High Sierra under KVM

This script sets up QEMU to boot a MacOS High Sierra install disk or hard drive. You can connect to QEMU's VNC server on port 5900, or to the virtual mac's screen sharing server (if enabled) on forwarded port 5901.

Creating a New Virtual Mac

The following will create a new mac vm in /path/to/vm/dir containing a 64 gb hdd image. If the directory doesn't exist yet, it will be created.

start_macos_vm.sh -i /path/to/HighSierra.iso -c 64g /path/to/vm/dir
Use VNC (default port 5900) to connect to the installer via QEMU's VNC service
Run Disk Utility
Select View (top left corner gadget) -> Show All Devices
Select your virtual drive (bottom QEMU HARDDISK MEDIA drive)
Erase your virtual drive, naming it "MacOS" (Clover's config.plist is set to boot "MacOS" by default)
Quit Disk Utility
Run the OS installer

After creating and installing the vm, you don't need the installer anymore, so you can just run it like this:

start_macos_vm.sh /path/to/vm/dir

Running

start_macos_vm.sh -?
start_macos_vm.sh [options] /path/to/mac/vm/container/directory &

The script expects a hdd image called mac_hdd.qcow in the vm container directory, which it can create if you use the -c option. All other files it needs will be added to the container directory automatically. Settings will be saved to the vm directory.

Notes About Screen Resolutions

In order for the screen to display correctly, both OVMF and Clover must be in agreement as to what resolution to show. This script can handle Clover, but you must set the resolution in OVMF yourself:

start_macos_vm.sh [options] -r [chosen resolution] /path/to/mac/vm/container/directory
Press ESC during early boot (before Clover screen) to get to the OVMF menu
Navigate: Device Manager -> OVMF Platform Configuration -> Change Preferred Resolution for Next Boot -> [chosen resolution]
Save and reboot
Make sure it boots properly. If the screen is garbled, there's a resolution mismatch between Clover and OVMF.

Maintenance and Tweaks

Clearing Free Space on the Mac Guest

diskutil secureErase freespace 0 /Volumes/MacOS

Compressing a QCOW Image on the Host

mv mac_hdd.qcow mac_hdd-uncompacted.qcow
qemu-img convert -O qcow2 -c mac_hdd-uncompacted.qcow mac_hdd.qcow
rm mac_hdd-uncompacted.qcow

Troubleshooting

Graphics

Some apps may not display properly because they try to use hardware acceleration (for examle, Chrome and Skype). Try to disable hardware acceleration in programs if you can (Chrome's hardware acceleration setting is under advanced settings, but it's difficult to get to because the settings page uses hardware acceleration :P).