sparse image. This is with Mountain Lion as my host OS. With most words from your 'Step One':

Insert SL DVD. In Disk Utility, select SuperDrive and from Disk Utility’s File menu, choose “New > Disk Image from [device]”, set the image format to “Sparse” and Encryption to none and create the disk image wherever. This creates SuperDrive.sparseimage (which is read/write).

Mount it from finder (or use: hdiutil attach SuperDrive.sparseimage)

touch '/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist'

Dismount it and then turn into DVD/CD-R image with:

hdiutil convert SuperDrive.sparseimage -format UDTO -o SuperDrive

I don't think you can do that step with Disk Utility.

Now we have a SuperDrive.cdr with the extra file!
Click to expand...
 
This is a terrific new STEP ONE for Mountain Lion users, especially those that do not have access to a Snow Leopard or Lion Mac. Thank you!.
 
Re: Dreaded "Invalid Version" Message (Post #294)

Unfortunately, steps at post #68 and #150 didn't work. #68 didn't show a pair of HDs, only kept attempting to start up, then invalid version message. #150 never got to that second boot screen despite more than a dozen attempts--only attempted startup then invalid version message. Perhaps I did inadvertently boot up with a backup file at some point.

Guess I will have to start over from scratch. Using Mountain Lion, but I do have a Snow Leopard machine in case I have to start from even before scratch. ;) Or I'll try sparse image suggestion.

Thanks,
Karen
 
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karendesign said:
...Guess I will have to start over from scratch...
Click to expand...

What time zone are you in? Do you have iChat setup with a screen name, so that I can help you directly? What times of the day(s), your local time, would you be available for an iChat session?

I am currently in London (GMT).
 
Hi Michael, I'm in Los Angeles CA. Let me give it a go redoing (and first seeing if I can locate backup copies of uncorrupted pvms etc.). Do appreciate offer to chat... if needed, will take you up on it. :)
 
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