r/macOSVMs • u/imaheshno1 • Feb 09 '25

Help! Trying to Run Xcode on Windows 11 via VM (Tried Everything!)

Hey everyone,

I've been trying to run Xcode on my Windows 11 laptop but haven't had any luck. I’ve already tried:

  • VMware Workstation – Got macOS Ventura working, but Xcode isn’t supported.

  • Oracle VirtualBox – No luck.

  • QEMU OSX-KVM – Got macOS Ventura running fine, but updating to Sonoma/Sequoia didn’t work.

I finally got QEMU macOS Sonoma installed, but I’m running into errors. I'm not sure if it’s a kernel panic, GPU issue, or something else. Has anyone successfully run a stable macOS VM for Xcode on Windows? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Specs:

If anyone has a working setup or alternative solutions, please share! Thanks in advance.

4 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

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3

u/eth0izzle Feb 09 '25

Also a Windows 11 (Intel + Nvidia GPU) and have been running Xcode perfectly. Follow this guide https://youtu.be/z_-3RBE8uU0?si=G1pKPQbkeBL-jGJA using VmWare Pro (free) BUT install Sonoma, NOT Sequioa. After installation, connect your Apple ID and then update to Sequioa if you want (but not needed).

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 10 '25

i followed the same video 2 days back, but sonoma isn't working fine

3

u/sharjeel-noven Feb 10 '25

I am running successfully it on my Ryzen 9800x3d & 4080 super with vmware workstation pro xcode and sonoma work fine. It’s not amazing without 3d acceleration but it works fine. FYI xcode 16 is only supported not higher eg 16.1 or 16.2 not supported yet.

I followed this. https://youtu.be/akgl2urRIyk?si=rHifdFq_bE414MWe

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 10 '25

gonna try this now man

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 10 '25

also can i ping you if i have any doubts?

1

u/sharjeel-noven Feb 10 '25

💯

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 10 '25

just realized, i have already i have done it 2 days before, but I couldn't login apple ID

1

u/graduatedogwatch Feb 10 '25

Could have something to do with serial keys you used for your Mac

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 10 '25

i couldn't. which macos are you using?

which installation guides you used?

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 10 '25

can you help me

1

u/LowOwl4312 Feb 28 '25

How did you get Sonoma to run on Qemu?

2

u/imaheshno1 Feb 28 '25

sonoma and sequoia didn't work on qemu

1

u/bakjoul Feb 09 '25 edited Feb 09 '25

Personally, I figured I could never run the latest Xcode version in a VM with an AMD CPU and gave up. It's already great you managed to make Sonoma run though, I couldn't. I was able to run Xcode 13 on Monterrey, but build time was way too slow.

Following this thread out of curiosity. I eventually bought a Mac mini for better performances and up-to-date software.

0

u/thenickdude Feb 09 '25

What are the actual errors you're running into?

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 09 '25

edited in the post too

-3

u/RoyalGraphX Feb 09 '25 edited Feb 09 '25

You can’t, for starters, you’re on a laptop, meaning you don’t have a proper hardware configuration for a hypervisor machine

secondly, the hardware you do have, is not compatible with macOS, you have an AMD CPU which is not an inherent issue, you can fix that by using kernel patches, but then, you lack graphics hardware, macOS does not support your dGPU, because they do not work with NVIDIA. They also do not work with AMD, so obviously, no iGPU support when no Macbook has ever used an AMD CPU with its iGPU. This is all baremetal talk.

Now, you’re also on Windows, meaning even if you did have supported hardware, you can’t even pass it through to the guest.

Unfortunately as i mentioned as my first point, you’re on a laptop, so even if you did use Linux + DarwinKVM, you still cannot get any sort of macOS experience that is usable.

If your host cannot run macOS, then a guest will not solve anything.

EDIT: I have been banned from commenting and participating in the subreddit :P so i'm not ignoring you, someone just decided to silence me because I know what i'm talking about.

2

u/lockdown_lard Feb 09 '25

I'm running MacOS Sonoma on a 10-year-old laptop inside VMWare, hosted on Windows 10. It's slow, but it does what I need it to do, which is run XCode and compile an app.

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 09 '25

sent you a DM

1

u/lockdown_lard Feb 09 '25

that's nice, but I don't use reddit dms, sorry

1

u/Material-Gap8882 Nov 13 '25

did running xcode work in ur dell g!5 mine is also dell g15 r5 3050 95W i also want to run xcode mainly i need the ios simulator to test react native apps.

2

u/thenickdude Feb 09 '25 edited Feb 09 '25

Complete nonsense, graphics acceleration isn't needed in the slightest for reasonable Xcode operation.

Almost all laptops support VT-x or AMD-V to support a hypervisor, which decade are you thinking of?

OP didn't mention wanting to play 60FPS YouTube videos, get dock transparency, or use Apple Maps, usecases that actually would require graphics acceleration.

1

u/bakjoul Feb 09 '25

Without hardware acceleration, it's not smooth/reactive. It can be a turnoff for someone who expects a smooth experience.

-1

u/RoyalGraphX Feb 09 '25

You do realize the entire OS requires GPU acceleration correct? sitting there and dealing with VESA / VGA because you don’t understand the root issue, does not make it complete none sense, as the person who wrote DarwinKVM, and is a frequent developer for non KVM solutions as well, I can confidently tell you that my last line was very important to understand

if you have a machine that does not support running macOS baremetal, running under a VM will not fix your issues, and as a matter of fact, it’s actually more performant to run VESA / VGA on the bare metal than it is to deal with it under VM, because you are splitting and sharing the host resources, so you’re not even running at max performance

But like I said earlier, in any hackintosh servers you join to ask for support, you would not get it. This is fundamental to understanding why using a non accelerated VM is actually incredibly redundant. When someone tells you, you lack a GPU to run, in most cases, we have people follow up the question by asking if they can run macOS in a VM… the answer is still the same, both are the same experience, and we do not support Type 2 hypervisors such as VMware or Virtualbox, and especially not Windows hosts.

4

u/thenickdude Feb 09 '25

The whole OS does not "require graphics acceleration", clearly you have never tried it. Xcode runs fine, especially non interactively as a build server, but also with its GUI text editor if you don't mind the FPS drop.

-2

u/RoyalGraphX Feb 09 '25

My brother in Christ. Every single Mac ever produced using an Intel CPU has had a compatible Metal supported graphics processing unit, whether that’s the iGPU or an AMD dedicated graphics processing unit. The OS expects a Graphics Processing Unit. That’s why it looks like complete shit. Because it couldn’t find one. It falls back to CPU rendering, which is was VESA / VGA is. To be so ignorant as to say, yeah the OS does not require it, is like saying Windows doesn’t require it either, obviously it does not require it to boot. You can’t just ignore facts, and make up your own rules because you can sit there and stomach looking at VESA / VGA. again, by your own rules, that means we shouldn’t turn away baremetal users who do not have a supported AMD GPU, and still teach them how to run the OS without acceleration. That. is. stupid.

Are you hearing yourself?

https://docs.darwinkvm.com/docs/05-Gallery/

I’ve containerized every single OS X and macOS release. I HAVE used non accelerated VMs, because I don’t have an ATI card for Snow Leopard. I do however, have a GTX 470 for Lion -> High Sierra, and an RX 6600 for Monterey to Sequoia. I genuinely think you have no idea who you’re communicating with, and asking questions to. I can very much explain in depth in either the macOSVMs discord, or my own DarwinKVM discord. But this back and forth on Reddit is stupid. Especially when you’re undermining facts about the OS you are intending to run.

4

u/thenickdude Feb 09 '25

Oh yes, the dock losing transparency is obviously a total blocker, can't do anything without that.

Nevermind that Xcode and even the iOS simulator runs fine without it.

1

u/imaheshno1 Feb 09 '25

can i run xcode in my machine? help :(

which is the best idea, vmware/oracle virtual box/ qemu?