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In addition to OCI container images, microsandbox can boot a sandbox directly from a disk image file. The guest gets raw block device access, and its kernel mounts the filesystem from the device directly. This is a fundamentally different path from OCI images. With OCI, microsandbox stacks image layers as a copy-on-write filesystem. With disk images, the guest owns the block device. No overlay, no copy-on-write between sandboxes. Use disk images when you need a pre-built VM template, a custom kernel configuration, or an OS that isn’t available as a container image.

Supported formats

Usage

When you pass a file path ending in .qcow2, .raw, or .vmdk, microsandbox auto-detects the format. For disk-image roots, rename ambiguous files with one of those extensions and set the filesystem type when auto-detection needs a hint.
The filesystem type (ext4, xfs, etc.) must match what’s actually on the disk image. The guest kernel mounts it using the specified filesystem driver.