Snow Leopard guest

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
Dr. T
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Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

I have a MacBook Pro, 2011 vintage, running Snow Leopard and have VirtualBox 4.2.36 installed, with the extension pack (I believe this is the latest version of VirtualBox to run on Snow Leopard?). I require Snow Leopard to work and run a lot of software which will not run on later versions of Mac OS X. I have been keeping this MacBook Pro and two other backup Apple laptops which run Snow Leopard (another MacBook Pro and a MacBook). However, all three computers are now exhibiting hardware failure and repair shops are unable to keep repairing them, despite me being happy to pay a premium for this service.

I therefore will have to buy a new Apple laptop with a later version of Mac OS X and which will be unable to run Snow Leopard. However, Snow Leopard is an absolute requirement for me and a later version of Mac OS X is not acceptable, therefore my only option is to run Snow Leopard inside a virtual machine on such a new Apple laptop. My current installation is Snow Leopard Client (10.6.8 ) but I have no problem buying on e-bay and installing a copy of Snow Leopard Server if that is required to comply with the EULA, although this would be a lot of hassle because my current installation is heavily customized and this would require a complete reinstall and redoing all the customizations which have accumulated over many years, probably mostly, but not entirely, documented.

As a first step, I have tried installing Snow Leopard inside a virtual machine on my Snow Leopard MacBook Pro, to see how usable this is and how viable my proposition is: is the emulation comprehensive enough and stable enough, for example?

It didn't work. At all.

When I create a Mac OS X virtual machine and boot off the Snow Leopard DVD, the boot process stops with the message "Unknown4 of GetVar called".

Do you have any advice on how to get this going?

Thank you.
ChipMcK
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by ChipMcK »

Dr. T
Posts: 30
Joined: 2. Feb 2010, 02:40
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: NextStep, OpenStep, Linux, Haiku

Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

Thank you. Is there any way I can try how this works on Snow Leopard? VirtualBox 5.0 requires Mountain Lion, and 4.2, which I have installed, and I believe is the last version compatible with Snow Leopard, does not seem to support the "--cpu-profile" option. Also, I am somewhat sceptical that this is the issue I am experiencing, since the machine I am running VirtualBox on is itself running Snow Leopard, so the CPU it provides to the virtual machine is ipso facto Snow Leopard compatible.
socratis
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by socratis »

Dr. T wrote:VirtualBox 5.0 requires Mountain Lion, and 4.2, which I have installed, and I believe is the last version compatible with Snow Leopard
I think that the last 10.6 compatible VirtualBox is < 5.x.x, so 4.3.40 should work just fine. Give it a shot, it's going to take 5'.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Dr. T
Posts: 30
Joined: 2. Feb 2010, 02:40
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: NextStep, OpenStep, Linux, Haiku

Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

Thank you very much - 4.3.40 had failed for me previously, as it did initially now, but I investigated the failure and it had to do with me having /usr/local on a separate, read-only partition, rather than an incompatibility with Snow Leopard, so I was able to get around that problem and install it.

Once I start the VM now, the DVD boot process now gets further along. It gets past the EFI screen where the problem I described initially arose and gets as far as Darwin verbose boot, then gets stuck printing out repeatedly "Still waiting for root device". Any ideas? Thank you.
IOOI
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by IOOI »

Dr. T wrote:Once I start the VM now, the DVD boot process now gets further along. It gets past the EFI screen where the problem I described initially arose and gets as far as Darwin verbose boot, then gets stuck printing out repeatedly "Still waiting for root device". Any ideas? Thank you.
Do you use an image of the 10.6.8 Install DVD? If so make sure you create the image of the raw device than the volume, because the volume is not all that is to it, there is more on the DVD what needs to be in a bootable installer image too.
Dr. T
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

Yes, this was it. I had only imaged the one partition (disk2s3 or similar) initially, and now, having imaged the whole DVD (disk2), it now boots normally. Thanks for this!

However, the installation process now hangs when it gets to a screen reading "Welcome ... In just a few steps, you can register and set up your Mac. You can also sign up for a MobileMe subscription, Apple's premium Internet service which lets you easily share photos and files online, create a website, sync important information, and more. ... To begin, select the country or region you're in, then click Continue."

Then hang - I cannot click on anything, it is just stuck.

I thought at first that maybe my hard drive was full, but this is not it, there is plenty of space.

Any ideas?

Incidentally, on the DVD imaging front, I only imaged the OS X partition because in the past, when I used VirtualBox to run some guests (e.g. OpenStep 4.2), this was the correct procedure to follow - image disk1s1 rather than disk1. I remember in those days, there were some issues over emulating BeOS because "multi-session" CDs were not supported (I presume this means CDs which have several partitions - disk1s1, disk1s2, etc. - or am I confused about this?). Is this a change in VirtualBox's emulation of optical media that occurred at some point and in the past imaging just the partition was the correct thing to do, and now the whole CD/DVD has to be imaged? Or was I just being ignorant?

Thank you.
socratis
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by socratis »

Dr. T wrote:the installation process now hangs when it gets to a screen reading "Welcome ...
That's a first! I've never heard anyone get stuck at this point. Usually, if you get into the GUI then the whole thing rolls nicely. Any chance that the original DVD is not intact?
Dr. T wrote:Is this a change in VirtualBox's emulation of optical media that occurred at some point and in the past imaging just the partition was the correct thing to do, and now the whole CD/DVD has to be imaged?
I don't think that VirtualBox had anything to do with this. I would suspect the guest OS that was getting installed had issues. But imaging the whole CD/DVD is the appropriate way to do it.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Dr. T
Posts: 30
Joined: 2. Feb 2010, 02:40
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

I believe the DVD is OK. I have just reinstalled Snow Leopard on another HD from it. It imaged without any read errors, and repeated reads produce an identical copy. Still, the VirtualBox VM crashes when it reaches that point.
socratis
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by socratis »

Right-click on the VM in VirtualBox Manager, Show in Finder. ZIP that .vbox file and attach it here.
And a zipped VBox.log from a failed session.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
thibaudmonfils
Posts: 1
Joined: 28. Jul 2017, 11:09

Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by thibaudmonfils »

hi , i need elp with same problem, my mac host is a MacBookPro11,4 / macOS Sierra , virtualbox 5.1.26 , guest is Mac OS SNOW LEOPARD 10.6.3 , my log is in attachements with screenshot. Thanks for help
Attachments
log.zip
my log after boot fail+screenshot
(54.27 KiB) Downloaded 150 times
socratis
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by socratis »

@thibaudmonfils
Take a look at my last post in can you run a snow leopard with virtual box on a running el capitan?.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Dr. T
Posts: 30
Joined: 2. Feb 2010, 02:40
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: NextStep, OpenStep, Linux, Haiku

Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

Here are the files.
Attachments
v.zip
(23.75 KiB) Downloaded 57 times
socratis
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Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by socratis »

I read the logs. What you need to do, is to read the link that I gave you. Because either you didn't, or you didn't do as the post suggested. Please do not waste my time if I give you some advice and you come back without having applied that advice.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Dr. T
Posts: 30
Joined: 2. Feb 2010, 02:40
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: NextStep, OpenStep, Linux, Haiku

Re: Snow Leopard guest

Post by Dr. T »

I did read the link. The link suggests that the issue is that the CPU does not get virtualized, but the host CPU is exposed and that the new CPU is not compatible with 10.6. The link suggests setting the CPU to a compatible CPU, e.g. "Intel Core i7-2635QM". But I am running VirtualBox on a compatible CPU (since it itself is running 10.6) and indeed, if you did look at the log carefully, you will see that it says that the CPU is a ""Intel Core i7-2635QM", which your links suggests using as the setting, and as a compatible one. Furthermore, if you have read my question carefully, you will have seen that I am running VirtualBox 4.3, which does not support the "VBoxManage modifyvm <vm-name> --cpu-profile <cpu-profile> command, i.e. it responds with "VBoxManage: error: Unknown option: --cpu-profile".

Is being uncivil and patronizing to people asking questions the way one is supposed to behave in these forums? I ask for clarification only. I thought it was not appropriate, but I defer to your superior knowledge and experience, and I assume that's now de rigeur?
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