Migrate virtual linux guest to physical machine

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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TheMattMan0425
Posts: 2
Joined: 10. Aug 2017, 23:38

Migrate virtual linux guest to physical machine

Post by TheMattMan0425 »

Hi,
I am running Virtualbox on a Windows 10 machine. I have a few linux VM's that I want to migrate to physical devices. How would I go about doing this?
I am testing:
VBoxManage clonehd "E:\Virtual Machines\linuxa.vdi" e:\temp001\linuxa.img --format RAW
and/or
VBoxManage clonehd "E:\Virtual Machines\linuxa.vdi" e:\temp001\linuxa.iso --format RAW

The first physical device I am using is an Odroid-XU4 board for a NAS. I will eventually be doing Intel NUC devices as well.

Any suggestions?


Update:
tried both, iso using Rufus-2 to write to SD card: no boot of Odroid. img using Win32DiskImage to SD card: no boot of Odroid
BillG
Volunteer
Posts: 5104
Joined: 19. Sep 2009, 04:44
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 10,7 and earlier
Location: Sydney, Australia

Re: Migrate virtual linux guest to physical machine

Post by BillG »

It is not as simple as that. An OS contains drivers for all of its connected devices. If you change from one machine (physical or virtual) to another, these devices are different and will require different drivers. Sometimes you can boot up then do a repair install, but often it will not even boot.
Bill
TheMattMan0425
Posts: 2
Joined: 10. Aug 2017, 23:38

Re: Migrate virtual linux guest to physical machine

Post by TheMattMan0425 »

@Bill I understand it would not be that simple. But I have to start somewhere and that seemed to be a direction. Though I believe with linux it is that much easier as it has tons of simple drivers that work with most things. I had fully planned to spend time getting things right after the image overlay.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Migrate virtual linux guest to physical machine

Post by Perryg »

You will probably need to repair the boot loader since it is expecting something different now. Search for how to repair a boot loader for Linux. There are a lot of different approaches so you will need to find the one that fits your needs.
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39134
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Migrate virtual linux guest to physical machine

Post by mpack »

Moving this topic to "Linux Guests" since the question doesn't concern your Windows Host in any way.
TheMattMan0425 wrote: I am testing:
VBoxManage clonehd "E:\Virtual Machines\linuxa.vdi" e:\temp001\linuxa.img --format RAW
and/or
VBoxManage clonehd "E:\Virtual Machines\linuxa.vdi" e:\temp001\linuxa.iso --format RAW
Sorry, but I'm afraid these commands are nonsense. E.g. if the clone is raw, why are you giving it an ISO extension? Imaging an hdd gives you an hdd image, not an ISO image (an ISO means a CD/DVD image containing a ISO 9660 filesystem).

If you want to transfer a working hdd image between PCs then you need to run an image backup tool on one PC and an image restore tool on the target PC. It makes no difference which of these PCs is physical or virtual.
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