Catalina Virtualbox

Whether you want to install macOS Catalina on VMware or install Catalina on VirtualBox, you’ll definitely need the macOS Catalina ISO image file. For installing macOS on a virtual machine, the first and most important step is to download macOS Catalina ISO which is accessible online but doesn’t promise to work. Macos-guest-virtualbox.sh is a Bash script that creates a macOS virtual machine guest on VirtualBox with unmodified macOS installation files downloaded directly from Apple servers. A default install only requires the user to sit patiently and, less than ten times, press enter when prompted by the script, without interacting with the virtual. In this article, I will show you how to install VMware Tools on macOS Catalina. If you want to make macOS Catalina responsive, work fast and enable the drag and drop feature then you install VMware tools since it’s the tool created by VMware to make Virtual Machines work smoothly and have the benefits of install macOS as a VM. Apple has released a macOS Catalina 10.15.6 Supplemental Update (19G2021) on 2020-08-12, addressing the memory leak. A VMware Fusion lead developer (Darius, involved in filing the bug with Apple) has confirmed the bugfix. The VirtualBox users that initially reported the problem in the VirtualBox forums have also confirmed the bugfix, and my own tests also do not show the memory leak any more.

This document will provide instructions on getting a macOS Catalina install working with Guest Additions on VirtaulBox 6.1.

Start by downloading a copy of the installer from the App Store. You will need a computer running macOS and you will need to convert the installer to an ISO. I will not be covering these steps here, but there are plenty tutorials online.

Installing VirtualBox

I’m hoping you already have this part covered and you are coming here only because you had issues getting macOS installed, but just in case, make sure the following packages are installed (Arch):

Creating the VM

Start by creating a new VM. Give it a name without spaces.

Give it enough memory so the install will run faster. We can change this later.

Select to create a new Virtual Hard Disk

Select VDI

Select fixed size

Give it a bare minimum of 25GB (I would advise on at least 50GB if you can spare the space)

Edit the machine, go into «System => Motherboard» and disable floppy boot and change the chipset to PIIX3 Camtasia studio for mac.

In the processor give more CPU if you can spare

In «Display => Screen» increase the video memory to 128MB and enable 3D acceleration

Enable USB 3.0

Note: if you can’t see USB 3.0 you might need to add your user to the vboxusers group

Insert the install ISO

Additional Configuration

Now we need to run a few vboxmanage commands for additional settings. Either run the lines with vboxmanage from the script below (add your virtual machine name under $vm_name), or save the full script and run it.

Note: the default resolution is set to «1280x1024». You can change it in the last line of the update code. Make sure to keep it to “640x480, 800x600, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1900x1200“

Installing macOS

We are now ready for the install. Start the machine and select you language.

Select disk utility.

Select the VirtualBox hard disk and click on erase.

Give it a name, select the same options and click on erase. Close the disk utility when done.

Click on install macOS.

Continue with the install as you would until you are presented with the desktop.

Note that the installer will reboot once in the middle of the install.

Installing Guest Additions

We now need to get Guest Additions installed. Remove the install ISO and mount the guest additions CD. Open it with finder and run the VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg

Catalina Virtualbox Guest Additions Failed

Install it as if you would install any other package.

Download from youtube mp3 free for mac. You will most likely get an error message that the install has failed.

Close everything, unmount the guest additions CD and open a terminal window (Command+Space, type terminal).

Now we need to restart the VM in recovery mode. Type in:

Once it has rebooted into recovery mode, on the top click on «Utilities => Termminal»

Type in the code below. This is to sign Oracle software as authorized. Then we disable recovery mode and restart the VM.

When the VM has rebooted you should have guest additions working. Remember that not everything works, but the features below should:

• Copy/Paste
• ~Drag and Drop~ Reported as not working (see comments)
• VirtualBox Shared Folders
• Guest Control

Mac Os Catalina Virtualbox

Attachments

Change History

Changed 18 months ago by Kalak

• attachmentcatalina-guest-install.log added

Changed 18 months ago by Kalak

• attachmentmacOS10.15-2019-10-07-17-24-21.log added

comment:3 Changed 14 months ago by aeichner

• Status changed from new to closed
• Resolution set to fixed

comment:6follow-ups:↓ 7↓ 12 Changed 11 months ago by AKuehnel

comment:7 in reply to: ↑ 6 Changed 11 months ago by GammaG

comment:8 Changed 10 months ago by paulson

• Status changed from closed to reopened
• Resolutionfixed deleted

Catalina Virtualbox Stuck

comment:9 Changed 10 months ago by paulson

• Summary changed from Guest Additions not installing on macOS 10.15 Catalia guests to Guest Additions not installing on macOS 10.15 Catalina guests

Catalina Virtualbox Linux

comment:12 in reply to: ↑ 6 Changed 4 months ago by atoolz