A kind of a FAQ

A kind of a FAQ (beta4)

The top questions we're usually getting asked in different support mailboxes is below. Please don't treat this FAQ as complete. I'll keep adding Q's and A's here

Q: Is it possible to boot the VM off the real partition (created by BootCamp)?
A: No.

Q: Is it possible to convert third-party virtual machine HDD image to Parallels format?
A: No.

Q: Is sound support available? I cant get Parallels play sound.
A: Yes. As a known issue - sound recording is not yet implemented.

Q: Can USB devices be bridged to the VM?
N: Not in this beta, but likely to be available in GA.

Q: Can I run Mac OS X as guest?
A: No.

Q: Is fullscreen mode available?
A: Yes, with a small known issue - native Mac resolutions are not yet availabe. We'll fix it by GA.

Q: Is it possible to organize a dedicated network between host and VMs?
A: Yes. Host-only networking option is available since beta4. For more informaton please read this thread http://forum.parallels.com/thread726.html

Q: Is dual-monitor configuration supported? Can I export VM screen to one monitor and leave OS X running on another?
A: Yes.

Q: Is 3D graphics supported by the VM?
A: No. Parallels Workstation virtualizes VGA and SVGA with VESA 3.0 support video card. This allows you to run any 2D graphic application inside guest OS. Applications requiring hardware support for 3D graphics (like modern games) will not work.

Q: Can firewire devices be bridged to the VM?
A: No.

Q: Is it possible to drag-and-drop files between host and guest?
A: No.

Q: So, how do I share files between my guest and host?
A: You can create a network share inside your VM and mount it in Finder. After that your files will be easily accessible both from host and from guest.

Q: Where can I find Image Tool? How do I increase the size of guest HDD?
A: Its not included in this Beta, will be included in GA.

Q: Is NAT possible to use with the VM?
A: Not yet. But since beta6 it is possible to use Mac's standard "Internet Sharing" feature to be able to NAT the guest OS. To make it working,
- Go to Parallels Workstation->Preferences->DHCP and set Scope end address equal to Scope start address (10.37.129.1 by default).
- Go to Apple->System Preferences->Internet & Network Sharing and share your network connection with Parallels virtual adapter (usually, en2).
- Set the VM network connection type to Host-only networking in the Network Adapter properties.
- Start the VM. It should obtain the IP address automatically.

 

How do you create a network share inside your VM?

I'm running xp VM on my Mac?

 

Why not, and will it be possible in the future? It would be the ideal solution - one Windows OS installation, accessible by either Boot Camp if you need access to 3D graphics and other specialised needs, or via a VM (ie. Parallel Workstation) running in OS X if you only need to run 2D-apps/Office/Outlook/etc. I realise there may be driver issues (ie. graphics card, network, etc etc), but surely they could be switched in and out as appropriate at boot time via a specialist boot-loader prior to Windows actually being loaded?

 

Q: So, how do I share files between my guest and host?
A: You can create a network share inside your VM and mount it in Finder. After that your files will be easily accessible both from host and from guest.

Tim, is this available now in beta2 and how would you do it? I'm a PeeCee venie and only know Macs.

thanks
tom

 

This site has some useful information about Samba Sharing:
http://www.macdevcenter.com/pub/a/mac/2003/03/18/samba.html

 

Hi,
It will be possible in future, but I can't tell how far this "future" is Booting off the real partition is not a big problem.

A big problem is the difference between the drivers of bare Mac hardware and the VM's emulated devices. When you install Windows into BootCamp partition, in installs all the drivers needed for normal operation. When you boot it into VM, guest Windows will go mad for sure seeing that almost all its hardware has been replaced. You know how it usually reacts on this

Anyway, the idea is indeed very nice and is seriously considered for future releases.

 

Windows supports having different hardware profiles that may be usable for this. It was originally intended to support laptops that may have different hardware configurations when operated in standalone as opposed to being used in a docking station. That's probably a good starting point.

 

Right, hardware profiles are perfect for this. It's tricky to get set up right, but once you do, it's fairly seamless.

 

That would be perfect !

 

USB Bridging?

Q: Can USB devices be bridged to the VM?
N: Not in this beta, but likely to be available in GA.

Will USB bridging use the windows driver and eliminate the VPC requirement of have a OS X driver before VPC could see the UBS device?

Thanks

 

Regarding the second question in the FAQ, about whether virtual images can be converted from other systems, I think the answer is not exactly "no." I am able to use "raw" disk images from Qemu in Parallels. Create a new virtual machine in Parallels, specify the size of the harddrive to be the same as the raw Qemu harddrive, and uncheck the "Expandable" checkbox. After the drive image is created, replace it with the image from Qemu, and it seems to work. For example, I used a Windows 98 image, and it booted after auto-detecting the new hardware provided by the Parallels machine.

The graphical front end for Qemu, called Q, has a feature for converting Virtual PC images to Qemu images, so it might be possible to get a Virtual PC image into Parallels via Q. Haven't tried that yet.

 

I am sure that this must have been addressed someplace, but I am unable to switch to any SVGA video mode on my MacBook Pro 2.0. I am running Beta 4 and have installed the Parallels tools, but right clicking on the desktop does nothing (except a brief, blinking hourglass, and then - nothing.) Not available in Display from the Control Panel. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks for listening and the help.

 

Boot the VM off the real partition (created by BootCamp)?

Something I do quite regularly is install Mac OSX on a FireWire or USB drive and then use it to boot up multiple different Macs, from Dual G5 Power Mac to 5 year old G3 iBook.

I know little about Windows, but I know that I can take the same Windows XP + SP2 install CD and install it on different PC's (real or virtual), including my Parallels VM and my Boot Camp partition. But am I to understand that the results on each machine are so different that getting a single Windows installation to boot different PC's is impossible by default?

Surely Microsoft has some way of handling this built into Windows? I assume that's what this "hardware profiles" stuff is?

Tim, you said:

Two things:

1. So let's say you add that feature, then if Windows' hardware profiles can handle the driver issues, what is it about the Boot Camp partition's installation that would make it unable to handle the Parallels VM, out of the box so to speak (using Windows' hardware profiles)... and/or vice versa?

If anyone could take some time to make this clearer for me, I'd be very grateful.

2. What are the chances of getting the "Booting off the real partition" feature added anyway, in a future that is nearer than "far" (since it's "not a big problem"), and of course the ability for the VM to see real drives/partitions, even if we can't get the Boot Camp installation to boot the VM. It would be very handy.


Aside from all that, great job with the software! I love it.
David.

 

This is excellent news. As of right now, there's no way I could justify having IT setup Windows XP and all the software we use twice on my iMac, so I'm stuck with BootCamp. If you get this working I'll have some justification for the boss to get me a copy.

Keep up the good work.

 

Visual Studio 2005... Please Help!

I've been running Windows XP SP 2 on my Mac via Parallels (http://www.parallels.com) and have been trying to install Visual Studio 2005 for about a week now with no success. I've been looking in forums and other discussion boards trying to troubleshoot the problem but haven't found a good solution. Thus I figured it was time for me to give in and ask for someone else's advice and expertise. The problem is an error message I often get a error saying that it can't access a file (that I'm also unable to access using the virtual machine but can find and access it just fine in a native-windows or OSX setting). That file and directory is D:/VSPROD2/Program Files/Microsoft Visual Studio 8/SDK/v2.0/GuiDebug/shortcutCLRDbg32.txt - when it gets to accessing this file in the installer (which is on Disk 2 of 2) it says it cannot access it and asks me to retry or cancel. Since I can't access it (within Parallels that is) outside of the installer either when I explore the disk's .iso image, retrying is futile and often have to hit cancel. This rolls the whole installation back uninstalling what had been installed up until that point and leaving my virtual machine without the software yet again. Do you have any ideas or suggestions as to a work around?

The whole reason of me having this is so I can run Visual Studio 2005, yet nothing has worked to get around this problem yet and I've tried running it from both the guest-OS and host-OS, daemon tools doesn't work, etc. etc. etc. Please help before I have to resort to Boot Camp which I really don't want to do...

 

1. Maybe there are really some problems with your Disk (You can try to create *.iso images of it first to make sure it is fully readable and then install VS using these iso images)
2. You can install VS2005 from your virtual hard drive (just copy installation files there before the install
2. Personally, i was able to install VS2005 inside Parallels so at least it is possible

 

I was able to make .iso images of the disks but they are unable to be opened within the Windows XP SP 2 virtual machine environment. Instead it says "what program do you want to open these with" and gives me a option to have microsoft look online or to choose one myself. Do you have any programs you reccomend for using to open/access and launch the installer from these .iso images? I tried installing daemon-tools like some other forums/discussion-boards suggested but it didn't work within the virtual machine. Thank you in advance for your timely response and help!

 

This isn't necessarily going to be helpful to fix your problem, but I was able to install Visual Studio 2005 Team Suite from a network share without any trouble. It runs great!

 

Hi Tim,

I am just waiting to hear from you that Parallels WILL definitely gain the ability to use the Boot Camp XP installation in the near future, and the moment I hear that, I will place my pre-order for Parallels for OS X.

The suggestion of using XP's multiple hardware profiles, to be able to set up different device drivers in the Parallels VM from those used in the Boot Camp usage, seems like it would solve your reason for not being able to use the Boot Camp installation, but you have not responded to that suggestion.

A single installation of XP (I have XP Media Edition installed on my Mac Mini with 2 GB of ram) that I can either boot to directly via Boot Camp (works FLAWLESSLY) or can bring up under OS X with Parallels VM is exactly what I am waiting for.

I would greatly appreciate hearing back from you.

Thanks,
Jim

 

Keep the image file in the Host operating system, not the Guest. At the bottom right of the VM window (when Windows is running), click on the icon for the CD Rom and select the "Connect Image ..." item. This will let you open the image on the Host operating system as though it were a physical disk on the Guest operating system.