[Resolved] Grub issue with imported .ovf and .vmdk from VMware

[vbox_lover]

I got strange issue, when I imported disk images from VMware, basically what I did is, I exported

Code: Select all

.ovf

and

Code: Select all

.vmdk

from VMware, and using import appliances program from Virtualbox, I imported, everything went well, unfortunately on default boot ( which is 1st item in grub menu), system entering in emergency mode, but it seems to work in grub-rescue mode, what could be the reason ? , how to fix this issue ?

I have attached 3 screenshots of the same.

[mpack]

The usual reason is that that the grub boot script is looking for a particular boot drive by UUID instead of a boot location. You would need to modify the grub script, ideally removing the UUID dependency.

Possibility 2: the source VM use EFI (GPT partitions), the target VM does not enable EFI. Since EFI partitions use a different style of boot mechanism the drive would not be seen as containing any bootable partitions by a legacy MBR BIOS.

[vbox_lover]

Hi, thanks for the hint, I could fix it,

Here is a way to do that, if anyone in future finds difficulty after migrating:

• Boot from grub-rescue mode
• Login as root user
• and then execute following

  Code: Select all

  # dracut -f -v
  # reboot
  

From dracut man page

Code: Select all

-f, --force
    overwrite existing initramfs file. 
-v, --verbose
    verbose output during the build process 

please note dracut takes little time to rebuild the image, for me it took around 1 min.

[socratis]

Glad you got it going. Marking as [Resolved].

[kremeznoy]

Do You know how to fix this in automated way? I mean maybe there is an option to update grub before You do vmdk export and then import it in Virtual Box and run VM successfully from 1st attempt without any restoration by dracut?

[mpack]

Obviously, if you remove the UUID dependency in grub before cloning then it can't cause a problem after cloning. And yes, I consider it better to apply the solution at source if you intend to clone/export this VM a lot.