Running a MacOS 15 Sequoia VM in ProxMox VE 🌱

💡 NOTE: MacOS higher than version 12 requires a CPU with AVX2 instruction support

  1. Download a MacOS Sequoia .iso Download OR create your own https://youtu.be/JFMvUpdCMwo
  2. Download KVM OpenCore bootloader Download
  3. Extract the downloaded KVM OpenCore bootloader .gz file
  4. Upload the Sequoia and KVM OpenCore .iso files to the Proxmox ISO library
  5. Log into the ProxMox web UI
  6. Right click the ProxMox node name > Create VM
  7. Type MacOSSequoia in the name field, set the VM ID to 1500 (unless 1500 is in use) > Next
  8. On the OS tab, set the Type field to Other and select the KVM OpenCore .iso in the ISO Image field > Next
  9. On the System tab, set the Graphic card field to VMware compatible, BIOS field to OVMF (UEFI), Uncheck the Pre-Enroll Keys checkbox, Check the Add EFI Disk checkbox, Machine field to q35 and the SCSI Controller to VirtIO SCSI > Next
  10. On the Hard Disk tab, set the Bus/Device field to VirtIO Block, Disk size field to 64, Cache field to Write back (unsafe) > Next
  11. On the CPU tab, set Cores field to 4, Type field to host > Next
  12. On the Memory tab, set the Memory to 8192 or more > Next
  13. On the Network tab, set the Model field to VMware vmxnet3 > Next
  14. Verify the summary and click Finish
  15. Click the MacOSSequoia VM > Select Hardware from the left sub-navigation menu
  16. Click Add > CD/DVD Drive
  17. Select the MacOS Sequoia .iso downloaded earlier > Click Add
  18. Right click the Proxmox node name > Console
  19. Run the following commands in the terminal
    # edit the VM conf file, change 1500 to the VM ID for the MacOSSequoia VM
    nano /etc/pve/qemu-server/1500.conf
  20. If running on an Intel CPU, add the following line to the bottom of the .conf file:

    args: -device isa-applesmc,osk="ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc" -smbios type=2 -device qemu-xhci -device usb-kbd -device usb-tablet -global nec-usb-xhci.msi=off -global ICH9-LPC.acpi-pci-hotplug-with-bridge-support=off -cpu host,vendor=GenuineIntel,+invtsc,+hypervisor,kvm=on,vmware-cpuid-freq=on

  21. If running on an AMD CPU, add the following line to the bottom of the .conf file:

    args: -device isa-applesmc,osk="ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc" -smbios type=2 -device qemu-xhci -device usb-kbd -device usb-tablet -global nec-usb-xhci.msi=off -global ICH9-LPC.acpi-pci-hotplug-with-bridge-support=off -cpu Haswell-noTSX,vendor=GenuineIntel,+invtsc,+hypervisor,kvm=on,vmware-cpuid-freq=on

  22. Press CTRL+W and search for ,media=cdrom
  23. Delete the ,media=cdrom from the two attached .iso files (KVM OpenCore and Sequoia) and add cache=unsafe
  24. Press CTRL+O, Enter, CTRL+X to write the changes to the conf file
  25. Back in the Proxmox web UI, right click the MacOSSequoia VM in the left navigation pane > Start
  26. Click console in the left sub-navigation menu
  27. At the OpenCore menu press Enter to start the MacOS installer
  28. If Install MacOS isn't an option select UEFI Shell > Press Enter
  29. Type the following in the UEFI shell:
    # change to the Sequoia.iso, the disk number may be different for you
    fs0:
    # launch the MacOS installer
    System\Library\CoreServices\boot.efi
  30. After a long initialization sequence the MAC OS Setup should start
  31. Select Disk Utility
  32. Select the VIRTIO Block Media > Click Erase
  33. Name the drive MacOS > Set the Format to APFS > Click Erase
  34. Click Done > Close Disk Utility
  35. Click Install macOS Sequoia
  36. Click Continue > Click Agree > Click Agree again
  37. Select the MacOS disk > Click Install
  38. Wait while Mac OS installs files, the VM will reboot several times
  39. Select your Country or Region > Click Continue
  40. Confirm your languages and keyboard layout > Click Continue
  41. Click Not Now on the Accessibility screen
  42. Click Continue on the Data & Privacy screen
  43. Select Not Now on the Migration Assistant screen
  44. Select Set Up Later and then Skip on the Apple ID screen
  45. Click Agree on the Terms and Conditions screen > Agree again
  46. Enter a name, user name, password > Click Continue
  47. Click Continue > Select Use or Don't Use for Location Services
  48. Pick a timezone > Click Continue
  49. Uncheck Share Mac Analytics with Apple > Click Continue
  50. Click Set Up Later on the Screen Time screen
  51. Pick a theme > Click Continue
  52. Welcome to MacOS 15 Sequoia

Configuring Booting Without OpenCore Mounted

  1. Log into the MacOSSequoia VM
  2. Launch a web browser and download the KVM OpenCore EFI folder Download
  3. Download MountEFI from GitHub Download
  4. Start LaunchPad from the dock
  5. Search terminal > Click Terminal to launch it
  6. Run the following commands in the terminal window
    cd ~/Downloads/MountEFI-update
    chmod +x MountEFI.command
    ./MountEFI.command
  7. Enter the number that corresponds to the MacOS drive created during the installation (2 in this example) > Press Enter
  8. Open a Finder window
  9. Navigate to the mounted EFI location
  10. If an existing EFI folder exists, rename the it to EFI.orig
  11. Copy the KVM OpenCoreEFI folder downloaded earlier to the mounted EFI partition
  12. Once the EFI folder is copied, shutdown the VM
  13. Click the MacOSSequoia VM > Select Hardware from the left sub-navigation menu
  14. Click the OpenCore iso to select it > Click Detach
  15. Click the MacOS Sequoia iso to select it > Click Detach
  16. Right click the MacOSSequoia VM in the left navigation pane > Start
  17. Click console in the left sub-navigation menu to verify the VM still boots into Sequoia without the OpenCore disc image mounted