Big Sur (11.06) on Linux

Jarret B

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Quite a few people go through their life with a PC. They are content to use Linux or Windows but have never seen MacOS. Some people may have a desire to see and use MacOS and yet not want to buy an Apple system.

I will cover the steps to install the second latest, at the time of this article, version of MacOS. In April of 2020, Apple released their MacOS 11.0 version of their Operating System called Big Sur. In 2021, Apple released version 12 called Monterey.

Big Sur was a major update of the Apple MacOS system. It allows users to run iOS apps natively.

In this article, I will go through the following:

  1. System Requirements and Prerequisites
  2. Creating a VirtualBox Machine
  3. Starting the Machine and Installation of Big Sur
  4. Updating Big Sur
  5. Testing

System Requirements and Prerequisites

These are the specs I am using. Of course, if you have a better system, this will be faster.

  • Ubuntu 21.04 (any version should do as long as you run Oracle VirtualBox)
  • Oracle VirtualBox 6.1.26 (older versions should work, but try to update)
  • Oracle VirtualBox Extensions (optional)
  • Core-I3
  • 8GB of RAM for VirtualBox Machine
  • 50 GB hard drive space for VirtualBox disk image file (SSD drive should be faster, but not required)

Download and install Oracle VirtualBox as well as the VirtualBox Extension Pack.

Download the BigSur ISO file (found at http://www.mediafire.com/file/dbfod9u5q9ii9nd/macOS_Big_Sur_11.0.1_%252820B29%2529.iso/file). The file is nearly 17 GB in size, so be prepared for a possible lengthy download.

NOTE: Keep in mind that the installation and update process took over two hours on my system.

Creating the VirtualBox Machine

Open Oracle VM VirtualBox and click on the ‘New’ button at the top of the window.

A window should appear asking for some information about the Machine you are creating. For the name, enter 'BigSur'. You can use another valid name, just keep it in mind and do not use a name with spaces or special characters. The Machine folder should be fine as the default unless you want to place it in a different place. The 'Type' should be set to 'Mac OS X'. The ‘Version’ should be ‘Mac OS X (64-bit)’. Click ‘Next’ when these settings are correct.

The next screen will ask for the memory size to allocate to the Machine. The setting should be a minimum of 8 GB (8192 MB). Select 'Next' to continue with the Machine setup.

The next window will prompt you to create a disk drive for the Machine. Click on ‘Create’ to accept the default. The next screen asks which file type for the storage media. Select ‘VHD (Virtual Hard Disk)’ then click ‘Next’. Next, you will be prompted whether to use a ‘Dynamic’ or ‘Fixed’ disk. A ‘Fixed’ disk can be faster, but a ‘Dynamic’ disk will only grow as needed and save space. You can choose whichever you want and then click ‘Next’. The Size setting on the new window lets you specify the file size if ‘Fixed’. If you chose ‘Dynamic’, then the setting is the maximum size the file can grow, unless you change the value later in ‘Virtual Media Manager’. Use a bare minimum of 60 GB, but preferably 100 GB or more. Click on ‘Create’ to allow the Virtual Hard Drive to be created.

The basic Machine is now created and will need some tweaking before starting the Machine.

Make sure the ‘BigSur’ Machine is selected, ‘or whatever name you may have used, and select ‘Settings’ from the top of the window.

In the left pane, select ‘System’ and in the right pane choose the ‘Motherboard’ tab. Uncheck Floppy in the ‘Boot Order’. Click on the ‘Processor’ tab in the right pane and select two or more processors to use for the Machine.

In the left pane, select ‘Display’. In the right pane move the ‘Video Memory’ to ‘128 MB’.

Click on ‘Storage’ in the left pane. In the middle pane, select the ‘Empty’ optical disk. In the right pane will be a picture of a CD with an arrow next to it. Click on the CD and select ‘Choose a Disk File’ from the drop-down box. Locate the ISO file you downloaded from the link at the beginning of the article. The file should be something similar to ‘macOS Big Sur 11.0.1 (20B29).iso’. Click on ‘Open’ when you have selected the appropriate file.

Click ‘OK’ to save the tweaks you made to the Machine. Exit the Oracle VirtualBox program. The next step requires that the program is closed and none of the files are being held open so the changes will not be made.

You need to open a Terminal window and run the following commands:

  • cd /usr/bin
  • VBoxManage modifyvm "BigSur" --cpuidset 00000001 000106e5 00100800 0098e3fd bfebfbff
  • VBoxManage setextradata "BigSur" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac19,1"
  • VBoxManage setextradata "BigSur" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"
  • VBoxManage setextradata "BigSur" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Mac-AA95B1DDAB278B95"
  • VBoxManage setextradata "BigSur" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"
  • VBoxManage setextradata "BigSur" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC" 1

The Machine Name that I suggested was ‘BigSur’, so if you changed the name you need to edit the commands. The parameter “BigSur” in the last six lines will need to match your Machine Name.

The Virtual Machine should now be completely set up and ready to start.

Starting the Machine and Installation of Big Sur

After starting the Machine, you should see a lot of text passing by on the screen. After a bit, a Graphical User Interface (GUI) should appear asking for a language preference. Choose your language and then press the right arrow icon at the bottom of the screen.

The Operating System (OS) should now scan the system for a storage device. A new screen should appear with four choices:

  1. Restore from Time Machine
  2. Install Mac OS Big Sur
  3. Safari
  4. Disk Utility
First, you’ll need to select ‘Disk Utility’ to format the virtual hard disk. Click it once and select ‘Continue’ or double-click ‘Disk Utility’.

In the left pane select ‘VBOX HARDDISK Media’ and then in the right pane select the ‘Erase’ icon towards the top-right corner. On the next screen, give the virtual disk a name, like ‘BigSur’ or whatever you like. The Format should be changed to ‘Mac OS Extended(Journaled)’. The Scheme should be ‘GUID Partition Map’. Click the ‘Erase’ button. Once the format is completed, select ‘Done’. Press the red ‘X’ in the top-left corner of the ‘Disk Utility’ window.

Next, click on the ‘Install Mac OS Big Sur’ and click ‘Continue’ or double-click on ‘Install Mac OS Big Sur’.

You should be shown a screen that says ‘To set up the installation of macOS Big Sur, click Continue.’ So, click the ‘Continue’ button.

You should now be shown the Terms of the Software License Agreement. Select ‘Agree’ to continue with the installation. You are quickly prompted again whether you ‘Agree’ or ‘Disagree’ with the Software License Agreement (you want to ‘Agree’ again).

You should be shown a window with a hard disk that is labeled with the name you previously gave the Virtual disk when you erased it. Choose the hard disk image and then press the 'Continue' button.

You will need to wait while the OS is being installed on the Virtual Disk. After an hour or so (closer to two depending on your system), the Virtual Machine should reboot and load to a GUI.

The GUI will take you through configuring the OS that is installed. You will first be asked for your country or region from a list. Once your country is selected, press the ‘Continue’ button.

The next screen will ask you for your ‘Preferred Language’, ‘Input Source’ and ‘Dictation’. The settings should be set as defaults for the country or region you selected previously. Click ‘Continue’ when done.

Next, you will be asked to set any ‘Accessibility’ options based on ‘Vision’, ‘Motor’, ‘Hearing’ or ‘Cognitive’ needs. Make the changes you need or select ‘Not Now.’

You should now be shown information on ‘Privacy’. Click ‘Continue’ when done with the screen.

Migrating from an existing system is the next screen. You can choose to migrate from a Mac OS or Windows system. Since this is a fresh install for VirtualBox, just select ‘Not Now’ in the bottom-left corner.

You should now be prompted to enter your AppleID. Press ‘Set Up Later’ in the bottom-left corner. A smaller window appears asking if you are sure about skipping this step. Press ‘Skip’.

The ‘Terms and Conditions’ are displayed next. Click on ‘Agree’ to continue then when prompted, verify by selecting ‘Agree’ again.

Similar to a Linux setup, you will now be prompted for your name, username, password, password verification and a hint for the password. Click ‘Continue’ when you have filled in all of the necessary fields.

‘Express Setup’ is the next window. Apps and services will gather data for your location. It is set to allow analytics and usage to be sent to Apple. You can select ‘Customize Settings’ in the bottom-left to change these settings or ‘Continue’ to allow the default settings.

You can next select to allow crash and usage information with developers. Press ‘Continue’ when you have selected your choice.

You can then set up ‘Screen Time’ information or select ‘Set Up Later’ in the bottom-left corner.

Siri can be enabled on the next screen. It is enabled by default, it may be best to disable Siri before clicking ‘Continue.’

The next configuration setting is to choose your look. You can select ‘Light’, ‘Dark’ or ‘Auto’. Make your preferred choice and click on ‘Continue’.

The Mac OS should now be configuring Big Sur based on your choices.

In a short while, you should get the main Mac OS screen with a small window wanting to set your keyboard. Click on -Continue'. The first thing you need to do is press the key to the right of the left Shift key. You will then be prompted to press the key to the left of the right Shift key. The system should detect your keyboard and you can select 'Done' to complete the keyboard detection.

The screen you now see should be similar to Figure 1.

Figure 01.png

FIGURE 1

Right-click on the ‘Install MacOS Big Sur’ icon and click on ‘Eject’. The icon should disappear from the Big Sur Desktop.

You are now ready to update the system from version 11.01 to 11.6 as well as other system updates.

Updating Big Sur

On the bottom row of icons, there should be a 'System Preferences' icon towards the right side. There should be an alert noting several available updates (should be a '1'). Click on the icon.

When the ‘System Preferences’ loads, you should be prompted to perform an update. Select ‘Update Now’ and then click ‘Agree’ to perform the update. The update could take some time to complete.

After the update is completed, click on ‘System Preferences’ again to perform any other required updates. Continue to do this until there are no more updates.

Once you have all of the updates done (Figure 2), you can continue to familiarize yourself with running Mac OS. To download apps from the App Store, you need an Apple ID which you can create when you select to download an app.

Figure 02.png

FIGURE 2

Conclusion


Big Sur is a very recent version of Mac OS and is easy to install. It may be time-consuming, but once installed it works fairly well.

Sign up for an Apple ID to be able to download apps. If you do want to download apps, you should make the initial Virtual Hard Disk size greater to be able to accommodate more files.

I hope you enjoy playing with Mac OS. You can fool some people by maximizing the VirtualBox screen and setting it to no window. It will appear that you have Mac OS running for real.
 


How is the performance of this vm for real? I mean, is it possible to use big sur as a working machine?
 
Performance isn't bad. Just throw a lot of RAM at it. Have a decent processor. I was using an i3 and it wasn't too bad.
Just keep in mind that almost all systems you install in VBox can run straight on the system as the main OS. VBox does not perform any processor emulation like QEMU which can let you choose what processor you want to emulate.
 
Hello, I have a 8GB , intel i7 9th gen, 200ssd lenovo laptop, can I use this as a daily driver for my programming work?
 
You'll probably be able to set aside 4-6 of ram for it. It really needs at least a full 8. You can try with 4, but I doubt it will be worth it. Upgrade your ram to 16 GB or more so you can share more on vbox. You could try to install it to an external drive and dual boot your system. This way you can use the full 8Gb. An external SSD would be great, especially if you have USB3 Ports. I have an article about installing an os from vbox onto an external drive. Search for multiboot USB drive with my name as the author. I think that should find it. Basically, instead of choosing a virtual drive, choose the external drive. It installs it for real. You can pick up external SSD drives for under $100.
 
Thank you for the reply. Is there any possibility of dual booting mac with another OS as we do with windows and linux distros? I need at least two OS on my system for my work purpos and I would like it if one of it is mac OS. If this isn't possible I will see how my system performs with 6gb ram given to the VM. If that doesn't work I will buy a external SSD and use it as you mentioned.
 
Install some program like grub with Linux that can handle dial booting. If one os is not Linux, you may need to search for one.
 
Install some program like grub

Would that it was so simple! If you want to boot and run macOS on your PC, there’s a whole world to explore; that of the Hackintosh. You will almost certainly need to replace some hardware, if your machine is capable of booting macOS at all.
If you are somehow the most fortunate person to ever attempt it and all of your hardware is 100% compatible, you can try triple booting Linux, Windows and macOS with rEFIt. This will not just work as some of the foregoing posts seem to suggest but try it and maybe find out what you need to make it work.
 
Would that it was so simple! If you want to boot and run macOS on your PC, there’s a whole world to explore; that of the Hackintosh. You will almost certainly need to replace some hardware, if your machine is capable of booting macOS at all.
If you are somehow the most fortunate person to ever attempt it and all of your hardware is 100% compatible, you can try triple booting Linux, Windows and macOS with rEFIt. This will not just work as some of the foregoing posts seem to suggest but try it and maybe find out what you need to make it work.
Ok
 
just the nice look of big sur
;-)
 
These instructions were great until I updated then kernel panic. I'm going to try again but I guess worst case i can just not update.
Thanks a bunch for this guide
 
Thanks you so much for this clear and complete guide for installing Big Sur on Linux. I had already spent two days trying to get it done with QEMU/KVM, with and without Docker. Those various geeky articles were missing steps, assumed deep knowledge of packages, and worked only on the computer of the author. A missing sound card, for instance, would cause a failure and a trip down the Linux rabbithole. I appreciate that you provide all the steps and what to expect after each one.

In the end though, I was not able to get it working, yet so very close. I will write the details here, in the hopes that someone may have a solution now or in the future.

The instructions gave a working copy of Big Sur (Mac OS 11.0.1). The problems came when trying to update.

First I was offered to update to 11.3(?). The update downloaded ok, but the installation hung with 15 minutes to go. I tried this four times (hanging at different points), reading the many posts about this very problem, and even invoking software update from Terminal. The installation always reverted to 11.0.1.

Next, I tried to upgrade to Monterey, going for broke this time. Again, the download was successful, but the installation hung at 44 seconds remaining. On reboot, there was an icon of "Install Monterey" left in the dock. Running it hung twice, then a third try finished the install and began to boot into Monterey. However, after leaving the login screen, Virtualbox crashed with "The system was rebooted due to a panic". The image is now in a reboot loop.

A comment:
1) Virtualbox stores a configuration inside $HOME/.cache/VirtualBox/ without which VB will not start! I made the "mistake" of deleting .cache to free up storage, and had to completely uninstall VB and start over. This is lousy programming, to put an essential file inside .cache. So a hint to others - do not delete $HOME/.cache/VirtualBox. You will have to start over.

For my own use, I only need to run Xcode for a couple of days each year to update my software. Your article potentially saved me a huge amount of time, as well as the expense of paying Apple for a new computer that runs a Mac OS that runs the current Xcode. That's planned obsolescence that makes a profit for Apple!

After spending three days on this task, I am now looking at renting an online Monterey with Xcode already installed that can be accessed remotely. If anyone has a definite solution for VB, please post it here. I am willing to try again.
:)
 
I’m gonna VM this in kubuntu or fedora with specs i7 6core 64gb ram nvidia Quattro and 1tb ssd nvme. I’ll report back over the weekend if I get a chance to try.
 
I've been messing around with Big Sur again. I didn't do the update, but the rest worked fine. I do know on a Core-i3 with 8GB of RAM dedicated to the virtual machine, it is laggy. I'm trying to find an alternate method of making macOS run. If I figure anything out, I'll get an article on it out.
 
I follow the instructions but got this error "Querying UUID failed ..." when starting the VM.
Host MX 21.2, Virtualbox 7.0.4.
Please help.
 

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Make sure the option under Motherboard for 'Enable EFI' is not checked.

Hopefully that helps.
 
I haven't tried it on the new VirtualBox version 7. I read somewhere that they locked down running macOS on non-Mac systems. You may need to try VirtualBox version 6 if that is true. I'm not sure that the statement is a fact. My Big Sur machine was created in version 6, but it boots fine in version 7.
 
My Enable EFI is checked under the Motherboard.
 
I haven't tried it on the new VirtualBox version 7. I read somewhere that they locked down running macOS on non-Mac systems. You may need to try VirtualBox version 6 if that is true. I'm not sure that the statement is a fact. My Big Sur machine was created in version 6, but it boots fine in version 7.
I can confirm what you read. They have in fact locked it down on non-macOS Systems. It only took a dozen or more failures before I did MYOR.
 

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