osx in docker

Run headless container. Connect via VNC.

docker build -t osx .
docker run --name osx-in-docker -p 5901:5901 -d --privileged --cap-add=ALL -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules -v /dev:/dev osx

Persistent volume

Maybe you want to keep your data outside of container.

Create HDD first

Before initial run, you can create your HDD outside container. As argument, specify size of new HDD.

docker build -t osx-hdd -f hdd.Dockerfile .
docker run --rm -v $PWD:/data osx-hdd 128G

Get HDD from container

You started first container without persistency keeping in mind? We've got you covered! Run container with bash as entrypoint, so we can get data from it. This ensures, that no data will be written to disk while copying.

docker run --name --entrypoint /bin/bash osx-in-docker --rm osx
docker cp osx-in-docker:/home/arch/OSX-KVM/mac_hdd_ng.img mac_hdd_ng.img

Run container with persistent volume

When we have our mac_hdd_ng.img outside of container, we can run it like this:

docker run --name osx-in-docker -p 5901:5901 -d --privileged --cap-add=ALL -v /lib/modules:/lib/modules -v /dev:/dev -v $PWD/mac_hdd_ng.img:/home/arch/OSX-KVM/mac_hdd_ng.img osx

Customize

Set up custom HDD size and osx version:

docker build -t osx . \
	--build-arg VERSION=10.14.6 \
	--build-arg SIZE=50G

Pass custom runtime arguments. Specify RAM size, CPUs and others.

docker run --name osx-in-docker -d \
	-p 5901:5901 \
	--privileged --cap-add=ALL \
	-v /lib/modules:/lib/modules \
	-v /dev:/dev \
	osx \
		--mem "3072" \
		--smp "4,cores=2" \
		--opt "+pcid,+ssse3,+sse4.2,+popcnt,+avx,+aes,+xsave,+xsaveopt,check" \
		--mac "52:54:00:09:49:17"

Inspired by:

• https://github.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX
• https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM
• https://artem.services/?p=752&lang=en

Is This Legal?

The "secret" Apple OSK string is widely available on the Internet. It is also included in a public court document available here. I am not a lawyer but it seems that Apple's attempt(s) to get the OSK string treated as a trade secret did not work out. Due to these reasons, the OSK string is freely included in this repository.

Gabriel Somlo also has some thoughts on the legal aspects involved in running macOS under QEMU/KVM.