I am wondering if anyone has been successful using the emulator in Visual Studio 2013.4 on a Mac running Windows OS 10 Technical Preview in Parallels Desktop 10.1… It shows everything building correctly the way you’d see it in the Corona terminal on a Mac, but it either hangs after that, or it says there’s an error but doesn’t specify what the error is.
it did show an error once when I tried to use a specific emulator (see attachment), but not since then.
thanks!
First, I have to say that I don’t think running a VM within a VM is a good idea. While it is possible to do this (Charles from Corona Geek has done it), you may not be happy with the performance of it. Plus, it’s incredibly demanding on your hardware. Particularly RAM, because you will effectively be running 4 operating systems at the same time (OS X, Windows Desktop, Windows Metro, and WP8). Microsoft recommends that you have at least 4 GB of RAM when running the WP8 emulator on Windows on its own dedicated PC. So, on a Mac via a VM, you’ll need more than 4 GB of RAM. This also means that you’ll need to set up your Windows virtual machine with 4 GB of RAM.
Microsoft’s system requirements for the WP8 emulator can be found here…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/ff626524(v=vs.105).aspx
From the link above, note that Microsoft’s WP8 emulator requires that Intel CPUs to support SLAT, which is a hardware feature. If your CPU does not support SLAT, then you cannot run the WP8 emulator. If your CPU does support SLAT, then it might be an issue with Parallels not support SLAT because that VM software will have to emulate/expose that hardware feature. The link above provides instructions and a command line tool that you can use to detect if your CPU supports this feature.
Also, if you’re based in the USA, Amazon sells unlocked WP8 devices for less than $100. They used to sell a Lumia 520 for $33, but it looks like that deal is over.
Thanks for the reply! I’m running 16 gb ram so I don’t think that’s the issue. I had read about your concerns about VM in VM in another spot here. My Mac can run Slat. Will see if I can find out about parallels (using a trial version). My concern was maybe running windows 10 might be an issue. Not sure how to allocate ram to the VM. Is there a way to get a better readout on the errors other than build failed? Thanks!
Microsoft provides a downloadable command line tool named “coreinfo.exe” that you can run at the Windows command line to determine if your virtual Windows machine actually supports SLAT. Or at least if it is enabled in your BIOS. Have a look here…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj863509(v=vs.105).aspx#coreinfo
If memory serves me right, I think Windows will refuse to install/enable Hyper-V if your CPU does not support SLAT. If Hyper-V is installed, then I believe you satisfied that requirement and it’s a different issue.
Also, are you running a 64-bit Windows 10 machine? In the past, Windows XP would have problems using 4 GB of RAM (this is right at the 2^32 threshold). I had to use a 64-bit Windows OS to use 4 GB of RAM without issues.
Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is that you’re running into an issue with Parallels. I know Charles got Windows 10 and the WP8 emulator working with VMWare Fusion as can be seen here…
http://youtu.be/1cWnAewfBwE?t=9m50s
Although I think Charles said he had to modify a WMWare setting to get it working properly. Perhaps you need to scour the Parallels forums for something similar. I’m not really sure.
First, I have to say that I don’t think running a VM within a VM is a good idea. While it is possible to do this (Charles from Corona Geek has done it), you may not be happy with the performance of it. Plus, it’s incredibly demanding on your hardware. Particularly RAM, because you will effectively be running 4 operating systems at the same time (OS X, Windows Desktop, Windows Metro, and WP8). Microsoft recommends that you have at least 4 GB of RAM when running the WP8 emulator on Windows on its own dedicated PC. So, on a Mac via a VM, you’ll need more than 4 GB of RAM. This also means that you’ll need to set up your Windows virtual machine with 4 GB of RAM.
Microsoft’s system requirements for the WP8 emulator can be found here…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/ff626524(v=vs.105).aspx
From the link above, note that Microsoft’s WP8 emulator requires that Intel CPUs to support SLAT, which is a hardware feature. If your CPU does not support SLAT, then you cannot run the WP8 emulator. If your CPU does support SLAT, then it might be an issue with Parallels not support SLAT because that VM software will have to emulate/expose that hardware feature. The link above provides instructions and a command line tool that you can use to detect if your CPU supports this feature.
Also, if you’re based in the USA, Amazon sells unlocked WP8 devices for less than $100. They used to sell a Lumia 520 for $33, but it looks like that deal is over.
Thanks for the reply! I’m running 16 gb ram so I don’t think that’s the issue. I had read about your concerns about VM in VM in another spot here. My Mac can run Slat. Will see if I can find out about parallels (using a trial version). My concern was maybe running windows 10 might be an issue. Not sure how to allocate ram to the VM. Is there a way to get a better readout on the errors other than build failed? Thanks!
Microsoft provides a downloadable command line tool named “coreinfo.exe” that you can run at the Windows command line to determine if your virtual Windows machine actually supports SLAT. Or at least if it is enabled in your BIOS. Have a look here…
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/apps/jj863509(v=vs.105).aspx#coreinfo
If memory serves me right, I think Windows will refuse to install/enable Hyper-V if your CPU does not support SLAT. If Hyper-V is installed, then I believe you satisfied that requirement and it’s a different issue.
Also, are you running a 64-bit Windows 10 machine? In the past, Windows XP would have problems using 4 GB of RAM (this is right at the 2^32 threshold). I had to use a 64-bit Windows OS to use 4 GB of RAM without issues.
Other than that, the only other thing I can think of is that you’re running into an issue with Parallels. I know Charles got Windows 10 and the WP8 emulator working with VMWare Fusion as can be seen here…
http://youtu.be/1cWnAewfBwE?t=9m50s
Although I think Charles said he had to modify a WMWare setting to get it working properly. Perhaps you need to scour the Parallels forums for something similar. I’m not really sure.