For Educational/Research Purposes

Installing MacOS Sierra 10.13.4 on VirtualBox 5.2.0 r 118431 (04/22/2018)

• • Download VirtualBox 5.2.x and install it
  • Download 5.07GB Sierra ISO image (macOS_High_Sierra_10_13_1_Official.iso) with md5sum 2ba1e2160b69a9bd080646664c8edc12 (though any bootable one you can get should do).
  • Create a new VM with Type “Mac OS X” and Version “Mac OS X (64-bit)”
  • Other VM settings include: Chipset set to PIIX3*, Memory size at least 4GB, 2x CPUs, 128MB Video Memory, Network (Adapter) interface, Disk at least 40GB.
  • Insert file macOS_High_Sierra_10_13_1_Official.iso into the CDROM drive
  • Shutdown (exit) VirtualBox application
  • From an admin CLI (cmd.exe), run the following commands (substituing your VM-name for “mac3”):

 cd "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\"
 VBoxManage setextradata "mac3" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC" 1
 VBoxManage setextradata "mac3" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"
 VBoxManage setextradata "mac3" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac14,2"
 VBoxManage setextradata "mac3" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"
 VBoxManage setextradata "mac3" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Mac-27ADBB7B4CEE8E61"

• Launch VirtualBox and start the VM
• It will put you at the Language selection screen with English as default (Next button)
• The new screen is titled “macOS Utilities” with 4 options: Restore from Time Machine Backup; Install macOS; Get Help Online; and Disk Utility.
• Choose Disk Utility (u won’t see the HDD)
• From the menu choose View -> “Show All Devices” (your HDD will show up on the interface)
• Select your disk and choose the “Erase” button (give it a Name: and leave the Format: as “Mac OS Extended (Journaled)” and the Scheme: as “GUID Partition Map”)
• Click Erase button; Click Done button once the erasing process is done.
• Exit Disk Utility (menu Disk Utility -> Quit Disk Utility) and back to the “macOS Utilities” screen
• Choose “Install macOS”
• Continue (button) on the “Install macOS High Sierra” screen
• Agree button (terms/license agreement)
• Agree button (in the small popup to confirm you have read the terms)
• Select your disk and click on the Install button on the screen stating macOS will be installed on your disk (the installation start – 4mins remaining)
• Remove the ISO image from CDROM when it restarts otherwise the VM boots from it again (if so, shutdown the VM, remove the ISO and start up the VM)
• The VM boots to a text screen (“UEFI Interactive Shell v2.1 ….”) with several options (FS0, FS1, BLK0, BLK3) then drops to a “Shell>” prompt
  – Type “FS1:” and press ENTER
  – Navigate the directory structure by typing:
  cd “macOS Install Data”
  cd “Locked Files”
  cd “Boot Files”
  boot.efi (press ENTER)
• The installation process will continue to a GUI (“Installing on disk-name”)
• When the install completes, you are presented with a Welcome screen:

  -> Choose Country
  -> Keyboard 
  -> Don't transfer any information now 
  -> Don't sign in (sign in fails if you try anyway) 
  -> Skip when prompted if you are sure you don't want to sign in 
  -> Next on the Terms & Conditions -> Agree to the license agreement popup
  -> Enter details on the "Create a Computer Account" screen 
  -> Express Set Up screen (Choose "Customize Settings")
  -> Enable Location Services (optional)
  -> Analytics (uncheck/deselect "Share Mac Analytics with Apple") 
  -> Enable Ask Siri (default) -> Setting Up Your Mac ... 
  -> Keyboard Setup Assistant (continue) 
  -> Identify Your Keyboard (select key to right of left shift key, then key to left of right shift key)
  -> Conclusion (click "Done" button unless you want to change the selected keyboard)
  - Congratulations! You have successfully installed MacOS High Sierra v10.13.1 and you are presented with the desktop

  Congratulations! You have successfully installed MacOS High Sierra v10.13.1 and you are presented with the desktop.

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Now let’s update it to MacOS High Sierra version 10.13.4! 🙂
——————————————————————————————————–

• Choose “Install macOS”
• Optional: Shutdown the VM, take a snapshot (you can delete it later if everything goes well). Start the VM.
• Download macOSUpdCombo10.13.4.dmg from Apple website* (see notes below)
• Double-click to extract/open it to macOSUpdCombo10.13.4.pkg
• Double-click to start installation
• Welcome to … 10.13.4 Update Installer (Continue)
• Important Info (Continue)
• Software License Agreement (Continue)
• Terms of the agreement popup (Agree)
• Standard Install on … (Install button)
• Enter password in credentials pop and press “Install Software” button
• Install software now popup (“Continue Installation” button)
• Install will continue after restart
• Take another snapshot before clicking the “Restart” button
• Installing Software Update screen
• Keep pressing F12 or “Windows-Key+R” once the system reboots (make sure the VM has input focus otherwise it won’t work and once you miss it, you have to revert to the last snapshot)
• You should land on a screen with 5 menu options: Continue; Select Language; Boot Manager; Device Manager; and Boot Maintenance Manager
• Take another VM snapshot on the BIOS screen before continuing
• Choose “Boot Manager” and press ENTER
• Choose “EFI Internal Shell” and press ENTER which drops you into the “Shell>” prompt
• Type the following (press ENTER after each command)

 FS1:
 cd "macOS Install Data"
 cd "Locked Files"
 cd "Boot Files"
 boot.efi

• If the boot process got stuck with a bunch of error messages similar to “Error loading kernel cache (0x9)” or “prelinked kernel error”, shutdown the VM and restore the previous snapshot.
• Repeat previous steps above from “Choose Boot Manager and press ENTER” …
• System boots to “Installing on …” screen and the installation continues.
• When the installation completes and the VM boots up completely, login and the system should be running MacOS High Sierra version 10.13.4
• You can now delete the snapshots if you want.

——————————————————————————————————–

NOTES:

– To set a custom screen resolution such as “1920×1080” (the default seems to be 1024×768), use the command:

VBoxManage setextradata "mac2" "VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution" "1920x1080"

– You need to be running at least MacOS version 10.13.2 to be able to install Xcode from the App Store

– If the chipset is set to ICH9, after rebooting the VM gets stuck on a text screen (boot-args = usb=0x800 ….)

– Installing the 10.13.4 update from the App Store does not work. After the installation completes, the version still remains 10.13.1

– *I prefer to download the update to my host, then use an ISO creation app such as cdrtfe to create a data ISO disk. Insert the ISO into the CDROM drive attached to the VM and run the update from there.

– md5sum of the boot ISO macOS_High_Sierra_10_13_1_Official.iso I used for the installation is 2ba1e2160b69a9bd080646664c8edc12 though other versions out there should probably work as well.

– “About This Mac” shows the following details: macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.4, Serial Number 0, Graphics Display 3 MB.

– If you require a proxy to access the Internet, set it up by going to Apple Menu -> “System Preferences” -> Network -> Advanced.. -> Proxies -> configure “Web Proxy (HTTP)” and “Secure Web Proxy (HTTPS)”

LINKS:

https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=86239#p411173

How to Fix macOS Sierra Screen Resolution on VirtualBox?

Post by okiuss helped with the update to 10.13.4 (below):
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=86633&sid=e75178f31bb38a514f0e61a3fdb8cc99