Snow Leopard as Guest on Lion

Assuming Flash is installed in the Lion VM. Try booting it into safe mode ( http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1455 ), and see if the problem still occurs. This is likely caused by the fact that in a Parallels VM OS X doens't have 2D or 3D acceleration, in Safe Mode hardware acceleration is forcibly disabled and it's all done by software (CPU).

 

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Summing it up

After reading thru this forum. We have established a a few things.

1- OSX 10.7 and all other OSX versions are generally and vaguely referenced in the OSX UELA as Apple Software. In such instance, two copies, virtual or otherwise can run or be install to run, simultaneously. I will not critique how limiting this wording appears to be. However, on a practical basis, in the strictest interpretation of the EULA, Licensees can install 2 copies at the same time of any version of OSX. For example, a host of 10.7 and a VM of 10.5 would be acceptable under the EULA.

2- We have not established whether Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac (Build 7.0.15054) will actually install and run 10.5 or 10.6. It is legal to do so, but whether Parallels Desktop has been used successfully in this context, noone has clearly stated above.

3- I have inferred from the posts that Parallels Desktop 7 for Mac will NOT run since other colleagues have posted links to competitive offerings from VMWare and Paragon. Furthermore, others have stated that other versions of Paralells have failed to perform reliably to the point where it is of no practical use to run 10.5 or 10.6 workstation in a VM.

Therefore, who has successfully run 10.5 or 10.6 on a Lion system? What were the steps you took to achieve this holy grail of restoring access to Rosetta based applications?

Is there a 3rd party software that will install into Lion that will simply enable access to Rosetta apps without the need to run 10.5 or 10.6?

A rather good discussion is posted here.. this person appears to be not only a good writer, but one who takes the time to perform the heavy lifting of digging around and making sense of it all.
http://macsmarticles.blogspot.com/2011/07/rosetta-is-gone-from-mac-os-x-lion.html

 

I have installed Lion as a guest OS, with Snow Leopard as a host. It works fine, EXCEPT that the Flash or Shockwave plug-ins don't work. It seems, I think, that Lion won't support software 2D or 3D and Parallels 7 doesn't connect it somehow to the host OS. I prefer not to upgrade to LION for awhile, and use the Virtual LION to test my Shockwave software. I have too many apps running in Rosetta. So, it's pretty inconvenient.

 

Wprothero, I am presently in a situation close to yours: I use a Snow Leopard guest inside a Lion host, for the purpose of running legacy apps.
But I do this with Virtualbox, which does not provide the inter-machine integration I am used to with Parallels: no clipboard transfers, no application linking...
Could you confirm in your situation, Parallels does provides you with clip transfers, drag'drop doc transfer, and if possible file associations between a Snow Leo guest inside a Lion host?
If so, I definitely will upgrade my Parallels ;-)
TIA,
Hervé

 

I gave up

I never upgraded to Lion, but created another boot drive with Lion on it. I have too many legacy applications and the expense of upgrading it all is more than I am ready for. eventually, I will have to upgrade, tho, but I'm putting it off as long as possible.

 

OK -but when you had Lion running as a guest on your SL host, did you experience all the Parallels niceties, clipboard transfers, file association transfers etc. or was it just almost a separate machine in an "air-tight" window with only network access to the rest, like it appears to be on Virtualworks?
TIA!

 

I would wish to do an equivalent thing: Snow Leopard guest on Lion host for a couple of PPC applications that are not any longer supported on Lion while not Rosetta. I do not have to be compelled use all of them the time, therefore a virtual machine is that the excellent factor for the task.

 

MerylS, I'm sorry to say this given the fact we probably own half a dozen Parallels licenses in the family, but I definitely understood Parallels won't ever provide with the nice tools (clipboard transfers, file/application linkings etc.) they provide for the other guest systems. Currently, I'm using Virtualbox with a Snow Leo guest on a Lion host, and I consider turning this to Parallels wouldn't bring any improvement...

 

I needed Rosetta functionality to continue to use PowerPC applications that no longer run in Lion. Consequently I use Parallels 7 to regain that functionality and it continues to work after an upgrade to Mountain Lion. See: Regaining Rosetta functionality in Lion/Mountain Lion using Parallels 7

Unfortunately, Cut & Paste using the Clipboard is not supported in Parallel Tools, but application/document linking works fine, once I mount the appropriate folders through the Shared Folder supplied by Parallels or simple AFP file sharing.

 

Michael,

When you say "application/document linking works fine..." do you mean that double-clicking within Lion an Appleworks document, for instance, does trigger something in the Parallels guest?
(or is it just that Rosetta docs start the rosetta app when triggered within the guest only?)

TIA!
Hervé

 

Herve: move this discussion to the forum I linked... The latter...

I never keep data files in a virtualized environment, even Windows. So I mount the Lion based data files folder in the Rosetta environment. If I double click the data file in Rosetta, it launches the applicable PPC application and opens the file. I can of course modify it and then save it (back in the Lion based reality world).

Once you are used to working within the Rosetta environment you get used to being there.

 

While it's an old thread, in case anyone comes across it ...

Snow Leopard will run as a guest, but you have to frig around to get past the checks done by Parallels to detect if it's a supported OS. Getting the initial install done is the hardest part - IIRC I did a fresh install of SL onto a removable drive, and then cloned this across to a Parallels drive while running Mountain Lion as a guest, and then used that clone for a Snow Leopard guest.

What does "annoy" me is that compared to running Windows as a guest, Parallels seem to have gone out of their way to make the experience as painful as possible. There seems to be no integration - no clipboard sync so it's a pain to get information back and forth, shared folders unmount from the guest when the host is put to sleep, shared folders don't seem to work, the guest clock goes wrong (it stops while the host is in sleep mode and doesn't recover).
In short, it's a pain having to use a guest like this, but I've got PPC software I need Rosetta for - and no it cannot be upgraded so I need to keep using it until I can migrate to something else. I might even need to run a 10.5 (Leopard) guest to access my old (AppleTalk only) colour laser since my old G4 tower seems to have died.

I have to say, the whole experience has "significantly lowered" my opinion of Parallels as a company.

 

What you say is not true:

In Parallels 8 cut and paste will work across Mac OS X environments from Lion/Mt. Lion to Snow Leopard.

Did you bother to read my Post #31 about restoring Rosetta functionality?

 

You mean, the post where you mention Parallels 7 ? Yes I've seen that post, and the thread you've linked to - but what's that got to do with the price of fish ? Either method involved frigging around to get around the checks Parallels do.

I have an install where cut&paste don't work between host and guest, network volumes (share from host mounted in guest) don't stay mounted (though I suspect there's some magic incantation that will fix that if I get annoyed enough to make time to find it, shared folders don't appear to work. What I wrote was correct - though it may be true to say it depends on the version of Parallels, and version 8 hasn't been out all that long (about 6 weeks I believe). If cut&paste works in version 8 then I'll upgrade - otherwise there is nothing mentioned in the "what's new" page beyond "Enhanced! Mac OS X Guest support" which isn't exactly specific about what is enhanced.

I still maintain that Parallels have not done their image any favours with this. It's quite clear that Mac OS guests are the ugly sister and barely get a mention in the headlines. Both the press release and "what's new" for version 8 only talk about Windows, Windows, Windows and it's quite clear where their priorities lie.

 

Would you have understood my post better if I had said:

"What you say is not true:

"In Parallels 8 cut and paste will work across Mac OS X environments from Lion/Mt. Lion to Snow Leopard.

AND on the separate issue of lack of Rosetta functionality that you complain about: Did you bother to read my Post #31 about restoring Rosetta functionality using either Parallels (which was version 7 back then AND now can be restored using version 8?"

The majority of paying Parallels customers are using it for using OS'es other than Mac OS'es (Windows, Linux, etc.). There is just not that much business in it for Parallels for people who exclusively want to run Mac OS'es in their Server versions.

Even I owned it originally to run Windows XP and then was thrilled that I could run Snow Leopard in it to restore Rosetta capability in my Lion Macs!

AND Parallels agreed to Apple's demands that Parallels make it easy to install Server versions of the Mac OS'es and not the client versions (for reasons that have not been disclosed and I could speculate about, but will not at this time).

Want ease of installation for restoring Rosetta? Install Snow Leopard Server into Parallels!

 

Sorry, but I'm at a loss to figure out what you are going on about here. Since I'm discussing using Parallels to run 10.6 so I can run PPC applications, clearly I'm aware of using Parallels to restore Rosetta functionality. I can't see how there is anything not clear there.
Where I do have an issue on how poor the experience is - barely one step up from keeping my old machine running alongside my 'new' one. But come payday I'll see what version 8 brings to the table ...

 

I personally install and use Snow Leopard (with Rosetta) in Parallels 7 in Lion, so that I can run my PPC software concurrently with my Lion environment. I am not disposed to use the so-called "dual-boot" method of running Snow Leopard, primarily because my 2011 Mac Mini will not boot Snow Leopard (that being said, there is a thread on Macrumors that did accomplish that goal, but that is not my preference).

Snow Leopard and Rosetta operate very well primarily for those applications that I use: Microsoft Excel and Word 2004, Adobe Photoshop CS and a smattering of other apps on a much lesser used basis. Quicken was my initial need as I used Quicken Deluxe 2002, but in March 2012, Intuit released Quicken 2007 for Lion (and now Mt. Lion) for $15, and I was able to update my Q2002 data to Q2007 levels and I use this program in Lion very successfully.

So then I read your initial post:

First you complain about the lack of ease by which one can install Snow Leopard client into Parallels (you did not mention ever, which version of Parallels you were using); I believe your term is "frig!" It is well known and well documented by Parallels (and all of the other virtualization products) that they only officially support the installation of the Server versions of these Mac OS'es.

Perhaps your method, moving a clone of Snow Leopard over to Parallels operates more inefficiently than my method, which is just a pure install of Snow Leopard.

You then go into several inefficiencies of using Snow Leopard in virtualization such as no cut & paste across the environments. My understanding from several sources is that the upgrade to Parallels 8 solves most of these problems. I am still using Parallels 7 and use alternatives to cut & paste.

I will admit I avoid ever letting the main environment go to "Sleep" and shut down my Parallels environment before this can happen, so perhaps I avoid the two "sleep" problems you suggest. With this in mind, I do use Shared Folders with much consistency.

This is why I opened my original reply with the fact that you were incorrect, since Parallels 8 solves most of these problems. Since you did not mention a version number, I was working on the idea that you were most current, unless you specified otherwise.

You then suggest "in short" your motivation for using Snow Leopard in Parallels, which is the need to restore Rosetta capabilities to run your PPC applications.

Since this was the motivation for you posting to this thread, I pointed you to my post #31, which speaks directly to this issue.

Lastly, your last comment seems especially harsh on Parallels, especially since you do not offer an alternative competitive source (VMWare, VirtualBox, etc.) that does not also suffer these same problems. So I had to ask myself, why are you picking on Parallels, when they do offer a good source for almost all of what you complain about (except maybe the SLEEP problem, which I bet further research would solve).

Save your payday:

You can download the 14 day free trial of Parallels 8 from their website.

But I think the more important issue for your sense of success and usability would be to do a fresh install of Snow Leopard into Parallels 7 based upon the instructions linked in my post #31 and see if that works more efficiently for you. Then, if that is successful, upgrade to Parallels 8.

 

Having got used to the level of integration they've had with Windows, my expectations were perhaps too high - my expectations were for things like copy&paste, shared folders, etc to work and it was "something of a culture shock" using an environment where they don't.
I still fail to comprehend their interpretation of Apple's licence, but lets not go there.

As to install methods, mine achieves the same thing - a clean install in a new VM. It just takes a different route.

Incidentally, I'm not new to Parallels - I see in my notes I have serial numbers for every version from 2 onwards. Before that I used Virtual PC until it was ditched after MS bought the company and stopped development for anything but Windows/Windows.

 

I also was a user of VirtualPC.

When I purchased my first Intel Mac, I was able to "extract" the licensed copy of Windows XP out of VirtualPC and to this day, when I install Windows XP in Bootcamp (and then use it with Parallels) it is that copy of XP.

BTW: It is a common urban myth that Apple's Snow Leopard EULA prohibits its use in virtualization.