contributing to open source

[Warren Block]

On Sun, 29 May 2016, Glen Barber wrote:

> On Fri, May 27, 2016 at 11:37:01PM -0400, Allan Jude wrote:
>> On 2016-05-27 23:30, Kefeh Collins wrote:
>>> hello
>>>     please i need help installing freebsd using the virtual box
>>>     actually am at my concluding phase but the problem is i downloaded a VM
>>> image with the .vhd.xz as well as the .raw.xz extensions
>>>     but i cant unzip it and i cant locate it when choosing a virtual
>>> optical disk file
>>> any help is very much appreciated
>>>
>>> On Sun, May 22, 2016 at 1:40 PM, Kefeh Collins <kefehcollins at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> hello
>>>>  i am a second year computer science student, program in c and c++ and am
>>>> interested in contributing in operating system (kernel) directed projects
>>>> please i need guidance
>>>>
>>>> thanks in advance
>>>>
>>
>> To unzip it, type:
>> unxz imagename.vhd.xz
>>
>> Then you will have a .vhd file and be able to use it normally.
>>
>> .vhd files are for Microsoft HyperV, so it is likely not the image you
>> want. VirtualBox and VMware uses the .vmdk file
>>
>
> VirtualBox should recognize the VHD format just fine.
>
> The only formats I am aware do not work with VirtualBox are the '.raw'
> and '.qcow2' (and I think the '.qcow2' do work somewhat recently).  Just
> a "FWIW" statement.
>
> I actually haven't checked if the raw format works in a while, so it is
> possible it may work now.

Raw images can be converted to other formats with VBoxManage.  The 
parameters are not the most obvious:
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch08.html#idp46691721399456