MacBook Air / Virtual Box. Posted by 11 months ago. MacBook Air / Virtual Box. Hey guys, is anyone running Virtual Box with a Linux VM on their MBA 2019/2020? I’m waiting on my 2020 (i5/16/256) order from Apple at the moment. It’s no big issue if VB doesn’t work as I needed to upgrade my 2013 for.

Important Note
Please DO NOT use this thread to ask specific questions about X or Y not working. This thread SHOULD be about basic installation for bare minimum functionality. If you have a specific question/issue/problem, start a new thread.

1. That said I see no reason you cannot use VirtualBox on your MacBook Air using any of the top Linux Distros. – user3439894 Jun 27 '15 at 15:06. @user3439894 The only reason I use VirtualBox is that it is free which is a requirement set in many research groups.
2. This works just great with VirtualBox 5.0.2 on Mac OSX 10.10 Yosemite with Windows XP 64-Bit Professional (German) as a guest. – Michael Armbruster Aug 17 '15 at 19:47 2.

Here is what works and what doesn't work with different OSX guests on different VBox versions.
Setup
Basic template for 'Mac OS X $version (64 bit)', should be sufficient for a start. For unsupported guests you could use the generic 64-bit option, or for 10.10 (until it is supported) the 10.9 (64-bit) template. After that you can make modifications till things don't break. See Modifications later.
Booting
(10.x# stands for CPUs > 1)
VirtualBox 5.x - Supported guests
VirtualBox 5.x - Unsupported guests
VirtualBox 4.x - Supported guests
VirtualBox 4.x - Unsupported guests
When Slow is mentioned, it means that in my system there is a lot of lagging, even moving the mouse or typing at the Terminal. This is only during the Installation phase. Deleting or renaming '/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext' later, usually fixes a lot of issues.
Known issues

• 4.3.8 works only if you issue the command (see ticket #12736):
  
• 10.4, 10.5 are not officially supported.
• The number one trouble maker is the '/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext' extension. You should delete or rename it. Many guests have all sorts of weird issues (high CPU, Kernel Panics, etc.) or don't boot at all. Updates to the 'latest and greatest' OSX may overwrite this. Doing so will allow you to increase the number of CPUs in some of the guests.
• You'd better disable audio in the VM settings. If it is detected, it is prone to kernel panics on the guest (10.6) and performance issues.
• ClamAV is known to cause high CPU usage. A workaround:
  
• For 10.5, in order to update to 10.5.8:
  
  • Create a clone of 10.5 basic install (let's call them original and mirror).
  • Mount the HD of the original as a secondary HD on your mirror.
  • Run the 10.5.8 update on your mirror, but install it on your original.
  • Delete or rename '/System/Library/Extensions/AppleIntelCPUPowerManagement.kext' from the original HD.

Host(s) info

• Mac model: MacBookPro 8,3 - 2.3 GHz Intel Core i7.
• Cores: 4 physical, 8 virtual.
• RAM: 16 GB.
• Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 6750M, 1 GB VRAM.

• Mac model: iMac 11,3 - 2.93 GHz Intel Core i7.
• Cores: 4 physical, 8 virtual.
• RAM: 16 GB.
• Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 5750, 1 GB VRAM.

Modifications
My typical modifications are as follows (all of them are optional):

• Decrease memory in 10.5, 10.6 to 1024 MB. Doesn't need more than that.
• Remove Floppy. Change the boot order to CDROM, HD.
• Increase CPUs to 2, if you can (see Booting section earlier).
• Increase VRAM to 128 MB, enable 3D acceleration.
• Network, add 4 adapters (HostOnly, Internal, Bridged, NAT).
• Enable Bidirectional Shared_Clipboard and Drag'n'Drop.
• Change the resolution to 1280x1024 (see the manual, Ch. 3.12.1 for more options):
  
• Give your guest a valid serial number (copy it from 'About this Mac' dialog box):
  

Updates
This post will be updated as more information becomes available. Please do submit your experiences. Personally, I will try with the latest 4.2.x and 4.1.x VirtualBox series.

1. 2014.05.21: rpmurray: OS X 10.4 (Intel) works as a guest up through VB 4.3.6.
2. 2014.05.21: Added information about 4.1.32, 4.2.24, 4.3.0, 4.3.2, consolidated table, added rpmurray's host configuration.
3. 2014.10.20: Added information about 4.3.16, 4.3.18. Broke the table into Supported and Unsupported guests. Added information about OSX 10.10 (Yosemite).
4. 2016.04.06: Finally, added information about 5.0.16. Will try to update previous 5.x versions. Supported guests was getting too wide, so it broke in two.

Background: I tried to make a fresh installation of a 10.5 guest on a 10.6.8 host with VB 4.3.12. It failed. I went back several VB versions to see what works and what doesn't. This post is the result of this exercise.(mod edit: the solution to this long topic seems to be here: viewtopic.php?f=8&t=90446&start=75#p470879 from '63BottlesOfBeer': run the VirtualboxVM.app in low resolution)
Hi all, I have been using VirtualBox for one of my class project that requires Ubuntu. Recently I switched from a MacBook Pro late 2013 to a new MBP 2018, and I setup virtualbox with same settings on the new computer. However, what went perfectly fine on the old computer now becomes very sluggish on the new mac.
I do not use VM for anything graphical rendering related, the vm is slow in basic moving around windows and typing (in terminal, Eclipse, anywhere) By sluggish I mean slow response of mouse moving, keyboard typing, worst is identify one keyboard input or mouse click as many repeated ones.
Here is the information for running VM on both machines:
1. This is very slow on typing and all interactions
VM: Version 5.2.22 r126460 (Qt5.6.3), no Guest Additions in guest
Host: macOS Mojave on 10.14.1 (64) on MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2018), 2.6 GHz Intel Core i7, 32 GB 2400 MHz DDR4, Intel UHD Graphics 630 1536 MB (with Radeon Pro 560X 4096 MB)
Guest: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (64), Assigned 8192 MB Base Memory + 64 MB Video Memory, 2 core.
2. In comparison, This runs fine (older computer):
VM: Version 5.2.22 r126460 (Qt5.6.3), no Guest Additions in guest
Host: macOS Mojave on 10.14.1 (64) on MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Late 2013), 2.6GHz Intel Core i7, 16 GB 1600 MHz DDR3, Intel Iris Pro 1536 MB (with NVIDIA GeForce GT 750M 2048 MB)

Virtualbox Macbook Air 2019

Guest: Ubuntu 18.04.1 LTS (64), Assigned 8192 MB Base Memory + 64 MB Video Memory, 2 core. (Same VM provided by my instructor)
I think the reason should point to how the newer model deal with rendering related to screen size.
3. I tried increasing or decreasing memory, VRAM, and processor, from default settings, the situation did not get better, but when I tried a exterior display (using DuetDisplay to extend to an iPad Air 2) the response of typing and moving mouse becomes fast.
4. Then I tried using it in window mode (small window, 1/4 size of screen), the performance got even better, almost the same as it is on my old mac)
I think it is an issue with VBox having to 'move too many pixels around' as mentioned in several posts I found, but essentially the two models have similar resolution and ppi (2880x1800, 220 ppi). Thus I think it should be a capability issue of VBox regarding to newer models of Macs.
I could use small screen but my sights are not very good and I would really prefer a full-screen display with larger text to make my eyes a bit more comfortable...
The logs are in the attachment, I numbered them according to the orders in my post.
Hopefully there could be some solutions some day! If it really is a bug, I hope devs could solve it some day as well!

Virtualbox On Macbook Air M1

Virtualbox On Macbook Air

Thank you very much to reading the post and looking for solutions! Wish you all a great day!