Running macOS in Docker

Why Docker?
Actually this (Docker-OSX) is a QEMU VM running under an Arch Docker. However the setup is streamlined and just more or less copy paste than setting up VM from scratch
Notes
All code blocks can be copied into a script to run
VNC in this setup is not secured with password in ANYWAY, so please use caution and only use local VNC or SSH tunnel to connect to VNC
There's a nakedvnc dockerfile in Docker-OSX repo but no prebuilt image. This has proper encrypted (?) VNC setup so if you have resource to compose/build docker image you are welcome to do that.
Headless option (remove to use head-attached): -e EXTRA="-display none"
Dangerous option: -p 5999:5999. This will forward your container VNC port to localhost port. DO NOT EXPOSE THIS PORT TO PUBLIC unless you use nakedvnc image with proper encryption (?)
VNC can be setup with password if you follow the Docker-OSX repo guide, but I won't talk much about it here. SSH tunnel is secure enough for the job.
Screen WIDTH/HEIGHT can be modified freely. 1366x768 works best for me, ymmv.
Prerequisites Setup
​https://github.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX#initial-setup​
TigerVNC-Viewer or equivalent VNC Viewer/Client (Optional) screen for interacting with docker -ai
Initiate base image
#!/bin/bash
docker run -it \
    --name macos_base \
    --device /dev/kvm \
    -p 50922:10022 \
    -p 5999:5999 \
    -e NOPICKER=true \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
    -e "DISPLAY=${DISPLAY:-:0.0}" \
    -e EXTRA="-display none -vnc 0.0.0.0:99" \
    -e WIDTH=1366 \
    -e HEIGHT=768 \
    sickcodes/docker-osx:latest
(Headless) connect to server VNC at port localhost:5999 (no password, NOTE: very insecure, local/ssh-tunnel only). For remote (in Local Network) use :5999 to connect
Install macOS:
​Setup disk partition​
Install macOS as normal, login with iCloud if needed
Note: DO NOT OPEN iMessage yet
Shutdown in QEMU cmd using quit, or shutdown from inside VNC session
Extract image
Explain: find mac_hdd_ng.img from /var/lib/docker (make sure file size make sense), copy to current folder
#!/bin/bash
sudo cp `sudo find /var/lib/docker -size +10G -name mac_hdd_ng.img | head -1` .
Generate unique serial
#!/bin/bash
mkdir tmp && cd tmp
curl https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX/master/custom/generate-unique-machine-values.sh -O
# wget https://raw.githubusercontent.com/sickcodes/Docker-OSX/master/custom/generate-unique-machine-values.sh
chmod +x generate-unique-machine-values.sh
./generate-unique-machine-values.sh --count 1 --output-env ../my_permanent_serial_number.sh
cd ..
rm -rf tmp
OR if you already have a working serial configs and just want to migrate to docker solution:
Create file with nano my_permanent_serial_number.sh
Content of the file
export DEVICE_MODEL="DEVICE_MODEL_HERE"
export SERIAL="SERIAL_HERE"
export BOARD_SERIAL="BOARD_SERIAL_HERE"
export UUID="UUID_HERE"
export MAC_ADDRESS="MAC_ADDRESS_HERE"
export WIDTH="1366"
export HEIGHT="768"
Ctrl+X then Y, Enter to save and exit
First run
#!/bin/bash
source ./my_permanent_serial_number.sh
sudo docker run -i \
    --name macos \
    --privileged \
    --device /dev/kvm \
    -v "${PWD}/mac_hdd_ng.img:/image" \
    -p 5999:5999 \
    -p 1234:1234 \
    -p 50922:10022 \
    -e TERMS_OF_USE=i_agree \
    -e NOPICKER=true \
    -e GENERATE_SPECIFIC=true \
    -e DEVICE_MODEL="${DEVICE_MODEL}" \
    -e SERIAL="${SERIAL}" \
    -e BOARD_SERIAL="${BOARD_SERIAL}" \
    -e UUID="${UUID}" \
    -e MAC_ADDRESS="${MAC_ADDRESS}" \
    -e "DISPLAY=${DISPLAY:-:0.0}" \
    -v /tmp/.X11-unix:/tmp/.X11-unix \
    -e EXTRA="-display none -vnc 0.0.0.0:99" \
    -e WIDTH="${WIDTH}" \
    -e HEIGHT="${HEIGHT}" \
    sickcodes/docker-osx:naked
Open iMessage and setup iCloud Sync. Use How to Fix iMessage - Contact Apple Support Guide from tonymacx86 if needed
Setup BlueBubbles/AirMessage to your liking
Subsequent run
screen is totally optional, I just want to have stdio attached for debugging in QEMU shell
#!/bin/bash
screen -dmS macos-docker docker start -ai macos
Post-install Notes/Tips
SSH port is 50922, you need to enable macOS SSH from Sharing preferences first.
scp is useful for transferring files from Docker macOS and host
Read about ssh -L for SSH tunneling to make VNC session secure.
External Guides
Running BlueBubbles in Docker-OSX
Last modified 7mo ago