After a false start or two, I’ve got Ener Hax’s Sim-on-a-Stick, a relatively easy-to-use personal version of OpenSim, running on a MacBook Pro under Parallels/Win7.
One false start was caused by unzipping the downloaded soas073.zip on the Mac side and copying the unzipped folder to the USB stick. When I tried running the software from that folder OpenSim.exe terminated before loading any regions with a splendidly named nini.ini.iniexception (whatever that is). I think this was caused by the extra hidden files starting with ./ that were created on the Mac side.
So… I erased the USB stick, copied the zipped soas073.zip to it, made Parallels/Win7 mount the USB drive, then unzipped the file within Win7.
This time, when I followed the minimal setup instructions within SOAS_Start_and_Login.txt, it all went swimmingly.
Sim-on-a-Stick Success
This shows the console (the window with a black background); some of the files in the bin folder are in the background.
There are more pictures (arguably prettier ones) beyond the break…
Sim-on-a-Stick first log-in
I tried logging in from the Mac side, but no joy. A quick download of Imprudence from the PC side and… here we are. What are those red blobs?
Sim-on-a-Stick initial view
Oh my… A rocket…
Sim-on-a-Stick loading OAR
I copy across a spare OAR (a backup file for an OpenSim region) from the Mac to the USB stick, placing it in the bin folder within diva-r18222-c. Next I switch back to the console, change the region to simonastick 1, then type “load oar 0416-starfyre.oar”. It starts to load…
Sim-on-a-Stick Starfyre
Eventually, the scene emerges. Lightshare (OpenSim’s server-side Windlight) isn’t working — that’s why the sky has reverted to a standard sunny day rather than Starfyre’s usual fiery orange. I’ll need to investigate that.
The D'ni Voice 
lisajacka said,
May 9, 2012 at 5:35 PM
Hi, I tried running SOAS on parallels on my Mac and it messed with my nvivo files. I don’t know much about PC based database things like mysql but all I know is I can’t risk loosing my data sorting in nvivo. I actually run SOAS on a PC laptop and then log into it from my Mac via imprudence. The problem with parallels is also that you need to buy a copy of both parallels and windows. I’d just really like a Mac native version and I do love sim on a stick. I wish I had the know how to do it but alas I feel its outside my area of expertise. Cheers, Lisa.
Dot said,
May 9, 2012 at 5:50 PM
Hello Lisa. Thanks for the comment.
I’m sorry, but I can’t help with the NVivo problem.
Re Parallels; yes, you do need both Parallels and the Windows operating system. However, the set-up is ideal for my purposes, making it very easy for example to copy something on the PC side and paste it directly into a Mac document (or vice versa). This would not be possible if I was running separate machines.
All the best
Dot
lisajacka said,
May 9, 2012 at 6:45 PM
Hi Dot. I agree. That’s why I like to run the SOAS on the PC but access it from Imprudence on my mac. The PC and mac are networked on a home network. That way I can do screenshots etc on my mac and get the great performance from my mac. When I got parallels one of the first things I tried was SOAS but the first thing I’d done was nvivo. When I went back to nvivo the database was stuffed. Now I’m too cautious to try again (although tempted). Cheers, Lisa.
Sarge Misfit (@SargeMisfit) said,
May 9, 2012 at 5:52 PM
There’s a real need for a Mac-SoaS (and Linux, too) and I hope those get created. I’m a PC guy, so not much help there, but glad you got things happening.
Great looking OAR, too. Is it freely available to the public?
Dot said,
May 9, 2012 at 6:04 PM
Hi Sarge. Thanks for the note. The OAR is from one of the Devokan regions on OSgrid — I’ve also used it in a Kitely trial, it being one of my favourites (http://www.kitely.com/virtualworld/Dot-Macchi/Devokan-Starfyre). I’ll have a word with Paislee, who originally set up the region about a year ago. The OAR is about 16 MB in size.
Ener Hax (@iliveisl) said,
May 10, 2012 at 11:51 PM
outstanding! =)
Dot said,
May 13, 2012 at 2:03 AM
Thanks, Ener — I feel honoured. http://iliveisl.com/ is one of my regular reads!
sim-on-a-stick on a Mac! at i live in science land said,
May 12, 2012 at 2:43 PM
[…] Who needs SL? Playing with SoaS […]
Sarge Misfit (@SargeMisfit) said,
May 12, 2012 at 3:00 PM
Thanks, Dot. I’m such a sci-fi nut that even if I didn’t use it, I’d keep it as part of my ‘collection’ 😀
Dot said,
May 13, 2012 at 1:59 AM
Paislee is happy to share the Starfyre OAR, and those of any other regions she has built. Now to work out how and where to make them available!
Dot said,
May 26, 2012 at 12:07 AM
I’ve set up a thread on the Devokan Trust forum with screenshots and download links for various OARs: http://forum.devokan.org/viewtopic.php?p=1711#p1711
Kat said,
May 12, 2012 at 7:59 PM
Thanks for this post! There has to be a way to run SOAS natively on MacOS. I’m working on it (see http://is.gd/ism_mac for the gory details), but so far haven’t gotten there completely. The problem with running in a virtual machine (I use VirtualBox instead of Parallels) is lack of RAM on my machine and good video card drivers, otherwise it does work. I think the main issue remaining is to configure the .ini files correctly, which on MacOS can be a challenge to figure out where all the resources are.
Dot said,
May 13, 2012 at 1:56 AM
Thanks for the helpful link, Kat. I’ll go investigating too. It would be good if we could get something like SoaS running properly on the Mac side. If it helps for discussion, there’s a section for OpenSim on the Devokan project forum: http://forum.devokan.org/viewforum.php?f=12. That’s where I’m documenting my attempts.
Using Sim-on-a-Stick (SoaS) on a MacBook Pro | Amazing WWWorld said,
February 12, 2014 at 4:38 AM
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