Catalina Virtualbox
This document will provide instructions on getting a macOS Catalina install working with Guest Additions on VirtaulBox 6.1.
Installing the macOS Catalina is very simple after downloading its ISO file. Therefore, if you really want to try out it on a virtual machine such as VMware or VirtualBox. For the beginners, it is somehow complicated and lengthy to install macOS Catalina on VMware or VirtualBox. But no need to worry we have a guided article about these. Extract the macOS Catalina Virtual Image. When you first get the Virtual Image it will be in what is.
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.
Downloading process of macOS Catalina Image file for VirtualBox and VMware. Mac OS 10.15 Catalina is named because of a special kind of update for Apple and for its operating system which is known as Mac. It has some outstanding features, applications, and a voice record facility which we already discussed earlier.
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
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.
Catalina Virtualbox Image
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.
Catalina Virtualbox Vmdk
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
Install it as if you would install any other package.
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).
Catalina Virtualbox Crash
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