How to Install Yosemite Beta 1 with VirtualBox (plus a sneak peek of Yosemite Beta 2)

This post is an update to my previous post How to install Yosemite Beta 1 (MacOSX 10.10) on a Virtual Machine using VMware Fusion (with step-by-step video tutorial).

I've decided to test VirtualBox on the new Beta but it's been challenging,

VirtualBox is a free product and, though I think it's a very valuable virtualization software, there's a reason for it.

LEGAL DISCLAIMER: This guide aims to explain how to create a virtual machine on a regularly purchased Mac computer, running a genuine OS X operating systems, for testing purposes only. This blog doesn't support or encourage software piracy (the author owns an iMac).

Whoever uses this guide to create a Hackintosh does it at its own risk and the author can't be held responsible for any distorted use of the below directions.

Steps

1. 1. Create a MacOSX Mavericks Virtual Machine: That's been a real pain in the neck as I couldn't get to boot my (genuine) Snow Leopard DVD to create a new VM. I need to thank Robert Setiadi for publishing a workaround to create a .DMG file from the Mavericks installer. I also had to create a new partition from Disk Utility in my VM for this to work.
2. Update Mavericks to Yosemite Beta 1: I've used Install Yosemite Beta. app for this and the installation has been pretty fast and smooth. That done, I accessed App Store and could upgrade to Yosemite Beta 2. The new build looks a little better than the previous release and seems more stable and reliable. You can see the new (red) iTunes icon, as a new version has been released with the Beta 2.

Issues 

• No Flash Player support: Like the Beta 1, the Beta 2 isn't supported by Adobe Flash yet. I've tried installing a beta version of Flash Player 15, with no avail. I had found a workaround for the Beta 1 installing the YouTube ALL HTML5  browser add-on, but it won't work on the Beta 2 (I think it's due to the upgrade but I can't exclude that VirtualBox doesn't support it).
• No sound device detected: This is a VirtualBox issue and it occurs with other guest operating systems, too, but it's particularly hard to solve for OS X. In fact, Apple doesn't release official audio drivers for VirtualBox because, being a free product, is often used to create Hackintosh solutions. I've tried several workarounds but none could solve the problem so far (if you find a working solution, feel free to fill me in on this). It's no biggie for me, as I use the VM for testing purposes only, but it's pretty annoying and limits my judgment.

Wrap-up

I've tested Yosemite Beta 2 with VirtualBox and it performed decently.

It's surely more stable and reliable than the first release and looks better, though more work has still to get done. For example the App Store icon looks very similar to the icon of the Applications folder and the icon of the Downloads stack in the Dock looks a lot like a generic installer icon; this is a little confusing and hope it'll be corrected in the official release.

The Beta runs smoothly and probably even better than it did on VMware Fusion but, being a free product, VirtualBox requires much more work and comes with a poorer support.

Pros

• Lighter than other virtualization programs.
• Utilizes a lower amount of RAM and it slows down your Mac less than other products.
• Supports USB devices (by installing an extension pack).
• I could easily upgrade to Yosemite Beta 1 and Yosemite Beta 2.

Cons:

• No sound support: I couldn't solve this problem for Mac so far.
• Shared folders not supported for Mac: VirtualBox can enable them through an additional component called Guest Addition, but it's not supported for an OS X virtual machine.
• It requires much more work: I had to face numerous issues (find a workaround for a new Mavericks VM and create a new partition to install the VM, as well, not to mention sound and shared folder problems) that I've never had with other similar programs.

VirtualBox is a good virtualization tool and performs decently but, in my opinion, it's not an ideal solution for an OS X virtual machine.

There are too many issues still unsolved and, if you can afford it, it can be worth using VMware Fusion, though (at least in my case) it performs worse (Parallels Desktop isn't an alternative because it doesn't support Yosemite for now. I tried copying the VirtualBox VM to Parallels but it doesn't work either).

Another viable solution is to install the Beta on a new test partition on your physical HD, which I haven't tried so far because I'm pretty reluctant about it. If you want to go that way, you can find useful references here: How to create a test partition for the OS X Yosemite beta | Ars Technica.

You can also use BootCamp to create a test partition.