Mac OS X as a Guest in VMWare on Arch Linux

I needed to package my launchcraft script for OS X.

Initially, Znork volunteered to help, but I needed a solution wherein I could do it without reliance on others, allowing me to stick to my non-existant release cycle.

o I decided to virtualize OS X on Linux so that I could build it inside the VM.

After some unsuccessful attempts with Virtualbox, I decided to go ahead and try VMware.

I went to the VMware website, and got the latest Linux bundle from their releases page.

I made the bundle executable with chmod +x VMware-Workstation-Full-10.0.1-1379776.x86_64.bundle, then ran it with ./VMware-Workstation-Full-10.0.1-1379776.x86_64.bundle.

After finishing the setup, I installed the necessary VMware patch from the Arch Linux AUR: yaourt -S vmware-patch.

I then had to modify the vmware initialization script /etc/init.d/vmware as per the instructions on the Arch Wiki as the vcpi module was not being loaded automatically.

This is done by changing vmwareLoadModule "$mod" to vmwareLoadModule "$vmci" in vmwareStartVmci() and vmwareStopVmci(). You must also change vmwareLoadModule "$mod" to vmwareLoadModule "$vsock" in vmwareStartVsock() and vmwareStopVsock().

I then obtained the official VMware pre-built OS X Mavericks image, with the necessary VMware unlocker for Linux.

I chmoded the unlocker, and ran it with administrator privileges.

I then ran VMware, imported the downloaded VM image, and ran it.

Yay OSX!