Trouble with BootCamp Partition Use

When I set up Parallels 3.0 on my dual-drive triple-boot Mac Pro to use my BootCamp partition, I got the "More than one Windows partitions are found. This is not a standard Boot Camp configuration" message. I followed the instructions in your Knowledge Base, editing the .pvs file with the correct Disk Identifier.

This works some of the time, but then I get a message saying "Unable to open disk image Boot Camp;disk0s3!" and I must edit the .pvs file to disk1s3.

Turns out the Disk Identifier is not fixed. I finally found this comment on an Apple mailing list:

"No, the device entry is not guaranteed to be the same across restarts. Internal drives (other than the startup drive) may spin up and be identified in a non-deterministic order. Removable media (flash memory devices, optical discs, etc.) may be present or absent. External devices (FireWire and USB drives) may be powered up or not. After boot, devices may be unmounted and remounted in a different order (Disk Utility). Disk images may be mounted and unmounted. All the while device identifiers are being dynamically assigned and revoked."

I have been editing and re-editing my .pvs file to get Parallels to find my BootCamp partition, and this is an effective work-around, but not a solution.

You need to fix this. Perhaps change to using UUID.

Any advice??
TIA, Jon

 

Hello Muad'dib,

Improper Windows shut down in Boot Camp VM can cause some errors. As Parallels did not finish the work correctly, the processes going on between Windows and Parallels were not completed as they should have been. So Boot Camp can not address to Windows correctly any more.

Being aware of the technological complexity of Boot Camp - Parallels interaction, please finish your work in the Virtual Machine properly.

Anyway, if you get the issue by accident, you can use the Clear button in Configuration Editor -> Hard Disk -> Advanced or try repairing Windows installation.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Please read my post.





There is nothing wrong with my BootCamp partition, nor in the way I shut down Windows.

This has to do with the way the Mac Pro assigns the Disk Identifier (BSD Name) on startup, prior to boot.

 

To clarify: I must change the .pvs file to reflect the Disk Identifier of the drive on which the BootCamp partition is located. Might be disk0s3, might be disk1s3. The partition doesn't move. The drive doesn't move. Windows and Parallels both shut down properly. The Disk Identifier changes. It is Dynamic. It depends upon which drive spins up and mounts first.

The Parallels .pvs file tells Parallels where to look for the BootCamp partition when launched. It has a 50/50 chance of being correct.

There is nothing I can do to predict what the Disk Identifier of each drive will be when the machine starts up.

Jon

 

Hello Muad'dib,

Please run in Terminal diskutil list command and attach the output to your next post. This will help us to identify the problem.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Last login: Tue Feb 12 23:23:16 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
jon-knebels-mac-pro:~ jonknebel$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *232.9 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS System1 75.9 Gi disk0s2
3: Apple_HFS User_Files 75.9 Gi disk0s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data Ubuntu 74.8 Gi disk0s4
5: Linux Swap 4.7 Gi disk0s5
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *232.8 Gi disk1
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS System2 19.9 Gi disk1s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data Windows XP 212.6 Gi disk1s3
jon-knebels-mac-pro:~ jonknebel$


and after a restart:

Last login: Wed Feb 13 18:21:50 on console
Welcome to Darwin!
jon-knebels-mac-pro:~ jonknebel$ diskutil list
/dev/disk0
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *232.8 Gi disk0
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk0s1
2: Apple_HFS System2 19.9 Gi disk0s2
3: Microsoft Basic Data Windows XP 212.6 Gi disk0s3
/dev/disk1
#: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER
0: GUID_partition_scheme *232.9 Gi disk1
1: EFI 200.0 Mi disk1s1
2: Apple_HFS System1 75.9 Gi disk1s2
3: Apple_HFS User_Files 75.9 Gi disk1s3
4: Microsoft Basic Data Ubuntu 74.8 Gi disk1s4
5: Linux Swap 4.7 Gi disk1s5
jon-knebels-mac-pro:~ jonknebel$

 

Hello Muad'dib,

Here is the way to change your .pvs file:
find the line Disk 0:0 image = disk1s3 and put disk0s3 instead.

Looks like you've got the issue because you had Linux as bootable OS first and then made Windows to be bootable. This why the disk identifier changed the partitions.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

As I pointed out in my FIRST post, I have been doing this on a regular basis.

And No, As I pointed out in my FIRST post, the Disk Identifier changes because it is DYNAMIC.


Please stop guessing..

 

The disk identifier changes randomly, quite often, and with no changes other than a restart.

Are you saying that because I have multiple OS partitions, one before another, that Parallels should not work, and that the problem is my fault for having a multi-boot system?

And actually, Windows was installed first.

 

Hello Muad'dib,

I'm asking our Linux specialists if there is a way to get round this multi-boot limitation. Thank you for patience.

Best regards,
Xenos

 

Hey Muad'dib,

I suspect that it's rEFIt that's moving the drive and partition identifiers around.

Got a workround for you. After I've been working booted in linux I boot windows before going back to OS X. This seems to return the disk identification to what parallels expects to find.

*edit* Oops, just noticed the age of this thread. Still, the workround might help somone.

 

cal6n, I uninstalled rEFIt a long time ago as it is not ready for multi drive macs. I just use Apple's option key method. Works fine, but it identifies both the linux and winders partitions as Windows.

The drive identifiers still change 50% of the time when I boot from the second drive (winders). This is apparently an Apple design flaw? (it's a Feature, not a Flaw).

Parallels doesn't care. I still have to edit the pvs file 50% of the time.

 

Wait, I will ask in a day or two

 

Update as of 1/27/10: still not fixed

This is of course an old thread, but it is linked to by and excellent review of the three virtualization products that was just posted in Macworld.com. Hence this reply.

The problem with using the boot camp partition as a VM under Parallels in Mac Pro systems with multiple internal hard drives is just as muad'dib describes it at the beginning of this thread. It has nothing to do having linux installed on a Mac Pro, it occurs solely because of the presence of multiple hard drives, for just the reason muad'dib says.

Parallels is aware of the problem, and indicates that it will be fixed in Parallels 5 shortly. But as of the current release, build 9310 of parallels 5, it is still not corrected, a year and a half after this thread was begun. If you have a Mac Pro system with multiple hard drives you are likely to problems using boot camp as a vm, and there are, to my knowledge, no trouble-free workarounds.

With this important exception, I personally like Parallels.

Memo to Parallels: Pleeeeeze fix this!

 

Still not fixed April 20 2012

Still not resolved as of April 20, 2012.

Why can't there be an option to identify physical drives via UUID? The competition has always supported it.

This is by far the single biggest annoyance I have with Parallels. If I can write a launch script that edits the .pvm file why can't you guys get this sorted out? This has nothing to do with Linux (or even with 'Boot Camp' for that matter) - this is an artificial limitation being imposed by Parallels.

So annoying, please fix.