VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware, targeted at server, desktop and embedded use.For a thorough introduction to virtualization and VirtualBox. VirtualBox for Mac OS X is an extremely popular virtualization application with an amazingly rich functionality. The tool is absolutely cross-platform and is available for Windows, Linux, Solaris and Mac. Step 2: Install VirtualBox on Windows. Download the latest version of VirtualBox from the link above and then Install it on your Windows PC. To install VirtualBox, just click on the setup then hit “Next” for a couple of times and Finally, click “Finished”.
OS X EI Captain is now available for easy download and at present, this new revolution is known to all. This lucrative downloading opportunity is now widely grabbed enthusiastically by the dedicated Mac owners as they can enjoy benefits with the latest version of OS X installed. Apart from Mac, OS X EI captain also offers sudden yet astonishing benefits over PC. However installing MAC OS X on non- Apple hardware is a bit tiresome and complicated. This is an easy guidebook, Install OS X El Capitan on VirtualBox on PC.
What is a VirtualBox? VirtualBox is basically a program, over which you can install and eventually run OS X with Intel-based and AMD processor. You would be happy to know that, this latest technology is free to all. Its current available version is exclusively designed to meet domestic net surfing issues successfully.
When you are planning to run Mac OS X 10.11 EI Captain on VirtualBox and that too on windows, it will kill a fraction of your extra energy but when done it is awesome. So, download Image and install the same and get a first-hand look and feel into the whole virtual set up and how it operates and helps you. Experience is always something worth of experiencing, and OS X on VirtualBox deserves a fraction of your time.
Apple released Mac OS X El Capitan that many Mac users have been rushing to install on their devices. If you wish to join the crowd, below is a quick guide to help you download El Capitan from Mac App Store. And you need a Mac or Virtual Mac to create a ISO file.
El Capitan is free to download and install. It is available on the Mac App Store. You can open this link with older version (Yosemite). You can't find or open El Capitan link in new macOS Version (Sierra to Catalina).
Read more about this: How to Download macOS Installer in Virtual Machine
If you have a 'Install OS X El Capitan.app', move it to Application folder. To follow this step. Open Terminal in Application > Utilities.
Mount Installer DMG file to macOS
# hdiutil attach /Applications/Install OS X El Capitan.app/Contents/SharedSupport/InstallESD.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/Install
Create a DMG Disk
# hdiutil create -o /tmp/elcapitan -size 7900m -volname elcapitan -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J
# hdiutil attach /tmp/elcapitan.dmg -noverify -mountpoint /Volumes/elcapitan
Copy Installer to new Disk
# asr restore -source /volumes/Install/basesystem.dmg -target /Volumes/elcapitan -noprompt -noverify -erase
# rm /Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Installation/Packages
# cp -rp /Volumes/Install/Packages /Volumes/OS X Base System/System/Installation/
# cp -rp /Volumes/Install/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/OS X Base System
# cp -rp /Volumes/Install/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/OS X Base System
Unmount DMG Disk
# hdiutil detach /Volumes/OS X Base System
# hdiutil detach /Volumes/Install
Convert Disk to ISO File
# hdiutil convert /tmp/elcapitan.dmg -format UDTO -o /tmp/elcapitan
# mv /tmp/elcapitan.cdr ~/Desktop/elcapitan.iso
VirtualBox is a free download, open it to install VirtualBox on your Windows PC.
Open your VirtualBox, click on 'New' button to create a virtual machine. In Guest OS and Version, choose 'Mac OS X' and 10.11 version. Next is set up your RAM with 60% (3GB to 4GB). With Virtual Hard Disk, set up 100GB with 'VMDK' type.
In Storage Tab, find and click on 'DVD' icon, then open your 'El Capitan.iso'. Click 'Ok' to save your setting.
First, turn off your VirutalBox. Next step, in Windows Search type: cmd then right on 'Command Prompt' and click 'Run as Administrator'.
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Replace 'Your VM Name' with your virtual machine name in VirtualBox. Then, copy this commands to CMD.
Turn on your El Capitan. Add first boot screen, go to Disk Utility. Format your new virtual disk with 'OS X Extended' and 'GUID Partition Map'.
Back to Installation of OS X screen, then install your El Capitan on new virtual disk.
Waiting about 20 min and you have your OS X El Capitan in VirtualBox.
Whether you want to occasionally test a website in Safari, or try out a little bit of software in the Mac environment, having access to the latest version of macOS in a virtual machine is useful. Unfortunately, you’re not really supposed to do this—so getting macOS running in VirtualBox is, to say the least, tricky.
It’s not impossible, however. Some of the folks at the InsanelyMac forums have figured out a process that works. The only thing not working is sound, which for some reason is highly distorted or nonexistent. Other than that, though, this is macOS High Sierra, running smoothly in VirtualBox.
To make things a little easier for people, we’ve combined methods from a few different forum threads into a single, step-by-step tutorial, complete with screenshots. Let’s dive in.
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NOTE: In order to get this working, you will need access to a real Mac in order to download High Sierra. You could, we suppose, obtain a High Sierra ISO by other means, but we don’t recommend it. Borrow a friend’s Mac for an hour if you don’t have one, and you should be fine—everything beyond step one of this tutorial can be done on your Windows PC.
If you’re on a Mac and want a macOS virtual machine for use on that Mac, we recommend checking out out Parallels Desktop Lite instead, because it can create macOS virtual machines for free and is a lot easier to work with.
Ready to get started? Let’s jump in!
To start, we’ll need to create an ISO file of macOS High Sierra’s installer, so we can load it in VirtualBox on our Windows machine. Grab your borrowed Mac, head to the Mac App Store, search for Sierra, and click “Download.”
When the process is done, the installer will launch—that’s okay, just close it with Command+Q. We don’t want to upgrade your friend’s Mac; we just need the downloaded files.
To convert those files to an ISO, we’ll need to use the Terminal, which you can find in Applications > Utilities.
First, run the following command to create a blank disk image:
Next, mount your blank image:
Now you’re going to restore BaseSystem.dmg from the installer over to the newly mounted image:
Note that, after doing this, the name of our destination mount point has changed to “OS X Base System/System.” You’re almost done! Unmount the image:
And, finally, convert the image you created into an ISO file:
Move the ISO to the desktop:
And you’ve got a bootable High Sierra ISO file!
Copy it to your Windows machine using a large flash drive, an external hard drive, or over your local network.
Next, head to your Windows machine, and install VirtualBox if you haven’t already, making sure you have the latest version (seriously, older versions may not work.)
Open it up and click the “New” button. Name your Virtual Machine “High Sierra,” and choose “Mac OS X” for the operating system and “Mac OS X (64-bit)” for the version (as of this writing, “macOS High Sierra” is not offered, but that’s fine.)
Continue through the process. For memory, we recommend you use at least 4096MB, though you can opt for more if you have enough RAM to spare on your Windows machine.
Next, you’ll be asked about your hard drive. Choose “Create a Virtual Hard Disk Now” and click Create.
Choose VDI for hard disk type and click Next. You’ll be asked if you want a dynamically sized drive or fixed. We recommend Fixed Size, since it’s a bit faster, though it’ll take up a bit more hard drive space on your Windows machine.
Click Next. You’ll be asked how big a drive you want; we recommend at least 25GB, which is big enough for the OS and a few applications. Depending on your storage situation, you could offer more, but we don’t think you can really use much less than that.
Click through the prompts, and you’ve created an entry for your virtual machine! Now it’s time to do a little configuration.
You should see your virtual machine in VirtualBox’s main window.
Select it, then click the big yellow “Settings” button. First, head to “System” in the left sidebar. On the Motherboard tab, make sure that “Floppy” is unchecked.
Next head to the “Processor” tab, and make sure you have at least two CPUs allocated to the virtual machine.
Next, click “Display” in the left sidebar, and make sure Video Memory is set to at least 128MB.
Next, click “Storage” in the left sidebar, then click the “Empty” CD drive. Click the CD icon at the top right, then browse to the High Sierra ISO file you created earlier.
Be sure to click “OK” to finalize all the changes you’ve made, then close VirtualBox. No, seriously: close VirtualBox now, or the next steps won’t work.
We’ve made a few tweaks, but we need to make a few more more in order to convince the operating system it’s running on a real Mac. Sadly, there are no options for this from VirtualBox’s interface, so you’ll need to open the Command Prompt.
Open the Start Menu, search for “Command Prompt,” then right-click it and select “Run as administrator.”
You need to run a number commands, in order. Paste the following commands, pressing Enter after each one and waiting for it to complete:
That’s it! If everything worked, you shouldn’t see any feedback; the commands will simply run. If the command did not work, make sure your virtual machine is named “High Sierra” exactly; if it isn’t, edit the commands above putting your machine’s name in the quotes. Go ahead and close the Command Prompt. We’re heading back to VirtualBox now.
Re-open VirtualBox, click your Sierra machine, then click “Start.” Your machine will start to boot. You will see a lot of superfluous information as this happens—and I mean a lot—but don’t worry about it. It’s normal, even some of the things that look like errors.
You should only worry if a specific error hangs for five minutes or more. Just walk away and let it run for a bit. If you’ve done everything right, it’ll boot.
Eventually, you’ll see the installer asking you to pick a language:
Pick “English,” or whatever language you prefer, then click “Next.” Before you do anything else, however, click “Disk Utility” then “Continue.”
You won’t see the drive: don’t panic, High Sierra hides blank drives by default. In the menu bar, click “View” followed by “Show All Devices.”
You should now see your empty virtual drive in the sidebar. Click it, then click the “Erase” option.
Name the drive “Macintosh HD,” and leave the other two settings as-is: “Mac OS Extended Journaled” and “GUID Partition Map”. Do not create an AFS partition, because it will not work and you’ll have to start over with a new virtual hard drive. Click “Erase,” then close Disk Utility when the process is complete. You’ll be brought back to the main window.
Select “Reinstall macOS” then click “Continue.” You’ll be asked to agree with the terms.
Agree and you’ll eventually be asked to choose a hard drive; select the partition you just made.
The installation will begin! This might take a while, so be patient. Eventually your virtual machine will restart and take you…back to the installer. Don’t panic: this is to be expected.
At this point the installer has copied files onto the virtual hard drive, and expects to boot from there. For whatever reason this does not work on the virtual machine, which is why you’re seeing the installer again.
Turn off your virtual machine and open its settings. Head to Storage, click “HighSierra.iso” in the “Storage Tree” panel, then click the CD icon at top-right and click “Remove Disk from Virtual Drive.” This will completely disconnect our installation ISO.
Now start up the virtual machine and you’ll see this lovely screen.
This is the EFI Internal Shell, and as long as you see “FS1” listed in yellow, you can use it to launch the rest of the installer. Click the virtual machine and allow it to capture you mouse and keyboard, then type fs1:
and hit Enter. This will switch directories to FS1, where the rest of the installer is located.
Next we’re going to run a few commands in order to switch to the directory we need:
Now we can run the installer itself with the following command:
The installer will pick up where it left off. First you’ll see a series of text, like before, but eventually you’ll see the GUI installer come back. (Don’t worry, you only have to go through this process once.)
We’re getting there, just need a little bit more patience.
Eventually the virtual machine will reboot again, this time into macOS High Sierra. If that doesn’t happen, try ejecting the ISO from the Virtual Machine. When High Sierra does boot, you’ll need to go through choosing your country, setting up a user, and the rest of the initial setup process.
Eventually, you’ll make it to the Mac desktop. Yay!
You can now try out any Mac software, though some functions, like FaceTime and Messages, won’t work because Apple won’t recognize your computer as a real Mac. But a lot of the basic stuff should work. Have fun!
By default, your virtual machine will have a resolution of 1024×768, which is not a lot of room to work with. If you try to change the resolution from within macOS, however, you will see no option to do so. Instead, you need to enter a few commands.
Shut down your Virtual Machine by shutting down macOS: click the Apple in the menu bar, then click “Shut Down.” Next, close VirtualBox entirely (seriously, this step will not work if VirtualBox is still open!) and head back to Windows’ Command Prompt as an admin. You need to run the following two commands:
In the second command, you need to replace the N
with a number from one to five, depending on what resolution you want:
Start up VirtualBox, load up your virtual machine, and it should boot to your preferred resolution!
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From now on, you can open VirtualBox for any Mac-related testing you want to do. Again, you’ll see a lot of errors pop up during boot, but they’re fine; ignore them. Also, remember that audio won’t work, nor will things like FaceTime or iMessage, which require a real Mac. This isn’t going to be perfect, which is to be expected from an entirely unsupported setup. But it’s macOS, in a virtual machine, and that’s not bad! Be sure to check out our guide to VirtualBox’s advanced features to get the most out of your machine, too.
One more thing: a huge shout-out to Chad S. Samuels, without whom I could not have updated this guide for High Sierra. Thank you so much!