...cannot open files in the "SheepShaverVM" format.

[fahlman]

First, I'd like to say thank you for the time and effort you spend on SheepShaver and the assistance you offer on this forum.

I have two SheepShaver virtual machines. One is named System 7.sheepvm and the other is named Mac OS 9.sheepvm. I receive the attached error when attempting to open System 7.sheepvm if the Mac OS 9.sheepvm is already open, and vice versa. Both virtual machines work correctly when opened one at a time. I'm using latest SheepShaver (2.4.2012.07.15) on Mac OS X 10.8.2. Thank you in advance for your help resolving this problem.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

SheepShaver can only run one VM at a time.

You could probably open two VM's, each with it's own copy of SheepShaver. Not sure if there will be adverse effects of running two copies of SheepShaver at the same time.

Anyway, when you try that, make sure that the two VM's do not have the same disk images mounted at the same time.

(The message is probably displayed by OSX with no clue why the file can't be opened.)

[mathieudel]

I had the exact same problem and just found it was because I was trying to launch two SS instances that shared the same extfs / unix location.

Changing this allowed me to launch several instances at the same time.

[Ronald P. Regensburg]

Are you sure? After I read your post I tried with two .sheepvm virtual machines with a different extfs set in their respective prefs files, but I still can run only one at a time.

I can run several .sheepvm virtual machine at the same time, though, when I 'Open with' each one with a separate copy of SheepShaver, also when they all use the same shared folder.