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Running Mission Planner on OSX

Posted by Jerry Hatrick on January 10, 2013 at 10:41pm

Hi guys, first post here, my APM mega 2.5 and associated gear is in the mail, and Im just trying to set up my computer to use it in the field.

I have a 2011 macbook air, and would ideally love to run mission planner natively in osx. I did some research, and stumbled across this post:

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/ardupilotmegaplanner-runs

I did exactly what the thread suggested, i downloaded mono, installed it, then downloaded the latest version of mission planner. I opened up terminal and the program starts to load, then it crashes. I am assuming this is because I am running the latest mountain lion and not lion. Anyone got a workaround?

My backup plan was to install XP on bootcamp, and then I discovered you need to run windows 7 on bootcamp, xp wont load. So then I tried to install Ubuntu, but there is no easy way of installing ubuntu on osx either. Anyone got any ideas on how to get this software working? I have about 3 days before my package arrives, (well supposidly, it only left San Diego today and is bound for Australia). 

Cheers. 

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Replies

  • Jackson Rollins April 15, 2016 at 6:12am

    Hey all,

    I personally use windows 10 (you can download the ISO for free from microsoft) via Oracle's Virtual Box which is also free. It runs Mission Planner 1.3.37 like a dream.

    If needed, google how you can do the following:

    - Download virtualbox

    - Download windows ISO

    - Install Windows to your virtual machine

    - Once operating in the windows virtual machine, download the Mission Planner msi to your new virtual machine

  • Stephen Gloor January 11, 2013 at 9:57pm

    The other thing that you could try is MavProxy.

    http://www.qgroundcontrol.org/mavlink/mavproxy_startpage

    It is written in Python so it should run natively on the Mac.

  • Stephen Gloor January 11, 2013 at 6:03pm

    I haven't tried to run mission planner yet however I use VirtualBox to run my Windows 7 PC on my Mac Air.  VirtualBox is free and easy to install and run.  With the extensions it supports USB2 and I have not had any problems with running communications programs that use USB.

    You can download it here http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.6/VirtualBox-4.2.6-82...

    I use it to run all my LAN management programs when I am mobile so I do not have to carry my larger work PC around with me.

    I will be downloading and running mission planner soon and will run it in my W7 VM when I get my APM so I can update you on how it goes.

    Please buy a copy of Windows 7 from a PC build store like PLE that will sell you an OEM version.  It is only $120.00 or so it is not worth trying to use a pirated copy.  You don't need the full retail version.

    http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.2.6/VirtualBox-4.2.6-82870-OSX.dmg
  • Mike Boland January 11, 2013 at 11:44am

    I will second that.

    Refuse to run PC hardware here so all the PC stuff is through a VM.

    Since MS killed VPC, VMWare Fusion has risen to become the tool of choice for VM.

    It's cheap, transparent, simple to use, typical Mac app.

  • Jeff L January 11, 2013 at 6:43am

    Can you get VMware Fusion?  If so I've had no trouble running mission planner on a XP or Win7 vm in fusion.  I have the 2012 mba and rmbp so there is a VMware bulletin on disabling "accelerate 3D" with Win7, but with a 2011 mba you shouldn't even have to do that.

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