Semi-automatic installer of macOS on VirtualBox
The script is semi-automatic and requires a little user interaction. A default fresh install only requires the user to sit patiently and, 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.
The script supports macOS Mojave (10.14) and High Sierra (10.13)
macOS Catalina 10.15.2 fails to boot on VirtualBox as of the date of its release. Earlier versions of Catalina work, but they are not currently being distributed by Apple's software update servers, from which the script fetches the installer.
Documentation
Documentation can be viewed by executing the command ./macos-guest-virtualbox.sh documentation
iCloud and iMessage connectivity
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 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 15GB 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 the VBoxSVGA controller instead of VBoxVGA for the graphics controller may considerably increase graphics performance.
Performance and 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, and other features.
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.
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)