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Comment by heavyset_go | Hacker News Reader

Well, I run Linux on my Mac, and I legally virtualize macOS in a VM on my Mac, so this could impact my ability to do so.

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Out of interest, would you mind describing your setup? i.e. hardware, linux distro, VM tech and macOS version?

Not the poster you're replying to, but a cheesegrater MP4.1 with Debian and this package (https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM) works just fine.

Never bothered with GPU passthrough however.

It's nothing special. I use Kubuntu on a MBP, and I've talked about how I've setup Plasma Desktop before on HN[1][2].

I run Catalina in a VM because it's the oldest macOS version that supports the APIs I'm developing against. I used to use KVM for virtualizing macOS, but VirtualBox[3] is more portable despite being much slower, so I use that now.

If you can use KVM with Virtio and VFIO passthrough, it's really fast. Linux just got Virtio-fs[4], too. I've had to pass boot options to the kernel to get the IOMMU to play nicely on the Mac, though, and I just don't have patience for that these days.

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23607374

[2] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25172499

[3] https://github.com/myspaghetti/macos-virtualbox

[4] https://virtio-fs.gitlab.io/

Thanks. I've got an MBA6,2 lying around so may give it a go over the holidays.

Linux runs really well on Macbooks that came out before 2016. I've found powertop, TLP and TLP-GUI, and mbpfan to be useful laptop and Mac-specific tools on Linux.

So, you run Linux on your Mac and virtualize MacOS but won't be able to locate and download the installer as others have indicated?

I haven't actually looked into it, hence why I said it could impact my ability to do so.

That might make you unique haha.

How does VM Mac on a Mac as a developer make one unique?

Buying a mac, installing linux as your daily driver, and then running macOS in a VM?

I honestly don't even know why you'd do that. I certainly have never heard of anyone doing that until now.

I think it's more common to virtualize macOS on a Mac running macOS.

Sure, but that is not the setup I interpreted from his comment, as I'm unsure why you would mention linux if the point of the comment was about virtualizing macOS on macOS.

Yes, I understand. But if you can't install macOS in VM on Linux (on a Mac) then you most likely can't do it in a VM on macOS either.

Likely because he wants more than a sliver of control over his OS.

Why?

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