Install dmg2img. Next, read the package information page and the manual page to see if it is useful to you. The application seems to convert.dmg to a file that can be mounted using the mount command. Dmg2img file.dmg imagefile.img From your Wikipedia article, the next command seems to be available to do that. Sudo mount -o loop -t hfsplus imagefile.img /mnt.
Linux users who want to run Windows applications without switching operating systems have been able to do so for years with Wine, software that lets apps designed for Windows run on Unix-like systems.
There has been no robust equivalent allowing Mac applications to run on Linux, perhaps no surprise given that Windows is far and away the world's most widely used desktop operating system. A developer from Prague named Luboš Doležel is trying to change that with 'Darling,' an emulation layer for OS X.
'The aim is to achieve binary compatible support for Darwin/OS X applications on Linux, plus provide useful tools that will aid especially in application installation,' Doležel's project page states. Darwin is Apple's open source operating system, which provides some of the backend technology in OS X and iOS. The name 'Darling' combines Darwin and Linux. Darling works by 'pars[ing] executable files for the Darwin kernel... load[ing] them into the memory... and execut[ing] them.'
But there is a ways to go. 'Darling needs to provide an ABI-compatible [application binary interface] set of libraries and frameworks as available on OS X... by either directly mapping functions to those available on Linux, wrapping native functions to bridge the ABI incompatibility, or providing a re-implementation on top of other native APIs,' the project page notes.
Doležel, who started Darling a year ago, described the project and its progress in an e-mail interview with Ars. Darling is in the early stages, able to run numerous console applications but not much else. 'These are indeed the easiest ones to get working, albeit 'easy' is not the right word to describe the amount of work required to achieve that,' Doležel said. 'Such applications include: Midnight Commander, Bash, VIM, or Apple's GCC [GNU Compiler Collection]. I know it doesn't sound all that great, but it proves that Darling provides a solid base for further work.'
![Open emu file Open emu file](https://assets.pcmag.com/media/images/652657-openemu-roms.png?thumb=y&width=980&height=455)
Users must compile Darling from the source code and then 'use the 'dyld' command to run an OS X executable,' Doležel said. One roadblock is actually getting Mac .dmg and .pkg application files working on a Linux system. Because doing so isn't that straightforward, Doležel said, 'I've written a FUSE module that enables users to mount .dmg files under Linux directly and without root privileges. An installer for .pkg files is underway.'
Unix/Linux synergy
The fact that OS X is a Unix operating system provides advantages in the development process. 'This saved me a lot of work,' Doležel explained. 'Instead of implementing all the 'system' APIs, it was sufficient to create simple wrappers around the ones available on Linux. I had to check every function for ABI compatibility and then test whether my wrapper works, so it wasn't as easy as it may sound.'
Another lucky break not available to Wine developers is that Apple releases some of the low-level components of OS X as open source code, 'which helped a lot with the dynamic loader and Objective-C runtime support code,' Doležel noted.
But of course, the project is an extremely difficult one. Doležel isn't the first to try it, as Darling was initially based on a separate project called 'maloader.' Doležel said he heard from another group of people 'who started a similar project before but abandoned the idea due to lack of time.'
Doležel was actually a novice to OS X development when he started Darling, being more familiar with OS X from a user's perspective than a developer's perspective. 'I have personally looked for something like Darling before, before I realized I would have to start working on it myself,' he said.
Darling relies heavily on GNUstep, an open source implementation of Apple's Cocoa API. GNUstep provides several core frameworks to Darling, and 'the answer to 'can it run this GUI app?' heavily depends on GNUstep,' Doležel said. Doležel is the only developer of Darling, using up all his spare time on the project.
No reverse-engineering
Doležel isn't reverse-engineering Apple code, noting that it could be problematic in terms of licensing and also that 'disassembling Apple's frameworks wouldn't be helpful at all because Darling and the environment it's running in is layered differently than OS X.'
The development process is a painstaking one, done one application at a time. Doležel explains:
To improve Darling, I first take or write an application I'd like to have running. If it is someone else's application, I first examine it with one of the tools that come with Darling to see what frameworks and APIs it requires. I look up the APIs that are missing in Apple's documentation; then I create stub functions for them and possibly for the rest of the framework, too. (Stub functions only print a warning when they are called but don't do any real work.)
The next step is to implement all the APIs according to the documentation and then see how the application reacts. I also add trace statements into important functions to have an insight into what's happening. I believe this is very much like what Wine developers do.
When things go wrong, I have to use GDB [GNU Debugger] to debug the original application.
It is rather unfortunate that Apple's documentation is often so poorly written; sometimes I have to experiment to figure out what the function really does. Many OS X applications seem to contain complete pieces of example code from Apple's documentation, presumably because one would have to spend a lot of time getting to understand how the APIs interact. This is why I appreciate open source so much—when the documentation is sketchy, you can always look into the code.
Years of development are needed. Similar to Wine, 'Having a list of applications known to be working is probably the best way to go,' Doležel said.
Darling should work on all Linux distributions, he said, with the catch that 'many apps for OS X are 32-bit only, and installing 32-bit packages on a 64-bit Linux system could be tricky depending on your distribution. I personally use Gentoo Linux, so I'm gradually creating a Portage overlay that would compile Darling and all dependencies for both 32-bit and 64-bit applications.'
Doležel would like to bring Angry Birds, other games, and multimedia applications to Linux. Darling could potentially 'be used to run applications compiled for iOS,' he writes on the project site. This will also be a challenge. 'The intention is to support the ARM platform on the lowest levels (the dynamic loader and the Objective-C runtime),' he writes. 'Rewriting the frameworks used on iOS is a whole different story, though.'
VirtualBox is a free program that allows you to install and run a different operating system within another OS. In this case, you will be able to install Windows OS on your Mac and run any of its software and applications. In other words, think of it as a free windows emulator for mac which allows you to take full advantage of various Windows OS software and applications without ever damaging or changing the software and hardware of your main operating system. It is also an open-source license software, which implies that you can customize it to optimize the performance of your virtual machine. Some of its most notable features include but not limited to:
- Guest Additions: Virtualbox's guest additions extend the integration between the host and guest systems. They include device drivers and system applications that optimize the operating system for better performance and utilization. For instance, you can share folders, and extend screen resolution to a maximum of 64,000 x 64,000 and also enjoy multiscreen operations.
- Multiscreen Resolutions: Multiple monitors offer all sorts of benefits - even for the ultimate, huge goals - ranging from productivity enhancements to the versatility of desktop placement.
- Remote Display: VirtualBox can display virtual machines remotely, which means that a virtual machine can run on a computer while being displayed on a second computer monitor. Moreover, you can control it from there, as if the virtual machine was running on that second computer.
Run Windows 10 in macOS Catalina with a Free Emulator
You'll have to download the Windows 10 installation disk image (.ISO). All this is very simple and 100% free - whether or not you have a Windows 10 license. The first step is to find Windows 10 ISO Image from Microsoft. Download Windows Installer from the official sources and you will be ready to move on with the next steps.
Visit the VirtualBox website. To do this, simply click on this link. You arrive on the homepage of VirtualBox, where you will be able to download the DMG file of VirtualBox. Once the VirtualBox DMG file has been downloaded, double click on this file to install it.
Step 3: Create a New Virtual Machine
Once installed successfully, you can go ahead and create a virtual machine. And there is nothing complicated about it.
Start Virtualbox and click on 'New' in the program window. In our example, we want to install Windows 10. In this step, you determine how much memory the virtual PC should have. For Windows 10, at least 2 GB is recommended.
After allocating, click on 'Next' to allocate hard disk space for the virtual machine (VM). The option 'Create hard disk' is preset. Click on 'Create' and then copy the disk type 'VMDK' as well as in the subsequent dialog 'Dynamically Allocated'.
Confirm with 'Next'. The size is preset to 50 GB to 100 GB for Windows 10. Click on 'Create'. The wizard will then close, and a new virtual machine will be created.
Step 4: Add Windows 10 ISO Image to VirtualBox
If a virtual machine has been created, you will see the respective settings in different areas in the right-hand pane. Under Mass Storage, select the CD/DVD icon and include the Windows 10 ISO image file.
Open Display Tabs, click on 'Enable 3D Acceleration'.
Step 5: Run Windows 10 Emulator
Start the new virtual PC you've created by double-clicking on the menu on the left in the bar or by clicking on the green icon at the top of the Virtualbox console.
Then boot the setup using the ISO file you created, and the installation of Windows 10 will start. It does not differ from the usual procedure for a real PC. Copying the data from the ISO image and setting up Windows 10 takes about 20 minutes.
Follow the wizard instructions and complete the setup. Once through, the new virtual PC with Windows 10 operating system will be fully functional.
Step 6: Install Guest Tool
Once the installation is done, you should install the guest extensions from Virtualbox. Start the virtual PC. On the Devices menu, click Install Guest Extensions. The setup wizard opens. Follow the wizard instructions and complete the setup.
At the end of this process, Windows OS will have successfully been installed on your Mac. This free windows emulator for mac will allow you to run any software and applications designed for windows directly on your Mac. Just make sure that you follow all the instructions as indicated in this guide.