Older Mac OS X versions and Parallels 19

Hello,

Knowledge base article 124223 specifies that older Mac OS X versions up to Mac OS X 10.5 are supported, however there is a note with older versions specifying:

"Requires a Mac computer that supports the operating system as a host OS."​

It is not clear to me what exactly is meant here. Since the minimal macOS version that Parallels 19 runs on is macOS 10.14.6, this seems to be a contradiction. I do not know of any machines running macOS 10.14.6 that also natively supports Mac OS X 10.5 for instance.

Can anyone please explain? I'm currently running a couple of test environments under Parallels 18 with macOS Ventura as host os. I would like to know if these will all break when I upgrade to Parallels 19.

Ernst Mulder

 

I asked the same thing. Tech support told me it still works. I tested it and they were correct. IMHO, that is a very poorly worded sentence that gives the wrong impression.

I just posted more details here.

 

What I was wondering is whether they mean something else entirely, like a licensing issue or something. That in order to virtualise Mac OS X 10.6 one needs to be in possession of another Mac capable of natively booting Mac OS X 10.6.

It simply can not mean what it says now, for no computer that can natively boot macOS 10.14.6 (minimal system requirements for parallels 19) can also natively boot Mac OS X 10.6...

 

Hello everyone,
I hope you're doing well. I wanted to address some points to help clarify any confusion.
Firstly, we'll work on refining the phrasing used in the KB article.
Regarding the ongoing discussion in this thread, I'd like to mention that Parallels Desktop 19 isn't optimized to support macOS virtual machines that have been set up on Mac computers that don't meet the requirements for this macOS version as a host operating system. However, I encourage you to consider giving it a shot: you can explore the option of installing and utilizing older versions of macOS within virtual machines on your Intel-based computer.

 

Hello Mikhail,

Indeed, I noticed the wording in the footnote has been changed. It is now:

"Parallels Desktop 19 supports only macOS virtual machines created on a Mac computer that supports the operating system as a host OS. Feel free to give it a try if you need such a virtual machine, though please note that it might not work."​

Maybe it's me but this doesn't clarify it at all. The first sentence alone: [Parallels 19] only supports virtual macOS machines what were created on a Mac computer (in a version of Parallels I presume) that supports the operating system as a host OS.
In other words, to create a virtual Mac OS X 10.6 machine, I would have to create it using Parallels 7 on a Mac OS X 10.6 system and only then will the resulting virtual machine be compatible with Parallels 19. And if I would create a virtual Mac OS 10.6 system on a modern machine running Parallels 19 it will be totally unclear if the virtual machine will work or not. I find that very peculiar and quite worrying.

I've been running virtual Mac OS X 10.6, 10.8 and 10.11 machines (many) without issues in various versions of Parallels for years now, up to and including Parallels 18. Why is Parallels 19 suddenly different?

I guess I will have to stick with version 18.

 

To me, that reads as, "You're on your own here. If it works, great. If not, you're SOL. We're not supporting them any more." It seems like we're rapidly returning to the bad old days of multiplying machines and KVM switches.

 

The footnote has been changed again, now it reads:

"please note that you can install only the versions of macOS virtual machines (VMs) that your host supports. E.g., macOS Ventura VM won't work on the legacy Mac that isn't compatible with macOS Ventura 13."​

So, newer software doesn't run on Macs not supporting newer software. Totally unclear to me is why this also applies to running older versions of macOS/Mac OS X on newer hosts. Must be very difficult to produce a clear bit of text.

 

Mac OS X 10.5, 10.6, 10.7, etc works on a Skylake (2016) Mac in Parallels 19. Parallels will not allow 10.5 and 10.6 non-server version to run (it checks the hard drive image for certain server files to satisfy some old agreement with Apple I guess) but there are ways around that.
I am wondering if 10.4 will work in Parallels using OpenCore to make some kernel patches...