MacOS on VirtualBox on MacOS on MacBook Pro (15-inch, Mid 2012)

[dtpoirot]

Here I am, once again. (My browser filled in the Subject: line for me...)

I am running the latest VirtualBox 6.1.2 on MacOS Mojave on a MacBookPro9,1 2.7 GHz Intel Core i7 with 16 GB RAM and 1 TB of SSD. The laptop is fine and is just used to run VirtualBox. I have many security issues to test for work and need to test on several releases of MacOS. Often the security testing is destructive, so operating in VMs is key. I have Parallels and VMware Fusion but VirtualBox is the common platform for my work on Windows, Linux and Mac.

As I focus on MacOS on MacOS, I spend a lot of time trying to get a VM to work. (and a LOT of time waiting on DSMOS) I want to stay away from hacks and patches to ensure a valid test run. DSMOS should propagate from the host to the client, right?

That said, what hardware platform does the 'clean' MacOS 10.13 template copy? Does it make sense to coerce the VM into reporting the host CPU, such as my I7-3820QM, for example? What about a particular 'least common denominator' Mac model (Macbook7,1, iMac14,1, Macmini6,2, etc.)

I can create an ISO from the 'Install MacOS' of my choice, and most of the time can get through installing - only to now be stuck in the endless 15 minute boot loop:
busy timeout[0], (240s): 'MacBookPro9,1'
busy timeout[0], (240s): 'MacBookPro9,1'
busy timeout[0], (240s): 'MacBookPro9,1'
busy timeout[0], (240s): 'MacBookPro9,1'

and ten minutes later, a fine:
getCPUIDInfo: this is an unknown CPU model 0x3a

Has anyone ever created a boiler-plate .VBOX file with add-your-own hard drive UUID? Would that even help?

I am on my seventh install attempt since yesterday, each time changing "only one thing".

Thank you, in advance!
- dan

[dtpoirot]

I am downloading the source code but until then, I found a comment including the values for --cpu-profile:

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VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile "Intel Xeon X5482 3.20GHz"
VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile "Intel Core i7-2635QM"
VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile "Intel Core i7-3960X"
VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile "Intel Core i5-3570"
VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile "Intel Core i7-5600U"
VBoxManage modifyvm "<VM name>" --cpu-profile "Intel Core i7-6700K"

This is the list of all the available profiles that you could use for your VM.

[dtpoirot]

...or...

is this more correct:

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VBoxManage modifyvm "High Sierra" --cpu-profile "host"

[dtpoirot]

I am running VirtualBox 6.1.8 on a MacBook Pro running Mojave.

I am still getting the same issue. This is repeatable with any VM I create IF I set the number of CPUs to the max available...

[multiOS]

Your Last comment suggests that you are allocating multiple CPU Cores to the MacOS Guest. If that's correct, then see the Known Issues section of the VirtualBox User Manual 6.1.8 - Page 331 "Mac OS X guests only work with one CPU assigned to the VM. Support for SMP will be provided in a future release."

MacOS Guest support is still described as "experimental" so it's worthwhile keeping a watch on relevant Section(s) of the Manual including the list of Known Issues.

[dtpoirot]

...in a silly attempt to get the best experience from the macOS VM on my MacBook Pro, I set the number of CPUs in the VM Settings as high as it would go.

This doesn't work for me. I am good to go with (n-1), where n=number of available CPUs.