Running OSX on an Intel PC using VirtualBox

With OSX Lion being released, a lot of people now have their OSX Snow Leopard installation DVDs sitting around collecting dust.  If you are like me and like to tinker around, why not install OSX on your PC? Here at work I run Linux as my primary OS, with Windows 7, Windows XP, and even OS2 Warp (from time to time) in VirtualBox. Why not install and/or use VirtualBox to run OSX as well?

The main installation instructions can be found at the following link:

http://www.sysprobs.com/install-mac-os-1065-snow-leopard-virtualboxseveral-issues-fixed

However, some people have been having trouble getting the install to start using the newer version of VirtualBox. At the time of this writing, I am using VirtualBox 4.0.6

The issue is in the editing of the XML data file that VirtualBox uses to store configuration information for the virtual machine. With newer versions of VirtualBox, you can not edit this file by hand and expect the changes to remain intact after you start the machine. Below is a post I made to the above mentioned website that resolves the issue. So basically, go to the website above, start following the instructions, once you get to Step #4 do what I say below, then return to the page above and continue on with Step #5 and finish the process.

It really is that simple.

To those having trouble saving the XML data (being deleted after starting the vbox) which is causing the grey screen with the spinning color wheel you have to use “vboxmanage” to add the extradata into your *.vbox-prev XML file.
vboxmanage is the command line utility that allows you to edit the XML *.vbox-prex file. You can run “vboxmanage” with the option “setextradata” and tell it which vbox to edit, the “name” to add, and the “value”  to associate with the new key.

For example. Let’s say your new Mac OSX vbox is just named “OSX”, you would issue the following command verbatim and on one line:
vboxmanage setextradata “OSX” “VBoxInternal2/SmcDeviceKey” “ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc”

It will not return an “success” but rather return you to your terminal prompt. Start up the OSX vbox and it should dump you right into the OSX install. If not, open the *.vbox-prev file in your editor and make sure the key was added properly. If the key was added incorrectly due to a typo or wot-not, use “vboxmanage” to delete the key. To delete the key you issue the same command as above, but leave the “value” empty and it will remove it.

I hope this clears a few things up.