[HowTo] Install OSX 10.13 in a VM

[socratis]

I'm sorry, but I don't even understand the question "What if". What do you mean what if? These aren't options, there are specific steps to do what you have to do in order to get this thing running. If you start with the "what if" scenarios, you better have the answer...

[Pat1il]

I fail on the sudo /Application step.

Any idea why that fails?

[socratis]

Not unless you tell me what and how it fails. Just out of curiosity, are you the an administrator at the computer?

[ilg]

Are those instructions specific to 10.13? Since installing 10.10 went smoothly using the original Apple files without any tweaks.

[socratis]

If the title specifically talks only about 10.13...
If the first post contains a link to an article about "any OSX version, except 10.13"...

Then, yeah, those are only specific to 10.13.

[EVH]

@Socratis,
Thanks for all the help, it was a nice treat to see the 10.13 installer running

The easiest method I've found to enter the EFI menu is, after ejecting the 10.13 ISO, when you land at the shell prompt with yellow text, type "exit" and hit enter. It will fall back to the EFI menu. I couldn't get in there on 5.2.8 VBox resetting the VM and hitting F12 like mad. I was stuck and almost gave up until I read your entire post and noted the steps you gave for Boot Maintenance Manager. Again, fantastic instructions and many thanks.

Ernst

[socratis]

Hey Ernst, glad you found it helpful.

One key difference that I learned from a developer (and I honestly don't remember how the F12 key started appearing as an advice) is that it's not the F12 key that gets you in the EFI menu. It's any key...

OTOH, I tried your "exit" advice... Sweeeeet! Thank you for that!

[lmontalvillo]

@Socratis,

Thanks for all the explanation. I have just followed the instructions given by Tobi was here, #comment-3116, but the process does not complete the installation cause when the VM reboots and I follow all steps till selecting the boot.efi file, the VM gets hung up with the screen in black and just only an underscore on the screen.

I think that I have just followed correctly all steps, but I do not see where is the error or why the VM is hanged up.

By the way, I am trying to install macOS X High Sierra 10.13.4 from a macOS X High Sierra 10.13.4 (just for developing purposes) in a VirtualBox 5.2.8 r121009 (Qt5.6.3).

Thanks a lot for your answer in advance.

Regards,

[socratis]

Although Tobi's and mine are the exact same procedures, I'd prefer it if we stick to this article here; it's easier than tracking things back and forth. So, please tell me at which point you failed, which step number.

Also a ZIPPED VBox.log for the failed VM would help. And finally, I haven't tried the 10.13.4 yet, there might be some changes (yet again), so give me until tomorrow to download and test the 10.13.4 installer.

[lmontalvillo]

@Socratis

You are right. Let's focus on your procedure. The process fails in step 8 once I select the boot.efi file, the VM reboots and hangs up with a black screen and a fixed underscore as a cursor.

Thanks a lot for your help.

Kind Regards,

[socratis]

I don't know why I didn't notice that earlier:

00:00:01.808560 Host RAM: 16384MB (16.0GB) total, 5716MB (5.5GB) available
00:00:01.934626 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000200000000 (8 589 934 592, 8 192 MB, 8.0 GB)

It's rather obvious that you don't have 8 GB available to give to your VM. Start a little bit more conservative, like 3 GB.

00:00:01.857981 File system of '/Volumes/Seagate Expansion DiskMedia/Iomega HDD 500GB/Mac OS X High Sierra 10.13.4.vdi' is hfs

Don't go for an external USB from the get-go. Try to install it locally and then you can move the VM.

00:00:01.934614 CpuExecutionCap <integer> = 0x0000000000000050 (80)

Why, oh why? Reset it to 100%.

00:00:01.934695   Serial0IoPortBase   <integer> = 0x00000000000003f8 (1 016)
00:00:01.934696   Serial0Irq          <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)

Do you really need serial ports on an OSX VM? Why?

00:00:01.934989 [/Devices/usb-ehci/] (level 2)
00:00:01.935014 [/Devices/usb-ohci/] (level 2)

You'll need to enable USB3 in the VM settings, not USB2.

00:00:02.190243 SharedFolders host service: Adding host mapping

There is absolutely no point in adding shared folders to an OSX guest. For Shared Folders to work, you need to have the Guest Additions for a guest. Since there are no GAs for OSX, no Shared folders. Remove them.

Now, as far as the installation goes, I was able to follow the steps one by one and it worked as advertised with a brand new 10.13.4 ISO. No problems there. I believe that if you address the issues above, your VM will boot just fine...

[RogerW]

Hello socratis

1st, thank you very much for your easy-follow instructions. They are incredible helpful for me.
THANK You.

But, I am stuck at that point, OSX restarts after full/2nd install process.
Also I do no longer have the FS1 entry for booting from recovery partition in the EFI boot maintenance manager as 'Boot from file' entry (which may be caused in 'successfully' executed install procedure before).

Additionally, since I fought some days with install osx as guest, I saw in osx's diskutil after 1st boot from ISO,
that vbox guest disk partition is not marked as 'bootable = yes' after formatting.
I think this is the reason why osx does not boot after full/2nd install procedure.

Could your help me please on this issue?
It will be highly appreciated from my side.
What kind on infos/logs do you need? Maybe I can provide.

Kind regards from Switzerland,
Roger

[socratis]

Could you post a ZIPPED "VBox.log" from the affected VM? Just right-click on the VM, "Show Log", and that's the one that I'd like to see, I need to see your settings first. As I said, ZIP it first...

[RogerW]

@socratis

Hello Socrates

For having short and clean log files to zip and paste, I deleted all latest files belonging/created for macOS as guest.
After this I created a new osx guest with its template and settings you suggested, installed and, voila, the guest system set up, came up from vbox disk and runs now as a guest system.
Dunno why.
Reason may be that I used some 'weired' parms on Cli concerning VBoxManage to 'fine-tune' the guest from other hints mentioned on other sides on the web.

So, my system is up now and runs (not very smoothly, but it runs).
I am sorry to waste your time on my issue.

Nevertheless, will there be at any time a 'feature' that VBoxGuestAdditions could be installed the same way as in Windows/Linux guests to get the same positive effects on performance, graphics, networks?

Actually the graphics its sometimes a bit crappy, the network connection is being reported to 10Mbit half duplex at boot time and the performance is definitely reduced in an osx guest.

Thanx for your response,
Roger

[socratis]

For having short and clean log files to zip and paste, I deleted all latest files belonging/created for macOS as guest.

Did you see me anywhere talking about copying/pasting whatever you feel like it? I don't want a censored version of the VBox.log, I want a complete one, from a complete VM cycle. And if you ZIP it, there's no way it won't fit in the limit...

Dunno why. Reason may be that I used some 'weired' parms on Cli concerning VBoxManage to 'fine-tune' the guest from other hints mentioned on other sides on the web.

I guess you *do* know why. Because you tweaked the proposed template to install a Hackintosh, not a true OSX installation. That's what happens when random blogs are followed. Random things happen.

will there be at any time a 'feature' that VBoxGuestAdditions could be installed

I haven't seen any movement in that front. Neither from the developers, nor from the users. Speculating is not my forte...

Actually the graphics its sometimes a bit crappy, the network connection is being reported to 10Mbit half duplex at boot time and the performance is definitely reduced in an osx guest.

• "Yes" on the graphics, no GAs are available, makes sense.
• "No" on the network, where did that come from?
• "Depends" on the performance; my compilation times for the VirtualBox source tree are similar to that of the host actually...