Hackintosh – running Apple OS/X inside VirtualBox (on Ubuntu or Windows)

I’ve done a LOT of web and software development in my career, one of the biggest problems I’v e had is doing proper testing on various platforms. VirtualBox can be run on most platforms, and allows for you to virtualize various operating systems. Apple’s OS X can be problematic to install, here’s some functioning instructions and settings that I’ve successfully used for my virtual Hackintosh test environment.

WARNING: As this uses an image of the software, it is advisable to also have a valid licenced copy as to use this without a licence would be “stealing”.

NOTE: this is a version of Snow Leopard, unfortunately you will NOT be able to update or add “fixes” to this test copy as it will usually break. I recommend making a copy of the VM if you wish to try!

My VirtualBox settings:

Mac OS X
Mac OS X Snow Leopard (64-bit)
1024MB
1 core
Disable EFI
6MB+ video

Steps:

  1. English, continue
  2. Utilities… disk Utilities… Select drive, Erase, name, erase… close
  3. continue
  4. Select disk… continue
  5. Customize (see instructions for: updates, kernels & bootloaders)
  6. NOTE: i only did 10.6.1 (an earlier 10.6.2 failed)

  7. Install
  8. Resolution fix – (I could not save file, but here are the instructions…

    Finder > OSX Drive (On desktop) > Extras > com.apple.Boot.plist (open with TextEdit – use the field to find)


<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280×1024x32</string>

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