Years ago Jimmy Weg wrote an awesome blog post on how to create a VMware virtual machine from a raw image file. This is my follow-up on how to virtualize Apple Mac OS X.
Bear in mind that, according to this article in the VMware Knowledge Base: The End User License Agreement (EULA) for Apple Mac OS X legally and explicitly binds the installation and running of the operating system to Apple-labeled computers only.
Having said that, these are the steps to follow.
Prerequisites
Virtualization
#Step 2
Check which OS X version was installed by looking at the .plist SystemVersion.plist.
#Step 5
Launch VMware Workstation. From File choose New virtual machine (custom) and set these settings:
Click Finish and close VMware Workstation.
#Step 6
smc.version = "0"
Bear in mind that, according to this article in the VMware Knowledge Base: The End User License Agreement (EULA) for Apple Mac OS X legally and explicitly binds the installation and running of the operating system to Apple-labeled computers only.
Having said that, these are the steps to follow.
Prerequisites
- WinVMDKCreator (the tool was developed by Dana McNeil and was originally available on Jimmy Weg's blog)
- VMware Workstation (this guide was tested against version 12 Pro)
- Patch Tool for VMware (see Install Patch Tool for VMware in the article available here). The two pictures below show the difference before and after installing the patch.
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Virtualization
#Step 1
Open the raw image with your favorite tool. The following picture shows a Mac mini A1347 I imaged during an investigation. Strangely no encryption was set on that Mac. I haven't tried yet with an encrypted image. I guess you can skip to #Step 3 in that case.
#Step 2
Check which OS X version was installed by looking at the .plist SystemVersion.plist.
In my case the Mac mini was running Mac OS X 10.12 (macOS Sierra).
#Step 3
Launch the WinVMDKCreator tool. Select the image to virtualize under File Data. Tick Set disk image segment file attributes to Read Only. Then press Generate to create the .vmdk file.
#Step 4
Edit with a text editor the .vmdk file just created. Change the value of ddb.virtualHWVersion according to the version used of VMware Workstation.
For instance, if you're using VMware Workstation 12: ddb.virtualHWVersion = "12"
For instance, if you're using VMware Workstation 12: ddb.virtualHWVersion = "12"
#Step 5
Launch VMware Workstation. From File choose New virtual machine (custom) and set these settings:
| Hardware compatiblity | Workstation 12.x |
|---|---|
| Guest Operating System Installation | I will install the operating system later |
| Select a Guest Operating System | Apple Mac OS X |
| Virtual machine name/Location | whatever you prefer |
| Firmware Type | EFI (default setting) |
| Processor Configuration | (default settings) |
| Memory for the Virtual Machine | increase to 4096 MB |
| Network Type | Do not use a network connection |
| SCSI Controller | LSI Logic (default setting) |
| Virtual disk type | SATA (default setting) |
| Select a Disk | Use an existing virtual disk |
| Existing Disk File | Click Browse and Open the .vmdk file we previously created with WinVMDKCreator |
Click Finish and close VMware Workstation.
#Step 6
Use a text editor to modify the <VirtualMachineName>.vmx file stored in the VM folder.
Append this line at the end of the file:
Append this line at the end of the file:
smc.version = "0"
Without the line above, the VM won't start and will show an error message saying "unrecoverable error: (vcpu-0)".
#Step 7
Now you're ready to fire up the VM!
#Step 7
- Launch VMware Workstation
- Take a snapshot of the VM
Now you're ready to fire up the VM!
References
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