Skip to content

BZ2 Files And Safari

BZ2 File in Finder If you can’t decompress a “.dmg.bz2″ file downloaded by Safari, you may try to fix things by removing the .bz2 from the file name.

Here are some hints pointing that the problem is caused by the incorrect extension:

  • Using Archive Utility–the default archive handler on Mac OS–to decompress Filename.dmg.bz2 creates a new file called Filename.dmg.bz2.cpgz. Trying to decompress the new file creates yet another Filename 2.dmg.bz2.cpgz file, and so on.
  • Using StuffIt Expander with the file creates a new Filename.dmg file. However, if you try to mount the new disk image in the Finder, a error window appears with the message:
    The following disk images failed to mount.
    Filename.dmg no mountable file systems
  • Using The Unarchiver gives the same results as Stuffit Expander.

I think the the problem may be caused by a misconfiguration on the download web server and it sure sucks. So remember, simply removing the .bz2 extension may fix the problem.

Comments 6

  1. ciprian wrote:

    you are saying that in fact de file is “just” a dmg file and not a “dmg” that has been compressed with bzip2??? :)

    Posted 17 Sep 2008 at 17:44
  2. admin wrote:

    Yes.

    I think the web server sends an http header with an incorrect mime type set for DMGs and Safari (only) adds the BZ2 extension. One of them is obviously not doing the right thing.

    Firefox doesn’t have the problem, it downloads the file as a .DMG.

    PS: I’ve had this problem while downloading Quicksilver from http://www.blacktree.com/ but I also encounter it occasionally with other file types.

    Posted 17 Sep 2008 at 19:43
  3. Felipe wrote:

    Thank you so much! You have solved a mystery for me. I’ve been having this problem since I went mac and finally decided to google it.

    Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 15:07
  4. admin wrote:

    Felipe, I’m glad it helps. I’ve made this post the n-th time I’ve Googled for an answer myself :-)

    Posted 22 Sep 2008 at 15:50
  5. amprodees wrote:

    Hi am having problen with a file with this extensions “file.dmg.bz2.001″ it’s a file compressed in a multiple packages can anybody help me please?

    Posted 20 Dec 2009 at 16:43
  6. admin wrote:

    @amprodees: you may want to try The Unarchiver, it works great with all archive formats.

    Posted 27 Jan 2010 at 18:10

Post a Comment

Your email is never published nor shared. Required fields are marked *