DMG Files

[Priyesh]

Can virtualbox boot from a .dmg file rather than an .iso?

[mpack]

If it's just an Apple pseudonym for ISO then yes, but I would rename it to .ISO first. If its an image of a Mac hard disk then your Apple license will not allow that.

[michaln]

The DMG format is not an ISO image.

DMG supports compression (zip/bzip2) and checksums, and it can be used for read/write images. VirtualBox supports a subset of read-only DMG files for CD/DVD images, but not for virtual hard disks.

I personally like the DMG format because unlike ISOs, the CD images are compressed and checksummed.

[Priyesh]

k, so if the dmg file is an image of an operating system it should boot fine just like an iso in virtualbox?

[BillG]

No. DMG is an Apple disk image format. On a Windows machine you may not be able to read it at all. There are proprietary programs to convert .dmg files to other formats.

You aren't trying to install Mac OS in a vm are you?

[michaln]

No. DMG is an Apple disk image format. On a Windows machine you may not be able to read it at all. There are proprietary programs to convert .dmg files to other formats.

Did no one really notice that VirtualBox supports typical DMG images of CDs and DVDs on every supported host platform?

[Perryg]

Yes but I am curious as to what operating system other than MAC comes in such a format.
Priyesh has already been warned several times that installing the hazard version of MAC is not supported for various reasons.

[michaln]

It's trivial to convert any ISO image to DMG on a Mac.

[mpack]

k, so if the dmg file is an image of an operating system it should boot fine just like an iso in virtualbox?

If the .DMG file being discussed contains an image of a hard disk with a MAC OS X installation then attempting to use it on a Windows host would be a breach of the Apple license, as I already mentioned above. Priyesh, I'm aware that you have already been warned on this matter from earlier threads. Next step would be a ban.

[mpack]

Did no one really notice that VirtualBox supports typical DMG images of CDs and DVDs on every supported host platform?

I'm not an Apple user, so DMG is not a format I ever encounter. I did know that VirtualBox supported it, but not the details. I assumed the devteam would not have put a lot of effort into supporting an obscure and proprietary format, hence I guessed it was probably just another name for ISO (more precisely: a name for the output of a dd like tool for the Mac, so an DMG image of a CD would == ISO). Evidently that isn't the case.