How to extract just the .hfs partition from a dmg file

I have a macOS dmg file.. BaseSystem.dmg. It is compressed and contains various hfs partitions..

# file BaseSystem.dmg
BaseSystem.dmg: zlib compressed data

What I want to do
I want to extract just the 4.hfs partition file. But I cannot.
This is possible on Windows using the Boot Disk Utility tool as demonstrated here.

Here is what I tried
If I use dmg2img like this...

flex@flex-ubuntu:~/Documents/MacOS$ dmg2img BaseSystem.dmg
dmg2img v1.6.7 (c) vu1tur ()
BaseSystem.dmg --> BaseSystem.img
decompressing:
opening partition 0 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 1 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 2 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 3 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 4 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 5 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 6 ... 100.00% ok
opening partition 7 ... 100.00% ok
Archive successfully decompressed as BaseSystem.img

If I now try to mount BaseSystem.img..

$ sudo mount -o loop -t hfsplus BaseSystem.img /mnt/macimage
mount: /mnt/macimage: wrong fs type, bad option, bad superblock on /dev/loop7, missing codepage or helper program, or other error.

So that command does not mount it. This commands returns a single loopback device:
# sudo losetup -P -f --show BaseSystem.img
Which I CAN mount like this:
# sudo mount /dev/loop8p1 /mnt/macimage/

But what I want is to just extract the 4.hfs partition file?!

If I look at the properties of BaseSystem.img...

# file BaseSystem.img
BaseSystem.img: DOS/MBR boot sector; partition 1 : ID=0xee, start-CHS (0x3ff,254,63), end-CHS (0x3ff,254,63), startsector 1, 4176871 sectors, extended partition table (last)

From Ubuntu Terminal:# 7z l BaseSystem.dmg I get...

7-Zip [64] 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=en_GB.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs Intel(R) Core(TM)
Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 498625205 bytes (476 MiB)
Listing archive: BaseSystem.dmg
--
Path = BaseSystem.dmg
Type = Dmg
Physical Size = 498625205
Method = Copy Zero2 ZLIB CRC
Blocks = 594
----
Path = 4.hfs
Size = 2004299776
Packed Size = 498579443
Comment = disk image (Apple_HFS : 4)
Method = Copy Zero2 ZLIB CRC
--
Path = 4.hfs
Type = HFS
Physical Size = 2004299776
Method = HFS+
Cluster Size = 4096
Free Space = 678445056
Created = 2020-10-30 08:13:26
Modified = 2020-10-30 16:31:38

How can I extract just the file 4.hfs?

When I run this command:# 7z x BaseSystem.dmg it extracts the entire dmg file to give a directory tree of all the files in the dmg file. But I only want to extract a single file out of the dmg file: 4.hfs.

If I run this command: 7z x BaseSystem.dmg 4.hfs I get...

7-Zip [64] 16.02 : Copyright (c) 1999-2016 Igor Pavlov : 2016-05-21
p7zip Version 16.02 (locale=en_GB.UTF-8,Utf16=on,HugeFiles=on,64 bits,8 CPUs Intel(R) Core(TM)
Scanning the drive for archives:
1 file, 498625205 bytes (476 MiB)
Extracting archive: BaseSystem.dmg
--
Path = BaseSystem.dmg
Type = Dmg
Physical Size = 498625205
Method = Copy Zero2 ZLIB CRC
Blocks = 594
----
Path = 4.hfs
Size = 2004299776
Packed Size = 498579443
Comment = disk image (Apple_HFS : 4)
Method = Copy Zero2 ZLIB CRC
--
Path = 4.hfs
Type = HFS
Physical Size = 2004299776
Method = HFS+
Cluster Size = 4096
Free Space = 678445056
Created = 2020-10-30 08:13:26
Modified = 2020-10-30 16:31:38
No files to process
Everything is Ok
Files: 0
Size: 0
Compressed: 498625205

But then nothing is output in the folder where I would expect 4.hfs to appear.

What am I doing wrong? Is it maybe not possible on Linux?

1 Answer

I found that dmg2img and 7z can both extract just a partition from a dmg file.

Using dmg2img we can see the contents of the dmg file:

# dmg2img -l BaseSystem.dmg
dmg2img v1.6.7 (c) vu1tur ()
BaseSystem.dmg --> (partition list)
partition 0: Protective Master Boot Record (MBR : 0)
partition 1: GPT Header (Primary GPT Header : 1)
partition 2: GPT Partition Data (Primary GPT Table : 2)
partition 3: (Apple_Free : 3)
partition 4: disk image (Apple_HFS : 4)
partition 5: (Apple_Free : 5)
partition 6: GPT Partition Data (Backup GPT Table : 6)
partition 7: GPT Header (Backup GPT Header : 7)

Using dmg2img v1.6.7

This command extracts the 4.hfs partition:

# dmg2img -p 4 -i BaseSystem.dmg -o 4.hfs

Using 7z

In 7-Zip [64] 9.20 you can use this command:

7z e BaseSystem.dmg 4.hfs

In 7-Zip [64] 16.02 you need to use this command:

7z e -t* BaseSystem.dmg 4.hfs

The -t* is needed or else in this version of 7z it will not extract to just one level deep but instead it will extract everything down to files and folders.