I have a MacBookPro5,1 system that has Mac OS X 10.6, Fedora Linux x64, and Windows 7 x64 installed on it. I use the rEFIt boot manager to boot between the different operating systems. I have been able to configure Parallels to successfully virtualize my Windows 7 installation. However I encounter an error when I try to do the same thing with my Linux installation, even after following the same steps that allowed my Windows installation to work. Here are the steps I followed: Selected New... from the File menu Chose Skip Detection for Operating System Detection Set Version to Fedora Linux for Select Operating System Type and Version Selected Custom for Virtual Machine Type Set Processors to 2 and Main memory to 2048 MB for CPU and Memory Options Selected Boot Camp Partition for Hard Disk Options Selected the partition that had the Linux installation for Boot Camp Disk Selected Shared Network for Networking Type Selected Virtual Machine for Optimization Options Clicked the Create button to create the virtual machine When Parallels tried to create the virtual machine the following error was displayed: The Boot Camp hard disk has been successfully configured, but an unexpected error occured when mounting the selected Boot Camp partitions back to your Mac. Use Disk Utility to mount these partitions back to your Mac. I verified that I can still boot to the Linux installation after attempting the virtualization, so I know the installation is still valid. What can be done so my Linux partition can run virtually on Mac OS X?
I think the problem is you're trying to install Fedora on a Boot Camp partition. Boot Camp supports ONLY Windows.
I'm actually using rEFIt as a boot manager. I can boot natively into the Linux system. I can also get the system to boot in VMware Fusion. For some reason it is not working with Parallels. What do people know about how I can get my installation of Fedora to work with Parallels?
Another post to a thread with a similar problem setting up windows suggested using the diskutil list command to gather additional information Here is what I get when I execute diskutil list: /dev/disk0 #: TYPE NAME SIZE IDENTIFIER 0: GUID_partition_scheme *320.1 GB disk0 1: EFI 209.7 MB disk0s1 2: Apple_HFS Macintosh HD 106.5 GB disk0s2 3: Microsoft Basic Data 106.6 GB disk0s3 4: Microsoft Basic Data BOOTCAMP 106.7 GB disk0s4 What insight does this offer to why parallels can't set up my Linux installation?
Me too I ran into the same issue with Arch Linux. I want to be able to do this as well: use the existing partition rather than a virtual disk. I used Disk Utility to shrink the original MacOS partition, leaving free space. Then I booted Arch from a CD, added a partition using parted, and installed on that partition (ext3 filesystem). After installing refit I can boot into Arch just fine. But I want to virtualize it as well so that I have both options (run it natively or as a VM). It doesn't seem that it should be hard to do, but Parallels seems to assume that it will always be installing an OS into a VM, rather than simply booting an existing OS _in_ a VM. Isn't there some way?
File -> New -> Skip detection -> Version: Fedora Linux -> Custom -> Processors, Main memory -> Boot Camp Partition -> select Disk (and partitions if there's more than one used by Fedora) -> Networking Type -> Optimization Options -> Name and Location -> Create -> Done. There may be issues with switching between the Parallels hardware and Mac hardware when you switch between Parallels Desktop and Boot Camp.
