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

[MichaelLAX]

This is very interesting as a work around for my legacy hardware and software support on my MP '08 octo. Would the virtualised SL work with a Nvidia card that only has Lion drivers?

What will you be using the Nvidia card for: Gaming, Graphics?

Which card is it?

I assume you installed it into your MP '08 at such time that only Lion drivers were available? But was it being sold in the Snow Leopard era?

UPDATE: Let me know also the software and legacy hardware you will be using it with...

 

[gpzjock]

I want to use PPC versions of Adobe CS and AppleWorks, plus PalmOS PDA support with a GTX570 if possible.
I would not expect to do any gaming in the Parallels environment.

 

[MichaelLAX]

I want to use PPC versions of Adobe CS and AppleWorks, plus PalmOS PDA support with a GTX570 if possible.
I would not expect to do any gaming in the Parallels environment.

Appleworks, and PalmOS PDA support should work fine in SL in Parallels.

Rasterizing and other graphics work is always slower in a virtualized environment then it would be in a real one.

However I did some experimenting with Aldus Freehand for one interested user and it seemed to work fine. I actually let her control my screen with Screen Sharing and she did some activity on a sample file she sent me to see how it worked for herself. She was pleased!

I am not sure what will happen with the nVidia card until you attempt to use it. See if this article helps you out any:

Optimizing NVIDIA GeForce 4xx and 5xx Graphics Cards for Mac OS X Lion Using OpenCL and CUDA

 

[utahman130]

Really nice and insightful guide! Nice job!

 

[MichaelLAX]

Really nice and insightful guide! Nice job!

Thank you!

Let us know which PowerPC applications it is letting you run with Lion!

 

[gpzjock]

Excellent piece of helpful and thoughtful research. Top man!
When I migrate to Lion or Mountain Lion eventually I will experiment with your findings.

 

[MichaelLAX]

Excellent piece of helpful and thoughtful research. Top man!
When I migrate to Lion or Mountain Lion eventually I will experiment with your findings.

Thank you!

Let us know how Parallels functions with that nVidia card!

 

[Sajin7]

Step One Problem

While following your instructions I came across this following error problem:

There is no operating system installed on this virtual machine. Please inserrt an operating system installation cd into the optical drive of you Mac and restart the virtual machine

What did I do wrong. Thanks for these great instructions and tutorials!!!!

 

[MichaelLAX]

Thank you!

Have you tried Troubleshooting Step One in post #9?

 

[Sajin7]

Step One Problem in Pictures pt1

This is my process in two parts

 

[Sajin7]

Step One Problem pt2

I hope this helps you to understand where I may be blowing this. I can't figure it out. Once again Michael Thanks so much!

 

[MichaelLAX]

Thank you for providing all of the all of those screenshots; they help!

I suspect that you are not ejecting the Snow Leopard Install DVD as provided in Step One #3 -- I will bold that instruction for future users.

At this point, you want that DVD as far away as possible!

So I suspect that the 'touch' command in Terminal is putting ServerVersion.plist in the wrong place. From your screenshot, it looks like it put it in your main Macintosh HD (not sure how it got there!); and it would cause Software Update and File Sharing problems if indeed it is in /Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/.

So you will need to delete it if it is on your Mac's HD's /System/Library/CoreServices/ folder [or move it out of that folder].

If the command is properly executed it will be in the SuperDrive.cdr file on your desktop; however, these files/folders are rendered invisible to the Finder, so:

As noted in the Troubleshooting Step One instructions in post #9, if you execute these commands in Terminal, that file should be confirmed as being in the correct place:

You can use Terminal to confirm that the file has been created. 
Type the following command into Terminal and then hit ENTER/RETURN:

cd '/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/'

and type the following command into Terminal and then hit ENTER/RETURN:

ls 

[that is a small L and a small S] 

In the resulting list of files (contained in the hidden CoreServices folder) 
you should confirm ServerVersion.plist has been created. [see the fifth 
image back in post #9]. If it is not there, repeat Step 5 in the original 
instructions, and use this step again to reconfirm that the file was created.

6. Quit Terminal and Step One is completed.

BE SURE to restart Step Two from scratch and trash the 'Mac OS X Snow Leopard.pvm' file left over from the last attempt (in ~/Documents/Parallels/).

Let me know if these suggestions work for you!

 

[Sajin7]

Re: Step One Problem

Yes I made sure that the original install disc was ejected. For some reason it doesn't "see" the image. Could it be that the disc is named SuperDrive.cdr? Instead of Mac OS X Install DVD??? Also one more thing....Am I supposed to eject the Mac OSX install "container" image and just navigate to the image file?

 

[MichaelLAX]

SuperDrive.cdr is the correct file name.

It appears that you are using a BOOTLEG copy of Snow Leopard. Please do not waste your time and my time to save $29.

 

[Sajin7]

Re: Step One Problem-Thank You

On my way to Apple Store to get the correct install disc. I'll see if that corrects it most likely it will. Thanks again.

 

[mycompdr]

Brillliant!

Thank you for taking the time to post these very clear instructions. Your method worked beautifully. There was one minor step omitted: double-clicking the .CDR file to mount the virtual installer CD on the desktop.

After installing all the available Apple Software Updates I ran a Repair Disk Permissions in Disk Utility, which found and repaired a lot of items in the System/Library.

 

[homestead]

Thanks

Chatted with you today Michael. This fix works on my macbook pro quad core.
After booting and updating I tried to transfer my apps and files from a local
disk using migration assistant but it ran and ran and never found the non-parallels snow leopard boot drive. So I created a soft link in parallels home directory that links to my home directory on my non-parallels snow leopard boot drive. That way when I run snow virtually or boot the normal snow disk I am using the same files.
I guess I could have done this to my lion home directory but I had already deleted older apps there that wouldn't run on lion.
Also noted to Michael that picture (jpg, pict, png) file in preview do not display in the virtual snow engine. Michael confirmed that on his setup in snow leopard and snow leopard server, so the problem probably is with parallels.
I also unsuccessfully tried to transfer my applications directory from my normal snow boot disk to the virtual snow image.
Has anyone gotten migration assistant to work within parallels or converted a bootable snow leopard disk to a virtual parallels disk image?

 

[MichaelLAX]

I am not going to spend any more time on the problem of Preview not working in Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server in Parallels 7, since I find it always easier to use it in Lion.

For those interested, here is the post and follow-up on the Parallels Forum:

Snow Leopard Server - Preview

 

[MichaelLAX]

Thank you for taking the time to post these very clear instructions. Your method worked beautifully. There was one minor step omitted: double-clicking the .CDR file to mount the virtual installer CD on the desktop...

...
Step One - Preparing the Snow Leopard Installation DVD
...
4. Mount the new disk image by double-clicking the file. You will now have two separate items on your Desktop: the image file and the container named Mac OS X Install DVD....

Thank you for your kind comments.

Isn't that the same instruction as in Step One #4?

 

[mrmystiq]

Small Addition to the Solution

Troubleshooting "An invalid Mac OS version is installed"

Once you have a working Snow Leopard partition, the file ServerVersion.plist is required to be located at /Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/ when starting Parallels and first booting Snow Leopard.

However, the process com.rectalogic.vmware.plist, created at Step Three #2, removes this file while Snow Leopard is running, so that Software Updates will run properly and File Sharing can be turned on and off. When a Shut Down is effected, this same process recreates this file, so it will again be present for Parallels to find when it again boots Snow Leopard.

Using the Parallels SUSPEND feature and/or if there is anything that ends Parallels without a proper Shut Down (such as a crash of Parallels while Snow Leopard is running) could result in this file NOT being recreated. Since it will be missing when Parallels reboots Snow Leopard, the resulting error message "An invalid Mac OS version is installed" will appear.

Here is how to fix this problem:

1. Go to ~/Documents/Parallels/ and double-click your Mac OS X Snow Leopard.pvm BACKUP file created in Step Four.

2. If you see a Dialog Box similar to "Duplicate MAC addresses detected. Do you want to recreate the MAC address for the virtual machine "Mac OS X Snow Leopard3 (1)" or use the current MAC address anyway?" -- SELECT Create New.

3. You now want to be at the window in Parallels where the backup partition is loaded but NOT yet started. If the backup Snow Leopard partition starts, wait until it fully starts up and then using the Apple Menu, do a Shut Down. See the image below.

4. In the Parallels Virtual Machine menu, go down to Configure... Unlock to allow changes, if necessary and click on the + symbol go down to another Hard Disk. Click on Type: Existing Image File and click on the Location box and when the Open box appears, go to ~/Documents/Parallels/.

5. Find the Mac OS X Snow Leopard.pvm file from the Partition that you want to fix and click on it and click Open. When it opens click on the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server-0.hdd file (or similarly named) and click Open. Again: when this file opens, click on the Mac OS X Snow Leopard Server-0.hdd file and click Open. Now you should have the box similar to the last image below and click OK. This will result in a Hard Disk 2 added to your Hardware List.

6. Click the red button to close the Hardware box and Click to start your Snow Leopard Partition. When Snow Leopard starts up you will see TWO Macintosh HDs.

7. Inside Snow Leopard, go to /Applications/Utilities/ and launch Terminal in the upper Macintosh HD. Type this command in Terminal:

touch '/ServerVersion.plist'

Quit Terminal

8. Open the upper Macintosh HD and you should see the file ServerVersion.plist. Drag it to the Desktop.

9. In the lower Macintosh HD go to /Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/ and drag the ServerVersion.plist file from the Desktop to this open folder. When it says that "The item 'ServerVersion.plist' can't be moved because 'CoreServices' can't be modified." Click on Authenticate and enter your Snow Leopard account password. Look inside this folder and confirm that a copy of ServerVersion.plist now exists there.

10. Keep the original copy of ServerVersion.plist on the Desktop for future use. Shut down the Backup Snow Leopard partition from the Apple Menu.

11. Quit Parallels and in the future the Backup Snow Leopard partition will always have both Macintosh HDs available if you must ever boot it up again and copy the ServerVersion.plist file to the lower /Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/ .

Now if you boot your main Snow Leopard Partition, it should boot up correctly!

YOU MUST AVOID USING THE PARALLELS SUSPEND FEATURE AND ALWAYS MANUALLY DO A FULL SHUT DOWN OF SNOW LEOPARD, ESPECIALLY WHEN SHUTTING DOWN OR RESTARTING YOUR MACINTOSH.

[click on individual images to ENLARGE]

Michael, I finally got around to fixing this and I had to use "Select boot device on startup" to be able to start the VM -- it seems that adding the HD that is missing the "ServerVersion.plist" file would not allow the VM to start.

I unchecked the second HD from the "Boot order:" box and tried unchecking all other items, except the HD that does have the file, with the same results. VM only started when I used "Select boot device on startup" and manually selected the working drive.

I don't know whether this is a boot order bug in Parallels or whether Parallels checks both drives for the "ServerVersion.plist" file. Either way, it makes no sense to me. Regardless, I fixed the problem and I am back on track! Thanks again for your help, Michael, much appreciated!

 

[txrpls]

Thanks for all the information. The installation went without a hitch. I only have one small problem. I cannot cut and paste from Lion to SL. Do you have any insight? Oh yeah, I needed Rosetta to run some old profiling software.

 

[MichaelLAX]

Thanks for all the information. The installation went without a hitch. I only have one small problem. I cannot cut and paste from Lion to SL. Do you have any insight? Oh yeah, I needed Rosetta to run some old profiling software.

Yes, it appears that Parallels has not implemented cut and paste into Parallel Tools for Mac OS virtualization (it does work in Windows). I have confirmed this for both Snow Leopard and Snow Leopard Server. I have never installed Lion in Lion, but I assume that cut and paste will not work there either.

You can research this further over at the Parallels Support site, including their forum. Research there must be limited to Snow Leopard Server in Parallels 7 in Lion, as they do not support Snow Leopard client in Parallels.

If you come up with a solution and/or work-around, LET US KNOW!

 

[MichaelLAX]

Oh yeah, I needed Rosetta to run some old profiling software.

What is profiling software?

 

[txrpls]

Color profiling for printing. Google Monaco Profiler if interested.

 

[Floop]

Michael - thank you for an amazing guide and write-up.

I really appreciate the effort you went to in creating that!