Installing Mac OS X Snow Leopard in Virtualbox

I’m currently getting more and more Apple computers and iDevices to do repair on and I’ve been in need of the Mac operating system. As everyone knows there is a heavy duty Mac tax that keeps me from buying an Appple computer. With that being said, I needed something that would allow me to test Apple hardware and software without paying alot of money. After doing plenty of research I found out that I can use Oracles Virtualbox to virtualize an install of Mac OS X Snow Leopard and run it on my work computer. FANTASTIC! So I followed these instructions on my Windows 7 PC to get it installed on non-apple hardware virtulized. Here is where my clause is inserted to keep me from getting sued by apple: You shouldn’t run long term since you technically have to own a mac to run any Mac OS end clause You can pick up Snow Leopard for $30 so it didn’t barely cost me anything. Here are the steps I took:

Required for Mac OS X Snow Leopard Install:

1) Oracle VirtualBox 3.2 or above   Dowload

2) Mac OS X 10. 6 Snow Leopard Retail DVD or ISO

Don’t try to use a burned copy virtual box doesn’t like it.

3) EFI Boot Loader – Helps us boot into Snow Leopard

32 and 64 Bit Intel Processor (for 64bit use legacyempire_efi1085.iso from same folder)

AMD Processor

My PC Specifications:

Intel Corei7 2.8Ghz, 8Gb DDR3 Ram, Intel P55 chipset and Win 7 64bit OS.

How to install

1) Create a new Virtual Machine. Give it a name and select Mac OS X Server.

2)Memory around 2Gb if you have it as long as its at least 1GB.

Display Give the the display memory size at least 64mb and enable 3d support under display settings.

Processor Cores – 1 or more
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.

3) Go to the Storage settings and add a SATA hard disk. Make sure to have the drive size at least 20Gb. Also make sure the Type is ICH6.

4) Make sure that the CDROM drive is set to boot first.

5) Mount empireEFIv1085.iso to CD drive. Make CD ROM as first boot device. Keep your Snow Leopard DVD or ISO file ready.

6) Start the virtual machine. When following screen appears, eject loader ISO and load Mac installation DVD or ISO.

To do the swap you right click on CD drive in the bottom right and select drive or ISO image of Snow Leopard Install disc.  Wait a bit , Press F5 and ENTER Key on the Snow Leopard Install disc.

7) Go through the installation process like usual.

If you hard drives are available to install you need to go to the Utilities at the top, Disk Utility, and partition the Vbox hard drive. When its done close out of it and it should be available then.

8) IF you get an installation failed message at the end dont worry about it. Manually close the virtualbox window, mount the empireEFI ISO again and start back up again.

9) Now you can see your mac hard drive on the boot loader screen to choose from.It should load up and allow you to boot to your new Snow Leopard install.

10) Not everything will work 100%. I luckily got a very compatible chipset so my video card (9800GTX), audio and everything worked fine out of the box.

11) The last step is to install a boot loader to avoid from having to use the empireEFI disc. I used the chameleon boot loader. If you open the empire EFI disc that is already mounted and open the Post Installation folder. Run the myHack Installer package, Select Customize in Installation Type. DONT UNCHECK ANYTHING.

Before you go through and change anything make a VM snapshot in case something is broken from customizations made that way you can roll back those changes.  Just play with the settings till you figure out what works the best.

Viola! You are running Snow Leopard. Enjoy

-Chase

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