OSx86 – How To install Mac OS X on VMware Server & AMD 64

October 1, 2006

Ingredients:
1. VMWare Server
2. Mac OS X 10.4.6 iso
3. Daemon Tools 3.4.7
4. At least 6Gb of Free Space.

Machine Specs:
AMD 64 3500+
1Gb RAM

1. Download and Install VMware Server
VMware Server is available for free at www.vwmare.com

2. Download and Install Daemon Tools
Daemon Tools available for free at www.daemon-tools.cc

2. Obtain a legal OS X 10.4.6 ISO
When possible you should operate from a legal copy of the operating system. The image I used is ”Mac OS X 10.4.5 Jas.iso”. *cough*cough*

3. Mount the ISO 
VMware has the ability to mount CD/DVD images but not HFS+ images (the file system used by the Mac OS X installation DVD). You will thus need to load the iso into a virtual drive. I used Daemon Tools version 3.47. Some guides say Alcohol 120% is easier as you can skip step 5b.

4.Create a Virtual Machine
Fire Up VMWare, Select Local Host. Click on New Virtual Machine.  Click Next at the Wizard. Select Custom then Next. Select Other, then pick FreeBSD and click Next. Give your Virtual Machine a name. (I went with Mac OS X). *Put it wherever you want (I placed it in the location where I keep all my virtual machines. Note: make sure you have enough disk space for the virtual machine hard disk file. [6Gb]. Click Next. select Make Virtual Machine Private. Next then User That Powers On The Virtual Machine. Next again. Number of Processors, One. Next. Memory For The Virtual Machine , 512Mb. Next. Use Host-Only Networking (prevent Mac OS X from registering itself during installation). Next. SCSI Adapter , LSI Logic. Next. Create A New Virtual Disk. Next. Virtual Disk Type , IDE. Next. Disk Size, 6. Tick Allocate All Disk Space Now. Next. Wait for the disk space allocation. Give the Disk File a name. I also went with Mac OS X and save it to a location. Finish. Exit VMware.

5. Editing your VMware Config file [*.vmx] 
a. Locate where you’ve stored your Virtual Machine in * at step 4. Open file (.vmx extension) in notepad and add the following line to the end of the file.

paevm=”true”

b. Help VMware find the Daemon Tools virtual drive by replacing the line auto detect with your virtual drive letter.

ide1:0.present = “TRUE”
ide1:0.fileName = “n:”
ide1:0.deviceType = “cdrom-raw”

(note replace n: with the drive you have configured in Daemon Tools).

Close notepad and save the config file.

7. Installing Mac OS X
Launch VMWare Server and start your Virtual Machine. Press F2 and go into the Virtual Machine’s “BIOS” and set the boot order to CD-ROM first and HDD second. Save Changes and Exit. When the Mac OS X boot prompt appears (Read. Darwin) then the installation wizard welcome screen. It may take a while. Be patient.

8. Setting up your Hard Drive
Follow along in the installation, you’ll reach a point where it’s time to select your hard drive, but nothing is listed. Go to the menu and open up the Disk Utility. Create a Journal partition that utilizes the entire disk space. Done. The drive now shows up in setup. Proceed , Proceed.

9. Using a Custom Installation
Select the Custom Installation. You can opt to remove the Languages and Printer Driver Packages. Expand the “Patches” Packages and select the 3 AMD options – SSE2, SSE3 and AMD base system. Proceed along. Done.

10. Make your partition active.
On first restart of your Mac OS X you’d get a b0 error. You’ll need to mark your hard disk partition as active. To fix, boot from the iso again, and at Darwin initial prompt, hit F8. Type “-v -s” and then once a prompt appears, type “fdisk -e /dev/rdisk0“. Type “print” to display a list of partitions on the disk. Find the partition number for the one where you installed Mac OS X and then use the “flag n” command to mark the partition as active (n is the partition number). type “quit” and reboot. Mac OS X should boot off the hard disk as normal now.