Workarounds for three Mac Pro Parallels bugs (VT-X support, shared folders, internet)

Hopefully this will be helpful for people....here are some workaounds for three bugs I (and many others) have seen running Parallels on a Mac Pro.

If you have any fixes for other common Mac Pro Parallels issues or comments on these, post them here...maybe this thread can be made sticky to help people.

I can't visit most websites or other internet locations...a few work, but most just don't...:

(i.e. IP networking isn't working)

Open Mac Network preference pane (in your Mac's System Preferences). Click on "Built-In Ethernet" then the Ethernet tab. Configure Manually (advanced)

Under Maximum Packet size, click Jumbo, then click Apply. Now click Standard, then click Apply.

You're good to go now, but you will have to re-do this every time you start a new virtual machine (blech!)

I get an error that VT-x support isn't enable and Parallels is very slow

To get VT-x working

Quit Parallels, sleep machine, wake machine up, start Parallels. You're set now until the entire Mac is restarted (you can even quit and relaunch Parallels, your mileage may vary)


Shared Folders won't work:


There's no workaround in Parallels, but luckily you can shared your home directy from the Mac side and access it from within Parallels.

Go to Preferences (on your Mac), Sharing. Click Windows Sharing and enable it (you may have to choose an account for which to enable this; choose the account you are logged in as on your Mac Pro)

Switch to the virtual machine; click My Network Places in Windows. Entire Network; Microsoft Windows Network, then Workgroup, and then you will see your home (mac) directory listed. Double click it, authenticate with your Mac login/password and you will see the folders in your Mac home direcoty. You can thus share files this way.

 

BUMP...please, please make this a sticky...it would have saved me hours and hours of frustation...

 

Thanks...just trying to help!

 

thread is sticky now

 

Shared Folders won't work:


There's no workaround in Parallels, but luckily you can shared your home directy from the Mac side and access it from within Parallels.

Go to Preferences (on your Mac), Sharing. Click Windows Sharing and enable it (you may have to choose an account for which to enable this; choose the account you are logged in as on your Mac Pro)

Switch to the virtual machine; click My Network Places in Windows. Entire Network; Microsoft Windows Network, then Workgroup, and then you will see your home (mac) directory listed. Double click it, authenticate with your Mac login/password and you will see the folders in your Mac home direcoty. You can thus share files this way.[/QUOTE]

I do not see my MAC. I did turn on the sharing on the mac side. After playing with both system for a while, I rebooted and tried it all again and my VM dos not see my MAC.

Any suggestion ?

 

The first of these three workarounds does not work reliably on my Mac Pro. Instead, what I have to do is use Host Only Networking with Internet Sharing. Works perfectly so far .

 

Under Mac System Preferences->Sharing->Services, when you check the box next to "Windows Sharing" and then hit "Start," you should see a statement at the bottom like "Windows users can access your computer at \\*******.********.*****.***\******." Enter that address in your internet browser from within the vitual PC, and you should have access to the contents of your Mac.

 

I've tried all the work arounds for sharing folders and none of them work for me, for more than a few minutes or seconds. I'm using a Mac Pro so I can't go back to the old version. Hopefully a fix will come out for this soon, since it's not really useful for me without that ability.

 

Unless, in your windows running inside Parallels, you are using VPN. Once you VPN in to another site, then you will not have access to the "local" network and you shared folders on the Mac.

Which is exactly why Shared Folders needs to work, as VPN is one of the biggest reasons _I_ have to use Parallels (as the Windows version of my company's chosen VPN solution comes free - but the Mac version costs more than a Mac Mini... ). That and a couple infrequently used apps that are Windows only...

 

you are a GENIUS.
How did you ever figure that out??

Much appreciated.
Please go teach those guys at Parallels something.
They are an utter JOKE!!

 

Hey all,

We've made a special build that addresses the MacPro Shared Folders and Internet problems. You can download it from here. Please don't forget to update Parallels Tools after upgrading.

As usual, your feedback about these specific problem is highly appreciated. The fixes will be included into future public RC2 once we deal with kernel panics.

The VT-x problem needs addressing from Apple side so it is not yet fixed in this build.

Best regards,
Tim

 

Build 1892 completely resolved the networking issues for me - thanks for the fast turnaround!

 

BINGO on both...thanks Team.

C'mon...Apple, fix the VT-x problem so this thread can be retired!

 

I tried out the special pre-RC2 build 1892 last night (after installing another 2gig into my MacPro - total now 3gig - so still under the 3.5gig threshold!).

The upgrade went fine (I didn't uninstall first - was I meant to?). However, on starting the WinXP VM, MacOS died. After switching off/on the Mac, I tried again - but this time the WinXP VM started fine. I had a quick play within XP - all looking ok. I installed the Parallel Tools, after install - MacOS died. Again, another off/on and the XP VM started up again with no problems.

The extra memory has helped alot - just need to resolve these crashing problems!

Cheers!

Nutz

 

Forgive the simple question, but will this build help those of us with a file sharing problem who are just on a 'simple' iMac, and not a Mac Pro?

 

Build 1892 is intended to fix some Shared Folders issues which were in 1884 on all Mac models. It also has some Mac Pro fixes - but not all yet. For Mac Pro users I suggest to wait next build with full Mac Pro fix.

 

We prepared internal build 1896.2 - http://download.parallels.com/RC/Parallels-Desktop-1896.2-Mac.dmg. If anyone still has problems with Shared Folders - could you please try it out - does it work for you finally?

 

Nope. And I followed the directions that came with the product, to the letter.

Don't know why this is not working.

 

Andrew-
Briefly-1896.2 corrected all the issues I was having with shared folders. See post in previous thread for details so far. Good work!

Dave B

 

I get a hang in windows/parallels with 1896.2. I just removed the -legacy option, set maxmem to 3500. It hangs right at the end of the little tune that windows plays. I get the rotatitng ball and the whole Mac slows down. I can't force quit Parallels, have to force a hard power off to escape. Or wait beyond my patience (~10 minutes).

I'll turn -legacy back on.