0

For macOS El Capitan 10.11.6 was downloaded VirtualBox 7.0.4 as VirtualBox-7.0.4-154605-OSX.dmg. Was checked/verified the sha256 checksum. When is tried to install it (command + arrow down), appears the following message

enter image description here

Why appears this? How to fix it? The .dmg file was downloaded and verified (checksum) twice and happens the same.

NOTE I use VirtualBox 6.1.x (38 as the latest) in peace.

Manuel Jordan
  • 513

2 Answers2

2

Newer DMGs are sometimes not compatible with old versions of macOS. I do not know exactly why or what changed, but as a user of OS X 10.9 Mavericks, I have run into this error before. There is nothing wrong with the DMG, it's just in a format your OS doesn't know how to read.

Try copying the installer out of the DMG in a newer version of macOS, then transferring the files to your El Capitan machine.

VirtualBox may still not work of course, if the app is inherently incompatible with El Capitan. However, it sounds like you're already using a version of VirtualBox which claims to be incompatible, and works anyway, so you might as well keep trying your luck?

Wowfunhappy
  • 7,383
  • Is there an official link of VirtualBox indicating the minimum requirements? I did do a research and seems there is no one available – Manuel Jordan Nov 26 '22 at 13:45
  • And I just installed 6.1. 40 and works fine – Manuel Jordan Nov 26 '22 at 13:57
  • 1
    The "it sounds like" was actually going off what @David Anderson said in the comments above; I don't use VirtualBox, I just knew it was unrelated to the DMG not mounting. Glad to hear it works! – Wowfunhappy Nov 26 '22 at 14:55
  • 1
    I'll add—in my experience, it's quite common for legacy macOS compatibility information to be flat-out wrong. I've had apps which claim to work but don't, apps which claim not to work but do, apps which work but are shipped in incompatible DMG files, and just about everything in between. – Wowfunhappy Nov 26 '22 at 21:02
  • Agree - the best teacher is the experience. About apps which claim not to work but do I had this situation with IntelliJ Idea. – Manuel Jordan Nov 26 '22 at 21:39
  • 1
    @ManuelJordan You can do even more fun things with a bit of code. ;) https://apple.stackexchange.com/questions/414688/how-can-i-run-newer-unity-games-on-os-x-10-9-mavericks/414689 – Wowfunhappy Nov 26 '22 at 22:56
  • About your link shared - errors similars of that "type" was with Java 17 too - which it does not work in macOS El Capitan. – Manuel Jordan Nov 26 '22 at 23:03
  • 1
    Java is open source and so may merely need to be recompiled, with MacPorts's excellent toolchain for supporting legacy OSs. This is on my long-term todo list. – Wowfunhappy Nov 27 '22 at 03:28
  • There is an official post of Eclipse indicating the no support of Java 17 on macOS El Capitan due of the limitations of the OS itself - so I am not sure if macports would do some "magic" – Manuel Jordan Nov 27 '22 at 15:47
  • Let us continue this discussion in chat. – Wowfunhappy Nov 27 '22 at 17:46
1

VirtualBox 7 does not list support for OS X 10.11, as per this article:

macOS hosts (64-bit):

10.15 (Catalina)

11 (Big Sur)

12 (Monterey)

Intel hardware is required. See also Chapter 14, Known Limitations.

An installer package is available for macOS/Arm64, for systems using an Apple silicon CPU. With this package, you can run some guest operating systems for Intel x86/x64 CPUs in an emulation.

The macOS/Arm64 installer package for Apple silicon platform is available as a Developer Preview release. This package represents a work in progress project and the performance is very modest.

VirtualBox 6 does not list support for OS X 10.11, as per this article:

Mac OS X hosts (64-bit):

10.12 (Sierra)

10.13 (High Sierra)

10.14 (Mojave)

da4
  • 5,675
  • I don't use 6.0.x series - but according with my own use/experience 6.1.x runs in peace in macOS 10.11 - wondered why in the same VirtualBox its documentation is not split for series, it for 6.0.x 6.1.x and 7.0.x – Manuel Jordan Nov 26 '22 at 18:56
  • I updated my answer to indicate that support isn't listed, not that those versions of VB won't work. – da4 Nov 27 '22 at 17:43