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I have a Macbook Pro partitioned to dual boot Ubuntu or OS X. I've read a couple guides explaining how to run a physical Windows partition as a guest inside VirtualBox. Is the same thing possible with an OS X partition?

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yes its possible, i would look at the Ubuntu tutorials, they will most likely also work, with slight variation, in OSx.

http://www.diy-computer-repairs.com/ubuntu-10-04-virtualbox-shared-folders/

https://help.ubuntu.com/community/VirtualBox/SharedFolders

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How is this answer related to the question? – vasi Feb 25 '11 at 1:36
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VirtualBox will only virtualize OS X Server. Anything else is a violation of the license agreement and that license agreement is honored by VirtualBox, VMware and Parallels.

From the Mac OS X Server EULA:

Subject to the terms and conditions of this License, you are granted a limited non-exclusive license to install and use one copy of the Mac OS X Server software (the “Mac OS X Server Software”) on a single Apple-branded computer. You may also install and use other copies of Mac OS X Server Software on the same Apple-branded computer, provided that you acquire an individual and valid license from Apple for each of these other copies of Mac OS X Server Software.

There's no such clause for the desktop version.

If you want to obey the license there it is. If you want to disregard the license, that's something else.

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The terms "virtual" / "VM" / "emulation" don't appear in either the OS X or OS X Server SLAs (10.6 or 10.5) at all. Given that he has a Macbook Pro (arguably a "single Apple-branded computer" as specified in section 2A of the agreement), I don't see what part of the license he would be in violation of. – Ken Feb 1 '11 at 20:49
You can argue if you like. The fact remains. In virtual box you need to specify to boot EFI (otherwise OS X can't boot at all) and if you try the non-server version you get an error that says "this is not the serve version, which violates the license". This is all at Apple's request. Vbox being open source you can feel freer to hack it up yourself to remove this limitation. – bahamat Feb 1 '11 at 22:17
The license states that OS X can only run on official Mac hardware. In my hypothetical case, even though it's inside a VM, the physical hardware would still be official Mac hardware. Therefore, I don't see a contradiction. – Chris S Feb 2 '11 at 15:49
@Chris S: From the Mac OS X Server EULA: "You are granted...license to install and use one copy of the Mac OS X Server software on a single Apple-branded computer. You may also install and use other copies of Mac OS X Server Software on the same Apple-branded computer, provided that you acquire an individual and valid license from Apple for each of these other copies of Mac OS X Server Software." There's no such clause for the desktop version. If you want to obey the license there it is. If you want to disregard the license, that's something else. – bahamat Feb 2 '11 at 20:08
The Mac OS X (non-Server) 10.6 EULA says: "... run one (1) copy of the Apple Software on a single Apple-branded computer at a time". If he's running it in a VM inside Windows, he's running a single copy at a time, on an Apple-branded computer. The sentence in the Mac OS X Server license sounds like it's for people who want to run a server farm with 20 Mac OS X instances on a single computer. I do not see how a dual-boot MacBook running a single VM violates the license. – Ken Feb 11 '11 at 16:54
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