ranma42/tigeronvbox

HOWTO run Tiger (MacOS X 10.4) on VirtualBox

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

tigeronvbox's Issues

20GB VBBOX Hardisk does not appear during installation

Hi,

I'm on a 2020 Intel Macbook Pro 13 inch running Monterey 12.1 with Virtual Box 6.1 and i'm unable to finish the installation of Tiger due to the fact that there doesn't appear any Hard disk to install it on. The only thing that appears is the 3.6GB VBox CD-Rom Media and the Mac OS X Server Install disc. I tried both the "import" method as well as the create new machine method and both lead to the same result. Booting works perfectly every time but for some reason the VM just doesn't seem to recognize the 20GB disk that it's supposed to install to. Thank you

!

Only the server version has been tested

@oboroc mentioned in #3 (comment)

I personally want to experiment with Xgrid builds over two Mac mini G4 and a dual core VM with Intel Tiger. I just wish I could use plain Tiger instead of Server, but I don't think there was a retail release for it. I do have a grey DVD with Tiger 10.4.7 for iMac late 2006 (iMac5,1), but it checks for specific hardware and refuses to work on anything that is not iMac... I wish there was a way to fake specific Mac hardware on EFI32/VBox level or at least a patch that kills the check.

I believe it should be possible to do so by mangling the DMI data.
TODO: I should check if this (and/or providing information on how to do it) is allowed by the licence.

Provide a technical explanation of what is going on

The guide does not explain the meaning and effect of the command-line tunables nor why disk utility is required. This might not belong to the guide, but it would be nice to have this information available in some other document in the repo.

“Still waiting for root device” warning at booting... What I have to do?

[...]
rooting via boot-uuid from /chosen: [...]
Waiting on <dict ID="0"><key>IOProvideClass</key><string ID="1">IOResources</string><key>IOResourceMatch</key><string ID="2">boot-uuid-media</string></dict>
Still waiting for root device
Still waiting for root device
Still waiting for root device
|

Having some trouble getting the VM to recognize hard drive...

Been at this about an hour - but nothing I do seems to get the Tiger VM to recognize the hard disk. It sometimes blocks at 'Still waiting for root device' - resetting it once or twice does then boot from the DVD image, though Disk Utility won't see the drive to format it.

Tried IDE, SCSI, different SATA controllers, different disk formats, but it just won't seem to accept the hard drive....at least so far. Hmmm...

Can't find in https://developer.apple.com/download/more/

I can't find the server version or anything at https://developer.apple.com/download/more/. Any ideas? Do I need a Pro developer account?

EDIT: I have a 10.4 ISO, but it isn't working. I think it was some weird custom ISO.

Show Info failure

Show Info does not work for me.
And it seems the System cannot evaluate directory sizes.

Can't get to GUI part of installer

Is it important to run VirtualBox on macOS? I am trying to build a Tiger Server in VM on Windows 10, but it always stops with some panic. Any idea why?

If I switch to IDE controller for VM, what should I make HDD and DVDROM? Primary master and primary slave? Or primary master and secondary master?

Can you please share the SHA1 of Tiger Server 10.4.7 dmg file you use? Mine is e71b683b16c13cf7f086f4b6ce4579f7da1d53e6

Stuck on this screen...

After VB crashed the VM is stuck at this screen...
I don’t know what to do...

Unable to change resolution with provided command

I am aware windows is not supported, but I used the command
VBoxManage setextradata Tiger VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 4

However, my resolution did not change as shown below.

Anyone using windows (not supported by this project) been able to resolve this?

Not Booting

I have done everything the Guide say to do. Boot I still only get the UIFE menu.
Tiger-2018-12-11-21-52-10.log
This is my Log file if it will help. Please help if you can.

"Exited abnormally" boot messages

Hi,

Host: Windows 10, VirtualBox 5.1.28

I used dmg2img to convert the .dmg to .iso. I imported Tiger.ova, then pointed to the .iso.

It tries hard to boot but never quite makes it. See attached screen capture.

Can anyone help?

Shows UEFI Menu

Host:
MacOS 10.15.4
MacBook Air (Early 2015)
VirtualBox 6.1.6

Followed all instructions, and showed UEFI EDK II in all attempts.

Image: Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger Retail DVD.iso

Is there a way to put fullscreen also if stretched?

I would like to put OS X in fullscreen mode at 1280x800.

Failed to query SMC value from the host

Dont know why this happens... Installed the .ova file, added the folder.

Virtual Machine Unable to Reliably See Harddrive

When launching Disk Utility immediately after selecting the language for the installer, the hard drive will only appear properly about once out of every 20 or so boots.

Formatting the the drive as HFS doesn't help. Even post-install, when the VM reboots, there is a high chance the hard drive won't be detected on the next boot. I'm not sure if this is an issue with VirtualBox itself.

I have tried all types of hard disks and both dynamic and fixed sizes. There is so far no pattern in terms of when the hard drive decides to be detected.

Installs, but does not boot

Host:
MacOS 10.15.4
MacBook Air (Early 2015)
VirtualBox 6.1.6

It does not recognize the VDI as the HDD, even after reformating in multiple different ways.

Failure to boot DVD on 2015 15" MBP

I've had this issue booting 10.4 and 10.5 since switching to a Haswell processor. The images that booted fine on my old Core2Duo machines just drop to the UEFI shell. So, I figured I'd use your config since it had a few settings I hadn't used before. Same issue: dropping to shell instead of booting the DVD image.

Image is from attempting to boot a stock import under VirtualBox 6.0.2 running on OS X 10.14.2 on a MBP 15" (Mid 2015).

Log follows:
VBox.log

Kernel Panic!!

Host : Windows 10
2 Gb ram allocated

How can I use the CPUID provided in binary form for use with VMware Workstation?

nvm delete this

This is an FYI - 3 resets required before OS launches fully.

Hello

I am running Mac OS High Sierra 10.13.5

Model Name: MacBook Air
Model Identifier: MacBookAir6,2
Processor Name: Intel Core i5
Processor Speed: 1,3 GHz
Number of Processors: 1
Total Number of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per Core): 256 KB
L3 Cache: 3 MB
Memory: 4 GB
Boot ROM Version: MBA61.0107.B00
SMC Version (system): 2.13f15

Virtual Box version 5.2.12 r122591 (Qt5.6.3)

Running Mac OS X 10.4.11 server in VBox

ISSUE
I noticed that I have to reset 3 times before Mac OS X 10.4.x will load to the desktop. This is an FYI

Best regards
—Alex

since VBox 6.1, only 1 processor seems to work now..

I have been using this for years now, since you put it up, and always had 2 processors, 3GB of RAM. But now, whenever I try to use more than 1 processor, I'm getting a kernel panic.

I upgraded VBox from 6.0x to 6.1 -- I'm not sure if that is all that did it. I tried resetting the cpuid settings, etc, but either I'm doing it wrong somehow now, or it's not working like it it did before.

I tried a bit less RAM for no reason at all, but it didn't make any difference.

Here are the CPU settings in the Tiger.vbox file, in case you might spot what I'm doing wrong here:

      <CPU CpuProfile="Intel Pentium 4 3.00GHz">
        <PAE enabled="true"/>
        <LongMode enabled="false"/>
        <HardwareVirtExLargePages enabled="true"/>
        <CpuIdTree>
          <CpuIdLeaf id="0" eax="4" ebx="1970169159" ecx="1818588270" edx="1231384169"/>
          <CpuIdLeaf id="1" eax="3907" ebx="133120" ecx="4227858431" edx="4294967295"/>
          <CpuIdLeaf id="2147483649" eax="0" ebx="0" ecx="4294967295" edx="4294967295"/>
        </CpuIdTree>
      </CPU>
      <Memory RAMSize="2048"/>

or maybe it's just Virtualbox 6.1 for some reason doesn't support 2 processors...

anyway, it still works great, but it's nice to have the extra processor (or more?) if possible someday.

Tiger on VirtualBox 6.1

I tested Tiger (retail) with current VirtualBox 6.1.4 (installed on macOS 10.14) and found these issues with the current README (Thanks for your work @ranma42):

1. Current steps cause "Still waiting for root device." error in almost every second boot. Also, any update of the system (i.e. 10.4.11) that requires restart ends with this error.
   To fix it, before the installation just add the new virtual drive plus optical drive as IDE (ICH6) instead of the default AHCI (SATA). I found this info on VirtualBox forums. With the IDE controller, VM boots every single time without issues. You have to set it before installation, because after that, if you just delete SATA and add IDE controller then VM starts in EFI Shell.

2. Use "USB Tablet" for pointing device. It works properly and your mouse is not locked inside the VM as the current "USB mouse". So please, remove the redundant "USB mouse" setting:
   VBoxManage modifyvm Tiger --mouse usb

3. Only the following command works to change the VM resolution, instead of the proposed in Post-installation tuning (VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode n):
   VBoxManage setextradata Tiger VBoxInternal2/EfiGraphicsResolution 1440x900