Push-button installer of macOS on VirtualBox
This is a Bash script that creates a VirtualBox guest macOS virtual machine by downloading unmodified macOS installation files directly from Apple servers.
The script requires very little user interaction. A default install only requires the user to sit patiently and, less than ten times, press enter when prompted. The script doesn't install any closed-source additions or extra bootloaders. Tested on Cygwin. Works on macOS and WSL, should work on most Linux distros.
macOS Catalina (10.15), Mojave (10.14), and High Sierra (10.13) currently supported
macOS Catalina 10.15.2 and 10.15.3 require VirtualBox version 6.1.4 or higher. A workaround for lower versions of VirtualBox which involves using earlier versions of boot.efi is described here.
Documentation
Documentation can be viewed by executing the command ./macos-guest-virtualbox.sh documentation
iCloud and iMessage connectivity and NVRAM
iCloud, iMessage, and other connected Apple services require a valid device name and serial number, board ID and serial number, and other genuine (or genuine-like) Apple parameters. These can be set in NVRAM by editing the script. See documentation for further information.
Storage size
The script by default assigns a target virtual disk storage size of 80GB, which is populated to about 20GB on the host on initial installation. After the installation is complete, the storage size may be increased. See documentation for further information.
Graphics controller
Selecting VBoxSVGA instead of VBoxVGA for the graphics controller may considerably increase graphics performance. VBoxVGA is assigned by default for compatibility reasons.
Unsupported features
Developing and maintaining VirtualBox or macOS features is beyond the scope of this script. Some features may behave unexpectedly, such as USB device support, audio support, FileVault boot password prompt support, and other features.
Performance
After successfully creating a working macOS virtual machine, consider importing it into QEMU/KVM so it can run with hardware passthrough at near-native performance. QEMU/KVM requires additional configuration that is beyond the scope of the script.
Audio
macOS may not support any built-in VirtualBox audio controllers. The bootloader OpenCore may be able to load open-source audio drivers in VirtualBox.
FileVault
The VirtualBox EFI implementation does not properly load the FileVault full disk encryption password prompt upon boot. The bootloader OpenCore is able to load the password prompt with the values for ProvideConsoleGop and AppleSmcIo set to true. See minimal config.plist.
Dependencies
- VirtualBox≥6.0 with Extension Pack
Bash≥4.3 (GNU variant; run on Windows through Cygwin or WSL)coreutils(GNU variant; install through package manager)gzip,unzip,wget,xxd(install through package manager)dmg2img(install through package manager on Linux, macOS, or WSL; let the script download it automatically on Cygwin)