Mac guest on QEMU on Arch Linux host hangs at gray Apple Logo

Abstract

I'm trying to get any Mac OS version running on QEMU on Arch. I'm working from the instructions here: https://github.com/kholia/OSX-KVM. I've tried all the versions of OS X that I can access in the App Store. Most of my attempts have resulted in a boot but then immediate hang on a gray Apple Logo. Trying to create an iso from the macOS High Sierra installer fails outright for me. I've seen several reports of success with QEMU and Arch so it seems worth fighting with this a bit more.

Relevant versions/specs

• QEMU: 2.10.1
• Linux: 4.13.4-1-ARCH
• kholia/OSX-KVM: Oct 1, 2017; commit 861bac474299a6303ce28e8d518731f0c962bac3
• Mac installer iso versions tried: OS X 10.8.5 (Mountain Lion), 10.9.5 (Mavericks), 10.10.5 (Yosemite), and 10.11.6 (El Capitan)
• Mac version of box used to create 'iso's: macOS 10.13 (High Sierra)
• Host system CPU: Intel Core i7 5820K Haswell-E

Stuff I've tried

There is some relevant trouble-shooting in the kholia/OSX-KVM README:

If the boot process is getting stuck on the Apple logo, upgrade your host kernel and QEMU. For example, Linux 3.16.x from Debian 8 is known to be problematic, whereas Linux 4.9.x with QEMU 2.8.x works fine on the same distribution.

My Linux kernel and QEMU versions are both more recent than this.

The README also suggests giving the -v flag to the bootloader for another issue. If I give the -v flag, I see text flying by very quickly before once again hanging at the gray Apple Logo.

I also tried the instructions at http://www.contrib.andrew.cmu.edu/~somlo/OSXKVM/ but had no luck and it looks like the kholia/OSX-KVM instructions subsume these.

I've tried fiddling with the parameters used in the kholia/OSX-KVM scripts but I haven't made any progress with the stochastic troubleshooting approach. I don't know why this isn't working so I don't even know if I've been trying relevant tweaks.

Conclusion and Future Directions

This doesn't work and I wish it did.

Are there any recommended troubleshooting steps for a setup like this?

Is there more info I should provide?

If nothing else, are any of the relevant projects interested in reports about configurations that don't work?

Thanks.