Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
beetstrap
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Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by beetstrap »

I couldn't find anything even resembling this problem: how to pass Command-R to OSX guest so that it boots to recovery mode.

Setup: Mac 10.6.8 guest on Maverics host.

It seems that the phase where booting OSX looks for pressed keys on the keyboard is magically skipped. Not boot sound, the transition between EFI console output and OSX desktop is immediate. I've never actually seen Snow Leopard boot this fast - but I can't get it to recovery mode.

All suggestions appreciated.
loukingjr
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by loukingjr »

Recovery mode wasn't available until OSX 10.7.
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ChipMcK
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by ChipMcK »

from Ticket #12468
In 4.3.12 we updated User Manual:

added mention about "VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" and "boot-args" connection (see section 3.12.2);
updated section 14.2 (Known Issues): currently not possible to boot OS X guest in Safe Mode.
loukingjr
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by loukingjr »

FWIW, Safe Mode and Recovery Mode are not the same thing.
from Apple's site…
OS X: About OS X Recovery

OS X Lion and later include OS X Recovery. This feature includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine backup.
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ChipMcK
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by ChipMcK »

loukingjr wrote:FWIW, Safe Mode and Recovery Mode are not the same thing.
from Apple's site…
OS X: About OS X Recovery

OS X Lion and later include OS X Recovery. This feature includes all of the tools you need to reinstall OS X, repair your disk, and even restore from a Time Machine backup.
You missed the point again.

VirtualBox at this time does not support the OS X startup sequences via any mechanism.
Not enough paying OS X customers I expect.
beetstrap
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by beetstrap »

ChipMcK wrote:
loukingjr wrote: VirtualBox at this time does not support the OS X startup sequences via any mechanism.
Thanks. This is important point, which I missed.
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by loukingjr »

ChipMcK wrote:You missed the point again.

VirtualBox at this time does not support the OS X startup sequences via any mechanism.
Not enough paying OS X customers I expect.
I beg to differ. Even if VirtualBox supported OSX startup sequences there is no Recovery Mode to boot into with OSX 10.6 Snow Leopard.

I would say you missed the point.
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by ChipMcK »

tsk,tsk
loukingjr
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by loukingjr »

ChipMcK wrote:tsk,tsk
You can tsk all you like. :D
VirtualBox could be made to support OSX startup sequences if they so chose to. Just as they could support GAs.
What they can't do is boot into a non-existent feature in OSX 10.6
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by ChipMcK »

tsk, tsk
loukingjr
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by loukingjr »

:lol:
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Nazim
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by Nazim »

beetstrap wrote:
ChipMcK wrote:
loukingjr wrote: VirtualBox at this time does not support the OS X startup sequences via any mechanism.
Thanks. This is important point, which I missed.
Although there are other tricks - have a look here on youtube for "Disabling System Integrity Protection under VirtualBox" - I am not old enough to post URLs :lol:
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by loukingjr »

Nazim wrote:Although there are other tricks - have a look here on youtube for "Disabling System Integrity Protection under VirtualBox" - I am not old enough to post URLs :lol:
Interesting but disabling SIP isn't the subject of this thread. Not to mention disabling SIP is a bad idea. Probably doesn't matter for a guest however.
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by michaln »

ChipMcK wrote:VirtualBox at this time does not support the OS X startup sequences via any mechanism.
Not enough paying OS X customers I expect.
Exactly. There's code that needs to be written and it's not terribly high priority.
DDS
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Re: Passing Command-R to the booting OSX guest

Post by DDS »

There is a pretty simple alternative:

First, you'll want to download the rEFInd bootable disk image, and boot from it by pushing enter a few times during early boot, hopefully getting you into the EFI menu screen. Select the CD/DVD Drive from the list of boot options, and it'll get you into the rEFInd disk image, which will let you select OS X recovery and boot from it. The first thing I'd do at this point is install rEFInd from the image so you won't have to do this again. Now you'll be able to access the recovery volume whenever you want!
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