http://iphone-sdk-in-windows.co.uk/
Installation Guide part 1
First things first
This guide is for installing a legitimate retail copy of OS X 10.5. You can buy this as I did on ebay for very reasonable money. Of course whether you choose to hang on to your copy after the installation is up to you. As I said previously I found it very difficult to update the download versions of OS X to 10.5.7 so I’d suggest steering clear of this route. There may be a Virtual Machine already set up with 10.5.7 available to download by the time you read this but the latest version of the SDK might have moved on and require a newer version of OS X also.
So get a legit copy of OS X. Be careful if you’re buying them on ebay – some people sell copies that are tied to a specific machine type like the MacBook, and may not work with a VM (virtual machine). The retail copy seems to like all macs (and your PC too).
You’ll also need VMWare Workstation – you can get a trial of it here. A search of many torrent sites also brings up the app as well. I am using V6.5
Once you have installed the VMWare Workstation app, download this file: Darwin.zip, you can also get it here.
It’s a fully configured VM Appliance ready to boot, and set up like a Mac. You can also change a few of the hardware options (more later). Set up a folder on your PC with at least 15gb free, and unzip the contents of the file to this location.
Installation Guide part 2
Starting VMWare Workstation
Launch VMWare workstation and you should be greeted by a screen similar to the one below:
The VMWare Workstation home page
Press Open Existing VM or Team and navigate to the folder where you unzipped Darwin.zip. Select the file Darwin.vmx and your new virtual machine is loaded. You should see the following screen:
VM system configuration
The first thing you’ll notice is Guest OS is set to Mac OS X Server 10.5 64Bit (experimental). Don’t worry about this, it’s just a name.
The VM is set to use 2048mb of RAM. I actually changed mine down to 1024mb and it seems to run better as less virtual memory is required for the VM. If you have less than 4GB of RAM I would definitely recommend lowering it to 1024mb.
The VM is also set to use a 32gb file as it’s hard disk. It’s not a preallocated disk which means the file for the 32gb HD is initially very small and it grows as you use more. Don’t worry if you don’t have this much disk space available, just make sure you have at least 15gb.
The VM is set to boot from a file called vmdonk.iso. This is a boot CD image that gets you to a point where you can then start installing OS X.
Everything else you can leave alone, including the processors even if you have a dual or quad core intel. I am led to believe that OS X on a VM this doesn’t like dual processors.
Installation Guide part 3
The Installation
Click ‘Power On This Virtual Machine’ or press the green Play button to turn your VM on. You will see a message like this first:
Select 'I moved it'
Make sure you select ‘I moved it’ and press OK. After a few seconds your VM will boot up and you will see a black screen similar to the one below. Don’t worry about the error message, we can fix that in a minute.
The boot screen on your VM
Put your OS X installation dvd in the PC. If it’s like mine, you’ll get a disc called BootCamp show up in My Computer. It says it’s only 400mb but don’t worry, the Mac files are on a part of the disc that Windows can’t read.
In VMWare, choose VM -> Removable Devices -> CD/DVD -> Settings. In the window shown below you’ll see the VM currently has access to a cd image called vmdonk.iso. Change this to use a physical drive and point it at the drive that has your OSX Installation DVD in. Press OK and then wait for the DVD light to stop flashing.
Point the virtual CD drive at the installation DVD
Press Enter at the boot prompt. You will see a screen like below. You don’t want to boot from the HD at this point, so just enter the HEX code shown for the current device, in this case it’s ‘9f’ and press Enter.
Select the boot device
The DVD will now boot and the installation process will begin. Follow the on screen steps to install and eventually you should be asked to select a destination to install OS X. Within the installation window, select the Utilities menu then choose Disk Utility. When this loads, select the ’32 GB VMWare Virtual ID…’ entry on the left:
Disk Util helps set up a new drive for the installation
Select Erase at the top, give it a name and press Erase…
Close the Disk Utility with the red button in the upper right corner and you should be taken back to the install program. You should now see your new disk, select it and press continue to continue the installation.
After a period of time (mine took about an hour), the installation program will want to reboot your ‘Mac’ to complete the installation.
Important: You changed the VM Machine so that the CD Drive was pointing to the drive that has the install disc. You need to change it back to boot from the ‘vmdonk.iso’ file instead of pointing at a physical drive. If you don’t, the VM will try and boot from the CD drive and OS X will not load. With the power to the VM appliance turned off, you should see the devices attached to the device. Double click on the CD/DVD and change it to point to an ISO file. VMDonk.iso is located in the folder where you put Darwin.zip.
Installation Guide part 4
First Boot
Important: You changed the VM Machine so that the CD Drive was pointing to the drive that has the install disc. You need to change it back to boot from the ‘vmdonk.iso’ file instead of pointing at a physical drive. If you don’t, the VM will try and boot from the CD drive and OS X will not load. With the power to the VM appliance turned off, you should see the devices attached to the device. Double click on the CD/DVD and change it to point to an ISO file. VMDonk.iso is located in the folder where you put Darwin.zip.
Now you have OS X installed on your virtual machine and you have changed the CD drive back to vmdonk.iso, power on the VM again.
At the boot menu, press Enter. This gives you the menu for choosing your boot device.
Type ‘80’ to use the first Hard Drive and press enter. You will then see a menu to select the startup volume. ‘hd(0,2) boot’ should already be selected, so press Enter.
In a few moments OS X will boot for the first time and you will have to fill in a few details as normal. Once you have done this, you should see the following:
A finished installation
Updating to 10.5.7
Assuming you have a copy of OS X that needs updating, go to the Apple Menu and Software Updater. Make sure the update is selected and start the installation. The VM will want to restart to continue with the installation so allow it to do so. After the install has finished you will be back at the boot prompt again as vmdonk.iso should still be attached to the CD drive.
As before, press Enter, then type ‘80’ and press enter again to choose the HD to boot from. The first time you boot following the installation the VM will restart itself. Don’t be alarmed, this is normal. The second time you boot you should be taken in to an updated OS X installation where you can begin downloading the iPhone SDK from Apple.
That’s it, after installing the SDK you should be able to launch XCode and start trying stuff with the iPhone Simulator. Just remember to leave vmdonk.iso attached to the CD drive. If you want another CD drive to use with real media, just add one to the VMWare setup for your Mac.