Finally I managed to find out the working method to install and run latest Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on Oracle VirtualBox with normal Intel computer. The main issue every hackintosh users faced with Lion, is the boot loader to start the installation in normal PC or in any desktop virtualization software. Here I explain and demonstrate step by step method to install Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on VirtualBox in Windows 7 host Intel computer.
Please note this is just for testing and learning purpose only. This method is not recommended for production or long term use, also not all applications will be working on Mac Lion virtual machine as its not recommended by Apple company. Highly advisable to go with original Apple hardware and Mac OS to get the all features and power of Mac.
OK, I demonstrate these steps in my Windows 7 32 Bit computer with Oracle VirtualBox 4.1.2.
My PC Configurations.
Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz, 3GB RAM on Host and Windows 7 32 Bit Operating System. Hardware Virtualization Technology (VT) is enabled in the host processor and processor is 64 bit ready.
What You Need?
1) Oracle VirtualBox 4.1 or later. (Install the latest VirtualBox extension pack also)
2) The pre created Lion OS X installation disk. This is the very important part in this installation. The ordinary installation DMG file you download from Apple or any torrent sites will not work here. We need to modify some packages and create a new disk which can be booted in VirtualBox or VMware.
For this process, you must have a working Snow Leopard on physical or virtual machine.
The procedure is already covered in Sysprobs clearly, please check this guide on creating bootable Lion OS X disk.
I have used this pre created disk to boot and install Lion OS X in VMware workstation, which is already covered here.
The bootable Lion OS X disk can be created by two methods,
a) Create as a VMDK or VDI file. So this file can be attached to the virtual machine as the first disk to boot the Lion OS. This file can be used in VMware and VirtualBox whenever needed.
Follow the steps here to create bootable Lion OS X VMDK (or VDI) file.
b) Create an ISO file. This is also ideal method to use with all virtualization software and physical computer also.
One of my reader created a nice video on creating bootable Lion OS X ISO file from DMG.
3) Minimum 1GB memory to Virtual machine.
4) VT and 64bit supported processor. Check this guide and make sure your processor supports these features.
5) Download the boot loader which can boot the Lion OS in VirtualBox (HackBoot.iso which is uploaded by me, no virus.)
How to Install Lion OS X on VirtualBox
1) Double check the VT support and 64Bit in BIOS. If its not enabled, then enable it in BIOS and make sure the host Operating System is detecting it.
Check this guide on how to enable VT in BIOS
2) Create a new virtual machine. OS is Mac OS X , the version should be “64bit”. Do not ask me why, because normal 32bit version did not work on my computer.
3) Set the memory size to 1GB or more than that, 2GB is recommended.
4) Create a virtual hard disk, minimum is 20GB.
5) Here is System settings.
You can deselect the floppy drive.
Make sure ‘Enable IO APIC” and others are selected as shown below.
Remove the Enable EFI option. Leave the ICH9 chipset as default.
Under Acceleration, “Enable VT-x/AMD-V” and “Enable Nested Paging” should be enabled. If Acceleration tab is missing in your VirtualBox settings, it means VT is not enabled in host computer BIOS.
Processor Settings.
This is slightly tricky. My processor is Core2Duo, so I could select 2 processors. Unfortunately during the installation the virtual machine crashed. I had to put it back to 1 processor (core). If you are using Intel i-series processor you can increase the number up to 4. Increase to maximum and try, if it doesn’t work then try with single core (1 processor).
6) Attach the bootable ISO or VMDK file to virtual machine. In all cases we have to set Hackboot.iso in CD drive and boot with it.
If you are trying to install with bootable VMDK file (which I did), here is the setup.
If you are going to try with ISO file, then you do not need to add the ‘bootabelhdd.vmdk’ file.
7) Start the Lion OS X virtual machine now in VirtualBox.
It will boot with HackBoot.iso file.
If it’s from VMDK file, select the disk by pressing right arrow key in keyboard and press ENTER.
If you are trying with ISO file, then once the above screen loaded, click on the CD icon of VirtualBox console and browse the Lion bootable ISO file. Wait for 5 seconds and press F5 to refresh the loaded CD, select it and press ENTER to start the installation.
8.) Are you lucky enough? The first screen should start normally. Select the language and continue.
9) If you do not see the virtual hard disk to install, then it should be created in Disk Utility during the installation. Click on ‘Utilities’ and select ‘Disk Utility’.
Press Apply and close the disk utility box. Now you should be able to see and select the newly created partition for installation. Select and begin the process.
10) After the installation automatic restart will be attempted but it will not work here. The virtual machine will stop with following screen which is ready for manual restart.
Reset the virtual machine from menu. It may give a guru meditation error sometimes. Do not worry, just close the virtual machine.
We need to start the VM now, so load the HackBoot.iso file again to CD drive if it was removed during the installation. Incase virtual machine hangs with ash color screen now, again restart.
11) After few initial settings, you must land on working Lion OS X desktop in VirtualBox.
The performance of Lion OS X in VirtualBox is manageable. I could play around with few new changes and applications. Still there are few small drawbacks and issues on method. I will try my best to find out the solutions to fix them in future.
You must consider two issues now,
a) Shutting down and restart the Lion VM- This will not happen automatically. Once the black screen appears (Shown in Step 10), it’s safe to shutdown or reset from VirtualBox menu.
b) About the Mac – If you try ‘About the Mac’ inside virtual machine, it will not work. The virtual machine may crash.
I hope this guide would be helpful to install Mac OS X 10.7 Lion on VirtualBox with normal Intel computer with Windows 7, Vista or Windows XP. I’m NOT sure how this will work on AMD computer. Please someone leave comment about AMD processor. Your responses are highly expected.
Have fun.
Hi,
Works great.. would you also write a follow up to get sound and display working ?? the methods used for Snow Leopard is not applicable for Lion..
Thanks in advance !!
Vik
I think you can look up drivers for it and use them. There should be a follow up with the drivers listed, or if there’s a way to do it in the Settings of Virtualbox.
Thank you for this useful guide. I have been searching a guide to install OSX Lion on my windows 7 32bit version but after many attempts I gave up. Now I’m settled with Windows 8 64 bit developer edition. But sure I will try this guide this weekend
This site stole your tutorial and wants to make people believe is their work.
http://iatkos.blogspot.com/2011/09/mac-os-x-107-lion-on-virtualbox-with.html
Hi,
Thanks for the news.
I will contact the owner of the blog very soon.
I appreciate your support.
No problem. I first heard about OS X from you, long ago…
ok dude but there are from fbi i dont understand why they do it
I followed the link, it says to use VMWare. Which is not the same.
Thanks a lot for sharing!
I had problems after first reboot. I had to reboot at least 3 or 4 times using the HackBoot iso. not sure what I did wrong. But now it seems each time I boot using the HackBoot I can get to Lion.
Is there a way to use the HackBoot iso to make the Lion partition boot correctly (like installing a working Chameleon for Lion or something)
Also my shutdown screen is not the same as your step 10. It looks like a long stack trace then error message. I don’t have time to see if the top of the messages are the same as step 10
Thanks again!
Thank you! this guide was very useful for me, I wanted to try the latest mac os x and I hate vmware too
i tried it on an amd with virutal box and lion vmdk from the internet…
it start booting but then i get an error:
not an intel platform: restart fix not applied!!!
but will try it again on some intel hardware
Thanks
same problem with AMD Turion(tm) 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-58. I’m using Debian testing as host and virtualbox 4.1. I have no intel hardware to test
Thanks for guiding me. It’s working now on Windows 7 / Virtualbox 4.1.4
Two remarks:
1. I need to boot from “hackboot lion.iso” because i cannot boot from the installed lion disk.
2. I tried to change the resolution ( as in 10.6.8) but that’s not working, is that because i boot from hackboot.iso?
Thanks
I can install it correctly but when I try to start the system (booting hackboot.iso) I get a black screen after a minute.
Help me please, I have an Intel i5, it should work for me I think.
Thanks very much works perfectly on my Dell XPS 8100
Good day,
I just wanna ask if there will be no issue with regards to hardware driver, does your existing windows driver work well on this format? Please advice. Thank you.
Hi all.
I’ve created a guest on Virtual Box 4.1.4 (MacOSX Lion guest ; Win 7 x64 Ultimate host). I’ve an issue about screen resolution (the only screen resolution that I can actually have is 1024×768, and I’ve tried several solutions, but none of them really worked). Does anyone knows how to increase?
And by the way, this guide is great, Dinesh. It helped me a lot. Thanks
Best regards
plz contact me!
did you fixed the resolution problem?
Hi Nicox.
I still have the same problem
Hey. I installed OSX Lion and after the update, I could not boot into it anymore. I’m using the HackBoot.iso provided trying to boot into the OSX_base partition with no avail. The Virtualbox outputs DSMOS has arrived and the terminal stops there. Any ideas?
Today I upgraded to 10.7.2. I’m running windows 7 ultimate, virtualbox 4.1.4 with OS X 10.7.1
I experienced the following:
- start software update in OS X LION and follow instructions
- itunes 10.5 and OS X 10.7.2 are new software updates
- then restart if requested
- it takes than over 30 mins (my machine) to complete the installation but no logon screen was displayed at all. (only console logging was displayed)
- After checking that the vbox was doing nothing anymore I restarted the vbox
- Now the logon screen was presented, I logged in and checked everything.
- Installation complete!
Can you run Mac software by doing this such as photoshop?
Please advice with regards to Motherboard driver issue, if all driver work with this system. even if we install this MAC OS to PC if the PC hardware driver doen’t work still a big question? Please confirm this issue. My only concern is that, if it is possible the LAN, Audio will work.
im nt able to understanf the 7th step i opened hackboot.iso and then after that im nt able to get apple thing start
You should not open the Hackboot.ico. If you attached the pre created vmdk file as hard disk, then you will see that next to hackboot.iso as shown in picture. Press right arrow key,select it and press enter.
Hey,
Thanks a lot for such a great information. I like to mention few things which i faced during installation, May be helpful to others.
- In my Case 2 GB memory required to install MAC OS X Lion. I got this error when i select the language and successful boot.
- ISO was not working in my case. I generated ISO file using dmg2iso but i was getting kernel panic while booting first time.
After generating VMDK using steps you suggested all goes fine for me and i have successfully installed it on virtual box
Thanks a lot.
and i would like to tell you that iatkos.blogspot.com this blog is copying your all most all articles related to this virtualization
Hi,
I am trying to get this working (on virtualbox 4.1.4 r74291). I can boot from HackBoot.iso, choose the disk image to boot from, it loads a bunch of files (a lot of stuff is written to the screen) then finally comes up with
“Starting Dawin x86_64″. At this point, it hangs and if I click out of the virtual machine, the screen goes black. Do you have any idea what I’m doing wrong?
You shall not boot from “HackBoot.iso”. Use the keyboard and boot from “LionInstaller” instead…
Hi
i am having the same problem………….
I have the same black screen issue, can only conclude it doesnt boot the 64 bits version.
It seems I was missing a important step.. hitting F5. But now im getting a kernel panic.
Kext com.psystar..driver.OpenHalRestart – library kext com.apple.kpi.iokit not found.
Finally got it using vdmk instead of iso.
Great guide! It worked great for me.
I found better stability if I limit processors to 1.
I even updated and have installed xcode.
right now I would like to change my resolution (1024×768 is not enough for me
).
Can you please help me with this?
hey Nicox
I installed Mac Lion on Windows 7 by using VirtualBox. But I have also downloaded the dmg image of xcode 4.2. So i mount that image as a drive and I installed it in my Mac. But after successful installation, there is no sign of xcode anywhere not on Mac and not even on my Mac hard drive. I don’t what is happening. Can you please guide me how can I install xcode. I really need it.
Thanks in Anticipation.
The bootable hdd.vmdk must be attached to the IDE controller not the SATA
Your VirtualBox hard drive must stand on the Sata device.
With this little change, the process worked perfectly with a Linux Ubuntu Host.
Thank you a lot
Are you able to upload for sharing the image of a working machine? Just for testing purposes of course.
WOW THIS LOOKS NICE: http://iatkos.blogspot.com/2011/11/video-tutorials-iatkos-coming-soon.html
Hi,
Thanks for your guide!
I was able to install, but I also had to put the bootable image under the IDE controller (otherwise the install hung on loading) and set the memory to 2 Gb.
I am using Vista/Virtualbox 4.1.6r74713.
Thank you!
Same for me! Thx for the tip
I placed the .vmdk-file in IDE Controller instead of SATA Controller, and now it’s working (Y)
I can’t start the mac, its stuck at starting darwinx86_64
an error message before that is Not an intel platform: Restart Fix not applied.
so does this only work on intel hardware?
this is your config .. Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz, 3GB RAM on Host and Windows 7 32 Bit Operating System. Hardware Virtualization Technology (VT) is enabled in the host processor and processor is 64 bit read
what is your mother board of ???
Does anybody know why OPENGL doesn’t work?
Has anyone solved increasing resolution beyond 1024×768 or gotten multiple monitors working?
I also need to get multiple (dual/second) monitors to work, has any one done this yet?
Hi all!
I’ll repeat a question already asked that here!!:
How to change screen resolution 1024×768 by default after boot with HackBoot.iso?
After boot in settings i see only 1024×678 option 8((
My notebook have 1366×768
Please help me
Thank you
Yeah, I’ve got the same problem with the resolution.
Does anyone know how to change from 1024×768 to any other?
I suppose it’s something with the graphical drivers…
Not sure if this helps Lion/Virtualbox installs, but on SL 10.6.3 and 10.6.7 under VirtualBox I set arbitrary resolution by first doing this command for VirtualBox (taken directly from Chapter 9 Advanced Topics for VirtualBox)
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch09.html#idp13645936
Command to add the new resolution (does not require sudo)
VBoxManage setextradata “VM name” “CustomVideoMode1″ “1400x1050x16″
(in my case, “VM name” was replaced by osx – my virtual machine’s name, and the resolution I chose was 1920x1080x32.)
Start virtual machine (it will still have the prior resolution), then find file com.apple.Plist.boot and change resolution there to the same.
On next start of my virtual machine, it took on the intended resolution.
http://www.sysprobs.com/increase-mac-os-virtual-machine-screen-resolution-virtualbox-vmware-player/comment-page-4#comment-13080
Yes but no one method does not work!
My config:
VirtualBox 4.1.8 / Mac OS X Lion 10.7.2 with HackBoot.iso
Host machine: Windows 7 with latest updates / HP Envy 14 1366×768 / i5 580 / 4gb ram / 1024mb ATI Radeon HD 6630M / second monitor 1920×1080
Also i find this: display driver for Mac OS 10.5+ running as a VMware guest OS.
VMsvga2 v1.2.4, OS 10.6, 10.7
http://sourceforge.net/projects/vmsvga2/files/Audio/
But alsodid not help for me in Mas OS Lion 10.7.2
PLEASE ADMIN, GUYS HOW SUPPORT RESOUTION > 1024? AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 8(
Can anyone share Mac OS X 10.7 Lion as VirtualBox Image?
Is there any way to install the HackBoot.iso on the OSX Lion System like on the previous Snow Leopard Version? It would be a lot more confortable to Boot without having the ISO mounted.
Where do I get an Lion OSX ISO from? I tried purchasing from Apple but iTunes doesn’t allow purchase for some reason.
I can install OSX guest in PC host without creating (touch) the ServerVersion.plist file under VirtualBox 4.1.8.
OSX guest without the file is able to be updated e.g. from 10.7 to 10.7.2, install Java, xcode from 4.2 to 4.2.1 etc.
Feedback for admin,
I am using AMD Processor (AMD Turion II Dual Core Mobile M520 )
When booting using your HackBoot.iso, the verbose mode stop at (something like)
ACPI table not found: DSDT.aml
ACPI table not found: SSDT.aml
Not an Intel processor: Restart fix can not be applied
I placed the .vmdk file in IDE Controller instead of SATA Controller. Again tried placing it in SATA but both time I am having “2 GB memory required” error.
Is there any way around it?
nice tot….
To change screen resolution for this guide, I made changes to:
1. Add this in virtualbox:
VBoxManage setextradata “VM name” “CustomVideoMode1″ “1280x800x32″
2. Hack or change in “Hack Boot.iso” ‘s com.apple.Boot.plist in Extras folder.
Since I did not have iso editor, I use hexedit to add two lines “Graphics Mode” and 1280x800x32 in (need 0a 09 between each line). Since I can’t change file size, so I remove Kernel Flags and Rescan out to have more spaces
It will boot to new screen size, the menu will be off since background is still 1024×768.
PS: I also changed com.apple.Boot.plist in Lion disk, but I don’t think I need it.
Cheer!!!
Thanks kmn!
I did it a little differently: Same step #1 (console command, but with 1440x900x32) and in step #2 I also opened the HackBoot.iso with a Hex editor, searched for 1024, and whereever it appeared as a resolution in combination with ’768′, I replaced those pairs with 1440 and 900. This way, the file size stays the same.
Works perfectly!
Hi!
Very nice that you finally got a guide to solve that problem. I really want to change my resolution too, but it appears that I’m a big noob and don’t know where to put the VBoxManage command line. I tried to put it behind the shortcut (“C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VirtualBox.exe” -VBoxManage setextradata “lion” “CustomVideoMode1″ “1366x768x32″) but that doesn’t work. I also changed the Hackboot.iso with Hexedit as Chris suggested… So I’m only missing the right way to put the command line – can you help me please?
Sorry I meant David not Chris…
It’s just a command line call. In Windows, you should be able to open the command prompt by typing ‘cmd’ in the start menu. There you can execute the command.
Thanks for the quick answer. It finally worked, after I executed the VboxManage.exe first before starting virtualbox itself.
Thanks a lot!! Much more fun with real-fullscreen
Does the host has to be a 64-bit machine, or can it be 32-bit with virtualbox set to 64-bit?
It said “OK, I demonstrate these steps in my Windows 7 32 Bit computer with Oracle VirtualBox 4.1.2.”
OK, sorry I looked over this.
During install of Lion I get an error that I can’t explain. So I put a screencapture on http://dylius.com/lion_on_vb_error.jpg There errorbox says “Virtualbox stopped working”.
Help is realy apreciated, thanks already…
I believe u must mark the option “use host io cache” in sata controllers storage attribute
Yes! You are good!
But next problem: when osx aksk on what disk to install, there is an empty box to pick from… and of course i can’t continue
Do you have a virtual hard disk attached to the sata in vmachine? Also your installer disk ISO/vmdk should be attached as IDE
Yes I have a 100G vmhd installed as SATA.
Installer was also SATA, changed it to IDE but same reult.
Also tried main virtual disk as IDE but also no result.
Yes a 100G vmdk as SATA.
Changed the installer from SATA to IDE, but same result…
I think i also added these extra data items.. detailed in step 6 of this guide http://martinml.com/en/how-to-install-mac-os-x-snow-leopard-in-virtualbox/
If this doesnt work, just keep trying, u must be missing something really small, you are one step away of getting it to work.
Also check step 9 inhere, it mentions missing disk
Made the changes in the xml file, no result. Than I created a disk using OSX Leopard on another vm, and used this file as a disk for my Lion, and this worked! Great! Thanks alot!!!
Btw I want to use this OSX Lion as dev environment for creating iPhone/iPad apps. Do you think this will work, or will there be other issues?
Totally possible.. u just need to download xcode from somewhere.
U can donwload xcode from the app store… it’s free once you have Lion installed.
It doesn’t work as dev enviroment. It is too slow… At least for me (Quad core 2.84 GHz with 4 GB of RAM). I tried to enable the graphical acceleration but it make the system less stable (hangs and reboot itself).
The good news is that you can use this to submit your apps to the app store
Either way that is my experience… try it and tell me if your story is the same.
The hackboot doesn’t boot right for me :/ on a custom build. Keep getting a black screen it won’t load past. I’m booting with a vmkb… anyone else have this issue?
Great guide. I myself am using Windows 7 64 bit with an AMD Phenom II setup. It cost me a lot of trouble, and I’ve had quite a few issues, and your guide solved many of them. So far it seems to be working fine, you just need to get the 1) Real time clock in the virtual machine right. 2) Use the intel card options at networking. Amd ones won’t work. I didn’t use bootloader, I added the .iso to the IDE controller. That’s about it. Thanks a lot for this guide!
AMD processors will not work with this, because there is currently no legacy kernel for Lion. Mac OS X needs a legacy kernel to work on an AMD processor, but nawcom (the main developer of the legacy kernel) hasn’t had the chance to work on the issue lately. I’ve got a few more details here, if anybody’s interested. http://www.macbreaker.com/2012/01/look-at-state-of-amd-hackintoshing.html
What steps did you take exactly to get this to run on your AMD?
I using win7 x64 on I7 2nd generation . I can’t get it boot . Help !!
Thanks for the guide! I have a question though, is hackboot.iso really needed every time I boot? Or did I do it wrong?
Great guide. My only issue is that the virtual machine is very slow. Because i can´t enable more than one core in virtual machine. If I do that i get an error.
Maybe I need an other bootloader which support the other cores (i have a core2quad 8300 2.6ghz).
I hope someone can help me!
hi
bro nice tutorial but after installing it shows no bootable medium found
i install MAC os x lion using iso file
plz help me