Many developers desperately want to virtualize various Mac OS X releases. Right now, that’s not a possibility, unless you consider this pseudo hack. You can run Leopard client version virtualized as long as you’re tricking Fusion into thinking it’s the server version.
The trick relies on the existence of a file in the disc image. First step, create a disk image of your Leopard install disc. Once that’s done, mount it (make sure it’s read/write). Then run this command:
touch “/Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist”
Then you need to run more command.
touch “/Volumes/Macintosh HD/System/Library/CoreServices/ServerVersion.plist”
Replace Macintosh HD with the name of your hard drive. You then need to reboot. That last step fools Fusion into thinking you’ve booted Mac OS X Server.
Yeah, that’s a lot of work. And it probably won’t work for long. And it doesn’t address the real desire developers have (older versions of OS X). It’s a start though. Hope.
Does this work for Parallels too?
Yes, on the MacOSXHints page someone says the same tip works for Parallels SERVER.
As an independent Mac developer, having the ability to run Tiger and clean installs of Leopard in a virtual machine environment would be a godsend both for development and tracking down user support issues on the legacy OS.