Audio not Working

Discussions about using Mac OS X guests (on Apple hardware) in VirtualBox.
s_federici
Posts: 5
Joined: 3. Mar 2020, 18:41

Audio not Working

Post by s_federici »

Is audio expected to work with High Sierra VM as guest OS and Catalina as host OS?

I'm running a High Sierra VM guest OS on a Catalina host OS. I can't hear the sound in the High Sierra guest. Is there a way to overcome this problem?
s_federici
Posts: 5
Joined: 3. Mar 2020, 18:41

Re: Audio not Working

Post by s_federici »

Is audio expected to work at all when MacOS is the guest OS?

I tried running a High Sierra VM guest OS on a Windows 10 host OS. Audio is enabled in the VM settings but I can't hear any sound in the High Sierra guest. I went to the sound preferences in MacOS and I found out that the "muted" checkbox -in the "audio output volume" section- is checked, and grayed out.
s_federici
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Joined: 3. Mar 2020, 18:41

Re: Audio not Working

Post by s_federici »

Noone ever used macOS as the guest OS in Virtualbox?
mpack
Site Moderator
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Audio not Working

Post by mpack »

s_federici wrote: I tried running a High Sierra VM guest OS on a Windows 10 host OS.
I thought you said that the host OS was Catalina?

No more mention of running OS X under Windows please, at least not unless you can provide a log file showing that the host hardware is Apple. With the VM fully shut down, right click it in the GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

Important notice regarding Mac OS X as Guest.
s_federici
Posts: 5
Joined: 3. Mar 2020, 18:41

Re: Audio not Working

Post by s_federici »

The log can be downloaded from https://gofile.io/?c=feeicA
s_federici
Posts: 5
Joined: 3. Mar 2020, 18:41

Re: Audio not Working

Post by s_federici »

mpack wrote: thought you said that the host OS was Catalina?
Yes, Catalina. So, it is audio supposed to work when the guest OS is macOS? Have this ever worked? I can try to solve the problem or there is no problem to solve?
mpack
Site Moderator
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: Audio not Working

Post by mpack »

Don't expect definitive answers from me on that. I don't own Apple hardware therefore I can't legally run OS X in order to do any tests.

But in purely logical terms: VirtualBox effectively just provides the PC hardware, so unless the contention is that audio hardware works for nobody, then the hardware must also work for those who chose to install OS X as the guest. That would leave the question of which audio chipsets High Sierra supports natively, bearing it mind that it never needed to support all PC hardware, just the stuff that Apple used. I.e. this is most likely a guest OS driver issue.
fth0
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Re: Audio not Working

Post by fth0 »

s_federici wrote:Is audio expected to work at all when MacOS is the guest OS?
For me, audio output is not working either (VirtualBox versions 6.1.x/6.0.x/5.2.x, High Sierra host and guest). I have an idea, that I didn't bother to test, since I never needed audio in the guest, but that maybe helps you: I use audio routing interfaces (e.g. iShowU Audio Capture, NoMachine Audio Adapter), so I have multiple audio interfaces for the VM to connect to. If you also have additional audio interfaces, maybe it helps to uninstall them ...
UncleLongHair
Posts: 1
Joined: 17. May 2020, 18:08

Re: Audio not Working

Post by UncleLongHair »

For what it's worth I have the same issue with VirtualBox 6.1.8. I have a MacBook Pro running Mac OS X Catalina 10.15.3. I wish to install an older version of Mac OS in a VirtualBox so that I can run some 32 bit apps since Apple eliminated support for them in Catalina. I am not too picky about which version I install, I picked High Sierra just because it is the most recent version in the pull-down in VirtualBox when creating a new VM.

I imagine that this is a very common request because a lot of people are frustrated that they can no longer run their 32 bit apps once they upgrade to Catalina, and it isn't easy to downgrade.

I created the ISO image using the InstallerApp2ISO.sh script mentioned in topic 81443 (sorry I can't post links yet) and followed the instructions mentioned in topic 85631. However my installation process didn't follow the script, I never got dropped to the EFI prompt. After installing the OS from the ISO, I was able to reboot into the OS, shut down, unmount the ISO, and start back up, and have what looks like a fully functional VM running High Sierra. These instructions are a few years old so I am guessing something has changed in the Mac boot process.

However I am left with a VM that has no audio support, I see "No output devices found" in Audio preferences. In the VirtualBox Audio settings I have two choices for driver "CoreAudio" and "Null Audio Driver", I have tried them both. I installed the Mac OS X Guest Additions i.e. VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg and rebooted but no change. I looked through the log file and did not see any audio-related errors, and see reference to all of the audio devices that I have on the Mac:

00:00:16.721361 Audio: Initializing Core Audio driver
00:00:16.748489 Audio: Found 4 devices for driver 'CoreAudio'
00:00:16.748559 Audio: Device 'Built-in Microphone':
00:00:16.748570 Audio: Usage = Input
00:00:16.748577 Audio: Flags = DEFAULT
00:00:16.748588 Audio: Input channels = 2
00:00:16.748595 Audio: Output channels = 0
00:00:16.748630 Audio: Device 'Blue Snowflake':
00:00:16.748639 Audio: Usage = Input
00:00:16.748645 Audio: Flags = NONE
00:00:16.748651 Audio: Input channels = 1
00:00:16.748657 Audio: Output channels = 0
00:00:16.748664 Audio: Device 'Built-in Output':
00:00:16.748670 Audio: Usage = Output
00:00:16.748676 Audio: Flags = NONE
00:00:16.748683 Audio: Input channels = 0
00:00:16.748689 Audio: Output channels = 2
00:00:16.748696 Audio: Device 'Audioengine 2+ ':
00:00:16.748703 Audio: Usage = Output
00:00:16.748709 Audio: Flags = DEFAULT
00:00:16.748715 Audio: Input channels = 0
00:00:16.748721 Audio: Output channels = 2

I am at a loss for how to even troubleshoot this from here, would really appreciate any help.
rabidpunk
Posts: 1
Joined: 4. Jun 2020, 03:38

Re: Audio not Working

Post by rabidpunk »

Unclelonghair

Have you find any solution to this? I installed virtual box 6.1.8 because of the same reason i want to run a couple of old 32 bit programs, however i did the osx install of Mojave based in an iso i made from the installer, i was wondering if it was because it is not in the "supported list", i just found this thread, so i guess it doesnt work in any of the versions?

Same as you i installed the Darwin package from the Guest additions and have the same behavior, no output device found.
Checking the logs i see the audio driver being assigned and so
00:00:02.510071 [/Devices/ichac97/0/AudioConfig/] (level 4)
00:00:02.510072
00:00:02.510073 [/Devices/ichac97/0/Config/] (level 4)
00:00:02.510074 Codec <string> = "STAC9700" (cb=9)
00:00:02.510074 DebugEnabled <integer> = 0x0000000000000000 (0)
00:00:02.510075
00:00:02.510075 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#0/] (level 4)
00:00:02.510076 Driver <string> = "AUDIO" (cb=6)
00:00:02.510077
00:00:02.510077 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/] (level 5)
00:00:02.510078 Driver <string> = "CoreAudio" (cb=10)
00:00:02.510079
00:00:02.510079 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/Config/] (level 6)
00:00:02.510081 StreamName <string> = "Mojave" (cb=7)
00:00:02.510081
00:00:02.510082 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:02.510083 BufferSizeMs <integer> = 0x0000000000000000 (0)
00:00:02.510084 DriverName <string> = "CoreAudio" (cb=10)
00:00:02.510084 InputEnabled <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)
00:00:02.510085 OutputEnabled <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)
00:00:02.510086 PeriodSizeMs <integer> = 0x0000000000000000 (0)
00:00:02.510086 PreBufferSizeMs <integer> = 0x00000000ffffffff (4 294 967 295)
00:00:02.510087
00:00:02.510087 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#1/] (level 4)
00:00:02.510089 Driver <string> = "AUDIO" (cb=6)
00:00:02.510089
00:00:02.510089 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#2/] (level 4)
00:00:02.510090 Driver <string> = "AUDIO" (cb=6)
paulmc
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Re: Audio not Working

Post by paulmc »

Take heart! I can't speak directly to having a macOS 10.15 'Catalina' host, but I'm using VBox 6.1.0 on an older 'classic' Mac Pro 2012 tower host running macOS 10.13 'High Sierra', and can testify that audio output at least does work in most of my OS X / macOS guest VMs. My Mac Pro tower has a fairly simple audio line-out setup, just Harman Kardon SoundSticks III 2.1-channel speakers.

First, I must say that, like many of you, I too have never been able to get audio-out to work in my 'High Sierra' guest VM. And, it's likely that whatever the underlying issue is, it also affects macOS 10.14 'Mojave' & later OS guest VMs (I haven't yet tried creating one of those).

However, audio-out does work in earlier OS guest VMs, including my macOS 10.12 'Sierra' and OS X 10.11 'El Capitan' guests VMs. I mean, I wouldn't rely on it for professional-level audio processing, but for lighter usage it would probably suffice. Even when video is also involved, as in A/V playback of a typical online video, it isn't too bad. In fact, right now I happen to be watching & listening to a Mac buyer's guide video on YouTube in Safari v11 in my 'El Capitan' VM. ;-) Again, it's far from perfect (the audio often gets out-of-synch with the video), but for my casual use it's okay.

[Edited a few minutes after creation, primarily to clarify my Mac Pro tower's host OS version and audio-out setup.]
maxxum
Posts: 1
Joined: 18. Jul 2020, 20:27

Re: Audio not Working

Post by maxxum »

I was able to get audio working on Mac OS High Sierra guest and Windows 10 host after I used these instructions: link deleted by mod.

However when I upgraded the installation to Catalina, it broke the sound. I have no clue now how to get it to work again. The Virtualbox extension pack also fails to install at the last step of installation.

virtualbox 6.1.12 r139181 (Qt5.6.2)
Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.12

I would have stuck to High Sierra but Apple removed the ability to install Garageband in it. :roll:
paulmc
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Re: Audio not Working

Post by paulmc »

To maxxum: Hmmm, it seems that you're experimenting with running a macOS guest VM on a Windows 10 host with VBox Win 6.1.12. Unless the Windows host is itself running on Apple hardware, the moderators frown on that setup {see the sticky post 'OSX guests on non-Apple hardware'}.

Although if this success is indeed on non-Apple host hardware, then I do think it's quite ironically amusing that audio-out works in a High Sierra guest VM there, when it doesn't work on at least some Apple host computers. ;-) E.g., on my 2012 Mac Pro tower running High Sierra 10.13.6 with VBox Mac 6.1.12 (updated today from 6.1.0), no audio devices are detected in my High Sierra 10.13.6 guest VM's Sound pref pane or its System Information utility.

However, since audio-out does still work for me (albeit with various glitches) in older OS guest VMs such as Mavericks 10.9.5, Yosemite 10.10.5, El Capitan 10.11.6 & Sierra 10.12.6, and (if memory serves) that was the case with those VMs in the prior VBox Mac 5.x series too, it seems that something changed adversely with High Sierra and/or VBox Mac. Without your testimony, I might have hazarded a guess that the default emulated controller (an Intel HD Audio edition) was no longer supported by High Sierra at all, but sound did work on your Windows host ... And then you add that it broke with the upgrade to a Catalina guest, so maybe it's Catalina that has dropped support for the controller? In any event, I'm not familiar with the details of how VBox "bridges" sound from a guest's audio driver / controller to the host side, but perhaps someone more knowledgable would be able to chip in here.

As to the installation failure in the Catalina guest, I'm not sure whether you meant to refer to the Guest Additions (rather than the Extension Pack), but if so there are some related threads such as 'Installing Guest Additions on Catalina 10.15.5'.

{BTW, as of the latest GarageBand v10.3.5 update, it's now once again back-compatible with High Sierra. Although of course, a future update could reverse that too.}
paulmc
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Re: Audio not Working

Post by paulmc »

Just to follow up some more, I've been hunting through the forum's several existing discussions of a lack of audio in High Sierra & later guest VMs, including the few approved threads (where people are using Apple hardware) and the many more unapproved threads (the locked ones where people are using 'other' hardware).

Actually, maxxum's succcess with getting sound in a High Sierra guest does seem to be very much a rarity. The vast majority of people, whether on Apple or 'other' hardware, have reported being unable to get audio to work (often not even being able to detect any audio devices at all) in their High Sierra & later guests.

Although, as I just now mentioned in another thread, I came across a glimmer of hope in the somewhat related thread 'Facetime cannot log in account', where the OP indicates that they got audio(-in?) to work in a Catalina guest, within a Linux host on an iMac, via a "passed" webcam (presumably a captured USB device). So, it seems that at least some USB-attached audio devices would work in High Sierra & later guest VMs.

Best of luck to everyone.
virtuallukas1
Posts: 11
Joined: 24. Jul 2020, 15:33

Re: Audio not Working

Post by virtuallukas1 »

Thank you for the follow-up.

I was also really wondering and am faced with the very same audio problem.
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