Guest Additions not installing on macOS 10.15 Catalina guests

[Kalak]

I am using a macOS 10.14 guest, with the latest development builds of VirtualBox Version 6.1.0_BETA1 r134041 (Qt5.6.3), GuestEditions, and VB Extensions matching that version. This also occurs with the latest stable builds of all three installs Version 6.0.14 r133895 (Qt5.6.3) (different machine, also running macOS 10.14). When going to install the Guest Additions from the CD, the VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg install fails with the message: The installation failed. The Installer encountered an error that caused the installation to fail. Contact the software manufacturer for assistance."

I'm attaching the machine log from the development build machine, and also a text file of the output of the guest install.log as this should let you know what the guest OS is thinking about the install. My guess is that is has to do with the read only filesystem in Catalina: 2019-10-23 12:05:41-07 trashcanbridge installd[585]: ./postflight: touch: /System/Library/Extensions/: Read-only file system

[Kalak]

install.log from a guest additions install on macOS 10.15 Catalina

[Kalak]

machine log from macOS host

[Socratis]

Replying to Kalak:

1. Let's start with the fact that ≥10.14 OSX guests are not officially supported. Did you see a 10.14/15 in the drop-down control for the Guest OSX Version? No, you didn't... ;)

2. The Guest Additions for anything ≥10.14 need to be notarized in order to be allowed to install the kexts. Currently they're not. It doesn't have anything to do with the read-only filesystem in 10.15. And BTW, you have a 10.14 guest, that doesn't even come into play...

3. The failed post-install "touch" command has the purpose of force-reloading the kexts, nothing more. A reboot of the Guest would have the same effect...

[Klaus Espenlaub]

The VirtualBox 6.0.14 VBoxDarwinAdditions.pkg is now notarized.

Note that this will only help if gatekeeper inside the VM can phone home to Apple to check the notarization status (we will not do any stapling in the foreseeable future, which would make the package work when offline).

[aeichner]

Should be fixed (see the last comment by klaus), closing.

[GlebKh]

macOS guest 10.15.3 virtual box 6.1.4 r136177 can't install guest additionals, same error as topic starter.

[QA]

Replying to GlebKh:

macOS guest 10.15.3 virtual box 6.1.4 r136177 can't install guest additionals, same error as topic starter.

Absolutely the same problem. macOS guest 10.15.3 virtual box 6.1.4 r136177. SIP disabled, Gatekeeper disabled, VB5E2TV963 added. Guest Additions installation failed

[AKuehnel]

Host - 10.14.6, guest 10.15.3 SIP disabled, Gatekeeper disabled, VB5E2TV963 added. Installation failed.

I then enabled writing to /System/Library/Extensions/ by doing it:

sudo mount -uw /

sudo chown :admin /System/Library/Extensions/

sudo chmod 775 /System/Library/Extensions/

Tried again and installation succeeded!

[GammaG]

Replying to AKuehnel:

Host - 10.14.6, guest 10.15.3 SIP disabled, Gatekeeper disabled, VB5E2TV963 added. Installation failed.

I then enabled writing to /System/Library/Extensions/ by doing it:

sudo mount -uw /

sudo chown :admin /System/Library/Extensions/

sudo chmod 775 /System/Library/Extensions/

Tried again and installation succeeded!

Awesome that does the trick for the installation. Sadly it still does not seem to deliver the functionality.

[paulson]

The issue with the failure to install GAs on Catalina guests remains so I'm reopening this.

[DGH]

I am using VirtualBox 6.1.10 on host Windows 10 1909 with guest macOS 10.15.6. The extensions are working for me once I got them to install following the instructions here. File Manager and Shared Clipboard both work now, Shared Folders seems to work, although I don't see the shared folders in Finder, and the VirtualBox network icon is now showing IP addresses. VirtualBox is set to macOS X version macOS 10.13 High Sierra (64-bit).

[kydar]

Replying to DGH:

I have the exact same setup as you (Win 10 1909, macOS 10.15.6). I finally got the clipboard to share but I can't get shared folders to work. What do you mean when you say they seem to work for you although you can't see them in Finder? I don't see mine in Finder either, and even opening a terminal and using ls -al I still can't see them. So as far I can tell, they're just not there.

[atoolz]

Having the same issue in 11.0.1 guest (Big Sur) where the Extensions fail to install.

These steps didn't work for me. I get a "Permission denied" error when trying "sudo mount -uw /".

Replying to AKuehnel:

Host - 10.14.6, guest 10.15.3 SIP disabled, Gatekeeper disabled, VB5E2TV963 added. Installation failed.

I then enabled writing to /System/Library/Extensions/ by doing it:

sudo mount -uw /

sudo chown :admin /System/Library/Extensions/

sudo chmod 775 /System/Library/Extensions/

Tried again and installation succeeded!

[Hatan]

I have the exact same issue as atoolz. On Big sur, it is not possible to install the guest addition nor do the steps mentioned above.

[pf5946]

​https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210999

[alexroumi]

Same problem here. MacOS Catelina $,02 GB RAM 2CPUS 3MB (set to 256)

Guest addition "installed"

[Urkel]

Same problem ditto. I have Catalina OS10.15.7 host, with guest Win10, VB 6.1.28. Tried all the sudo commands above in Recovery mode and rebooting, no features working afterwards. Strange thing is it worked before I updated VB and GA's !

[Klaus Espenlaub]

This started as an attempt to run macOS on non-Apple hardware. No support for that.