"Size" has two completely different meanings in the UI: size of virtual drive (when using Apple Virtualization) vs. actual size on host disk (QEMU)

[rxhfcy]

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(I did find #3362, but I think this is different enough to make a new issue, although I also agree that it would be great to have both the size of the virtual drive and the actual size on disk in the VM details)

Describe the issue
"Size" has two completely different meanings in the UTM UI (VM details):

• it's either size of the virtual drive (when the VM is using Apple Virtualization)
• ...or actual size on (host) disk (when it's a QEMU VM)

Steps to reproduce:

• Make 2 "native" (arm64) Linux VM's:
• one using Apple Virtualization (default settings otherwise) -> "test 1"
• the other using QEMU virtualization (default settings otherwise) -> "test 2"
• choose "test 1", look at "Size" in the UI
  (shows the size of the virtual drive (64 GB)
• choose "test 2", look at "Size" in the UI
  (shows the actual size the drive takes on the host filesystem, much less than 64 GB)

What happens: "Size" has two completely different meanings
What I expected: have the same meaning everywhere

From the point of view of a normal user who doesn't know what happens under the hood, it's very surprising that using Apple Virtualization suddenly changes the meaning of "Size" in the VM details UI

Configuration

• UTM Version: Version 4.3.5 (87)
• macOS Version: 14.0 Beta (23A5337a)
• Mac Chip (Intel, M1, ...): M1

[rxhfcy]

Apple Virtualization ("test 1")

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QEMU ARM VM ("test 2")

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[rxhfcy]

Shouldn't the "Size" label in the UI be renamed to "Size on disk" (or something like that, to clarify that this means "the actual used size on disk")?

[osy]

I mean that’s typically what “size” means.

[rxhfcy]

Sure, but it's weird and confusing that the OS reports two wildly different "sizes" for Apple Virtualization VM's, and this would make it crystal clear which "Size" is meant here. This would give a user who "knows just enough to be dangerous" a hint that the VM isn't actually taking up all of the 64 Gibibytes / 68.72 Gigabytes on the disk (68.72 GB is what Finder shows as "Size").

The screenshot from the earlier comment, shows several different "sizes" for the 64 GiB drive:

• "68.72 GB" in the upper right corner
• "Size: 68,719,609,845 bytes" (Finder thinks the "size" is 68.72 GB)
• "(3.96 GB on disk)"
  

[osy]

Yes you made that post and it’s fixed in d6ddf5a I don’t know what the issue is?

[rxhfcy]

I should have opened a new issue for this follow-up issue (clarifying the "Size" label).

The problem is that macOS Finder shows "Size" as "68.72 GB",
but UTM reports something completely different under the same label of "Size" ("3.64 GB", the actual size on disk) after d6ddf5a.

This will lead to unnecessary confusion that can be avoided by renaming the "Size" label in UTM as "Size on Disk".

Shouldn't the "Size" label in the UI be renamed to "Size on disk" (or something like that, to clarify that this means "the actual used size on disk")?

I mean that’s typically what “size” means.

Here's a screen shot that shows that Finder shows the "Size" as 68.72 GB because of the 64 GiB drive (not the actual size on disk)