Install Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger on VirtualBox

Prerequisites

This guide assumes that you have:

• a Mac OS X host environment, running VirtualBox on an Intel Mac
• a universal or i386 install image or disk for Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger

The environment of the example installation procedure was:

• MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
• OS X El Capitan (10.11.6)
• VirtualBox 5.1.18
• the Mac OS X Server v10.4.7 (Universal) Build 8K1079 image (which can be found by searching for "10.4" in https://developer.apple.com/download/more/)

Create a new virtual machine

If trust the files in the repository and want to skip the procedure you can:

• download Tiger.ova and import it in VirtualBox (by double-clicking it or opening it from File → Import Appliance...), or
• copy the Tiger folder from this repository to your VirtualBox VMs folder and add it in VirtualBox selecting it in from the Machine → Add... menu

If you like to see what it takes to get it done, the following step-by-step procedure will guide you in the creation and configuration of the virtual machine.

1. select Machine → New... from the menu (or click on the New button)
2. choose the name of your virtual machine (the example uses "Tiger")
3. select Type: Mac OS X
4. select Version: Mac OS X (32-bit) or Version: Mac OS X (64-bit)
5. choose the amount of RAM (default: 2048 MB)
6. choose Create a virtual hard disk now

7. choose the settings for the creation of the virtual hard disk (the default ones should work just fine)

8. from the command-line, run the following commands (replacing "Tiger" with the name of your virtual machine):

VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --mouse usb
VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --firmware efi32
VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --cpu-profile 'Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz'
VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --cpuidset 00000000 00000004 756e6547 6c65746e 49656e69
VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --cpuidset 00000001 00000f43 00020800 fbffffff ffffffff
VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --cpuidset 80000001 00000000 00000000 ffffffff ffffffff
VBoxManage setextradata Tiger VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBIOSVersion EFI32..Virtual.Box
VBoxManage setextradata Tiger VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiUseHostInfo 0
VBoxManage setextradata Tiger VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC 1

The virtual machine should now be ready for the install procedure. Its vbox file should match the reference Tiger.vbox except for the name, timestamps and UUIDs.

Install Mac OS X

1. start the virtual machine
2. since it is the first boot, VirtualBox will open a popup asking for the install media; select the Mac OS X install disk image

3. wait some time for the boot to complete; the system might either immediately start or stay frozen for several seconds in a state like the one shown in the following image before getting to the UI; after a minute, if it shows no progress or if the console shows Still waiting for root device., try rebooting the machine

4. choose the language you are going to use

5. from the hidden menu at the top of the screen, select Utilities → Disk Utility...

   IMPORTANT: open Disk Utility immediately after selecting the language. Stepping through the installation and then running Disk Utility will likely result in the hard disk not being shown.

6. erase the VBOX HARDDISK hard disk using a Mac OS Extended volume format; you can choose whether to also make it Journaled and/or Case-sensitive; the default is Mac OS Extended (Journaled)

7. quit Disk Utility and proceed with the installation

Additional information

• Post-installation tuning
• Known issues
• Explanation of the settings