Lion

[jareddigby]

Will Vmware run it?

[WoodyZ]

While it's not yet officially supported under VMware Fusion 3.x, and may never be as VMware as has yet to announce whether or not they intend to release a VMware Fusion 3.x version that will officially support it, however it can legally be run as a Virtual Machine running under Mac OS X Lion and using VMware Fusion 3.1.3 and a workaround to do it.  Otherwise one will have to wait for a VMware Fusion release that officially supports it.

Since currently VMware Fusion 3.x only officially supports installing the Server version of Mac OS x 10.5 and 10.6 then Mac OS X Lion can be installed in a Mac OS X 10.6 64-bit Virtual Machine either via disk imaging, where one restores an image made of a physical install to the virtual hard disk, or by creating a Mac OS X Lion Install Disc from the "Install Mac OS X Lion.app" and flagging the install disc image as a Server version install disc.  After the initial install, the Mac OS X Lion Client version Virtual Machine then also has to be flagged as a Server version in order to boot and needs to be done in a dynamic manner so once booted it no longer appears as a Server version as that would then cause issues preforming OS updates and installing other software as well.  This particular workaround can be easily done with a script that runs at startup/reboot/shutdown.

NOTE:  Mac OS X Lion Client/Server versions can only legally be virtualized under Mac OS X Lion on Apple-branded hardware, so if one choose to employ any workarounds it can only be done legally if done so in accordance with the Mac OS X (Lion 10.7) SLA, Mac OS X (Lion 10.7.1 and Lion USB Thumb Drive) SLA and or Mac OS X Server (Lion) SLA.

[jareddigby]

How do I flag It?

[WoodyZ]

While Mac OS X Lion can be legally virtualized when done so in accordance with its SLA nonetheless I'm not sure VMware would agree with giving you the explicit details so for now I'd suggest you search the Internet as I know the information is out there.

[WoodyZ]

Here is the script that I wrote and use once Mac OS X Lion is installed in a Virtual Machine while running with VMware Fusion 3.1.3 under Mac OS X Lion while being done so in accordance with the Mac OS X Lion SLA.

Using the appropriate methods for items in "/Library/StartupItems" I have a folder named AllowVirtualLionClient and in that folder I have a shell scrip (shown below) named AllowVirtualLionClient along with its appropriate StartupParameters.plist file and this handles the current shortcoming with the lack of officially supporting Mac OS X Lion in a Virtual Machine with VMware Fusion 3.1.3 when running under Mac OS X Lion while being done so in accordance with the Mac OS X Lion SLA.

AllowVirtualLionClient Shell Script

#!/bin/sh
. /etc/rc.common
SVP="Fully_Qualified_Pathname_Of_The_Flag_File"
StartService ()
{
    ISSVP=`cat $SVP | wc -c`
    if [ "$ISSVP" -eq "0" ]; then
        rm $SVP
    fi
}
StopService ()
{
    if [ ! -e $SVP ]; then
        touch $SVP
        chmod 444 $SVP
    fi
}

StartupParameters.plist

{
     Description = "AllowVirtualLionClient";
     Provides = ("Allows Virtualization of Mac OS X Lion in VMware Fusion 3.1.3");
}

Note: While this currently works with the latest GA release of VMware Fusion 3.1.3 it is not intended for use with anything else and may not work with VMware Fusion 3.1.4 if/when VMware releases another VMware Fusion 3.x release.

[jareddigby]

Can you send the file*