Homunculus Mac OS
I have been using Macintosh since before it was cool. A lot has changed since then: now Apple is cool, Macs use Intel processors, and software can emulate a virtual computer inside your actual computer. Although Microsoft becomes less relevant each day, there are still valid reasons besides masochism that a person might want access to Windows.
Mac OS X Sorts yesteryear experienced info afterglow at to Ague A bacteria tribe H5N1 cannibalize canakin balloon or lesser aspect. Perhaps You casually deleted Blues A virus subtype H5N1 personation, or your outside scrupulous unrest got corrupted. A cortical homunculus is a distorted representation of the human body, based on a neurological 'map' of the areas and proportions of the human brain dedicated to processing motor functions, or sensory functions, for different parts of the body. The word homunculus is Latin for 'little man', and was a term used in alchemy and folklore long before scientific literature began using it. So, I'm a little bit confused here. 62, from the Homunculus Servant entry, it reads; 'The item you infuse serves as the creature's heart, around which the creature's body instantly for.
This is the story of how I used VirtualBox to set up a Windows 7 guest on a Mac OS X host. Lots of people have done this. The reason I feel my story is compelling enough to tell is that, rather than using a single file to act as a virtual hard disk, I am using an actual hard disk, connected to my Mac via FireWire.
Why do this?
- Performance. Giving your virtual machine it’s own dedicated hard disk means it isn’t competing with the host machine for access. I haven’t run tests, and the USB or FireWire bottleneck may compromises guest performance, but my inner engineer would rather have a slower guest than a slower guest and host.
- Backup. A virtual hard disk is a large, frequently changing file. Most backup software, such as Time Machine, doesn’t work well with these.
- Portability. To use the virtual machine on a second computer, all I need to do is copy the settings, only a few kilobytes of data. Then all I have to do is plug the external disk into whatever computer I feel like using that day.
- Access. Instead of being locked away in a virtual hard disk file, my files are accessible to any computer that I can plug the drive into.
Warning: the procedure below is not for the faint of heart. If you are uncomfortable at a command line, you may want to wait for software to support this in a more graceful manner.
Install VirtualBox
On Mac OS X you have three options (that I am aware of): Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion, and VirtualBox. I used VirtualBox because it is free and I am a cheapskate. Parallels and VMware are very reasonably priced, and supposedly offer better performance, but my needs are modest and VirtualBox is pretty good.Download VirtualBox and follow the installation instructions, etc. Don’t create your virtual machine just yet. Note to people of the future: 4.0.2 was the latest available version at the time of writing.
Create Virtual Disk File
Although your virtual machine will be using an actual hard disk, you still need to make a file that tells VirtualBox how to access the device. You can’t do this through the graphical interface, so you must drop down to the command line. Connect your disk and open a Terminal window. Then type:You should see some output that looks like this:From this list, you need to identify which disk is the one you want to install onto. In my case, it’s the last one, disk4. I wish I could tell you exactly what to look for, but at this point I don’t know what’s on your disk, if it’s been formatted, etc. If you’re unsure, look for a number in the size column that matches the size of the drive.Now for some harsh reality: Mac OS X assigns these disk numbers on a first-connected, first-served basis. In my case, the internal hard drive is disk0 and my Drobo is disk1. When I log in, Finder mounts my iDisk, so that’s disk2. At some point I downloaded and mounted a disk image to install some software, it was disk3. Then I connected the external drive, disk4. Finally, I ejected the disk image, which is why disk3 does not appear in the list above.
Our problem is that VirtualBox needs a disk identifier, but the identifier depends on when we plugged the drive in. The least painful way to deal with this problem is to create a symbolic link to the device identifier, and tell VirtualBox to use that. If the external disk’s identifier has changed, all we need to do is update the symbolic link. Let’s do that.
Switch to the directory where VirtualBox stores it’s hard disk files:Create a link to the device we noted earlier:Create the virtual disk file:This creates a virtual disk file named ExternalDisk.vmdk which refers to the link ExternalDiskDeviceLink, which in turn points to the device /dev/disk4.
Whenever you need to point to a new device, update the symbolic link file:You may be wondering, why not just use VBoxManage to create a bunch of the vmdk files, and switch between those? You could do that, but each time you create a file, it is assigned a UUID which is apparently visible to the guest OS. Microsoft Office, for example, believes it has been copied to a new computer if this UUID changes, forcing you to reactivate your legally obtained copy by telephone.
Also, clicking around in VirtualBox to change the disk file each time would get annoying (to me) fast.
Configure a Virtual Machine
Launch VirtualBox and create a new virtual machine. The prompts are fairly straightforward, I won’t explain them all. When it asks you to select a virtual hard disk, select Use existing hard disk and then click the tiny folder icon to select the ExternalDisk.vmdk file you created earlier.The guest and the host cannot use the external disk at the same time, so if the disk has been mounted on the host, make sure to eject it before you try to start the virtual machine. If you don’t, VirtualBox will lambast you with a cryptic, angry error message containing the word BUSY.
(If you get a different error message containing the word UNSUPPORTED, try changing the configuration so that the disk is connected to a virtual IDE controller rather than a virtual SATA controller.)
Once the VM is running, you can install Windows 7 (or whatever other OS you like). Allow the installer to partition and format the external drive.
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Prevent the Drive from Auto-mounting
Even though I would eject the drives before starting the VM, Mac OS X would mount them again as soon as the VM shut down. This was annoying.Then at some point I noticed Mac OS X mounted the drives while the virtual machine was running. This caused the VM to lock up and was generally horrible. So even though I was good about unmounting the drives before starting the VM, it is absolutely necessary to prevent Mac OS X from auto-mounting the drives.
If it’s running, shut down the VM. Let the drives mount automatically or use Disk Utility to mount them. Then open a Terminal window and type:Here is the part of the output we’re interested in:Windows has created two partitions; we need to make sure they don’t mount. We do this by listing them in the system’s fstab file. We can identify disks by label (name) or UUID. It’s better to use the UUID if we can, since it’s easy to change a disk’s label but impossible (well, very difficult) to change it’s UUID. Unfortunately, some partitions don’t appear to have one.
Find out if each partition has a UUID:Look for a line like:Make a note of the UUID; if it doesn’t have one, note the Volume Name instead. Repeat for disk4s2 and so on. Now create a file at /etc/fstab (you need root privileges to do so) and add the following lines. (If the file already exists, you can just add these lines to the end.)In my case, “System Reserved” did not have a UUID, so I identified it by label, using 040 to represent the space. I’m not too worried about it, since its label is unlikely to change. The main partition’s name, other the other hand, can be changed by clicking around within Windows, so I’ve copied the UUID from above. You should copy the UUID from your system and not the one from this web page.
Anyway, that “noauto” keyword on the end of the line is what prevents Mac OS X from mounting the disk when you plug the drive in.
Test it by ejecting the disks, unplugging the drive, then plugging it back in. If nothing happens, you’ve succeeded!
If you ever want to mount the disks manually (perhaps to copy a file without booting up your VM), use Disk Utility.
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Congratulate yourself
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You have done it: a virtual machine that boots from an actual hard disk.These instructions are based on my faulty memory of what worked for me on my computer. If you run into problems, leave a comment and let me know, but I can’t guarantee I can help you.
There is definitely room for improvement here. An enterprising sort of person could probably write a script or application that automatically updates the symbolic link before starting the VM.
Item #: SCP-614
Object Class: Euclid
Special Containment Procedures: SCP-614 itself cannot be contained until knowledge is gained about the whereabouts of the server hosting SCP-614. Until then, knowledge of SCP-614 must be prevented from entering the public. Distributing the IP address of SCP-614 to unauthorized personnel is prohibited. Agents are to periodically take measures to make sure that access to SCP-614 is blocked at all internet service providers.
Description: SCP-614 is a website located at the IP address 57.32.███.███. The IPv4 block 57.0.0.0/8 is owned by SITA and used for telecommunications in the air transport industry. It is not yet known if this has any significance. SITA records do not show that the IP address has been allocated or used for any purpose, and SITA claims to have no knowledge of any servers operating at the address.
The homepage of SCP-614 is a plainly formatted search page. There is a single search box on the page, under which are three drop-down lists, a 'Search' button, and an 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button. The drop-down lists allow the user to specify a date, ranging from July 2nd, 2001, to August 25, 21██. The first date has been identified as the release date of the first 'BitTorrent' client, while the significance of the last date is as of yet unknown. When a date is entered and the 'Search' button is pressed, the website will load a list of search results, known as 'torrents', from various peer-to-peer file-sharing websites at the time of the given date. The 'I'm Feeling Lucky' button will return a single random result from a random date. Experiments have shown that searches with the date set at a past date are perfectly accurate as to the results, while searches from a future date are around 95% accurate at returning the actual results that will appear on the given date (see Experiment Log 614-1a). Examination of the web page's source code shows that the website operates by searching a local database. Efforts to retrieve the database or access it directly have been unsuccessful.
Addendum:
Experiment Log 614-1a
Researcher: Dr. Opus
Date: 08/12/2009
Description: Over the course of about 20 days, a series of tests were run to check the accuracy of SCP-614 regarding future torrents. A string was randomly generated and searched for in SCP-614, and a note was made if a previously generated dummy file was found. The next day a random number generator was used to decide if a torrent would be uploaded or not. If the torrent was to be uploaded, then the previously generated file was uploaded onto a popular torrent site with the unique string, generated the previous day, as a tag. This process was repeated 20 times. Out of the 20, SCP-614 predicted whether or not the file would be uploaded correctly 19 times out of 20, proving an accuracy rate of about 95%.
Experiment Log 614-1b
Date: 09/23/2009
Researcher: Dr. Opus
Description: An unreleased movie, titled [REDACTED], was searched for in SCP-614 and downloaded. Release was scheduled for approximately [REDACTED] months from the date of the search. Movie was viewed by research personnel. Upon release of [REDACTED], the movie was acquired legitimately and viewed again, side-by-side with the previously downloaded movie. While the plot remained the same, several changes were noted in the final movie, such as the removal of a secondary character and the addition of a scene. No changes were noted in the downloaded copy between the time it was originally downloaded and the time of the movie's release.
Note: In addition, while downloading the movie, it was noted that the IP addresses of the peers (other users connected together to facilitate sharing of the file) were the same as the IP address of SCP-614.
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SCP-614 Download Logs:
Researcher Name: Dr. Opus
Date that site was accessed: 02/20/2011
Date entered into site: ██/██/203█
Search Terms: scp
File(s) Downloaded: wikileaks-scp-203█████████.7z
Description: The entire collection of Foundation documents, as uploaded by the 'WikiLeaks' organization. Some anomalies and inconsistencies with current documents were found, such as the inclusion of previously unknown SCP-███, the listing of SCPs ███, ███, and ███ as decommissioned, and [DATA EXPUNGED] of SCP-███. Further research into these 'leaked' files is being done, and further security precautions have been taken to try to prevent this security breach.
Dr. Opus: Requesting that SCP-614's object class be upgraded to Euclid, in light of its internet connection, the potential for public exposure, the frequently-changing contents of the website, and the possibility of the appearance of more hazardous files.
O5-█: Class change approved.