Copyright © 2015-2024 Bill Kochman

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I. Introduction

This online tutorial assumes that you are already familiar with the SheepShaver Mac Classic emulator, that you already have it set up somewhere, and that you simply want to move your full SheepShaver installation -- or make a copy of it, perhaps -- which will safely run nested inside of a virtual environment -- in this case, a Mountain Lion VM -- on macOS Sonoma, or on whatever future OS releases Apple may make.

Why would you even want to bother to do this?

As some of you will know, while some intelligent souls have fiddled with it, the SheepShaver emulator has not received a serious update since 2006. Being as it is a 32-bit program, its days are obviously numbered. Knowing Apple, common wisdom dictates that within about two years time from this current date -- or who knows, maybe sooner -- Apple will decide to completely pull the plug on 32-bit apps being able to run on Mac OS X machines. That, of course, will mean the end of SheepShaver -- and anything you choose to run inside of SheepShaver, in my case, an old Hermes II 3.5.11 BBS -- unless we install it in a protected environment where it will remain immune to future Macintosh OS X updates. Aha! Now you're talkin'!

Thus was born the idea -- by folks much more intelligent than myself, mind you -- to install SheepShaver inside a still-compatible Mac OS, which itself would run inside a Virtual Machine -- in this particular case, the currently free Oracle VirtualBox software -- on your computer.

II. Emaculation.Com Is Your Friend

Being as successfully setting up SheepShaver on your computer for the very first time can be a very complicated process -- depending on your personal knowledge, experience and skill, and your particular operating system -- it is beyond the scope of this current tutorial to discuss it.

However, if you have not yet set up SheepShaver on your OS X computer, and are interested in doing so, I encourage you to visit the friendly, helpful folks at the Emaculation website at the following URL. It points directly to the SheepShaver forum at emaculation.com:

http://www.emaculation.com/forum/viewforum.php?f=20

Nice folks such as Ronald, Cat_7 and Adespoton will be happy to provide you with assistance, as their time permits. But If I can do it -- I am not a super geek despite using Mac computers for thirty-four years -- anyone can, so have faith!

While this tutorial will not teach you how to install and run SheepShaver, it will teach you the following:

a. How to install VirtualBox.
b. How to create your Mountain Lion virtual machine.
c. How to create a bootable Mountain Lion install DVD.
d. How to create a Mountain Lion ISO image.
e. How to prepare a partition to install Mountain Lion.
f. How to install Mountain Lion in VirtualBox.
g. How to create shared network folders.
h. How to use shared network folders.
i. How to install the TunTap kernel extensions.
j. How to copy or move SheepShaver into Mountain Lion.
k. How to set up VirtualBox's "Network" tab.
l. How to set up your Wi-Fi router's "Network" tab.
m. How to set up Mountain Lion's "Network" prefs.
n. How to create and use SheepShaver startup shell script.
o. How to set up Mac Classic's TCP/IP control panel.
p. A Terminal command which may save your sanity.
q. A bigger, better SheepShaver and Mountain Lion desktop.
r. Other useful tips, helpful apps and troubleshooting.
s. Caveats: Just so you know.

As you can see, aside from setting up SheepShaver itself, I am offering you quite a full plate here. Make no mistake; this tutorial is long and detailed. But let me tell you. If I had possession of all of the knowledge and information which is contained in this setup guide from the start, I could have saved myself weeks of frustration. In short, by way of this tutorial, all of the heavy lifting has already been done for you. All you have to do is closely follow the instructions and advice contained herein. If you do this with a close eye on detail, hopefully, your outcome will be positive, as it has been for me.

So, if you are ready to dig into this stuff, greatly expand your knowledge, gain some interesting experience, and get your fingernails dirty -- figuratively-speaking, of course -- please proceed. What I don't want you to do is to become so frustrated that you chew off your fingernails instead.

Yes, here and there in this setup guide, I have dispersed a small amount of my dry humor. It is to help keep you moving along . . . I think.

III. Administrative Access Required

Some of the activities which you will perform in this tutorial require that you have administrative access to the machine that you are working on -- presumably your own -- and that you know the admin password.

IV. Direct Access to Apps and Hardware Required

Furthermore, being as we will be dealing with a lot of different networking settings, there may/will be times when you have to either quit and relaunch certain apps, such as your Mountain Lion virtual machine, VirtualBox itself, AirPort Utility, etc. You may also have to shut down and restart your network devices, such as your Wi-Fi router and your cable modem. This may become necessary if you run into problems, or if a shutdown and restart/relaunch will ensure that certain settings have taken properly.

Sometimes, when we are making a lot of system changes -- such as delicate network configurations -- the OS and/or your devices can become confused. Thus, relaunching an app, or rebooting a device, can "magically" fix something, so please be patient as you proceed. If you carefully follow my instructions closely, you will hopefully meet with success, as I have.

V. Install Virtualbox on Your Machine

To get this show on the road, the very first thing that you need to do is to install VirtualBox on your machine. You can freely download the latest version of VirtualBox from the Oracle/VirtualBox website at the following URL:

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Installing VirtualBox on your Macintosh desktop computer or laptop follows the usual package installation procedure with which all Mac OS X and macOS users are familiar. Just double-click the yellow package icon which you find in the downloaded DMG image, and follow the simple on-screen instructions. You may also want to drag a copy of the User Manual to your desktop, or to some other convenient place.

VI. Create Your Mountain Lion Virtual Machine

For technical reasons which I will not take the time to explain here, the setup we are about to perform will not work on a Mac OS X version earlier than Mountain Lion. Thus, you can forget Cheetah (OS X 10.0), Puma (OS X 10.1), Jaguar (OS X 10.2), Panther (OS X 10.3), Tiger (OS X 10.4), Leopard (OS X 10.5), Snow Leopard (OS X 10.6) and Lion (OS X 10.7). There has been a report that OS X Lion 10.7.5 may also work, but I have not personally confirmed this myself.

Once VirtualBox has been installed in your "Applications" folder, you are going to need to create your Mountain Lion virtual machine, or VM. To do so, carefully follow these steps:

1. Launch the freshly-installed VirtualBox app that is now found in your "Applications" folder.

2. When the "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" window opens on your desktop, click on the blue "New" button that is located in the menu bar i the VirtualBox window.

3. From this point forward, you will have to make some choices. Being as we are installing Mountain Lion, in the "Name and operating system" window, you will probably want to give your virtual machine a descriptive name like "Mountain Lion", and choose the following settings:

a. Name: Mountain Lion (or whatever you like)
b. Type: Mac OS X
c. Version: Mac OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion (64-bit)

4. Click on the blue "Next" button.

5. In the "Hardware" window which next appears, I suggest that, for now, you leave the "Base Memory" option set at the default amount which is automatically selected by VirtualBox, unless you have a strong reason not to do so. Select however many CPUs you feel is appropriate for your machine. "Enable EFI" will also be enabled by default.

6. Click on the blue "Next" button.

7. In the "Virtual Hard disk" window which next appears, leave it set to "Create a virtual hard disk now". This hard disk -- which will contain your OS X Mountain Lion installation -- can be found in your Home folder in a subfolder called "VirtualBox VMs". The subfolder below "VirtualBox VMs" will bear the name of whatever you used in the "Name" field in step 3 above.

8. Click on the blue "Next" button.

9. In the "Summary" window, read over the information regarding your virtual machine, and then click on the blue "Finish" button.

10. Click on the blue "Continue" button.

11. In the "Storage on physical hard disk" window which next appears, you have a choice to make: a "dynamically allocated hard disk file", or a "fixed size hard disk file". If you have limited hard drive space on your host machine, then choosing "dynamically allocated hard disk file" may be a better option. It is your choice.

12. Click on the blue "Continue" button.

13. In the "File location and size" window which next appears, you must choose a name for your new virtual hard disk file, as well as its size in megabytes. Again, these are both at your discretion. However, this tutorial centers on moving or copying your full SheepShaver setup into your Mountain Lion virtual machine. Thus, if your SheepShaver hard disk image file -- which probably contains Mac OS 8.6 or OS 9.0.4 -- is, say, 100 GB in size, then obviously, you will want to make your Mountain Lion virtual hard disk at least that same size, and perhaps bigger, depending on your future intentions. Please note, however, that this is IN ADDITION TO the space you will need for the Mountain Lion installation itself. Oracle recommends 20 GB for this purpose. Thus, in my case, because my SheepShaver hard disk image file is 130 GB in size, I created a 150 GB virtual hard disk for my Mountain Lion VM. So think carefully about this step, because you don't want to cut yourself short.

14. Click on the blue "Continue" button.

15. At this point, if you have chosen to create a fixed size virtual hard disk, you must exercise patience while the new hard disk image file is being created in your Home folder, as I explained in step 10 above. If you have chosen a very large virtual hard disk image file size, it can take quite a while. A progress window will appear on your screen during this time. In contrast, if you chose to create a dynamically-allocated hard disk, the process will be quick.

16. Once the new hard disk image file has been created, you will be returned to the "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" main window, and you will now see your VM listed in the left side of the window. Underneath it, it will say "Powered Off".

VII. Create a Mountain Lion 10.8 Bootable Dvd . . .

The next step is to install OS X Mountain Lion in your newly-created virtual machine. However, first you need to make sure that you have a version of Mountain Lion which is recognized by and compatible with VirtualBox. A simple DMG image will not suffice. You need to have a bootable Mountain Lion install DVD, or a compatible ISO image. The latter will be discussed in the next section of this tutorial. Following is the technique that I used to create my Mountain Lion DVD:

1. If you don't have the Mountain Lion install DVD, you can burn to DVD the "InstallESD.dmg" image that is found inside of the "Install OS X Mountain Lion" installer app. The installer app is downloadable from the Mac App Store. You will find the "InstallESD.dmg" image in the "Contents" folder, and then in the "SharedSupport" subfolder, inside of the installer app.

2. After extracting a COPY of the "InstallESD.dmg" image file -- you need to right-click and select "Show Package Contents" in order to find it inside of the installer app -- double-click it in order to mount it on your desktop. It will also appear in your Finder window's SIDEBAR.

3. Select the DMG image IN YOUR SIDEBAR, and then use OS X's built-in "Burn" function which is found under the "File" menu. The DMG image will just fit onto a single-sided DVD.

4. When you are done, use this newly-created DVD to install Mountain Lion in your new VirtualBox virtual machine.

VIII. . . . Or Create a Mountain Lion Iso Image

But what if you don't have a CD/DVD drive built into your machine, or what Apple has for decades now referred to as a "SuperDrive"? And what if you don't own an external USB SuperDrive either? In such a case, does that make this tutorial obsolete for your particular situation? Well, not exactly.

In light of the direction which Apple has been taking in recent years with trying to turn CD/DVD drives -- both the internal and external varieties -- into technological "dinosaurs" of the past, it does seem a bit archaic to expect someone to have a CD/DVD drive in their machine, in order to meet with success, as per the instructions which are found in this tutorial.

Thus, you will be happy to know that a compatible ISO image will serve our purposes as well. While I have tried several different methods and techniques -- which I discovered online -- for creating an ISO image which will be accepted by VirtualBox, I was only successful with one such method. Compared with the former approach whereby we created a DVD, this technique is much more complicated; particularly if you are not comfortable using OS X's Terminal app. However, it is quite doable. I myself am by no means a Terminal geek; yet I was able to do this. So can you, if you persevere.

This technique involves using OS X's built-in "hdiutil" command line tool. In order to achieve this objective with as little frustration as possible, carefully follow these straightforward instructions, paying particular attention to where there are -- and are not -- spaces between different parameters in a command. Sometimes this is not always evident when a line of code soft wraps in an HTML document.

Note: The following procedure was performed on an iMac running El Capitan 10.11 final. In fact, I wrote this part of the tutorial a step at a time, as I personally tested and carried out these very same instructions:

1. Assuming that you have a copy of the "Install OS X Mountain Lion" installer app from the Mac App Store, as I explained in the previous section, right-click it and choose the "Show Package Contents" option.

2. When the window opens, open the "Contents" folder, followed by the "SharedSupport" folder.

3. Drag a COPY of the "InstallESD.dmg" image file into your HOME FOLDER. The reason why we are doing it this way is to protect the original "InstallESD.dmg" file inside the Mountain Lion installer app from becoming corrupted due to possible error.

Tip: After you drag a copy of the "InstallESD.dmg" image file into your Home folder, CLOSE all of the installer app folders, as well as your Home folder window or tab. The reason why I am suggesting that you do this, is because failure to do so may result in the following error appearing in the Terminal window, once you begin using the "hdiutil" tool:

hdiutil: create failed - Resource busy

I think what was happening there is that the Finder was trying to estimate the file size of the huge 4.45 GB "InstallESD.dmg" image file, being as that window was open at the time, and that may be why the hdiutil tool reported it as being busy. In other words, hdiutil wanted to use the DMG image file, but Finder was saying "Hey! Wait! I was here first! I am trying to figure out how big this dude is, so I can display its size in the "Size" column!"

4. Launch the Terminal app from your "/Applications/Utilities/" folder.

5. Once the command prompt appears in the Terminal window, type -- or copy and paste -- the following command:

hdiutil attach InstallESD.dmg

6. Hit your spacebar to add a space after the ".dmg" part of the above command, and then also type -- or copy and paste -- the following on the SAME line:

-noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/esd

10. Your command line should now look like this, all on ONE line. Please note that there is a space between "-nobrowse" and "-mountpoint":

hdiutil attach /Users/your-name-here/Desktop/InstallESD.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/esd

11. Hit your "Return" key.

12. If you properly entered the above command string, the Terminal will produce something like the following:

/dev/disk2	Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk2s1	Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk2s2	Apple_HFS	/Volumes/esd

13. Next, we are going to create a placeholder image for our ISO image in the "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" format. So, type -- or copy and paste -- the following line in the Terminal window, and then hit your "Return" key:

hdiutil create -o InstallESD.cdr -size 6144m -layout SPUD -fs HFS+J

After typing the previous command, please exercise patience, as it will take time for the hdiutil tool to create an image of that size.

14. If you are wondering why we are using "6144m" as the size in that command, it is very simple. On my hard drive, "Get Info" reveals that the Mountain Lion "InstallESD.dmg" image file is 4.45 GB -- or 4,448,842,406 bytes -- in size. Thus, to convert it to kilobytes, I divided that number by 1,024, and then by 1,024 a second time in order to determine how many megabytes it is. The result is just under 4,243 megabytes.

However, through trial and error, I discovered that creating a placeholder image of that size was not sufficient for the finished ISO image file. Thus, I increased the desired size of the placeholder image to 6 GB, or 6,144 megabytes.

15. After the hdiutil tool has created the desired empty placeholder image, the Terminal will print out the following:

created: /Users/your-name-here/InstallESD.cdr.dmg

Please notice that the new placeholder "InstallESD.cdr.dmg" image file will likewise be created IN YOUR HOME FOLDER.

16. The next step is to actually mount the aforementioned image file; so type -- or copy and paste -- the following in the Terminal, but do NOT hit your "Return" key just yet:

hdiutil attach InstallESD.cdr.dmg

17. Next, hit your spacebar one time in order to add a space at the end of the above command, and then type -- or copy and paste -- the following string next to the space:

-noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/iso

18. If you did everything properly, you should now see all of the following on one command line:

hdiutil attach /Users/your-name-here/Desktop/InstallESD.cdr.dmg -noverify -nobrowse -mountpoint /Volumes/iso

19. If everything looks right, hit your "Return" key. This should result in your Terminal printing out the following:

/dev/disk3	Apple_partition_scheme
/dev/disk3s1	Apple_partition_map
/dev/disk3s2	Apple_HFS	/Volumes/iso

20. Assuming that everything has gone fine, we will now use the "asr" utility to populate the new drive. So type -- or copy and paste -- the following in the Terminal, and then hit your "Return" key:

asr restore -source /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg -target /Volumes/iso -noprompt -noverify -erase

21. During the next few minutes, as the "asr" utility performs its operations, the Terminal will print out the progress of the operations, as follows:

Validating target...done
Validating source...done
Retrieving scan information...done
Validating sizes...done
Restoring ....10man ..^R
..20....30....40....50....60....70....80....90....100
Remounting target volume...done

22. When it is done, you will see a new volume on your desktop called "Mac OS X Base System", which will likewise automatically open a window on your screen, revealing its contents.

23. Before we add files to the new mountpoint/directory, we need to remove an invalid link. So type -- or copy and paste -- the following in the Terminal, but do NOT hit your "Return" key yet, and do NOT add a space after the word "System":

rm /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System

24. Next, type -- or copy and paste -- the following right next to the word "System" WITHOUT adding a space:

/System/Installation/Packages

25. Your entire command should now look like the following:

rm /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Installation/Packages

26. If your command looks correct, hit your "Return" key. Please note that the Terminal will not offer you any feedback when you enter the previous command. It will simply return you to the command prompt rather quickly.

27. Now that we've removed the invalid link, we need to supply the proper directory that has the installation packages that we need. This directory happens to exist in the ESD image that we mounted a number of steps ago. This is the one that is located in your Home folder. So, type -- or copy and paste -- the following command in the Terminal, and then hit your "Return" key:

cp -rp /Volumes/esd/Packages /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/System/Installation

Note: Please exercise patience after entering this command. It may take five minutes or so for the necessary directory and packages to be copied over from the ESD volume to the "Mac OS X Base System" volume. During this time, you will see nothing happening in the Terminal. Do NOT be tempted to hit your "Return" key a second time. There is nothing wrong. Then, perhaps five minutes later, when the copy procedure has completed, you will be returned to the command prompt.

28. There are a few additional installer dependencies in the ESD disk image that we need to copy over, so first type the following command, and then hit your "Return" key:

cp -rp /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.chunklist /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/

29. Next, type the following copy command as well, and then hit your "Return" key:

cp -rp /Volumes/esd/BaseSystem.dmg /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System/

Both of the previous two copy routines are rather short, so you will quickly be returned to the command prompt with each one.

30. We can now unmount two of the volumes which we no longer need. So first type -- or copy and paste -- the following command, and then hit your "Return" key:

hdiutil detach /Volumes/esd

Upon doing so, the Terminal will print out something like the following:

"disk2" unmounted.
"disk2" ejected.

31. Let's also unmount the "Mac OS X Base System" volume from the desktop by typing this command, and then hitting the "Return" key:

hdiutil detach /Volumes/Mac\ OS\ X\ Base\ System

Upon doing so, the Terminal will likewise print out something like the following:

"disk5" unmounted.
"disk5" ejected.

32. Our second to last step is to convert the "InstallESD.cdr.dmg ISO image file into a format which VirtualBox will understand; that is, to the UDTO format. So type -- or copy and paste -- the following command in the Terminal, and hit your "Return" key:

hdiutil convert InstallESD.cdr.dmg -format UDTO -o InstallESD.iso

Upon doing so, the Terminal will print out a progress report similar to the following:

Reading Driver Descriptor Map (DDM : 0)
Reading Apple (Apple_partition_map : 1)
Reading disk image (Apple_HFS : 2)
.................................................
Elapsed Time: 4m 50.169s
Speed: 21.2Mbytes/sec
Savings: 0.0%
created: /Users/your-name-here/InstallESD.iso.cdr

This last hdiutil command will result in a new file being created in your HOME folder called "InstallESD.iso.cdr". You can manually remove the final ".cdr" file extension, and just leave ".iso".

33. The ISO image is now ready to be used in VirtualBox.

34. As a final step, you can also trash the "InstallESD.dmg" image file that you placed in your Home folder at the very beginning of this procedure. After all, it is unnecessarily occupying almost 4.5 GB of valuable hard drive space.

IX. PREPARE YOUR PARTITION TO INSTALL MOUNTAIN LION 10.8

It is almost time to install Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 in your VirtualBox virtual machine. However, before you can actually do that, you need to partition the virtual hard drive that you created earlier. Incidentally, the operating systems that you install -- they can be Windows, Mac OS X, Linux, etc. -- are referred to as guests, while the primary operating system in which VirtualBox itself is installed, is called the host. Following are the necessary steps to prepare your partition:

1. Launch the VirtualBox app if you haven't already done so.

2. In the left side of the window, select the Mountain Lion virtual machine that you created in earlier steps.

3. Next, click on the orange gear "Settings" button.

4. When the settings window opens, click on the "Storage" icon that is located at the top of the window.

5. If you are using a physical DVD to install Mountain Lion -- as opposed to an ISO image -- verify that your DVD drive -- a.k.a. optical drive -- is listed under the "Controller:SATA" section, probably below your virtual hard disk file, which will have the file extension of ".vdi". If your optical drive has not been chosen yet, you will probably see a small image of a DVD with the word "Empty" next to it.

6. If your DVD drive -- or SuperDrive -- is not listed below the .vdi entry, then you will need to use the blue and green "Add" icon to add it there. Alternatively, you can also click on the small DVD icon that is located on the far right side of that same window -- in the "Optical Drive" section -- and select the "Host Drive" option from the pull-down menu. The "Host Drive" selection will also include the actual name of your internal optical drive. But wait!

7. Before clicking on the "Add" icon -- or choosing the "Host Drive" option in the "Optical Drive" section of that same window -- insert your Mountain Lion install DVD into your computer's optical drive. Then click on the "Add" button, or choose the "Host Drive" option.

8. Alternatively, if you are using a Mountain Lion ISO image, in the "Optical Drive" section of that window, click on the DVD icon and select the "Choose Virtual Optical Disk File" option. Upon doing so, you will be prompted to navigate to and select the ISO image that you created earlier in this tutorial.

9. Once that is done, and you see either your computer's optical drive -- or alternatively, the ISO image -- appear under the "Controller:SATA" section, click on the "OK" button that is located in the lower right corner of the window. You will then be taken back to the main "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" window.

10. With your Mountain Lion virtual machine selected in the left part of the window, click on the green "Start" arrow icon that is located in the top left corner of the same VirtualBox window.

11. At this point, a new black terminal-style window will open on your screen, and it will fill up with all kinds of scrolling verbose technical data. Just be patient and let it run its course. Your internal hard drive will work quite hard during this time, and you will probably hear it doing so.

12. Depending on the speed of your machine, after a while, the stream of verbose technical data will end, and you will be greeted by the all-too-familiar gray OS X installation screen, beginning with asking you to choose your language. After selecting your language, click on the forward arrow icon.

13. At this point, one of two things will happen:

a. If you are using a physical install DVD, you will be presented with the "OS X Utilities" window.

b. If you are using an ISO image, you will be presented with a screen informing you that you need to choose an option from the "Utilities" menu that is located at the top of your screen.

As I mentioned a moment ago, before you can actually install Mountain Lion, you need to partition the virtual hard drive that you created in the previous steps. We will use "Disk Utility" to perform this task, so either click on "Disk Utility" in the list of options that you see in the "OS X Utilities" window, or else choose the "Disk Utility" option from the "Utilities" menu.

14. When the Disk Utility window opens, click on the "VBOX HARDDISK Media" icon that you see in the top portion of the left column. You will know that it is the correct one to choose, because it will be about the same size that you chose when you created your virtual hard disk in the previous section of this tutorial.

15. Next, click on the "Partition" tab.

16. Now click in the large white space which says "untitled 1", so that it is selected.

17. Assuming that you want your virtual hard drive to be just one partition, under "Partition Layout", select "1 Partition".

18. In the "Name" field, assign whatever name you want your desktop hard drive icon to have.

19. For the "Format" option, you will most likely want to choose "Mac OS Extended (Journaled)" -- also known as "HFS+" -- from the pull-down menu.

20. If you have chosen to use only one partition, then the "Size" field will already reflect the size that you chose when you first created your virtual hard disk in the previous section.

21. Next, click on the "Options" button. In the new window that appears, carefully read the description that is found under each type of partition scheme. In most cases, you will want to make sure that it is set to "GUID Partition Table".

22. After ensuring that "GUID Partition Table" has been selected, click on the "OK" button to dismiss the window, and be returned to the main "VBOX HARDDISK Media" window.

23. In the main "VBOX HARDDISK Media" window, click on the "Apply" button.

24. Once the partition has been created, you can shut down Disk Utility, at which point you will be returned to the main "OS X Utilities" window.

X. Install Mountain Lion 10.8 in Virtualbox

With your partition prepared, the big moment has finally arrived, and it is now time to install Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 in your VirtualBox virtual machine. Follow one of the following two sets of instructions:

1. If you are using an install DVD, you should still be in the main "OS X Utilities" window.

a. If that is the case, click on the "Reinstall OS X" option, followed by clicking on the "Continue" button.

b. When the "OS X Mountain Lion" screen appears, again click on the "Continue" button.

c. In the next window, click on the "Agree" button if you agree with the terms of Apple's software license agreement, and then click on the second "Agree" button that pops down from the top of the window.

d. In the new window that appears, click on the icon of the virtual hard drive that you created earlier. It will have the same name as the partition that you worked on in previous steps.

2. If you are using an ISO image instead, after shutting down the Disk Utility app, you will be taken back to the same screen that you were at before.

a. If that is the case, click on the "Continue" button.

b. On the next "Install OS X" screen, click on the icon of the virtual hard drive that you created earlier. It will have the same name as the partition that you worked on in previous steps.

c. Click on the "Install" button that is located underneath it.

d. The installation of OS X Mountain Lion will proceed with a progress bar on the next screen.

3. If you have made it this far in our tutorial, then you are obviously smart. As such, you will easily know what to do from here in order to complete your installation of Mac OS X Mountain Lion 10.8 in your virtual machine.

4. After you have installed Mountain Lion 10.8 and set up your user account, you will be notified -- via the App Store -- that there are updates for Mountain Lion. If not, launch the App Store app, sign in with your usual Apple ID, and check for updates. When the update process has completed, you will have Mountain Lion 10.8.5 on your computer. Well done!

XI. Creating Shared Network Folders

Before we continue, we need to take a moment to discuss shared network folders. The reason why this becomes necessary is this. With a number of operating systems which can be installed in VirtualBox, Oracle has created what are called "Guest Additions". As I explained earlier, the word "guest" is used to refer to the Operating Systems which are installed in VirtualBox. Thus, "Guest Additions" are like modules -- or chunks of code -- which extend the functionality of a particular installed operating system.

In our case, the problem is that due to certain legal issues concerning Apple, Oracle has never made -- and currently states that they will never make -- guest additions for Mac OS X. As a result, there are some normal workflow routines which you probably perform every single day, which you will not be able to use between your host operating system -- meaning the one that VirtualBox is installed in -- and Mac OS X Mountain Lion.

For example, even though you will be working between two OS X operating systems -- meaning the one installed on your machine, and Mountain Lion -- you won't be able to drag and drop files and folders between them in the normal fashion; that is, from window to window. As you will see in a moment, it will become necessary to transfer some files from your host machine side, to your Mountain Lion side. So how are you going to do it?

Thankfully, there is an easy solution, and this solution is found by launching the "System Preferences" app. You will have to do the following on both your machine side, as well as on your Mountain Lion side, if you wish to easily transfer files and folders in both directions.

1. Decide on a convenient location -- perhaps your desktop or your "Downloads" folder -- and create a new folder. Call it whatever you like. This folder will become your gateway to the other side. No, not the Dark Side!

2. Launch the "System Preferences" app.

3. Once the window opens, click on the "Sharing" icon.

4. When the "Sharing" prefs pane opens, select "File Sharing" on the left-hand side.

5. Next, click on the "+" button that is located below the "Shared Folders" portion of the window.

6. Navigate to the folder that you just created in step 1.

7. Select it and click on the "Add" button.

8. This folder will now be listed under the "Shared Folders" section.

9. Being as you are the only one who will probably be using this folder on your machine, the only person who you really need to list in the "Users" section is yourself. You can probably safely delete any other user names which may be listed there.

10. Verify that you have "Read & Write" privileges in the last column.

11. You are now done and can close the "Sharing" prefs pane window.

12. Perform these very same steps in your Mountain Lion installation inside of VirtualBox.

XII. Using Shared Network Folders

Using your shared network folders is really quite easy. As an example, let's say that you have a file on your machine side, which you want to also use in your Mountain Lion side. If so, do the following:

1. Place the file in the shared folder that you created on your machine side.

2. Next, go to your Mountain Lion side. Obviously, you must have VirtualBox running, and your Mountain Lion virtual machine running as well, in order to do this.

3. Under Mountain Lion's "Go" menu, select the "Network" option.

4. Upon doing so, a new "Network" window will open on your desktop, revealing the shared locations on your machine side.

5. Next to the icon which corresponds to the place where you put the file you wish to use, click on the disclosure triangle to reveal its shared contents.

6. If the item you want to use is located in a subfolder, double-click the subfolder, and it will mount on your Mountain Lion desktop, just like a .dmg file.

7. Double-click the mounted image, and a window revealing its contents will appear on your screen. You can now grab that file, and drag it to wherever you like in your Mountain Lion installation. You can then right-click and eject the mounted image.

8. This process works in reverse as well. In other words, if you have a file or folder on your Mountain Lion side that you want to use on your machine side, place that item in the shared folder that you created on the Mountain Lion side. Next, go to your machine side and click on the "Network" option that is found under the "Go" menu. There you go!

XIII. Install the Tuntap Kernal Extensions

Once Mountain Lion is installed, you must install the Mountain Lion version of the TunTap kernel extensions. You will use the Tun and Tap devices to establish an ethernet connection -- or bridge -- between Mountain Lion and SheepShaver, so that whatever public services you decide to run inside your SheepShaver installation -- that is, inside your Mac Classic environment -- will be accessible to the outside world.

You will find the MOUNTAIN LION version of TunTap near the bottom of the page on the Sourceforge website at the following URL. It is an easy-to-install, double-clickable package, and only takes a few minutes to install:

http://tuntaposx.sourceforge.net/download.xhtml

For the curious-minded folks amongst us, please see the TunTap FAQ page for more information regarding TunTap's history and usage.

XIV. Copying or Moving Sheepshaver to Mountain Lion

Now that we have our shared network folders set up, we can very easily use them to transfer -- or just copy -- your current installation of SheepShaver into your new Mountain Lion virtual machine. What is so nice about this, is that you will lose nothing, and hopefully break nothing in the process. SheepShaver will work as normal, after you have successfully completed all of the steps in this tutorial.

Transferring or copying SheepShaver to your Mountain Lion installation is not as difficult as you may think. In fact, it only involves moving or copying two things. Depending on the size of your current SheepShaver hard disk image, the biggest factor is simply transfer time. Obviously, the larger the hard disk image, the longer it will take to transfer to VirtualBox/Mountain Lion.

1. Grab the entire "SheepShaver" folder.

In case you haven't figured it out already from our previous example, all you have to do is move or copy the entire "SheepShaver" folder -- the one which currently resides in your "Applications" folder -- to your shared network folder on your machine side. In other words, in the shared folder that is on the SAME side as SheepShaver.

Once that is accomplished, simply go into Mountain Lion, do the "Go" menu "Network" option routine, and copy over that entire "SheepShaver" folder and place it in your Mountain Lion "Applications" folder, just as you had it on the other side.

2. Don't forget the invisible ".sheepshaver_prefs" file.

There is one more important step that needs to be done, so please don't forget to do this. You obviously don't want to lose your current SheepShaver settings, so, the second step is to make invisible files visible on your machine side -- there are all kinds of ways and apps to do this -- and then to take a COPY of the invisible ".sheepshaver_prefs" file which is found in your Home folder, and put it in your Mountain Lion Home folder.

Tip: As an added safety precaution, and to avert any potential trouble, I would like to make another suggestion for your consideration, which may possibly help you to avoid a few headaches, and save you a lot of time as well.

When you install Mountain Lion in VirtualBox, give your startup drive the SAME NAME as your current startup drive. This way, if there are any paths in your current SheepShaver setup which contain the name of your startup drive -- the icon which appears on your desktop, and usually called "Macintosh HD" -- nothing will break after your SheepShaver transfer is complete.

Likewise, if you are the only admin on your machine, you may also want to consider using the very same account name and user password on both sides. It will just make things a little easier for you.

XV. Virtualbox's "Network" Tab

Now that you have all of the necessary software installed -- VirtualBox, Mountain Lion, TunTap and SheepShaver -- it is time to adjust all of your networking settings so that data can freely flow between your Mac Classic environment inside of SheepShaver, Mountain Lion, VirtualBox and whatever OS X operating system you are currently operating on the top level of your Mac. As you will soon see, this is a rather convoluted process; but it does work! Some einsteinian folks must have dreamed this up!

Tip: A word of caution. In order to avoid confusion, possible setbacks and other nasty things, I strongly suggest that if you are currently running SheepShaver on your machine side -- that is, where OS X is currently operating -- that you shut it down BEFORE you begin making any configuration settings, particularly network settings.

The reason why I say this is because while I was doing the same thing, my machine detected that I was actively running SheepShaver, and thus it prevented me from using certain network parameters, because those parameters were already in use. For example, if you are already using an internal LAN IP address -- a.k.a. NAT -- you can't use that same address on the Mountain Lion side while SheepShaver is still running on your machine side.

Note: Please bear in mind that what I describe below is what has worked for me personally. Hopefully, these same or maybe similar settings will work for you as well. So let's begin.

1. After launching VirtualBox, select your Mountain Lion virtual machine on the left side of the window.

2. Next, click on the orange gear "Settings" button.

3. When the new window opens, click on the "Network" icon that is located near the middle of the top row of icons in that window.

4. When the new window opens, click on the "Adapter 1" tab if it is not already selected. You will then see a new window with the following settings available. Adjust them as I explain below:

a. Make sure "Enable Network Adapter" is enabled.

b. Attached to: Bridged Adapter

c. Name: en0: Ethernet (Note: may possibly be "en1")

In the "Advanced" section:

a. Adapter Type: Intel PRO/1000MT Server (82545EM)

b. Promiscuous Mode: Allow All

c. MAC Address: You will see a long number here. You will use it when you set up "DHPC Reservations" in AirPort Utility's "Network" tab, so you may want to write down the number exactly as you see it in that field.

d. Make sure "Cable Connected" is enabled.

5. When you are finished adjusting all of the above settings, click on the "OK" button to save them. You are now done setting up your Mountain Lion virtual machine in VirtualBox.

XVI. Base Station Ethernet Settings via Airport Utility

Note: This part of our tutorial assumes that you are using an Apple Wi-Fi router -- also known as a "Base Station" -- such as an AirPort Express or an AirPort Extreme. These devices use the "AirPort Utility" app to set them up. This app is found in your "/Applications/Utilities/" folder.

IMPORTANT: Please note that while I discuss using an Apple Airport Extreme wi-fi router to make the following settings, we are NOT setting up a wi-fi network here. We are really setting up an ETHERNET network for both Mountain Lion and SheepShaver to use. Furthermore, in order for this to work properly, you MUST have an ethernet cable connected from your wi-fi router to your host machine.

1. Launch the AirPort Utility app.

2. Click on your base station's name which appears on the lower portion of the window below the white base station image.

3. Enter your admin password when prompted to do so.

4. In the white info window which appears next to the base station image, click on the small "edit" button.

5. When the AirPort Utility window opens, click on the "Network" tab.

6. On the top of the "Network" pane you should see something like the following. Take note of the "Router Mode". This is what works best for me personally:

Router Mode: DHCP and NAT
DHCP Range: 10.0.1.2 to 10.0.1.200

7. Click on the "+" button below the "DHCP Reservations" table. This is to establish a static ethernet LAN IP address for Mountain Lion which will never change.

8. In the new window that pops up, you will see the following fields:

Description:
Reserve Address By: MAC Address
MAC Address:
IPv4 Address:

a. In the "Description:" field, type in something like "Mountain Lion", or whatever you personally prefer.

b. In the "Reserve Address By:" field you should see "MAC Address". If not, select it from the pull-down menu.

c. In the "MAC Address:" field, copy and paste in the MAC address that you see in VirtualBox's "Network" tab, in the "Advanced" section of that tab. Your computer will automatically add the necessary colons to the copied and pasted address.

d. In the "IPv4 Address:" field, type in a unique address that is not already in use on your ethernet network. This will become Mountain Lion's exclusive ethernet LAN IP address.

9. Save and close that window when you are done.

10. Back at the main "Network" tab, in the "Port Settings" section of the pane, click on the "+" button below the table to add any services you will be running from your Mountain Lion/SheepShaver setup.

For example, you may use the Mac Class environment to run an old school telnet-accessible BBS. This will require that all Internet data which arrives at telnet port 23 be forwarded to your actual BBS which is running inside of SheepShaver.

Note: You must click the "+" button for each additional service that you will be offering to the world inside of your Mac Classic environment in SheepShaver.

11. When you click the "+" button, you will see a new window with the following fields:

Firewall Entry Type:
Description:
Public UDP Ports:
Public TCP Ports:
Private IP Address:
Private UDP Ports:
Private TCP Ports:

a. By default, "IPv4 Port Mapping" will probably already be selected in the "Firewall Entry Type" field. If not, select it in the pull-down menu.

b. In the "Description" field, you can either choose a service that is already included in the pull-down menu, or else type in your own description for that service.

c. Regarding the various "Ports" fields, it is up to you as the administrator of your machine to know which ports each of your chosen apps uses.

d. The "Private IP Address" field determines what address on your internal network the incoming data for that particular service should be sent to. If you send the data to the wrong place, obviously, your app will never receive it, so be careful.

IMPORTANT: In all instances, the "Private IP Address" you assign for each service must point to the actual internal IP address which you will use for your OS installation INSIDE of SheepShaver. In the case of Mac OS 9.0.4, you will add this internal IP address to your OS's "TCP/IP" control panel.

Tip: This "Private IP Address" must be DIFFERENT from the one that you assigned to Mountain Lion when you configured your DHCP Reservation for it, so that there is no conflict. For example, if Mountain Lion is 10.0.1.4, you can make your OS inside of SheepShaver 10.0.1.5. Thus, if your Mac Classic environment is using the internal -- or private -- IP address of 10.0.1.5, and you are running a BBS there, then when you set up your telnet service in the port forwarding section, as noted above, you must likewise put 10.0.1.5 in the "Private IP Address" field.

e. After you fill in all of the port forwarding information for that particular service, click the "Save" button in order to be returned to the main "Network" tab in the AirPort Utility window.

f. After you have used the "+" button to add all services which need to have data forwarded to the Mac OS operating inside of SheepShaver, don't forget to click on the "Update" button that is located in the bottom right corner of the "Network" tab.

12. You are now done working in the AirPort Utility app, so you can shut it down.

XVII. Mountain Lion "Network" Prefs Pane Setup

Next, we will set up your Mountain Lion virtual machine's network settings so that it can communicate with your Wi-Fi router. Obviously, you must have VirtualBox running at this point, and you must start your Mountain Lion VM in VirtualBox by selecting it, and clicking on the "Start" button.

1. Once your Mountain Lion desktop appears, click on the "System Preferences" icon in the Dock, or navigate to it in your "Applications" folder.

2. When the "System Preferences" window opens, click on the "Network" icon.

3. When the "Network" prefs pane opens, you should see "Ethernet Connected" in the left side of the window. You will also see a list of parameters similar to the following. Some of them may already be filled in for you:

Status: Connected

Ethernet is currently active and has the IP address of 10.0.1.4

Configure IPv4: Using DHCP

IP Address: This IP address should be the same as what you see in the above text string, and match what you also put previously in the "DHCP Reservations" section of your Wi-Fi router's "Network" tab.

Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0

Router: Put your Wi-Fi router's IP address here

DNS Server: Put your ISP's DNS servers IP addresses here

Search Domains: Put your ISP's domain name here

4. Once you have carefully entered all of the required parameters, you can save and close the "Network" prefs pane, and shut down the "System Preferences" app in Mountain Lion.

5. If you have successfully made it this far in our setup guide, you should now have Internet connectivity in your Mountain Lion installation. So go ahead and give it a try. Launch your favorite web browser, and take a visit to one of your favorite websites. If all goes well, we are approaching the final leg of our journey. Are you having fun yet, or are you at the point of pulling out your hair? Hey! Been there, done that!

XVIII. Sheepshaver Startup Shell Script

Because of the way that this particular SheepShaver setup works -- meaning that it uses an ethernet bridge, via the installed TunTap devices, to communicate between SheepShaver and the OS X system which hosts it -- in this case, being Mountain Lion -- we cannot simply double-click the SheepShaver app icon. You can try, but you will probably be disappointed with the results. Instead, we need to use a shell script to start up SheepShaver, and to first establish the ethernet bridge.

In my case, I have used the following simple script for months now; and thankfully, the very same script works perfectly on the Mountain Lion side as well. In addition to the above, this script also tells SheepShaver to start up in 32-bit mode, instead of 64-bit mode.:

#!/bin/bash
sudo arch -arch i386 /Applications/SheepShaver/SheepShaver.app/Contents/MacOS/SheepShaver & sleep 10
sudo ifconfig bridge0 create
sudo ifconfig bridge0 addm en0
sudo ifconfig bridge0 up
sudo ifconfig bridge0 addm tap0

To make the above script, simply launch your favorite TEXT editor -- I use BBEdit myself -- and copy and paste all six lines into it. Please note that the string beginning with "sudo arch" and ending with "sleep 10" is all one line. You can name the script whatever you like. I use a very short name, since I keep the script on my desktop where I can easily double-click it. What is important is that you save it as a PLAIN TEXT FILE, and that you give it the file extension of ".command". This will convert it into a double-clickable shell script.

So what happens when you double-click the script?

If all goes well, your Terminal app will be launched, you will see some processing lines in the Terminal window, and you may be asked to provide your admin password. That is why the "sudo" is in those commands, so just do it. Afterwards, the script will set up the ethernet bridge for you, and launch SheepShaver.

It is important to keep an eye on what is going on in the Terminal window. If you see any lines similar to any of the following in the window, something is wrong, and your ethernet bridge has not been set up properly:

WARNING: Cannot open /dev/sheep_net (No such file or directory). Ethernet will not be available.

ifconfig: BRDGADD tap0: No such file or directory

ifconfig: interface tap0 does not exist

ifconfig: interface tap1 does not exist

ifconfig: interface en0 does not exist

ifconfig: interface en1 does not exist

Even if you see any of those warnings in the Terminal window, SheepShaver will still probably launch, you will see your Mac Classic desktop, and you will be able to use the programs which you have installed in it. However, being as no ethernet bridge has been established between SheepShaver and Mountain Lion, you will have no Internet connectivity.

If you are running a telnet-accessible BBS, an FTP server, a mail server, or some other service which is available to the general Internet public, from within your Mac Classic environment, that is obviously bad news. However, before you totally freak out, there may be a very easy fix for some of the above errors. But first things first. Please continue to the next section of this tutorial.

XIX. Mac OS 9.0.4's TCP/IP Control Panel Setup

One thing which we have not yet fully discussed is your network settings inside your Mac Classic environment. As I mentioned earlier, even if you have everything else set up properly, if you use the wrong parameters in Mac OS 8.6 or Mac OS 9.0.4, your Internet connection will be as dead as a door nail. So, do the following first, and see if this fixes your connectivity problem:

1. Click on the Apple Menu icon that is located in the top left corner of your Mac Classic screen.

2. Scroll down to the "Control Panels" option and select "TCP/IP" in the submenu.

3. When the "TCP/IP" control panel opens, you should see settings similar to the following. The "Connect via" and "Configure" parameters should be the same as what you see here. The other four you may have to change:

Connect via: Ethernet
Configure: Manually
IP Address: 10.0.1.5
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Router address: 10.0.1.1
Name server addr.: 123.123.0.1, 123.123.0.2

4. Please remember what I stated earlier. if Mountain Lion's IP address is set to 10.0.1.4, then your Mac Classic's IP address must be set to something different on the SAME network. In fact, even if you try to enter an IP address that is outside of your network, it won't let you. Thus, I am showing 10.0.1.5 here so that there is no conflict between Mountain Lion and the Mac Classic environment.

5. The "Router address" field is obviously YOUR Wi-Fi router's IP address. Yours may be different from what I have used above.

6. The "Name server" field is where you place your ISP's DNS servers' IP addresses. You probably already know what they are. If not, then you simply need to call your ISP's tech support department to find out.

7. Once you have made all of the necessary adjustments, you can close the "TCP/IP control panel.

Let me remind you again that when you are making so many different network settings adjustments in so many different places, your programs can become confused, your machine can become confused, your network devices -- such as modems and routers -- can become confused, and you most certainly can become confused. So, if something doesn't seem to work at first, try relaunching an app, try relaunching your OS, try rebooting your machine, and try restarting your modem and router. Maybe doing one or more of those will fix the issue.

XX. A Terminal Command to Save Your Sanity

Even if you still don't have Internet connectivity within your Mac Classic environment/SheepShaver after verifying and/or fixing your TCP/IP control panel settings, hope is not lost. We still have one more trick up our sleeve, and it involves a simple Terminal command, as you can see below:

1. If SheepShaver has already launched despite the ethernet error(s) that you see in the Terminal window, shut it down under Mac Classic's "Special" menu.

2. Launch your Terminal app if it isn't already open.

3. Type the following command in the Terminal window, and hit your "Return" key. You may be prompted for your admin password. Please note that the word "bridge" in this command is immediately followed by the number zero, and NOT by the capital letter "O":

sudo ifconfig bridge0 destroy

This command will wipe out any existing ethernet bridge called "bridge0", or any damaged bridge called "bridge0". If your bridge is called something else -- such as "bridge1", I suppose -- then you would use that in the above command.

4. After you run the command, close that Terminal window, and double-click your shell script again. Hopefully, there will be no ethernet errors this time, and SheepShaver will launch successfully with its Internet connection intact.

The above Terminal command is very useful when you need to re-establish or renew your ethernet bridge, and get your SheepShaver installation to launch properly. For the record, I use the command just about every single day, being as I sometimes have to shut down my Mac Classic environment, or reboot my machine for one reason or another.

All that to say this: Once you get your SheepShaver Internet connection working properly, keep this Terminal command handy. It is very easy to memorize. If you suddenly discover that you don't have Internet connectivity inside of SheepShaver for whatever the reason, simply shutdown SheepShaver, run the above command in the Terminal, and then see what happens when SheepShaver launches again. This approach has worked for me for many months now.

5. Now, if executing that Terminal command does not work, and you still do not have Internet connectivity inside your Mac Classic environment, then the final step would be to closely examine the suggested startup shell script. Perhaps you need to tweak it just a little. Maybe some of those zeroes need to be ones instead. Perhaps the "Adapter 1" tab in your Mountain Lion virtual machine's "Network" tab will offer you a clue.

If all else fails, then I am sorry to tell you, but you are going to have to go back, and carefully examine all of the settings which you have made by way of this setup guide. Perhaps you missed something somewhere. For example, are you certain that the internal IP address that you assigned to your Mac Classic apps in the port forwarding section of your Wi-Fi router's "Network" tab match the IP address that you have assigned in the TCP/IP control panel? If not, that will stop traffic for those apps dead in its tracks. Remember; the IP address must match, and it must not conflict with the IP address that you assigned to your Mountain Lion virtual machine.

If you have already verified that your Mountain Lion Internet connection is properly working -- as we discussed earlier -- then I suspect that you may have to look no further than your Mac Classic environment level, and perhaps in the TCP/IP control panel itself. It's the little things that drive us nuts!

XXI. A Bigger Better Sheepshaver & Mountain Lion Desktop

If you have previously run, or currently run, SheepShaver directly in some version of Mac OS X -- that is, outside of a VM, or Virtual Machine, -- your new VirtualBox/Mountain Lion/SheepShaver setup is going to present you with a few unexpected changes in your workflow and daily routine. One of these which we discussed earlier, is the fact that due to limitations in VirtualBox itself -- Oracle doesn't offer Guest Additions for Mac OS X -- there is no direct drag and drop between your host machine window and your virtual machine window. Thus, as we have seen, we have to resort to using shared network folders.

However, there is one VirtualBox limitation which may irritate you more than others, as it did with me. As some of you will know, if you run SheepShaver on a regular OS X system, you can use SheepShaver's prefs on the "Audio /Video" tab, in conjunction with Mac OS 9.0.4's "Monitors" control panel, to adjust the resolution of the OS 9.0.4 desktop to the highest level that the system can support.

Well, due to the number of windows which I keep open for my Hotline server and Hermes II BBS, I had adjusted the desktop to a rather large size. Imagine my surprise then, when after taking the time to set up SheepShaver in its new Mountain Lion VM and VirtualBox home, I could not get the Mac Classic desktop to the size that I required, even though my settings in the SheepShaver "Audio / Video" tab, and in the "Monitors" control panel, remain unchanged. I encountered the very same problem with the Mountain Lion VM window as well.

Trust me; I looked at and tried everything possible in both VirtualBox's settings, as well as in Mountain Lion VM's settings -- including the atrocious "Scaled Mode" which just enlarged and distorted things and made them blurry, made my mouse jerky and unpredictable, and brought my VM to a crawl -- but nothing worked.

It slowly dawned on me that VirtualBox seemed to be preventing the SheepShaver and "Monitor" control panel settings from taking affect for some reason. In fact, try as I might, my VM's desktop was stuck at 1024 x 768 pixels, which was obviously too small for my purposes. Well, I took my problem to my friends over at emaculation.com, and sure enough, they confirmed my suspicion. Due to the very same Guest Additions issue, the size of a Virtual Machine window is restrained to 1024 x 768, even if you have a window inside of it that wants to grow bigger.

If you have encountered this problem and aren't happy about it, take heart, because once again, there is a fairly easy solution which was shared with me by my emaculation.com friends. When I first approached this solution, I found the information quite confusing; the reason being that I am a long-time Macintosh user of twenty-five years, who rarely ventures into the Windows world, and the solution that we are going to use here in a minute, is actually one which is used by Windows users who want to run Mac OS X on their own machines. They refer to these computers as Hackintoshes.

So because of this, when I started visiting some of the web pages which were suggested to me, and began reading the information that was available there -- which not only was geared towards Windows users who were trying to set up OS X on their computers, but which included a lot of Windows jargon, information and procedures which I did not understand -- I was rather taken back. I even wondered if the procedure was safe.

However, with the help of a few of my emaculation.com friends, I began to grasp what needed to be done; and in the end, it wasn't nearly as difficult as I had at first assumed. Thus, I took all of that information, distilled it, and now present it to you in an easy-to-follow, step-by-step manner, just like the rest of this tutorial. So, if you want to take control of the size of your SheepShaver desktop, and your Mountain Lion VM window, let's get to it, shall we?

1. Download the zipped "MultiBeast 5.5.5" archive from the following URL. It is and EFI bootloader that's specifically designed for use with OS X Mountain Lion. Download it, but do not attempt to install it just yet:

http://www.tonymacx86.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=205

Note: Please note that in order to download the MultiBeast package, you do need to register with the website first.

In case you are wondering what this package is, a bootloader is a program which loads an operating system when you turn on a computer. "EFI" stands for "Extensible Firmware Interface". So a bootloader is a link / interface between your computer's firmware -- that is, software that is permanently programmed into your computer's read-only memory, or ROM -- and your operating system. If you really want to understand the nitty-gritty concerning all of this, I encourage you to conduct some online research of your own.

For our purposes, the main thing to understand is that MultiBeast will intervene when you turn on your Mountain Lion virtual machine. It will load an EFI boot system that is called "Chameleon", and add a few files to your virtual setup. This will make it possible to tweak and control your window settings. With Chameleon EFI, it is possible to make additional alterations to your Mountain Lion VM, once you acquire the knowledge to do so. But this is outside the scope of this current tutorial.

IMPORTANT: Let me emphasize here that you want to install MultiBeast in your Mountain Lion VM, and NOT in your host operating system, meaning not in El Capitan, or whatever OS you're currently running on your computer to boot it up.

2. Once you extract MultiBeast 5.5.5 from the zipped archive, make sure that you are working in your Mountain Lion VM, and then launch the installer.

3. After the installer begins, you will come to a screen where you will have to make some package installation choices. In our case, there are only two options in which we are interested. One you will definitely need to enable, and the second is a matter of personal preference:

a. EasyBeast Installation: This package is the one and only "must install", and is the guts of the Chameleon EFI bootloader, so please put a checkmark in the box.

b. 1080p Display: This installation option can be found under the "Customization" heading, and then in the "Boot Options" section. What this package will do is edit the resolution parameters of the "org.Chameleon.boot.plist" file which is found in the "Extra" folder, and will set it to 1920 x 1080.

The "Extra" folder will be installed by the MultiBeast installer app at the top level of your Mountain Lion virtual hard drive. In short, just double-click the icon of your boot drive -- traditionally called "Macintosh HD" -- and you will find the "Extra" folder in the same place where you see other well-known folders such as "Applications", "Library", "System" and "Users".

Note: If you do not want your Mountain Lion VM to have a desktop size of 1920 x 1080, then do not enable the "1080p Display" installation package. Only enable the "EasyBeast Installation" package, and then wait for the installation process to complete.

4. Once the installation has finished, it is time to make simple edits to one or two "plist" files. If you decided to include the "1080p Display" package when you installed MultiBeast, then you will only have to edit one of these files:

a. org.Chameleon.boot.plist: As I mentioned a moment ago, this file is found in MultiBeast's "Extra" folder at the top level of your hard drive. Whether you installed the "1080p Display" option or not, I still advise you to open this file with a regular text editor -- not a word processor -- such as TextEdit or BBEdit, and verify that its contents are correct. We are particularly interested in the following two lines:

<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>"1920x1080x32"</string>

If you installed MultiBeast's "1080p Display" option, then you should see the above resolution in the file. You can manually edit the resolution parameters and set them to whatever you like. However, for best results, both parameters/digits should be evenly divisible by four. This will then become the resolution of your Mountain Lion VM's desktop window. You may wish to consider the following examples:

1024x768x32	1440x900x32	1920x1200x32
1280x720x32	1600x900x32
1280x1024x32	1920x1080x32

Note: While the above procedure is a very simple edit, nevertheless, it is still wise to make a backup copy of the original "org.Chameleon.boot.plist" file before you begin.

b. com.apple.Boot.plist: You will find this file at the following location in your Mountain Lion installation. Please note that this is your MAIN Library, and not your Home folder's Library:

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration

Note: Again, before proceeding, it is wise to make a backup copy of the original "com.apple.Boot.plist" file, just in case you mess up things and forget what the original file looked like.

IMPORTANT: To avoid potential problems, and so as to not confuse your system, it is important that whatever resolution parameters you enter into this file, MATCH what you put in the "org.Chameleon.boot.plist" file. Thus, if you used "1920x1080x32" in the latter plist file, then that is exactly what you should likewise add to the "com.apple.Boot.plist" file too, as we see here:

<dict>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>"Graphics Mode"="1920x1080x32"</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1920x1080x32</string>
</dict>

However, because I don't want the Mountain Lion virtual desktop to fill up the entire screen of my 24" iMac, I used the following parameters instead, and these same parameters are used in my "org.Chameleon.boot.plist" file as well:

<dict>
<key>Kernel Flags</key>
<string>"Graphics Mode"="1280x1024x32"</string>
<key>Graphics Mode</key>
<string>1280x1024x32</string>
</dict>

5. Shut down BOTH your Mountain Lion VM and the VirtualBox app itself, if they are running.

6. We are now going to edit some data in your Mountain Lion virtual machine, using the OS X Terminal; so launch the Terminal app that is located in /Applications/Utilities at the top level of your hard drive.

Note: This is NOT the Terminal app which resides in your Mountain Lion VM installation. It is the one that is found in the OS that you currently use to boot up your machine.

7. Once the Terminal app has launched, you need to type one of the following commands in the Terminal in order to complete setting the screen resolution for your Mountain Lion VM. Don't forget to hit your "Return" key after typing in the appropriate command:

a. To set a screen resolution of 640 x 480, type the following:

VBoxManage setextradata Mountain\ Lion VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 0

b. To set a screen resolution of 800 x 600, type the following:

VBoxManage setextradata Mountain\ Lion VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 1

c. To set a screen resolution of 1024 x 768, type the following:

VBoxManage setextradata Mountain\ Lion VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 2

d. To set a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, type the following:

VBoxManage setextradata Mountain\ Lion VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 3

e. To set a screen resolution of 1440 x 900, type the following:

VBoxManage setextradata Mountain\ Lion VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 4

f. To set a screen resolution of 1920 x 1200, type the following:

VBoxManage setextradata Mountain\ Lion VBoxInternal2/EfiGopMode 5

In my particular case, because I wanted a screen resolution of 1280 x 1024, I type option "d" above. In your case, if you installed the "1080p Display" package when you first installed MultiBeast, then you will probably want to use option "f" above. After you enter your command and hit the "Return" key, you can shut down the Terminal app. We are done with it.

8. Disable VirtualBox's internal EFI support: Because we earlier installed the "Chameleon EFI" bootloader, we need to make sure that VirtualBox's internal EFI bootloader is disabled. Obviously, we cannot have two bootloaders loading your Mountain Lion system software at the same time. Nasty things could happen. Thus, we need to let the "Chameleon EFI" bootloader override VirtualBox's EFI bootloader, and we need to do this BEFORE we run our Mountain Lion VM again. So . . .

a. Launch the VirtualBox app, but do NOT start your Mountain Lion virtual machine yet.

b. Click on the orange gear "Settings" button.

c. When the new window opens, click on the "System" icon.

d. When the "System" window opens, go down to the "Extended Features" section.

e. Make sure that "Enable EFI (special OSes only)" is disabled.

f. Click on the "OK" button to save the new setting.

9. Launch your Mountain Lion VM by selecting it in the left side of the "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" window, and then clicking on the green "Start" arrow icon.

If all has gone well, and you have followed the previous eight steps with precision, your Mountain Lion virtual machine should automatically start up in your newly-chosen screen resolution, being as we have hardcoded it in the "plist" file.

Because you are using the Chameleon EFI bootloader -- which was installed by MultiBeast -- instead of VirtualBox's built-in EFI bootloader, when you click on the green "Start" arrow icon in order to boot up your Mountain Lion virtual machine, one of the first things you will see is a black screen which will contain the tonymacx86 MultiBeast icon. On the lower portion of this same screen, you will also quickly see a progress bar as OS X Mountain Lion is being loaded into your virtual machine.

If at first you are not seeing your new screen resolution, open your Mountain Lion "System Preferences" app, and go to the "Display" preferences pane. It is possible that an adjustment may need to be made there.

On the other hand, if something has gone wrong, then you need to backtrack and carefully re-examine everything that you have done since step one of this section of the tutorial.

10. Assuming that your Mountain Lion VM has launched successfully using your new screen resolution, you can now proceed to use your SheepShaver shell script -- discussed earlier in this tutorial -- to launch SheepShaver and your Mac Classic environment.

Note: Please recall our earlier discussion regarding what to do if SheepShaver starts up with any ethernet errors in the Terminal window, and you discover that you do not have Internet connectivity in your Mac Classic environment. In other words, you will need to shut down SheepShaver after it completes booting up, execute the "sudo ifconfig bridge0 destroy" command in the Terminal, and then restart SheepShaver.

11. Once SheepShaver is up and running properly, open its preferences window, go to the "Audio / Video" tab, and verify that the resolution is set as you desire.

12. Next, within the Mac Classic environment itself, open the "Monitors" control panel by going to your Apple Menu and clicking on Control Panels/Monitors. Verify that it to is set to your desired screen resolution.

With the previous twelve steps, you should now have complete control over the desktop size of both your Mountain Lion VM, as well as your Mac Classic desktop. Congratulations!

XXII. Other Useful Tips, Helpful Apps and Troubleshooting

This section of the tutorial contains an assortment of tips and tricks, helpful app recommendations, as well as some troubleshooting suggestions. They won't be listed in any particular order, but will be randomly added to this guide, as I learn about them myself.

1. Keyboard commands not working right: If you are having problems with modifier keys -- such as command-c, command-v, command-g, command-shift-n -- not working properly in your Mountain Lion VM, it may simply be because you don't have the keyboard capture function enabled in VirtualBox, or you may have the host key set improperly. So let's have a look:

a. With VirtualBox running, click on the "Preferences" option under the "VirtualBox" menu.

b. When the window opens, click on the "Input" icon.

c. When the "Input" window opens, it should already be set to the "VirtualBox Manager" tab by default.

d. Verify that there is a checkmark in the "Auto Capture Keyboard" box that is located in the bottom left corner of the window.

e. Next, switch to the "Virtual Machine" tab in that same window.

f. Look for the "Host Key Combination" under the "Name" column.

g. To the right of it under the "Shortcut" column, look to see if the key combination is set to the default "Right ⌥". That is your right option key. How many people use that key? I never do, which is exactly why it is good for the Host Key. At any rate, mine was set to the left command key, which is why my keyboard commands were not working properly.

h. To change it, click in the shortcut field to make it editable.

i. Upon doing so, an eraser icon will appear on the right side of the field.

j. Click once on the eraser icon to erase the current shortcut.

k. Press the correct key that you want to use; in this case, the right option key.

l. Click on the "OK" button to save the chance

2. Additional graphics options: You may be able to see some improvement in your Mountain Lion VM's performance by enabling one or two other options in VirtualBox, if they are not already enabled. However, they will probably have no effect on your SheepShaver installation. To test this in your VirtualBox setup, do the following:

a. Launch VirtualBox if it is not already running, but do not start your Mountain Lion VM.

b. Click on the orange gear "Settings" button that is located in the top left corner of the "Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager" window.

c. When the new window opens, click on the "Display" icon that is located on the top left half of the page.

d. Enable one or both of the following. If you hover over an option in VirtualBox, a brief explanation regarding what the option does will appear on your screen:

• Use Unscaled HiDPI Output
• Enable 3D Acceleration

If you attempt to enable a feature which is not supported by your setup or by your machine, a warning message will appear on the bottom portion of the Display window.

3. Export your Mountain Lion VM setup: Once you have everything configured the way that you like it, and your Mountain Lion VM is running smoothly and properly, you can easily export the entire virtual machine to an OVA -- or Open Virtualization Format -- archive.

Virtual machines which are exported in this fashion are complete SELF-CONTAINED packages which can then be easily imported into any virtualization software package which supports the OVA standard. In short, you can set up your Mountain Lion VM on another machine in mere minutes, because everything is already set up and configured in the OVA archive.

To begin the export of your Mountain Lion VM, click on the "Export Appliance" option that is found under VirtualBox's "File" menu.

Note: Please note that the larger that your virtual hard disk image file is, the longer it will take for the OVA archive to be created.

4. Reduced memory partition: In section VI., part 5 of this tutorial, I suggested that when you first set up your Mountain Lion virtual machine, you leave its memory partition set at the default value which was suggested by VirtualBox. In my case, that was 2 GB.

However, please note that depending on what you intend on doing with Mountain Lion and SheepShaver, you may possibly be able to get by with allocating less memory to your VM.

In my case, I am not a gamer. Neither I do create or edit large videos or run any memory-hungry music production and editing apps. Neither do I watch movies within Mountain Lion. All I do is use SheepShaver to run my old PC-ANSI BBS and my old Hotline server; neither of which is very resource intensive, as far as I know. As a result, I dropped my VM's memory allocation to 1 GB instead of 2 GB. So far, so good.

XXIII. Caveats: Just So You Know

1. Because we are using MultiBeast and the Chameleon EFI bootloader, you may possibly encounter a few on-screen errors while Mountain Lion is both starting up and shutting down. I have been told, and have personally observed, that they do not seem to affect Mountain Lion's performance in any way. They are the result of OS X making some calls which Chameleon simply does not know how to handle.

a. During startup, you may very briefly see the following on your screen:

Errors encountered while starting up the computer.

Pausing 5 seconds . . .

If so, it will disappear in a second or two, and Mountain Lion will continue to boot up.

b. During the shut down sequence, you may also see some on-screen errors. These will be followed by a dialog which begins with the following:

"A critical error has occurred while running the virtual machine and the machine execution has been stopped."

You will be given a choice between an "Ignore" button and an "OK" button. Just click the "OK" button, and the shutdown/power down sequence will continue.

XXIV. Closing Remarks

Please note that this tutorial and setup guide is a work in progress. As such, with time, I may polish it up and add new bits of information to it, as my time and health permit. While I have strived to make everything in this guide as simple and as clear as possible, and while I have tried to be as accurate as possible in the procedures I am describing herein, nevertheless, it is possible that due to my limited knowledge, I may have gotten some of the information wrong. After all, this is all very new to me as well. If that is the case, and you are aware of something that is wrong, or that needs to be made more clear, please let me know so that I can correct it. After all, disseminating correct, easy-to-follow information is very important to me.

On a final note, this tutorial obviously does not cover everything that you need to know about VirtualBox. As I noted earlier, this guide is specifically designed to only help you to get VirtualBox, Mountain Lion and your SheepShaver installation set up properly on your OS X machine.

As such, I strongly recommend that you dig deeply into the VirtualBox User Manual. If you do so, you will discover that there are a number of things which you can accomplish via the Terminal's command line, which will be to your benefit, such as converting Virtual Machines from fixed size to dynamically-allocated size, compacting VM's, cloning VM's, etc. You will also want to visit the VirtualBox support forum for additional assistance.

Have fun, and thanks so much! Keep those cards and letters coming . . . well, how about an occasional email?