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foxlet / macOS-Simple-KVM

Tools to set up a quick macOS VM in QEMU, accelerated by KVM.
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Convert Installer.app from Mac App Store into the right form(at) #393

Open jordanchaitin opened 3 years ago

jordanchaitin commented 3 years ago

For people who already have a Mac, they download the installer.app from the Mac App Store.

The installer.app folder contains a number of files and folders. The largest files are BaseSystem.dmg and InstallESD.dmg. This BaseSystem.dmg file in the .app folder is different from the file by the same name that is referenced in these docs. The InstallESD.dmg file is the largest and contains the installer but it cannot be used directly.

So how should the installer.app folder be converted into a usable single .img file? Should it suffice to put the whole folder in a new img and just call it BaseSystem.img?

PS: The goal is to have MacOS High Sierra on KVM under Ubuntu.

k3ninho commented 3 years ago

I haven't tried the followin -- essentially you're messing around with Apple's data and they might check integrity -- but the following pattern of copying the folder of Contents into the BaseSystem's installer app is a tactic you might try. This archive has a tool called dmg2img if macOS' own Disk Utility doesn't let you work with unexpanded dmg-type disk images.

https://osxdaily.com/2013/06/12/make-boot-os-x-mavericks-usb-install-drive/

There are other guides available via a web search for turning the 'small installer' into a full 6-12 GB one.