how to create mac os x 10.6 snow leopard virtual machine in utm

How to create Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard virtual machine in UTM

November 28, 2021

UTM is a frontend for QEMU that works on Mac and iOS.

I’ve been working to get Snow Leopard running in UTM (by extension, it would probably also work in QEMU, too). Here’s how to do it.

For this process, I’ll be saving everything to /tmp. If you are storing files elsewhere, update the paths appropriately.

You’ll need qemu-img, which is provided by QEMU. I installed QEMU via brew:

$ brew install qemu

Source a installer disk image

I downloaded the 10.6.7-10J4139-ACDT-OSX.dmg disk image from the Internet Archive.

curl https://ia801802.us.archive.org/18/items/10.6.7-10j3250-disk-images/10.6.7-10J4139-ACDT-OSX.dmg -O /tmp/10.6.7-10J4139-ACDT-OSX.dmg

Mount the disk image:

$ hdiutil mount /tmp/10.6.7-10J4139-ACDT-OSX.dmg
Checksumming весь диск (Apple_HFS : 0)...
...............................................................................
           весь диск (Apple_HFS : 0): verified   CRC32 $39AD4D29
verified   CRC32 $7AA20F20
/dev/disk4                                              /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD

This will mount the disk image to /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD.

Use ASR to restore disk image to a new disk image

This step is required because it creates the EFI boot partition in the disk image.

Create a blank read-write disk image:

$ hdiutil create -size 10G -fs HFS+ -volname utm_installer /tmp/sl_utm.dmg
created: /tmp/sl_utm.dmg

… and mount it:

$ hdiutil mount /tmp/sl_utm.dmg
/dev/disk5              GUID_partition_scheme           
/dev/disk5s1            EFI                             
/dev/disk5s2            Apple_HFS                       /Volumes/utm_installer

… which mounts the blank disk image to /Volumes/utm_installer.

Then, use Apple System Restore to write the installer to the read-write disk image:

$ sudo asr restore \
-source /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD \
-target /Volumes/utm_installer \
-erase -noverify

Enter y when prompted.

        Validating target...done
        Validating source...done
        Erase contents of /dev/disk5s2 (/Volumes/utm_installer)? [ny]: y
        Validating sizes...done
        Restoring  ....10....20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
        Restored target device is /dev/disk5s2.
        Remounting target volume...done
 Restore completed successfully.

Eject all the disk images:

$ hdiutil eject /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD
"disk4" ejected.

$ hdiutil eject /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Install\ DVD\ 1
"disk5" ejected.

Convert new disk image to CDR master

Now, we need to convert the disk image to a CDR master:

$ hdiutil convert /tmp/sl_utm.dmg -format UDTO -o /tmp/sl_utm.cdr
Reading Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)...
Reading GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)...
Reading GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)...
Reading  (Apple_Free : 3)...
Reading EFI System Partition (C12A7328-F81F-11D2-BA4B-00A0C93EC93B : 4)...
..
Reading disk image (Apple_HFS : 5)...
.........................................................................................................................
Reading  (Apple_Free : 6)...
Reading GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 7)...
.........................................................................................................................
Reading GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 8)...
.........................................................................................................................
Elapsed Time: 54.014s
Speed: 189.6MB/s
Savings: 0.0%
created: /tmp/sl_utm.cdr

Convert CDR master to raw disk image

Finally, we need to convert the ISO into something that can be mounted by UTM (/qemu). This step might not be required since the changes in removable drive handling in UTM v2.4.0, but is included here for posterity:

$ qemu-img convert -p /tmp/sl_utm.cdr -O raw sl_utm.img
    (100.00/100%)

Source EFI boot volume

We’re essentially creating a Hackintosh, so you’ll need some sort of boot loader to boot Mac OS X on “standard” PC hardware. OpenCore is the most commonly used boot loader at the moment, and is responsible for loading any third-party kexts and patches to boot OS X.

It’s complex, so I have shared my OpenCore boot image on Mega to make this a little easier. Not entirely sure if I’m even close to following best practice, but it boots okay regardless.

Download the boot loader and save it to /tmp (or wherever, I don’t care).

Profit!

It’s time to create a new virtual machine in UTM. Let’s get cracking:

System
- Architecture: x86_64
- System: Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009) (alias of pc-q35-6.1) (q35)
- Memory: 1024 MB
- ☑️ UEFI Boot
- CPU: Penryn
- CPU Flags: sse4.1, sse4.2, ssse3
Drives
- Create a New Drive large enough to hold your Snow Leopard installation, plus any apps that you want to install
- Import the efi.img you downloaded from Mega
- Import the sl_utm.img you created from the installation disk image earlier.
Display
- Emulated Display Card: vmware-svga
Network
- Use whatever Network Mode you like. I use Bridged so I can access shared drives on my local network.
- Emulated Network Card: Intel Gigabit Ethernet (e1000)
Sound
- Emulated Audio Card: Intel HD Audio Controller (ich9) (ich9-intel-hda)
Sharing
- Maximum Shared USB Devices: 0
- I set this to zero as I don’t use shared USB devices with this virtual machine. I haven’t tested it, so your milage may vary if it’s set to anything else.

Start the virtual machine. OpenCore will boot the the Install Mac OS X volume by default. A bit of verbose boot will scroll past:

… but you’ll eventually be met by the Snow Leopard installer:

Follow the installation process as normal, and after completing the out-of-box process you’ll end up at the desktop.

Changelog

2022-03-22: thanks to Rick in the comments and Kyle in the Discord for identifying a fault with the OpenCore EFI image I provided. It looks like the default HfsPlus.efi driver works great on an Intel Mac with the hypervisor enabled, but on an M1 Mac it fails to boot to the OpenCore OS list. I changed the driver to VBoxHfs.efi, and it now works on an Intel Mac with the Hypervisor both enabled and disabled, and on an M1 Mac. I updated the link to point to the new EFI image.

Thank for the great post! I can’t get it to boot into the installer without a kernel panic first. I tried you method to perfectly, and well as some variation. I even used a disk image from a clean install of Snow Leopard on a real Mac. I have a screenshots and the config file at the below link. I’m also able to get a more details view of the panic when I use EFI-LEGACY.img. I’m not sure if you can help me, but I’d really appreciate it. Thank you!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vERmbChNo9zSAxPqX1kLN2BUgKXoYl3F/view?usp=sharing

Update: I went back to the original version that think mirror your’s exactly. Sorry, the other one was a later revision. I’m still getting the error. I have the screenshots here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MEONw89txKRxNl6f2FO2mZ6yWTRyZKNE/view?usp=sharing

Hey Rick— I can’t download your second Google Drive file, but looking at the first one it looks like your CPU isn’t set to Penryn. This is what my System tab looks like.

Pop into the Discord and you might be able to get some real-time assistance.

Thanks! Ok, so mine is identical in the 2nd set of screenshots (that you wren’t able to look at before). I have the link again below, hopefully it’s fixed now. If not, I can upload somewhere else.

And thank you, I really appreciate this post and your help.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MEONw89txKRxNl6f2FO2mZ6yWTRyZKNE/view?usp=sharing

Hey Rick— it looks like it’s hanging on something to do with disk access, as it mentions driver HfsPlus.efi in the second-to-last console line.

This makes me think something is out of place in your Drives tab in your VM settings. I can see yours is showing attached to the USB interface. Mine is attached to IDE interface.

Could you try changing both your boot disk image and the EFI image to IDE?

Hey Rick— another user is having the same problem as you. On further investigation, it looks like it doesn’t work when the hypervisor is disabled: this means it won’t work on an M1 Mac! I have been testing on an Intel Mac, so of course I wouldn’t have the same problem.

I am working on updating the OpenCore EFI to work on an emulated i386. I’ll post an update if I have any success.

I think I have fixed the problem: it looks like the HfsPlus.efi driver is faulty when not using an x86_64 hypervisor.

I have updated the EFI-LEGACY.img to use VBoxHfs.efi, and it looks to work on my Intel iMac with hypervisor disabled.

You can download the updated EFI-LEGACY.img from Mega.

Let me know how you go!

Hey Adam, thanks so much! I’ve been on and off trying to get this working. That makes a lot of sense on the hypervisor. Unfortunately, my 2 Intel Macs are still running Catalina, and UTM need Big Sur or newer. My living room family Mac mini is an M1, and my work laptop is an M1 Pro, so that’s where I’ve been using UTM (since I have Snow Leopard running fine in VMWare on Intel).

So I just went through this all again 2 times, making new UTC files, but I keep getting the below kernel Panic after the sl_utm.img installer disk starts loading. It looks like Lilu is to blame.

Besides being on Apple Silicon, the only 2 things that may be different on my end was an “asr: Couldn’t personalize volume /Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD 1 - State not recoverable” when doing the sudo asr restore, and the fact that I’m on UTM 3.1.5, which got a pretty good redesign recently, so some of the settings me a little different. I’m not sure what the “State not recoverable” error is, I started to look it up a little, and thinking maybe it’s having trouble saving the disk name as “Volumes/Mac OS X Install DVD 1”. Not sure.

Overall those 2 “issues” may not matter if it’s a KP caused by Lilu. I’ll try searching around to see if anyone’s run into this on a hackintosh or unsupported Mac Pro.

Thanks again!

novhash=4095
Darwin Kernel Version 10.7.3: Sun Mar 6 13:37:56 PST 2011; root:xnu-1504.14.2-1/RELEASE_X86_64
0vm page bootstrap: 1005726 free pages and 34658 wired pages
kext submap [Oxffffff7f80800000 - Oxffffff8000000000l, kernel text [0xffffff8000200000 - Oxfffff80008000001
standard timeslicing quantum is 10000 us
mig_table max_displ = 73
"calling mpo policy_init for Lilu
Security policy loaded: Lilu Kernel Extension 1.5.6 DEBUG build (Lilu)
AppleACPICPU: ProcessorId=0 LocalApicId=© Enabled
1panic(cpu 0 caller Oxffffff80002d285d) : "commpage no match for last, next address ffff1780"@/SourceCache/xnu/nu-1504.14.2/osfmk/1386/commpage/commpage.c:330
Debugger called: (panic)
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address
Oxffffff80543d3020: Oxffffff8000204d15 panic + 0x260
Oxffffff8054303e20 : Oxffffff80002d285d _commpage_set_nanotime+®xlaf
Oxffffff8054303e40
: Oxffffff80002d2c5d _commpage_set_nanotime + Ox5af
Oxffffff8054303800
: Oxffffff80002dZeca
_commpage populate + 0x1c8
Oxffffff80543d3f70
Oxffffff8000264547
_m_commpage_init + Ox7c
Oxffffff80543d3880
Oxffffff800027fe44 _processor_start_thread + Oxba
Dxffffff80543d3fa0: Oxffffff80002c84f7 _call_continuation + Ox17
1BSD process name corresponding to current thread: Unknown
Mac OS version:
Not yet set
Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 10.7.3: Sun Mar 6 13:37:56 PST 2011: root:xnu-1504.14.2~1/RELEASE X86_64
System model name: MacBookPro13,3 (Mac-A5C67F76ED831080)
System uptime in nanoseconds: 1492907986

Thank you for updating the efi file for m1 Macs. Has anyone managed to get this to work on an m1 MacBook Air? I still get a kernel panic after following these instructions.

panic (cpu 0 caller Oxffffff80002d2871): "commpage no match for last, next address ffff1780"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1504.14.12/osfmk/i386/commpage/commpage.c:330
Debugger called: ‹panic> 
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame Return Address 
xffffff80177cbd20: Oxffffff8000204d15 panic 0x260 
Ixffffff80177cbe20 0x1 af Oxffffff80177cbe40 Oxffffff80002d2871 _commpage_ set nanotime 
Oxffffff80002d2c71 _commpage_set_nanotime 0x5af 
fffff80177cbf00 Oxffffff80002d2ede _commpage_populate + 0x1c8 
80177cbf70 : Oxffffff80002b457f _vm_commpage_init+0x7c 
fff80177cbf80 : Oxffffff800027fe78 processor start thread + Oxba 
xffffff80177cbfa0 : Oxffffff80002c8527 call continuation 0x17

I can’t get past a Kernel Panic either. Though, your’s is different from mine. I looked up your’s, all I really found was something to do with someone trying to install on a hackintosh (which is basically what we’re emulating), requiring them to use iBoot and swapping out the standard kernel. That probably won’t help up, but here the link: https://www.tonymacx86.com/threads/commpage-error.20648/

I want this to work so bad but it doesn’t for me. 16GB M1 macbook air. I get to a frozen screen that looks like this https://capture.dropbox.com/PnxqYiB49X5pc91V and doesn’t progress to the installer. If I rearrange the IDE drives in UTM I can get a Kernel Panic. Any advice?

ADAM ROE DOT ME