Run Vanilla OS X El Capitan, Sierra, High Sierra or Mojave in VirtualBox 5.x.x on a Windows Host

[ninsio]

Hi, I'm not really understanding how to install clover. When I turn EFI off and put in the commands in the command line, it shows a fatal error so I can't even open the vm to install clover efi. Any help?

[theFurai]

Hey,

 

So I've been following many guides around here but I don't understand how to prepare MacOS.vmdk like you did. What's on it? I'd like to make one like this myself.

 

Also, I'd like to thank all of you for the excellent job done around here. All InanelyMac users.

 

EDIT: I've just followed above tutorial for HighSierra from scratch and gone as far as doing the accepting the agreement and then turning off on MACH Reboot message. I've unmounted the BaseSystem.vmdk, started machine again and all I get is black screen. Been hanging like that for few minutes right now, with no feedback at all. What could have possibly gone wrong?

 

Cheers,

Furai

[fusion71au]

Hi, I'm not really understanding how to install clover. When I turn EFI off and put in the commands in the command line, it shows a fatal error so I can't even open the vm to install clover efi. Any help?

 

Legacy Clover no longer works in VirtualBox 5.1.x and VirtualBox 5.2.x (causes red screen error).  Need to install in UEFI mode only and press <F12>, select "EFI Hard Drive" from Boot Manager to start VM with Clover.

 

 

Hey,

 

So I've been following many guides around here but I don't understand how to prepare MacOS.vmdk like you did. What's on it? I'd like to make one like this myself.

 

Also, I'd like to thank all of you for the excellent job done around here. All InanelyMac users.

 

EDIT: I've just followed above tutorial for HighSierra from scratch and gone as far as doing the accepting the agreement and then turning off on MACH Reboot message. I've unmounted the BaseSystem.vmdk, started machine again and all I get is black screen. Been hanging like that for few minutes right now, with no feedback at all. What could have possibly gone wrong?

 

Cheers,

Furai

 

What's on it? 

 

In the EFI partition, Clover r4332 compiled with GCC and minimal config.plist, compatible for use in VMware and VirtualBox.

 

In macOS HFS partition, startosinstall.command script, which assembles the Installer App on the macOS target volume and starts the startosinstall utility...

#!/bin/bash
 
 # Change to root folder
 cd /
 
 # Copy "small" Installer app to “macOS” target
 cp -R Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app /Volumes/macOS/
 
 # Copy SharedSupport folder from USB "DATA" to Contents folder in Installer.app on “macOS”
 cp -R /Volumes/DATA/SharedSupport /Volumes/macOS/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/
 
 # Start startosinstall utility to create phase 1 /macOS Install Data
 /Volumes/macOS/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --volume /Volumes/macOS --converttoapfs NO --rebootdelay 30 --applicationpath /Volumes/macOS/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

• Have you tried rebooting the VM again after the "black screen" (power down, then restart)?
• What disks are attached to your VM?  Did you attach the provided macOS.vmdk which has Clover preinstalled on it or your own?
• Is the black screen you are describing the UEFI Shell (eg step 4 in post#73)?
• What is the version of VirtualBox you are using? 

 

As of the time of writing my guide, VirtualBox does not have the code to find "\macOS Install Data\Locked Files\Boot Files\boot.efi", which is the DATA structure used to natively update/install macOS Sierra and High Sierra.  For the second installation phase to continue, you will either need to boot to Clover as described in step10, post#75,

 

or boot to the UEFI shell and manually restart the installation process by typing the following 2 lines, followed by <Enter> after each line...

FS1:
"\macOS Install Data\Locked Files\Boot Files\boot.efi"

step4, post#73.

 

 

 

Nope, not like UEFI shell, just completely black screen.

 

 

Update:  For VirtualBox 5.2.x, the command for changing screen resolution has changed...

 

VBoxManage setextradata "<MyVM>" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution XxY (where X=Horizontal screen resolution, Y=Vertical screen resolution)

eg

VBoxManage setextradata "<MyVM>" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1280x1024

Your "black screen" was most likely due to a mismatch between the value set for VirtualBox's EfiGraphicsResolution (default = 1024x768) and screen resolution set in Clover's config.plist.

[theFurai]

What's on it? 

 

In the EFI partition, Clover r4332 compiled with GCC and minimal config.plist, compatible for use in VMware and VirtualBox.

 

In macOS HFS partition, startosinstall.command script, which assembles the Installer App on the macOS target volume and starts the startosinstall utility...

#!/bin/bash
 
 # Change to root folder
 cd /
 
 # Copy "small" Installer app to “macOS” target
 cp -R Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app /Volumes/macOS/
 
 # Copy SharedSupport folder from USB "DATA" to Contents folder in Installer.app on “macOS”
 cp -R /Volumes/DATA/SharedSupport /Volumes/macOS/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/
 
 # Start startosinstall utility to create phase 1 /macOS Install Data
 /Volumes/macOS/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app/Contents/Resources/startosinstall --volume /Volumes/macOS --converttoapfs NO --applicationpath /Volumes/macOS/Install\ macOS\ High\ Sierra.app

 

Yeah, I've seen it when I've mounted the vmdk to the system using nbd kernel module.

 

• Have you tried rebooting the VM again after the "black screen" (power down, then restart)?

Yes, multiple times. All the time just pure black screen is visible.

 

 

• What disks are attached to your VM?  Did you attach the provided macOS.vmdk which has Clover preinstalled on it or your own?

 

There was only provided by you macOS.vmdk attached to it, no optical drives.

 

 

• Is the black screen you are describing the UEFI Shell (eg step 4 in post#73)?

 

Nope, not like UEFI shell, just completely black screen.

 

 

• What is the version of VirtualBox you are using? 

 

Latest version available right now so I think 5.2.2.

 

As of the time of writing my guide, VirtualBox does not have the code to find "\macOS Install Data\Locked Files\Boot Files\boot.efi", which is the DATA structure used to natively update/install macOS Sierra and High Sierra.  For the second installation phase to continue, you will either need to boot to Clover as described in step10, post#75,

 

or boot to the UEFI shell and manually restart the installation process by typing the following 2 lines, followed by <Enter> after each line...

FS1:
"\macOS Install Data\Locked Files\Boot Files\boot.efi"

step4, post#73.

 

I'll give it a try with UEFI shell. Thanks for all the help and time taken to write it.

 

If anything, I'm sitting now every day on IRC, if by any chance you're using it. We might chat there, find a solution and post it here afterwards.

 

EDIT: I've just tried UEFI shell, it works but for some reason it erases command I type in random fashion. Like I start typing something and then the cursor gets moved to the beginning of the line and I'm inserting text over.

Tried putting in commands until I finally managed changing directory to the one with boot.efi file and run it from there. It worked and now I'm installing macOS. I'm really puzzled why UEFI shell behaves like this.

 

EDIT#2: Installed, configured. Can run it without problems. Usual stuff not work like audio is distorted and what not.

[Z800MAC]

I followed the guide to create an installation from scratch without access to a Mac or the App store.

 

I used your macOs.vmdk and created a BaseSystem.vmdk accodring to your guide. However, I get another issue. I think its possible due to the fact that I have a Intel HD graphics 630:

 

WARNING: IOPlatformPluginUtil : getCPUIDinfo: this is an unknown CPU model 0x9e

 

(See attachment for a screenshot)

 

Here is a post discussing it on another website:

https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/getcpuidinfo-this-is-an-unknown-cpu-model-0x5e.222321/#post-1506955

 

I tried spoofing the CPU model but it does not seem to do any difference in my case.

 

So, I am wondering if its possible to troubleshoot this issue?

 

 

[pheng]

 

8)  The Apple Software Licence will appear in the terminal window.  Type A to agree ---> install files will be placed in /Volumes/macOS/macOS Install Data ---> System will reboot after 30 seconds...

 

 

When I try, I'm getting "Error: could not get license agreement." I initially thought this could be because I was behind a proxy, but when I tried with a direct Internet connection, I'm getting the same.

 

Does anyone have any hints as to what the issue might be?

[PippoX0]

Good tutorial ! Thanks

 

sent from my iPhone

[JackED42]

Hi, 

 

I am unable to download macOS.vmdk.zip, is there a mirror available anywhere?

 

Thanks

 

Jack

[fusion71au]

Update for Mojave 10.14_18A391
The El Capitan Settings from post#1 still work for macOS Mojave, but with newer VirtualBox 5.2.xx releases, USB3/xHCI should be enabled.  OS version of guest should also be set to macOS High Sierra 10.13 64 bit (or newer).

Note - Clover is also required since the Mojave installer automatically converts target HD to apfs and VirtualBox does not presently support apfs.  Unfortunately installation may take a long time (hours) on a spinning HD using apfs.
Tested below with ≥ 2GB RAM Base Memory allocated for the guest macOS and EfiGraphicsResolution set to 1024x768 (to match resolution in Clover's config.plist GUI section)...

cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\"
VBoxManage setextradata "<MyVM>" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1024x768

To prepare the Mojave ISO on your Mac or Hack:
1.  On your Mac or Hack with SIP disabled, download/copy "Install macOS ******.app" into your Applications folder.
2.  Download and unzip the macOS_iso_creator.tool.zip (attached to this post) into your ~/Downloads folder.  Note: you will need approx 16GB of free space on your hard disk for the script to complete.
3.  Open OS X terminal, then run the following commands to execute the script:

cd ~/Downloads
chmod +x macOS_iso_creator.tool
./macOS_iso_creator.tool

4.  At the end of the process, you will have a macOS.iso on your desktop - copy this onto an exFAT formatted USB for use on the PC Host later.
5.  Attach macOS.iso and supplied macOS_apfs.vmdk (preformatted blank 50GB apfs volume with Clover r4699 installed in EFI) to the Virtual Machine and proceed to run the installation.

 

Installation
1)  Boot the VM to macOS Utilities screen. 

 

Spoiler

 

Select Reinstall macOS, choosing the macOS volume as the target ---> install files will be placed in /Volumes/macOS/macOS Install Data ---> System will reboot.
2)  Power off the VM when you see the message "MACH Reboot".  Then go to the VM Storage settings to detach the macOS.iso (since it is no longer required).
3)  Power on the VM again and you will be greeted with the Clover Main Menu --->  select "Boot macOS Install Prebooter from Preboot" + press <Enter>  ---> will see "Installing on "macOS"" and time remaining, as the pkg files are extracted to their final locations ---> Power off the VM when you see the message "MACH Reboot"...

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4)  Power on the VM a final time to finish installation and setup.  At the Clover Main Menu, select "Boot FileVault Prebooter from Preboot" + press <Enter> ---> rebuild kext caches and setup new user account...

 

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

macOS_iso_creator.tool.zip

macOS_apfs.vmdk.zip

Edited October 17, 2018 by fusion71au
macOS_iso_creator works to create both Mojave and High Sierra ISOs from Install Apps

[Lian1975]

For me tutorial for mojave don't work, i try many times, but clover bootloader never start anyway

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Lian1975

[Lian1975]

2 hours ago, Lian1975 said:

For me tutorial for mojave don't work, i try many times, but clover bootloader never start anyway

 

I fixed this issue creating a new VM with choose OS version High Sierra

 

Now clover bootloader start perfectly.

 

Thanks for tutorial !

 

 

[Lian1975]

I have another issue

 

When I change the screen resolution for custom size with this code: 

VBoxManage setextradata "<MyVM>" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1280x1024

Screen gets bug ( See the Picture )

 

What is the right way to change the screen resolution of VM ?

 

 

Edited August 5, 2018 by Lian1975

[fusion71au]

2 hours ago, Lian1975 said:

What is the right way to change the screen resolution of VM ?

 

As I said a few posts above, this is due to a mismatch between the value set for VirtualBox's EfiGraphicsResolution and the screen resolution set in Clover's config.plist.

 

Mount the EFI System Partition (sudo diskutil mount disk0s1), and edit the GUI section of Clover's config.plist to match the custom resolution you set with VBoxManage...

		<key>ScreenResolution</key>
		<string>1280x1024</string>

 

 

[Lian1975]

fusion71au You have a tutorial how you create a preformatted blank vmdk or vdi partition with clover bootloader pre installed ?

 

 

[fusion71au]

11 hours ago, Lian1975 said:

fusion71au You have a tutorial how you create a preformatted blank vmdk or vdi partition with clover bootloader pre installed ?

 

 

1. Start VirtualBox
2. Select existing VM with installed macOS eg High Sierra
3. Under Settings, Storage, SATA Controller, click Add Hard Drive icon
4. Create new disk, type VMDK, Dynamically allocated, name eg "macOS.apfs.vmdk", size=50GB
5. Boot VM to High Sierra.  Initialize new disk with Disk Utility, Erase Disk, format as apfs named drive eg "macOS"
6. Download EFI_Clover for VMware while running inside your High Sierra VM.  Mount iso and copy EFI folder to EFI System Partition of new macOS disk
7. Shutdown VM.  Copy macOS.apfs.vmdk eg found in C:\Users\UserName\VirtualBox VMs\macOS High Sierra to external USB or where ever.

Edited August 9, 2018 by fusion71au

[Lian1975]

11 hours ago, fusion71au said:

1. Start VirtualBox
2. Select existing VM with installed macOS eg High Sierra
3. Under Settings, Storage, SATA Controller, click Add Hard Drive icon
4. Create new disk, type VMDK, Dynamically allocated, name eg "macOS.apfs.vmdk", size=50GB
5. Boot VM to High Sierra.  Initialize new disk with Disk Utility, Erase Disk, format as apfs named drive eg "macOS"
6. Download EFI_Clover for VMware while running inside your High Sierra VM.  Mount iso and copy EFI folder to EFI System Partition of new macOS disk
7. Shutdown VM.  Copy macOS.apfs.vmdk eg found in C:\Users\UserName\VirtualBox VMs\macOS High Sierra to external USB or where ever.

Thank you fusion71au

[pgbxdb]

Thank you very much!

[Kzi]

Thanks for the post fusion71au !

 

a few things that might took me a little longer than it should have:

 

1: you need to be logged to download CMJI.tool.zip & macOS_apfs.vmdk.zip

2: the posts on page #1 and #4 have everything you need, and the VBoxManager setextradata commands are mandatory

3: same thing for using the usb3 (see post "Update for Mojave Beta" from page 4) or you'll end up with a frozen VM during language selection

[SimonLL]

Hi,

thanks for the great tutorial. I'm having a problem trying to install High Sierra to a VM in VirtualBox.

The startosinstall.command script seems to work fine, but after the reboot, I get this screen saying the installer ressources were not found. The macOS.vmdk at this point is 5.18GB, so the files seem to have been copied. Is there any way to figure out exactly what file I am missing to begin the install process? When I open the macOS.vmdk in 7zip, I see 2 files: 1.hfsx and EFI System Partition.img

 

System: WIN 10 Host, VirtualBox 5.2.18

 

Thanks!

 

Edited October 16, 2018 by SimonLL
Added system infos

[fusion71au]

2 hours ago, SimonLL said:

Hi,

thanks for the great tutorial. I'm having a problem trying to install High Sierra to a VM in VirtualBox.

The startosinstall.command script seems to work fine, but after the reboot, I get this screen saying the installer ressources were not found. The macOS.vmdk at this point is 5.18GB, so the files seem to have been copied. Is there any way to figure out exactly what file I am missing to begin the install process? When I open the macOS.vmdk in 7zip, I see 2 files: 1.hfsx and EFI System Partition.img

 

System: WIN 10 Host, VirtualBox 5.2.18

 

Thanks!

 

Troubleshooting

1) Check SHA1 hashes of your downloaded files with eg HashMyFiles utility.  Compare with verified hashes from this website and the screenshot below for files from 10.13.6_ 17G65 ...

 

 

2) Maybe due to incorrectly edited InstallInfo.plist in \SharedSupport folder.  Replace with InstallInfo.plist.zip from 10.13.6 attached to this post.

 

InstallInfo.plist.zip

 

Update for How to install High Sierra or Mojave on a VirtualBox Guest from scratch (without access to Mac or App Store Installer.app)

 

I've simplified steps 1-8 with BaseSystem_vmdk_generator and added apfs support with Clover r4699 in macOS_apfs.vmdk.

 

1)  Download & extract the contents of BaseSystem_vmdk_generator.zip to your USB.  For my system, the drive letter was D:

 

 

2)  Convert \SharedSupport\BaseSystem.dmg to vmdk by double clicking BaseSystem_vmdk_generator.bat.  The file BaseSystem.vmdk is automatically created in the root directory \ of the USB.

 

Deleting any existing image files and vmdk files...
Could Not Find D:\*.vmdk
Could Not Find D:\qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0\*.img
Converting BaseSystem.dmg to BaseSystem.img with dmg2img...

dmg2img v1.6.7 (c) vu1tur (to@vu1tur.eu.org)

\SharedSupport\BaseSystem.dmg --> \qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0\BaseSystem.img


decompressing:
opening partition 0 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 1 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 2 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 3 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 4 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 5 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 6 ...             100.00%  ok
opening partition 7 ...             100.00%  ok

Archive successfully decompressed as \qemu-img-win-x64-2_3_0\BaseSystem.img
Converting BaseSystem.img to BaseSystem.vmdk...
BaseSystem.vmdk created in root directory of USB drive!
Press any key to continue . . .

3)  Copy BaseSystem.vmdk from your USB into the VirtualBox macOS guest folder

4)  Attach BaseSystem.vmdk and macOS_apfs.vmdk to your macOS guest as extra hard drives

5)  Boot your VM to the macOS Utilities screen.  Attach the usb (named "USB" and containing the \SharedSupport folder) to the VM and open Disk Utility, show all devices ---> will see blank 50GB drive for installation, 2GB "OS X Base System" and the USB volume "USB"

6)  Erase blank drive, format it to apfs named "macOS" 

7)  Close DU and start Terminal...

 

-bash-3.2# cd /Volumes/USB
-bash-3.2# ./startosinstall.command

The startosinstall.command script builds the full "Install macOS ******.app" and chain loads the startosinstall utility on the "macOS" target volume.  It combines both the "small" installer app (approx 15MB in size on "OS X Base System") and the SharedSupport folder from the NTFS volume (mounted on /Volumes/USB).  Note the full installer app is >5GB in size

 

8)  After a few minutes, Apple's Software License agreement will appear ---> type "A" to agree to the License Agreement etc

 

 

InstallInfo.plist.zip

BaseSystem_vmdk_generator.zip

macOS_apfs.vmdk.zip

[SimonLL]

Thanks for doing that!

 

Hashes were good except Info.plist. It is good with yours now. I did retry only with the new Info.plist, but same result: Installer falied with com.apple.osinstall error -3. Then Installer files were not found.

 

With this new Clover version and macOS_apfs.vmdk, the VM boots to Clover, but when I press enter to boot macOS, it goes directly to the VBox Boot manager. I select continue, then the window resizes smaller and I get a blank screen.

 

I looked the config.plist in your new macOS_apfs.vmdk and the resolution is set to 1024x768, so I used this command in VBox Program folder:

VBoxManage setextradata "High_Sierra" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1024x768

Which completed. But still same result after multiple restarts, blank screen. I can'T seem to get to MacOS Utilities. I'm not sure where to look anymore.

Edited October 16, 2018 by SimonLL

[SimonLL]

Finally got it to work using my previous BaseSystem.vmdk and your new macOS.vmdk and Info.Plist!!!

 

Thanks you very much!!

 

Now I have one tiny problem, but this might not be the appropriate place to solve it.

I have the common USB 3.0 problem: USB 3.0 devices in a 3.0 port are not even seen by OSX. USB 2.0 devices work no problem. VBox is set to USB3.0

 

Not sure how to fix this one in a virtual hack.

[Badruzeus]

OK, got Mojave running fine using VirtualBox 5.2.18 currently. But still, I have some unresolved issues:

1. Force using VoodooHDA (with disabled AppleHDA for sure) Audio in-out is working, but VirtualBox quit unexpectedly while changing Volume level or when getting Notif sound. Oh yeah, I'm using 10.11.6 as Host mach. I hope not posting on a wrong thread.

2. Already manually added CLOVERX64.efi as 1st boot entry using VBox firmware, as well as UEFI Shell `bcfg boot add XX FSX:\Path_to_*.efi EntryName. But it always reset to default (means, new entry was gone) after Powering VM off.

3. How to get NVRAM working on macOS Guest? (Aptio*.efi driver is useless under VM, right?)

4. Is it possible to install Ozmosis Bootloader on macOS Guest?

Thanks in advances.

[gotenks05]

First time posting here, but I have encountered a couple problems.

 

I got Mojave installed fine, thanks to the instructions, and it works, but I am having a problem that is quite similar to this post.

 

On 8/5/2018 at 1:02 PM, Lian1975 said:

I have another issue

 

When I change the screen resolution for custom size with this code: 

VBoxManage setextradata "<MyVM>" VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1280x1024

Screen gets bug ( See the Picture )

 

What is the right way to change the screen resolution of VM ?

 

 

 

When I modified the screen resolution through the mentioned command, things look ok, unlike Lian's situation, but the resolution was not right, so I set the resolution, which was 1920x1080 in the Clover config file, and it starts to boot up normally.

 

However, regardless of the option I pick in Clover, I see something at the top that looks similar to the screenshot that Lian posted, except I see the regular clean booting messages below it.

 

The other thing that I encountered is that I cannot gracefully reboot the VM, either through the GUI or terminal emulator. It gets stuck at Mach Reboot and will not go anywhere, which means updates are next to impossible.

 

Any ideas of how to fix these?

 

I my host OS is Windows 10 Pro 64-bit and my version of virtualbox is 5.2.18.

[fusion71au]

On 10/18/2018 at 10:43 PM, Badruzeus said:

OK, got Mojave running fine using VirtualBox 5.2.18 currently. But still, I have some unresolved issues:

1. Force using VoodooHDA (with disabled AppleHDA for sure) Audio in-out is working, but VirtualBox quit unexpectedly while changing Volume level or when getting Notif sound. Oh yeah, I'm using 10.11.6 as Host mach. I hope not posting on a wrong thread.

2. Already manually added CLOVERX64.efi as 1st boot entry using VBox firmware, as well as UEFI Shell `bcfg boot add XX FSX:\Path_to_*.efi EntryName. But it always reset to default (means, new entry was gone) after Powering VM off.

3. How to get NVRAM working on macOS Guest? (Aptio*.efi driver is useless under VM, right?)

4. Is it possible to install Ozmosis Bootloader on macOS Guest?

Thanks in advances.

 

For questions 1-3, these are unfortunately unresolved issues/bugs with VirtualBox itself.  Native audio in Mojave doesn't work at present (never tried with VoodooHDA inside VM), VirtualBox BIOS does not remember previously "saved" settings and NVRAM is also non functional (these maybe related).  Ofc, AptioMemoryFix driver would be useless since the BIOS is not Aptio ...

 

If you want a "smoother" experience with native sound and working NVRAM, better to try running Mojave in VMware patched with @Donk's unlocker program.  Installing VMware tools also improves graphics performance and allows dynamic resizing of the VM window (unlike VirtualBox which doesn't provide macOS guest tools at all).

 

Sorry, don't know about Ozmosis inside VM.