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A properly configured OpenCore-ISO image for Proxmox VE and QEMU/KVM - Support Mac OS X 10.4 to macOS 26

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LongQT-sea/OpenCore-ISO

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A carefully crafted OpenCore ISO image for running macOS virtual machines on Proxmox VE and QEMU/KVM. Built from scratch with a clean, efficient architecture — no legacy configurations, no OVMF patches, no kernel patches, true vanilla macOS.

Supports every Intel-based macOS release from Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger through macOS 26 Tahoe.

Tip

This is likely the best way to run macOS on AMD hardware while retaining full hypervisor access for other VMs. Also overcomes a lot of AMD CPU limitations listed on Dortania guide.

Table of Contents

Download

Caution

These iso are true CD/DVD ISO image. Add them to your VM as a CD/DVD drive. Do NOT change media=cdrom to media=disk in the VM config.

Tip

Run Create_macOS_ISO.command inside your VM to download the full macOS installer from Apple and generate a proper DVD-format macOS installer ISO.

Quick Start Guide

1. Create a New VM

Open the Proxmox VE web interface and create a new VM.

2. General

  • VM ID: Any available ID
  • Name: Any name you like

3. OS

  • ISO Image: Select LongQT-OpenCore-v0.X.iso
  • Guest OS Type: Leave as default (Linux)

4. System

  • Machine Type: q35 (if using i440fx, add +invtsc CPU flag, see cpu-models.conf)

  • BIOS: OVMF (UEFI)

  • Add EFI Disk: [✓] Enabled

  • Pre-Enroll Keys: [✗] Untick to disable Secure Boot

  • QEMU Guest Agent:

    • [✓] Enable for macOS 10.14 – macOS 26
    • [✗] Leave as default for macOS 10.4 – macOS 10.13

5. Hard Disk

The disk bus type depends on your needs:

  • VirtIO – Better performance
  • SATA – Supports TRIM/Discard for more efficient storage usage
macOS Version Supports Bus Type
macOS 10.15 – macOS 26 SATA / VirtIO Block
macOS 10.4 – macOS 10.14 SATA

Tip

Using SATA with SSD emulation and Discard enabled automatically enables TRIM — no need to run trimforce enable.

6. CPU

Caution

Follow these CPU settings carefully! Incorrect CPU configuration will cause boot failure.

Cores

Choose based on your hardware (power of 2): 1 / 2 / 4 / 8 / 16 / 32 / 64

Tip

For non-power-of-2 counts, use multiple sockets:

Target Cores Cores Sockets
6 2 3
12 4 3
20 4 5
24 8 3

Type (Model)

macOS Version Recommended CPU Type
macOS 10.11 – macOS 26 Skylake-Client-v4, Skylake-Server-v4 (AVX-512)
macOS 10.4 – macOS 10.10 Nehalem

Note

AMD CPUs:

  • macOS 10.4 – macOS 12, tick [✓] Advanced, under Extra CPU Flags, turn off pcid and spec-ctrl. 1

  • macOS 13 – macOS 26, need to set the CPU manually via the Proxmox VE Shell2, example:

    # For CPUs with AVX2 support
qm set [VMID] --args "-cpu Skylake-Client-v4,vendor=GenuineIntel"

# For CPUs with AVX-512 support
qm set [VMID] --args "-cpu Skylake-Server-v4,vendor=GenuineIntel"

  • If the VM fails to boot with more than 1 core, add tsc=reliable to the host kernel command line (/etc/default/grub).

Intel CPUs:

  • Intel HEDT / E5-2xxx v3/v4 need to override CPUID model3, example:

    qm set [VMID] --args "-cpu Broadwell-noTSX,model=158"
qm set [VMID] --args "-cpu Haswell-noTSX,model=158"

  • Intel Haswell desktops need to override stepping when using Haswell-noTSX4:

    qm set [VMID] --args "-cpu Haswell-noTSX,stepping=3"

  • If you need to run nested virtualization software (such as Docker Desktop, VMware Fusion, or VirtualBox) inside macOS VM, use QEMU named CPU model with the +vmx CPU flag, example:

    qm set [VMID] --args "-cpu Skylake-Client-v4,+vmx"

  • Avoid using host passthrough CPU types5 — they can be ~30% slower (single-core) and ~44% slower (multi-core) compared to recommended CPU types.

For more details, see QEMU CPU Guide – macOS Guests.

7. Memory

  • RAM: Minimum 2 GB (4 GB or more recommended)
  • Disable [✗] Ballooning Device

8. Network

Choose the correct adapter based on macOS version:

macOS Version Network Adapter
macOS 11 – 26 VirtIO (default)
macOS 10.11 – 10.15 VMware vmxnet3
macOS 10.4 – 10.10 Intel E1000

9. Finalize

Add an additional CD/DVD drive for the macOS installer or Recovery ISO, then start the VM to begin installation.

Tip

  • First-time installing macOS? Format the disk in Disk Utility before installing macOS.
  • Skip iCloud login during setup (configure it later, see Post-Install)

Got it running? Maybe give the repo a star... nah nevermind, do whatever.

10. Troubleshooting

If you encounter boot issues, check:

  • Secure Boot is disabled (Pre-Enroll Keys unchecked)
  • The ISO is mounted as a CD/DVD, not a disk
  • Try a different CPU model
  • For Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger, choose machine type q35, version <= 10.0

Legacy OS X no-keyboard issue:

  • Either add -device usb-kbd to the QEMU args or run device_add usb-kbd in the VM Monitor tab.

Post-Install

1. Install OpenCore onto the macOS startup disk (macOS 10.11 – macOS 26)

  • After macOS installation is complete, open LongQT-OpenCore on the Desktop and run Mount_EFI.command to mount the EFI partition on the macOS startup disk.
  • Copy the EFI folder from LongQT-OpenCore/EFI_RELEASE/ to the mounted EFI partition. This ensures that macOS will boot using the OpenCore EFI stored on the macOS startup disk in future startups.
  • Run Install_Python3.command to install Python 3, many apps and scripts need it.
  • Copy Mount_EFI.command, ProperTree, and GenSMBIOS to the Desktop for later use when you need to edit config.plist.
  • You can now remove the LongQT-OpenCore ISO CD/DVD from the VM Hardware tab.

2. To enable iCloud, iMessage, and other iServices

3. For smooth GUI performance and 3D acceleration

Important

PCIe/dGPU passthrough on a q35 machine requires:

  • Disable Resizable BAR / Smart Access Memory in UEFI/BIOS.
  • Disable QEMU ACPI-based PCI hotplug (revert to native PCIe hotplug). Run this in the Proxmox shell:
clear; read -p "Enter your macOS VM ID number: " VMID; \
ARGS="$(qm config $VMID --current | grep ^args: | cut -d' ' -f2-)"; \
qm set $VMID -args "$ARGS -global ICH9-LPC.acpi-pci-hotplug-with-bridge-support=off"

Tip

If you need ReBAR enabled (for multi-GPU systems), set BAR 0 of the dGPU you intend to passthrough to 256 MB, example:

# Unbind from the current driver:
echo 0000:01:00.0 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/amdgpu/unbind
echo 0000:01:00.0 > /sys/bus/pci/drivers/vfio-pci/unbind
# Set BAR 0 to 256MB:
echo 8 > /sys/bus/pci/devices/0000:04:00.0/resource0_resize

Tip

On modern macOS versions, if you need a dummy virtual sound device (e.g., for Parsec, Sunshine/MoonLight), run this in Proxmox shell:

clear; read -p "Enter your macOS VM ID number: " VMID; \
ARGS="$(qm config $VMID --current | grep ^args: | cut -d' ' -f2-)"; \
qm set $VMID -args "$ARGS -device virtio-sound,audiodev=dummy -audiodev none,id=dummy"

Tip

To disable SIP, press Spacebar in the OpenCore boot menu and select the "Toggle SIP" option.

macOS Tahoe Cursor Freeze Fix

On macOS 26, the cursor may randomly freeze. A temporary workaround is to toggle Use tablet for pointer in VM’s Options tab.

A better fix is to use virtio-tablet-pci. To do this, disable Use tablet for pointer in VM’s Options tab, then run this in Proxmox shell:

clear; read -p "Enter your macOS VM ID number: " VMID; \
ARGS="$(qm config $VMID --current | grep ^args: | cut -d' ' -f2-)"; \
qm set $VMID -args "$ARGS -device virtio-tablet"

Note

With virtio-tablet-pci, middle-click on your real mouse acts as a right-click in the VM.

The most reliable solution is to passthrough a physical mouse and keyboard together with an iGPU or dGPU.

Alternatively, use a remote desktop solution, e.g. VNC Screen Sharing (Settings → General → Sharing) or Chrome Remote Desktop.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a pull request. For major changes, open a Discussion first to discuss what you would like to change.

Credits

License & Attribution

This project is licensed under the MIT License (see LICENSE file).

It also includes components from Acidanthera and other developers, each with their own licenses. All third-party components retain their original licenses.

If you create content using this project (videos, blog posts, tutorials, articles):

  • Please link back to this repository: https://github.com/LongQT-sea/OpenCore-ISO
  • Mention that detailed instructions are in this GitHub repo.

Thank you for respecting the work that went into this project!

Disclaimer

This project is provided “as‑is”, without any warranties, and is intended for educational, research, and security testing purposes. In no event shall the authors or contributors be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages arising from use of the project, even if advised of the possibility of such damages.

All product names, trademarks, and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners. All company, product, and service names used in this repository are for identification purposes only.

Footnotes

  1. The pcid and spec-ctrl flags are Intel-only CPU features. ↩

  2. On macOS 13–26 running on AMD processors, these CPU flags enforce,+kvm_pv_eoi,+kvm_pv_unhalt (the default in Proxmox) prevent macOS from booting, so we override them with custom -cpu args. ↩

  3. Override the CPUID model to one used in real Macs (e.g., model=158, which corresponds to the Coffee Lake CPUID model). ↩

  4. QEMU Haswell-noTSX CPU model has stepping=4, but macOS expects an earlier stepping (below 4). ↩

  5. This is one of the main reasons I created this project. All other project use host when running on supported Intel CPUs. ↩

About

A properly configured OpenCore-ISO image for Proxmox VE and QEMU/KVM - Support Mac OS X 10.4 to macOS 26

Topics

macos osx proxmox-ve osx-kvm opencore opencore-efi opencore-bootloader macos-kvm-guest opencore-iso

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License

MIT, BSD-3-Clause licenses found

Licenses found

MIT
LICENSE
BSD-3-Clause
LICENSE-OpenCore.txt
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v0.7 Latest
Feb 21, 2026
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