Status of OSX on OSX
Posted: 21. May 2014, 11:03
Important Note
Please DO NOT use this thread to ask specific questions about X or Y not working. This thread SHOULD be about basic installation for bare minimum functionality. If you have a specific question/issue/problem, start a new thread.
Here is what works and what doesn't work with different OSX guests on different VBox versions.
Setup
Basic template for "Mac OS X $version (64 bit)", should be sufficient for a start. For unsupported guests you could use the generic 64-bit option, or for 10.10 (until it is supported) the 10.9 (64-bit) template. After that you can make modifications till things don't break. See Modifications later.
Booting
(10.x# stands for CPUs > 1)
VirtualBox 5.x - Supported guests
VirtualBox 4.x - Supported guests
Known issues
My typical modifications are as follows (all of them are optional):
This post will be updated as more information becomes available. Please do submit your experiences. Personally, I will try with the latest 4.2.x and 4.1.x VirtualBox series.
Please DO NOT use this thread to ask specific questions about X or Y not working. This thread SHOULD be about basic installation for bare minimum functionality. If you have a specific question/issue/problem, start a new thread.
Here is what works and what doesn't work with different OSX guests on different VBox versions.
Setup
Basic template for "Mac OS X $version (64 bit)", should be sufficient for a start. For unsupported guests you could use the generic 64-bit option, or for 10.10 (until it is supported) the 10.9 (64-bit) template. After that you can make modifications till things don't break. See Modifications later.
Booting
(10.x# stands for CPUs > 1)
VirtualBox 5.x - Supported guests
Version 10.6 10.6# 10.7 10.7# 10.8 10.8# 5.0.16 Yes No Yes No Yes Yes Version 10.9 10.9# 10.10 10.10# 10.11 10.11# 5.0.16 Yes Yes Yes Yes Yes YesVirtualBox 5.x - Unsupported guests
Version 10.4 10.4# 10.5 10.5# 5.0.16 No No No No
VirtualBox 4.x - Supported guests
Version 10.6 10.6# 10.7 10.7# 10.8 10.8# 10.9 10.9# 4.1.32,4.2.24 No No No No No No No No 4.3.0-4.3.6 Yes No Yes No Yes Slow Yes Yes 4.3.8* No No Yes No Yes Slow Slow Yes 4.3.10-4.3.18 Yes No Yes No Yes Slow Yes Yes 4.3.20 Yes No Yes No Yes Slow Slow SlowVirtualBox 4.x - Unsupported guests
Version 10.4 10.5 10.5# 10.10 10.10# 4.1.32,4.2.24 Yes No No No No 4.3.0-4.3.6 Yes Yes Yes Slow Slow 4.3.8* No No No Slow Slow 4.3.10-4.3.18 No No No Slow SlowWhen Slow is mentioned, it means that in my system there is a lot of lagging, even moving the mouse or typing at the Terminal. This is only during the Installation phase. Deleting or renaming "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext" later, usually fixes a lot of issues.
Known issues
- 4.3.8 works only if you issue the command (see ticket #12736):
VBoxManage setextradata "<VM_Name>" VBoxInternal/CPUM/MSRs/MsrCoreThreadCount/First 0x00000035
- 10.4, 10.5 are not officially supported.
- The number one trouble maker is the "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext" extension. You should delete or rename it. Many guests have all sorts of weird issues (high CPU, Kernel Panics, etc.) or don't boot at all. Updates to the "latest and greatest" OSX may overwrite this. Doing so will allow you to increase the number of CPUs in some of the guests.
- You'd better disable audio in the VM settings. If it is detected, it is prone to kernel panics on the guest (10.6) and performance issues.
- ClamAV is known to cause high CPU usage. A workaround:
sudo /bin/launchctl unload -w /System/Library/LaunchDaemons/org.clamav.clamd.plist
- For 10.5, in order to update to 10.5.8:
- Create a clone of 10.5 basic install (let's call them original and mirror).
- Mount the HD of the original as a secondary HD on your mirror.
- Run the 10.5.8 update on your mirror, but install it on your original.
- Delete or rename "/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext" from the original HD.
- Mac model: MacBookPro 8,3 - 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7.
- Cores: 4 physical, 8 virtual.
- RAM: 16 GB.
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M, 1 GB VRAM.
- Mac model: iMac 11,3 - 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7.
- Cores: 4 physical, 8 virtual.
- RAM: 16 GB.
- Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5750, 1 GB VRAM.
My typical modifications are as follows (all of them are optional):
- Decrease memory in 10.5, 10.6 to 1024 MB. Doesn't need more than that.
- Remove Floppy. Change the boot order to CDROM, HD.
- Increase CPUs to 2, if you can (see Booting section earlier).
- Increase VRAM to 128 MB, enable 3D acceleration.
- Network, add 4 adapters (HostOnly, Internal, Bridged, NAT).
- Enable Bidirectional Shared_Clipboard and Drag'n'Drop.
- Change the resolution to 1280x1024 (see the manual, Ch. 3.12.1 for more options):
VBoxManage setextradata "<VM_Name>" VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 3
- Give your guest a valid serial number (copy it from "About this Mac" dialog box):
VBoxManage setextradata "<VM_Name>" VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemSerial <YourSerialNumber>
This post will be updated as more information becomes available. Please do submit your experiences. Personally, I will try with the latest 4.2.x and 4.1.x VirtualBox series.
- 2014.05.21: rpmurray: OS X 10.4 (Intel) works as a guest up through VB 4.3.6.
- 2014.05.21: Added information about 4.1.32, 4.2.24, 4.3.0, 4.3.2, consolidated table, added rpmurray's host configuration.
- 2014.10.20: Added information about 4.3.16, 4.3.18. Broke the table into Supported and Unsupported guests. Added information about OSX 10.10 (Yosemite).
- 2016.04.06: Finally, added information about 5.0.16. Will try to update previous 5.x versions. Supported guests was getting too wide, so it broke in two.