After several days of attempts and findings, finally I managed to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard in VirtualBox 3.2 in non Apple Intel PC. This guide explains step by step methods involved in how to install snow leopard in VirtualBox 3.2.
This method is completely for testing and learning purpose. Do not use for permanent or in production use. Please buy original Mac OS and Apple hardware. Oracle VirtualBox 3.2 officially supports Mac OS X as guest on Apple hardware only. But still it’s possible to install Mac OS X on non Apple hardware with different boot loaders
UPDATE – 17-02-2011
Intel i-series processor users- Check this other guide with three methods suitable for Intel i3,i5 and i7 processors.
Check this post – This same guide re-written with several major issues fixed and how to update to 10.6.5
When you updating to latest 10.6.6, make sure to check few considerations at end of this guide.
The good thing is, you do not require any hacked Mac OS X installation DVDs or ISO files. Use your original Snow Leopard retail DVD or ISO file.
Required Products to Install Mac OS X Snow Leopard 10.6.3 on Oracle VirtualBox 3.2
1) Oracle VirtualBox 3.2 ( Read more and download from here)
2) Mac OS X 10. 6 Snow Leopard Retail DVD or ISO
3) EmpireEFIv1085.iso for Intel Processors (This is the boot loader we will be using to boot Mac, download the correct version here)
Updated- EmpireEFI Boot loader for AMD processor
4) VT Checker (Read more here and make sure Hardware Virtualization is enabled is Host BIOS)
5) Sound driver (Mentioned under sound)
Demonstration PC configuration
1) Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz (VT Enabled, 64 Bit Architecture supports)
2) 3GB RAM
3) Intel P35 Chipset
4) Windows 7 32 Bit
Step by Step Installation of Mac 10.6.3 on VB3.2
1) Create a Mac OS X Virtual Machine with following configuration ( If you have latest VB, then select Mac Server version)
More information on installing SL on VB 3.2.6
Memory – Minimum 1GB
Processor Cores – 1 or more (Change it to one core if you face any issues. Two cores worked for me)
Enable PAE/NX, VT-x,
Nesting Page – Enabled
Enable IO APIC and Enable Absolute pointing device.
Remove Enable EFI. Built in EFI loader may work with apple hardware only.
Enable 3D Acceleration under display and setup maximum video memory.
Storage Controller type ICH6 and create a 20 GB Hard disk.
2) Mount empireEFIv1085.iso to CD drive. Make CD ROM as first boot device. Keep your Snow Leopard DVD or ISO file ready.
3) Start the virtual machine. When following screen appears, eject loader ISO and load Mac installation DVD or ISO.
To do it, right click on CD drive and select drive or ISO image. Wait a bit , Press F5 and ENTER Key when DVD loaded.
4) Wait for some time. If you see installation screen, you are almost done. Go through the installation process.
Go to disk utility and create a partition if you can’t see installation disk.
5) I got the following warning message at end of installation. It’s not an issue, just restart the Virtual machine.
Note – Shutdown and Restart will not happen normally, you have to do it manually from VirtualBox console. You have to load empireEFI ISO again to load from installed hard disk.
6) This time, select mac hard disk by right arrow key and press Enter to boot. I’m sure after several initial configurations you will land on Snow Leopard desktop successfully.
Let’s Check and Fix Some Issues in Snow Leopard in Oracle VirtualBox 3.2
1) Network Network worked out of the box. NAT and Bridged type worked without any patches.
2) 10.6.3 Update in VirtualBox Mac OS X Guest Yes, it worked. I downloaded combo update and successfully updated.
updated- 10.6.4 update also worked nicely with this method.
3) USB Support It worked well. Somehow data transfer is little slow, but manageable. It detected my USB hard disk and flash drive.
4) Sound in Mac OS X Guest Sound is a little issue here, but worked. I’m sure you are not going to connect 5.1 speakers, watch movies and listen songs. So follow these steps to install Sound drivers. For me it worked, one side speaker worked with little distraction. Something is better than nothing.
Updated- Try this driver for easy installation through pkg file.
If you are not happy with it then try manual method.
Download this driver file; extract the AppleAC97Audio.kext file on Snow Leopard desktop.
Open Terminal, (/applications/utilities/terminal.app) Type sudo -s in terminal then your admin password following this, now you should be root.
Type
sudo mv /users/(YOUR USERNAME)/desktop/AppleAC97Audio.kext /system/library/extensions
At this point the file AppleAC97Audio.kext should have disappeared from the desktop.
Type
sudo chmod -R 755 /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAC97Audio.kext
Type
sudo chown -R root:wheel /System/Library/Extensions/AppleAC97Audio.kext
Now, CLOSE TERMINAL, then go to /system/library/caches/com.apple.kext.caches/ and trash Extensions.mkext (This cache will regenerate automatically on boot with the current kext library) Reboot and enjoy sound support! Original Source is here.
5) Screen Resolution and Screen Size Follow the steps to adjust screen size. Wide screen size didn’t work for some users.
6) Shutdown and Restart We can’t shutdown or restart Mac VM normally. You may see messages showing ‘CPU halted’ (for Shutdown) or ‘MACH Reboot’ (for restart), this means nothing will happen after it. Power off or reset virtual machine from VirtualBox console. Here is the working Snow Leopard Guest on VirtualBox 3.2.
7) Update 1
Install Boot Loader permanently and some fixes
To avoid attaching empireEFI ISO every time and boot OS X virtual machine, you can install boot loader permanently on mac local hard disk. This method will install Chameleon boot loader, and some other drivers and fixes.
Go to Empire EFI CD, which already mounted and open Post Installation folder. Take a snapshot before do anything at this point. Run myHack Installer Package.
Select Customize in Installation Type. 
Read each package description and select if it requires for your hardware. I recommend to not deselecting anything, which selected by default. Press Install button to continue. 
After successful installation, remove empireEFI ISO. Start virtual machine, it should boot from hard disk as shown below. 
If this doesn’t work, restore VM to last snapshot and install Chameleon boot loader from separate installation file in Post Installation folder. After this installation, boot loader worked and I can see good performance in OS X virtual machine on my Intel Core2Duo PC.
8.) Update 2
Some fixes for booting issues
a) Mac DVD reading error EBIOS read error: Error 0×0c Block 0×1ed48a Sectors 0 This is due to accessing data from Mac retail DVD to VB. Convert DVD with some cloning software to ISO. More people faced same issue and solutions are suggested here.
b) Booting errors after installation. Try with verbose or Boot Ignore Caches. In empireEFI boot loader, go to mac disk by pressing right arrow key. Once it’s selected, press down arrow key that will bring more options. Select and press Enter. 
c) Change Boot Loader For old type processors, select legacyempire_efi1085.iso, which will be in same folder.
if this boot loader and method doesn’t work on Intel processor then try this method with different iboot loader.
9) Shared folder between mac guest and Windows host, read this post ( Point 3) Network required.
10) Update 3 ( 17-02-2011)
- USB disks access gives trouble with same guide in Oracle VirtualBox 4. Snow Leopard virtual machine crashes when trying to explore USB storages such as flash disk and external hard disk. If you face the same problem, then check this guide how to fix this issue.
- IOUSBFamily.kext and IOUSBMassStorageClass.kext files should be replaced to older version immediately after the software or manual update to 10.6.5 or 10.6.6 before restart. If not, USB mouse,keyword, USB storage devices may stop working after the update. Read this guide on fixing USB issues after update.
Again, this method is just for learning and testing purpose. Feel free to share your comments and issues you face. I’m not Mac or VB expert, but I will try my best to help you.
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Have Fun.
Thanks so much for the tutorial. Was up and running 10.6.3 under Win 7 64 in 10 minutes or so after reading everything.
Here is a shot of Win 7 64 running a 10.6.3 VB. It’s fast and it works great!!
Running under Win 7
http://i26.tinypic.com/2z5vsd0.jpg
VB Specs
http://i25.tinypic.com/sfzeyu.jpg
Thanks again, never could have done this without your help.
D
@rajiv,
what type of processor you are having and finally with which boot loader you managed to install? I think something is wrong with the boot loader. Try with – v and -legacy keys during the boot up and see the message. It will give an idea about issue.
@shadowseal45,
Again it can be a problem with boot loader you are using. Try yo reduce RAM size and number of processor cores for Virtual machine. Try with -legacy key.
@Kevin,
Some times original installation DVDs do not work with Windows VirtualBox. I suggest to convert it to ISO by following method,
http://www.sysprobs.com/convert-mac-dmg-iso-windows
Or, you may have to download the ISO file.
@how to make your mac faster,
I did not try, but it should not be a problem with pre-Intel Macs.
@Dave,
That’s cool. Thanks for sharing screenshots, which will give confident to other visitors for this post ( especially on AMD processor)
On the
“EBIOS read error: Error 0×0c
Block 0×1ed48a Sectors 0″
The following worked for me…. create an ISO image of your Snow Leopard DVD on your hard-drive and install from this image instead of your DVD.
Same here, got the EBIOS read error when I used a physical DVD. Creating an image (I used InfraRecorderPortable) worked fine.
Excuse me sir, but how do I mount .dmg image of Mac OS X into the virtual box?
@nigga,
Check this post,
http://www.sysprobs.com/mount-dmg-files-virtualbox-windows-host
Well, I’ve converted .dmg to .iso, launched EmpireEF, release it and mounted Mac OS X .iso into VB but nothings happens. It says “Failed to find boot signature on BIOS device e0h”. Any ideeas?
Many Thanks for all the info – i have successfully loaded OS X 10.6.3 from a purchased OS X disk (used imgburn to create a disk image for the install) on Virtual Box 3.2.6. And the Empire Legacy iso as well.
Early days so not sure about screen res and sound yet.
Also have used the Combo update to go to 10.6.4 – all ok.
PS – this is on my vmware test lab notebook, a ASUS G51JX i720 with 12GB RAM, awesome.
I’m using the OS X Installation DVD 10.6 and it boots fine, but when it comes to the point “Select the disk where you want to install Mac OS X” the dialog box is empty, so I cannot choose any drive. Of course a HDD is configured, 30 GB with ICH6 Controller. Any suggestions?
I’m sorry, too stupid – I have to partition the untouched HDD image first with the harddisk-tool.
Hey, ok so i’ve looked literally everywhere, every tutorial, googles continuously for about three days and i can’t find anything about the issue i’m having. I can boot the disc but when its loading (used verbose boot to see where i was getting stuck) i end up getting stuck at:
USBF: 9 .371 AppleUSBOHCI [ox29x9800] : : CheckSleepCapability – controller will be unloaded across sleep.
Ok so for random reasons i sometimes get past this issue but then the message CPU Halted appears on the verbose list and virtualbox closes.
Anybody no what the hell i need to do to fix this?
Thanks Sanchez
@Sanchez, give some more details about processor and how attaching virtual disk ( IDE or SATA).
Lets try to solve.
Oh and just a quick side note, when trying to use the method in this tutorial i’m unable to eject the empireEFI iso to insert the OS X iso. Any thoughts?
Cheers again
Sanchez
hey there.
Got it to install perfectly. However the video drivers seem exceptionally slow
e.g. mouse movement, window dragging etc.
Also all attempts to go into “about this mac” result in finder reloading
Help is appreciated
@DD_nvidia, in fact we are running this without any video drivers.
Increase RAM size for Virtual machine
Enable 3 D and maximize video memory under display for VM.
Good luck.
Works great but I would install a much larger partition to start like 50-100GB I ran out of room right away and then tried to clone the drive and make it larger and that took longer than the original install and didn’t work because I cloned it after making a snapshot.
after install bootloader
each bootstrap it
run ok for same minute then display me:
You need to restart your computer. Hold the Power button for several seconds
(kernel painc)
I have addedd graphicsenabler
How can remove?
What i do?
@cap,
If it worked well before installing bootloader, then problem with bootloader. I’m hoping you will have snapshot, restore it and use.
Hi,
I am getting the memory allocation error after mounting the iso file. I have reduced the memory allocated but no luck.
I have followed the exact steps provided in this article.
How do you run it with -legacy option? Any help will be appreciated.
You raise quite a few quite useful points. Worth a read. I’ve sent your website through to friends
@Nik,
What type of processor your host computer got?
After mounting DVD or ISO file, do not press enter.
Press – key, at the left bottom this will appear and there you can pass startup commands.
-v or -legacy (without space) will give some ideas on errors.
Try and let me know.
Whoever has this error:
“EBIOS read error: Error 0×0c
Block 0×1ed48a Sectors 0″
To fix it: in VirtualBox go to the settings on your MAC VM and click on storage. Then select Host drive in CD/DVD device and check “Passthrough”. Then just do the steps again – should work fine.
This worked for me in VirtualBox 3.2.8
@Vitaliy,
If this solves others’ same problem, then you are a star.
Thanks for sharing.
Hi, i try to install Mac OS X like a virtual machine into a windows 7 ultimate system. Everything ok till i start the virtual machine , i have the error : FATAL : No bootable medium found ! System halted.
I create a CD from the ISO indicated but … The .zip contains two ISO : EmpireEFI4AMD.iso and _EmpireEFI4AMD.Iso. I use to create the CD only the first, it’s correct ?
Thanks for your answer.
I followed the tutorial, the empire iso booted up fine but when I go to boot snow leopard I either get a blank screen or a gray background with the apple logo in the middle. I walked away from the comp for a while and came back to see if it was just taking a long time to get started, but nothing seems to be happening. Any suggestions?
I need this for an iPhone SDK programming class that I’m already behind in (it started last week but luckily this professor is pretty lenient about late work) so any help would REALLY be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
An added note: I know there are some Objective C compilers for Windows but is there anything similar to Mac’s Xcode available on a PC?
Thanks again
WILL THIS WORK ON WINDOWS 2000?????
@Big Bob,
Yes, it should work because we are running inside visualization software. Make sure your host computer support VT and enough of RAM.
Is this post still running?
i have a peculiar problem running the new vbox.& mac osx 10.6.3 on win 7 my mouse works great. the keyboard stopped working after i installed the bottloader permanently… any help would be appreciated.
PS: this tut was great, i scoured the net for days and no one post gave a tut as complete as this one… big up !
@Werner,
Yes, this post is very much running, but I’m late in replying ;(
Is ‘Enable absolute pointing device’ is ticked in VM’s settings ( under system)?
If it worked before boot loader installation, sorry to say, remove it.
Is Win7 32 bit or 64 bit? are you using correct boot loader?
Ok I am 11 and i am downloading Mac OSX onto my PC and it is going way faster than this and plus mine is more easier
Does the xcode work on it? I got it to install Mac but I don’t know if xcode works. Please let me know.
Thank you.
@Nik
yep, Xcode does work on it. And what more, iPhone can be connected for deploying your applications just like a normal Mac OS.
hey guys,I found article on X86 how to install mac os on a p.c.
I use to create my own custom Mac os disc,but I found and easier way to install on a p.c.
1.format your hard drive [ Mac OS Extended Journaled ]
2.unchecck the check mark on Hard drive [ Ignore ownership on this volume ]
3.uncheck the mark on Mac OS X Install DVD image disk ,too
4.open terminal
5.type sudo -s
6.sudo chown 0:0 /Volume/name\ HD
7. open /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD/System/Installation/Packages/OSInstall.mpkg
8.install your kexts & chameleon 2 RC3 or RC 4
9.enjoy : )
if you have any problem pm me at ducktape2201@gmail.com
Thank you Mark Raju.
Another question. I installed SL 10.6.2 instead of 10.6.3 as mentioned in this tutorial. Will XCode work on 10.6.2? The reason I am asking is when I try to install it, it asks for SL10.6.2 or higher. Any ideas?
@Nik
you need to upgrade your snow leopard version. Use Software update to upgrade your Mac OS. and then install Xcode. that should help.
@Nik
You can use Software update for upgrading 10.6.2 to 10.6.3. Then you can install a new version of Xcode. that should work
How do you create an ISO file from an official Mac OS X installer DVD, so Windows can read what inside.
I already tried it with MacDrive. Windows can read the content. And when i tried to create ISO from there using IMGburn, after that the ISO doesnt work.
@Ezra,
I tried with imgburn which worked fine for me. Make the writing speed less while creating ISO.
@Lee,
Use imgburn in Windows to create ISO from OS X DVD, more details available here
http://www.sysprobs.com/create-iso-mac-installation-dvd-rip-mac-dvd-windows
How do you create an ISO from official Mac OS X installer, that readable by Windows ?
hello, I did what you said in tutorial but select drive step in the installation it’s show empty no drive to select could you advice me?
@hareedy,
On the same screen where you are looking for disk, ” Go to disk utility and create a partition if you cant see installation disk” this is mentioned in this post.
Let me know if you still face issue on this.
Thanks and sorry for my studied move anyway i have created the partition and start to install in 26% it’s appear the installation failed screen and every time i start it’s all end with this step
btw my laptop spec is
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c01707610&tmp_task=prodinfoCategory&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3925382
many thanks for helping me
@hareedy,
Sorry for late reply.
26% is little early, still I suggest to unmount the ISO and boot from hard disk even though it failed at 26%. It may boot after some time. It happened to me once. Try and let me know.
i did everything
but the install wont complete
it gives me the same msg
” the Max OS X cant be installed in this computer ” !!!
see this picture
http://img267.imageshack.us/img267/1475/istallmac.jpg
help plz
i want the Mac so bad
mt lap is :
AMD thlon X2 64 bit
3 gb ram
300 HDD
265 graphic card shared ati
help
it says that Mac os X cant be installed in this computer
my laptop is amd athlon 64 bit
3gb ram
@hamoody,
I think something wrong with installation medium as suggested by ariston.
It should be retail installer disk not restore disk.
@ariston,
Thanks for your comment.
@hamoody
I’ve face that issue too, the cause on my problem was that I try to burn restore dvd from my boss mac. I figure that the disc only used to restore mac from mac product (such mac book air, etc.). To resolve this I must by Mac Snow Leopard installer from Apple store. Hope you check the disk, is it Snow Leopard retail disc or restore disc.
Tried several instructions, but this is the first one that worked. Installed 10.6.3 on Win 7/VB 3.2.8 with no problems. The only issue was that I installed without logging in as admin, but for some reason I had to log in as admin after install or I’d get VERR_ACCESS_DENIED.
Hi Folks,
I had several unsuccesfull attempts to install SL on Vmware 7 (or with Vmware player 3.1). Everytime I got the dreaded CPU shutdown message just when the screen with the Apple logon was shown: “A virtual CPU has entered the shutdown state. This would have caused a physical machine to restart. This can be caused by an incorrect configuration of the virtual machine, a bug in the operating system or a problem in the VMware Workstation software. Press OK to restart the virtual machine or Cancel to power off the virtual machine.” I tried ready-to-use Vmware images with SL OS or from blank Vmware to self installing SL with the retail DVD (gold master) DMG converted to ISO. Everytime the show was over after the Apple logo came in sight.
Frustrated I decided to give the VirtualBox a try with this excellent tutorial from Dinesh. So I started with my converted SnowLeopard ISO, a fresh install of VirtualBox and this guide. Everything went fine, but for one rather crucial thing: the EFO bootdisks (standard and legacy) also hung when attempting to start SL. Damned! The text In the DOS-textbox said somtehing about the RTC (Real Time Clock) not properly initializing due to a slight between reported and expected RTC values. Also the tip was given to upgrade the bootloader.
That last remark made me think: could my hardware (Dell Optiplex GX620, with Pentium dual core D930, VT enabled, 64 bits, Intel i945P chipset and 82801 Southbridge) in combination with the usual bootloaders the problem?
So I decided to start the Virtual SL Box with the legacy_darwin.iso.
This time: BINGO! I was able to boot the image and then point the CD\DVD to the SnowLeopard gold master ISO (not as a drive, but
directly pointing to the image itself, just like darwin.iso or empire EFI. The Apple desktop showed up and I was able to format the drive and start the installation. The setup routine worked just like the guide from Dinesh. After setup I had LAN, Internet and so forth (no sound, but that is known).
Like before, I had to load boot SL from the legacy darwin, otherwise it would not boot. I guess I have to live with that
After restarting SL (from VirtualBox console) I could download and install alle available updates (from iTune to the latest SL rollup update (1Gb).
After configuring SL (sound, screen resolution etc.) I will try to convert the SL VDI image (now already 12 Gb) to a Vmware 7 VMDK. I still prefer this over Virtual Box. According to several users this conversion can be done from the Apple itself through Qemu. See: http://mariusvw.com/2009/10/18/convert-virtualbox-vdi-image-to-vmware-vmdk-image-with-qemu/
Keep ya posted!
@Windmill,
Glad my post helped you much.
One question, are you using legacy darwin with VirtualBox? did you get error with same image on VMware?
Yes, sound is problem on VirtualBox. I didn’t understand your purpose to convert VDI to VMDK. I doub’t that image will work on VMware.
You can check this post if you like,
http://www.sysprobs.com/steps-install-mac-snow-leopard-vmware-player-pre-installed-vmware-image
Hi,
I have a macbook pro Mac OSX 10.6 DVD. Can that be used to install in my HP TX-2 in virtualbox?
Or must I only use the retail version of the MAC OSX 10.6 DVD?
Thanks.
@IceCarpediem,
I think you must have retail DVD.
I tried with retails DVD only.
Thank You!
First tutorial that actually worked for me.
Thank you for this awesome guide.
Dinesh… I need some help with this. I cannot get past the EmpireEFIv1085 step 3. Can you look at the kernel panic screen capture http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v651/asg9000/EFI_capture.jpg and offer a suggestion? Thanks.
@ASG9000,
Tell me about your host computer OS and processor, 32 or 64bit OS?
Dinesh:
32bit Windows 7 Ultimate, Intel Dual Core T3400cpu, with the GL40 chipset, and no VT-x support. Thanks for any suggestions. (I am DL the vmx file from your VMware Player 3 guide at the moment which I believe may work without VT).
@ASG9000, I think we are discussing in wrong place. Let me say clearly;
VT-x is must to run snow leopard (10.6) by VBox or VMware, whether its with pre installed image or fresh installation.
VT-x is not necessary to run Leopard (10.5) with pre installed image with VMware.
VT-x is must to run the same pre installed Leopard (10.5) image with VBox.
Since VT is not supported on your system, only the following method will work
http://www.sysprobs.com/mac-windows-featured-post
Sorry about it.
Thanks Dinesh – I figured as much regarding VT-x. I did get the VMware player image to work though.
Thanks Dinesh – I figured as much regarding VT-x. I did get the VMware player image to work though. What about a dual boot? No VT-x issues there, right? I may try it on an older hard disk I have laying around with Vista on it.
@ASG9000,
I have no idea about dual boot on non VT supported computers. There are several sites available on hackintosh on physical computers. Anyhow, update us what happened for you.
it cannot read my usb drive, is there a setting for osx to read it ?
Ken, is the usb drive coming in desktop of OS X? It should not be an issue.
Is it in NTFS or FAT format?
If any problem with detecting the device, I advice you to restart the guest and host machines. VirtualBox have some issues on USB with any OSs.
Need some help, followed the guide, reached Step 4, I have the screen that asks you to select your language which I did, and for about 30 minutes I have had the apple multi-colour spinner going, is this correct or has it hung?