After several days of attempts and findings, finally, I managed to install Mac OS X Snow Leopard on VirtualBox with my Windows OS PC. We are going to use the original OS medium for this installation purpose. That will give the freedom to have the vanilla kernel and possible software updates from the official Apple website.
This method is completely for testing and learning purposes. Please buy the original Mac OS and Apple hardware. From version 3.2, the Oracle VirtualBox officially supports Mac OS X as the guest virtual machine on Apple hardware. So, technically you can virtualize macOS on Apple devices only. But still, we can do some workarounds to install Mac OS X on non-Apple hardware with different bootloaders on Windows computers.
Note: This post was originally published in the year 2010. You may find the older version of products on the screenshots. But still, these methods are applicable for the latest version including Windows 10 and VirtualBox 6 x. But there will not be many valid reasons to try an older version of Mac OS 10.6 when we have macOS 11.0 Big Sur now. If you are a developer who wants to test several older versions of macOS, then you can try these methods.
Requirements
- Oracle VirtualBox
- Mac OS X 10. 6 Snow Leopard Retail DVD or ISO (You may need to search for ISO on the Internet)
- EmpireEFIv1085.iso for Intel Processors (This is the boot loader we will be using to boot Mac OS DVD/ISO, download the correct version here)
- Hardware VT Checker (Read more here and make sure Hardware Virtualization is enabled on the host computer BIOS)
- Sound driver (Mentioned under sound)
Installation Steps of Mac OS X 10.6 on VirtualBox
1) Create a Mac OS X Virtual Machine with the following configuration (If you have the latest VB, then select Mac Server version)
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 the display and set up maximum video memory.
Storage Controller type ICH6 and create a 20 GB Hard disk.
2) Mount empireEFIv1085.iso to CD drive. Make CD ROM the first bootable device. Keep your Snow Leopard DVD or ISO file ready.
3) Start the virtual machine. When the following screen appears, eject bootloader ISO and load Mac installation DVD or ISO.
To do it, right-click on CD drive and select drive or ISO image. Wait for a while and press F5 then ENTER key when DVD loaded.
4) Wait for some time. If you see the installation screen, you are almost done. Go through the installation process.
Go to disk utility and create a partition if you can’t see the installation disk.
5) I got the following warning message at the end of the installation. It’s not an issue, just restart the Virtual machine.
Note – Shutdown or Restart will not happen normally, you have to do it manually from the VirtualBox console. You have to load the empireEFI ISO again to boot the OS from the installed hard disk.
6) This time, select Mac OS hard disk by right arrow key and press Enter to boot. I’m sure after several initial configurations you will land on the Snow Leopard desktop successfully.
Let’s Fix Some Issues on Snow Leopard Virtual Machine
1) Network worked straight away. NAT and Bridged type worked without any patches.
2) Software Update: Yes, it worked. Since we used the vanilla kernel, this VM can be updated. I managed to update till 10.6.4.
3) USB Support: It worked well. Somehow data transfer is slow but manageable. It detected my USB hard disk and flash drive.
4) The sound in Mac OS X Guest: Sound is a little issue here but worked. I’m sure it will not bother you much.
Follow these steps to install sound drivers. For me it worked, one side speaker worked with little distraction. Something is better than nothing. You need to follow this guide to install sound drivers.
5) Screen Resolution and Screen Size: Follow these steps to adjust the screen size. Widescreen size didn’t work for some users.
6) Shutdown and Restart: We can’t shut down or restart Mac VM in a normal way. You may see the messages ‘CPU halted’ (for Shutdown) or ‘MACH Reboot’ (for restart), this means nothing will happen after it. We need to power off or reset the virtual machine from the VirtualBox console. Here is the working Snow Leopard on VirtualBox.
7) Update 1
Install Boot Loader permanently and some fixes
To avoid attaching empireEFI ISO every time to boot OS X virtual machine, we can install bootloader permanently on Mac hard disk. This method will install the Chameleon bootloader and some other drivers.
Go to Empire EFI CD which is already mounted and open the Post Installation folder. Take a snapshot before doing anything at this point. Run myHack Installer Package.
Select Customize in Installation Type.
Read each package description and select it if you need it for your computer hardware. I recommend not deselecting anything selected by default. Press the Install button to continue.
After successful installation, remove empireEFI ISO and start the virtual machine, it should boot from the hard disk as shown below.
If this doesn’t work, restore the virtual machine to the latest snapshot and install the Chameleon bootloader from a separate installation file in the Post Installation folder. This might fix the boot loader issue and improve performance.
8) 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 a Mac retail DVD. Convert the DVD with some cloning software to ISO. Most people faced this issue and that was the solution.
b) Booting errors after installation.
Try Boot verbose or Boot Ignore Caches options. In the empireEFI bootloader, go to Mac disk by pressing the right arrow key. Once it’s selected, press the down arrow key which will bring more options. Select and press Enter.
c) Change boot loader for old type of processors: Select legacyempire_efi1085.iso, which is inside the same folder.
If this bootloader and method didn’t work on the Intel processor then try this method with a different iboot loader.
I hope these methods will be helpful to install the original Mac OS 10.6 Snow Leopard on Oracle VirtualBox with your Windows 10 or 8.1 computer. I mentioned a few troubleshooting steps which may be helpful as well.
425 Comments
I have SL booting in VB with the EVI boot disk on win 7 64bit. This is on an AMD laptop, I just cannot get either of the boot leaders on the EFI disk to work, so I can boot the VB machine directly.
Anyone got any tips to help me with?
PS thank god for VBs snapshots. 🙂
OK, I have tried with my restore discs but nothing, it doesn´t want to boot it ejects my drive so what can I do?
P.D: quino, ahi le has dao.
@quinillo, what do you mean by ‘restore discs’?
Hi, I love to try Mac OS X in VirtualBox at least, but I have an Acer Aspire One netbook with 1GB RAM and Intel Atom 1.6 Ghz. Could I do it? By the way, could you detail the part that is ejected EFi Empire iso and load the iso of Mac? What about the part where you have to create a partition in Disk Utility?
And another thing, can I use an iso cracked, for example, iATKOS or iDeneb?
Thank you very much!
@Javier If you have iatkaos you don’t need anything of this tutorial. iatkos v7 installs without a problem in virtualbox.
Hello again! I try to install iATKOS S3 (Snow Leopard 10.6.3), following the tutorial on this page: http://www.takwing.idv.hk/tech/virtual/iatkos_s3/index.html.
It seems much easier than with a normal installation with ISO/ DVD “retail” of Snow Leopard, and then would not I’ll need so many hacks, or the Empire Efi, etc., to function properly?
I wish you told me (V3nom) if you’ve tried it with iATKOS in Virtualbox and it works well. My msn is javimedinap@hotmail.com and my Gmail is javiermedina96@gmail.com if you want to talk 🙂
Greetings!
@Javier, Yes, installing hacked versions is easier than retail installation. I mentioned this method for ‘retail’ versions only.
You All should try this guide, it doesn’t need any kext or empireEFI at all & it works for me
http://martinml.com/en/how-to-install-mac-os-x-snow-leopard-in-virtualbox/
Hi i cannot see my mouse at the empire efi screen to select my snow leopard iso. it is on there and i pressed f5 but nothing happens.
@shadowseal45 : use arrow keys ( left or right arrow) to select the ISO file. mouse may not work on EFI screen.
@Mark Raju Thanks that helped!
Ummmm……….wait it says a critical error has occured while running the vm……..Could this be from a bad iso?
@shadowseal45, what kind of processor you are using? Intel, AMD, 32 Bit or 64 bit? I don’t think it will be related to bad ISO. Some processor or boot loader issue.
I have an intel processor, running windows 7, and I’m pretty sure it is 64-bit , any way to check I it’s 32 or 64?
After the upgrade to 10.6.3 or 10.6.4 the system goes to kernel panic and don’t boot…
Everyone can help me?
Hello @Dinesh
Thanks for this tutoriall!
However, i have a crach (http://twitpic.com/22ouaz/full) sometime.
For example, this message appears when a launch in Windows “google chrome” …
PC configuration
– Intel Core2Duo 2.66GHz (VT Enabled, 64 Bit Architecture supports)
– 2 GB of memory with 1,3GB for Snow Leopar
– Nvidia geForce 8500 GT
@mahere88, Yes, I could see the error. But I couldn’t figure out the connection between Windows Chrome and Mac VM. I suspect on two factors,
1) Make processor core to 1
2) Reduce memory size for Mac VM ( make it 1GB)
As I could see you are using Windows 7 as host and Google chrome ( Both have only 748MB memory) browser, there could be a memory shortage or over lapping issue.
thanks it worked perfectly even with the 10.6.4 update! 😉
Just a little suggestion:
if you like to have an idiot proof instruction page, please add into the instructions to press ENTER after the dvd change (from the bootloader to the install disk), and not only F5.
A stupid and idiot friend 🙂
@Jack, Thanks for the suggestion.How I and others missed?
You are a nice friend.
Please help.
Install goes fine but i never get to boot into OSX after install.
I boot from loader then run the HDD but always get a black screen.
Any ideias? 🙁 only message i seem to get is ACPI table not found: DSDM.aml
Please help, tried everything.
Is there boot loader for AMD processor, I have retail Snow Leopard 10.6.1 but I can’t use EFI bootloader. I got from http://osx86.net/f7/empire-efi-4-amd-with-sb600-t4987/ that said EFI support for AMD. But each time I boot using EPI I got kernel panic failed to load kext es.osx86.driver.Ev0reboot
If you have boot loader for AMD please post it, thanks
@James,
What type of processor and OS you are using? Have you attached hard disk to SATA or IDE?
@Ariston,
I have updated post ( Under Required Products) with AMD boot loader. Several users reported its working for AMD. Try and let us know.
Good luck
That error i mentioned above was my bad, sorry.
The OSX86 DVD i used doesn’t need a boot loader to be installed after install, it installs a boot loader and the VM boots straight from the HDD.
One other thing, if i choose other location besides US during OS install, i couldn’t pass through the menu “Do you already own a Mac” – it just hangs there forever.
So, after figuring that out… install went fine and after reboot i still couldn’t get into the OS (kernel panic IOATAFamily).
Tried different installs of the OSX86 with and without IOATAFamily fix kexts but the problem remained.
So, after install and after this kernel panic… went to Vbox VM options and changed the HDD Storage Controller Type from IDE ICH6 to SATA.
It then booted normally into OS 🙂 and i must say, my OSX86 VM is working with only 512MB (i could use 1GB but my machine has only 1.5GB and i still want to run other things at the same time). But it works and is usable. Network worked out of the box, sound installed the driver but it really isn’t that great..
Thanks for the reply anyway and i hope i can help someone too…
Cheers
@James, then my guess is correct. I got the same error message once and after changed to IDE to SATA or SATA to IDE, it worked. cool 🙂
hi,
I tried to install snow leopard in vitual box using empire efi boot loader.but the iso image didnt start up.in iso image there is inbuilt chameleon boot loader i started it and installed successfully but it hangs up at grey screen with apple lgo only.what can i do?
hi,
i have iso file with in built loader.i successfully installed it but didnt able to start up.it hangs at grey screen with apple only.what can i do?empire efi isnt working with the iso image i have.
When i try to put in my snow leopard iso….it says memory allocation error…….What does that mean???
Hi
When I get to the point where Empire EFI has loaded and I swap the CD for my OS X 10.6 disc and press F5 (as instructed) then I just get the following error message:
EBIOS read error: Error 0x0c
Block 0x1ed48a Sectors 0
Any idea what could be causing this?
System spec:
Acer Extensa 5635
Intel Core2Duo
3GB DDR2 800
Windows7 Ultimate – 32bit
Virtual Box version 3.2.6r63112
empireEFIv1085 – Burnt to CD
Mac OS X Snow Leopard – Original DVD
Thank you very much for this guide.
I have a question. Is snow leopard suitable for pre-Intel Macs?
Thanks in advance.