CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

[mpack]

Please if you can let me know (personal message or reply) if you plan on adding command line arguments.

I've considered adding a command line interface, and may do so. But, just out of curiosity... VBoxManage already gives you some of the same functionaility with a command line, why do you want CloneVDI to have a CLI as well?

[michaeld_bqe]

The main reason for the command line interface is to increase database size etc if need be. I can do it all via ssh and or other needs. You have such a great tool an in all honesty with a combination of the vboxmanage exe and your application possibilities are endless with batch scripts and vb scripts. Please note again I would be more than happy to help assist you and learn from your great work.

-MikeD

[mpack]

Please note again I would be more than happy to help assist you...

Well, thanks for the offer, but I've implemented CLI tools many times in the past, so I don't foresee any special difficulty getting it to work this time.

[michaeld_bqe]

Is there something I can do to persuade you to release your CLI edition soon

-Mike D

[hkfastfood]

I cannot convert a 18GB VMDK to VDI. The "Validation result" is "The source file does not exist" and the [Proceed] button is disabled. I put all these file under the same folder :-

clonevdi.exe, clonevdi.ini
thevm.nvram
thevm.vmdk (~18GB)
thevm.vmsd
thevm.vmx
thevm.vmxf

My platform is Windows XP, HDD formatted in NTFS with sufficient disk space. CloneVDI is v1.40.
As I can use this VMDK under my working Mac OS X 10.6 with latest VirtualBox 3.0.8, this big 18GB file was "split" to a FAT32 external HDD and then "copy /b xaa+xab+... thevm.vmdk" in Windows XP with NTFS HDD for conversion.

Any help?

[mpack]

If you read back a few messages (see top of page 10 of the message archive) then you'll see that this issue was already reported and resolved. It happens if you rename an extent file without editing the associated descriptor file (which is difficult if the descriptor is embedded in the first extent - as in your case). The problem is fixed by renaming the extent back to its original name.

I'll put a fix into v1.41 to handle the case of an embedded descriptor in the first extent. In general however you should NOT rename VMDK extents unless you fully understand what the effects will be.

[DerekTheGeek]

Just wanted to say thank you very much. Your tool has made things so much easier for me and your explanations are very detailed yet clear. Thank you for pouring so much time and effort into this tool.

- Derek

[mpack]

Thank you for the compliments!

[mpack]

NEW VERSION RELEASED - v1.41 (see root message for download link).

Please note that I've released a new version of my CloneVDI tool (v1.41). This version is mostly a maintenance release, the only new feature being that I've provided a command line interface, as a friendly gesture to all of those strange guys who seem to like that kind of thing!

Among the many small tidy-ups and usability tweaks in v1.41 are :-

o You can now use .IMG as a synonym for .RAW.
o Release notes used to say incorrectly that a .RAW (or .IMG) extension was not required for raw images. That has been corrected.
o CloneVDI no longer says "File does not exist" when the source file is read-only.
o CloneVDI no longer says "File does not exist" if you renamed the first extent of a VMDK containing an embedded descriptor.
o Release notes updated to document CLI feature and other changes.
o Other minor tweaks I've probably forgotten.

[Sasquatch]

Is there any chance we see a source release on this one? I'm sure you're teasing the devs right now with this great tool and they can't wait to integrate it into VB.

[mpack]

Is there any chance we see a source release on this one?

Very possible. About the only thing stopping me now is that I have to go through all my sources adding copyright notices everywhere (as recommended by GPL notes), which is something I tend to be lazy about when I'm not showing the source to anyone.

Patience!

[Etepetete]

Thanks again mpack for your awesome tool. In case you are considering localizing it, I offer you my time (at no charge ) to translate it into German. Have a great weekend!

[Sasquatch]

Thanks again mpack for your awesome tool. In case you are considering localizing it, I offer you my time (at no charge ) to translate it into German. Have a great weekend!

Why not grab the latest release, create screenshots and translate them and add the translation to the screenshot itself (either replace the text or point to it). If I'm too bored and mpack won't mind, I might do a Dutch translation .

Very possible. About the only thing stopping me now is that I have to go through all my sources adding copyright notices everywhere (as recommended by GPL notes), which is something I tend to be lazy about when I'm not showing the source to anyone.Patience!

I'm no programmer, so I have all the patience in the world with that. I do know how hard it is to add comments later. It's not a fun thing to do. I just hope that the VB team can integrate it properly into VB.

[mpack]

In case you are considering localizing it ...

Um... actually that's another thing I've been lazy about. All of the dialog boxes etc are in a resource file hence easily localized, but a lot of error messages and so forth are embedded in the C sources. Ok, I was banging out code at a furious rate and this is something I intended to fix eventually. Maybe this is something else I should attend to before releasing the source.

[mpack]

I just hope that the VB team can integrate it properly into VB.

I'm actually not so keen on the idea of integrating it into the VBox sources - that was never my intention. I thought they might want to bundle it as a stand alone utility, but not integrate. I use all my own code for reading VDI, VHD etc, but presumably the VB team would use their own backends for that... leaving just my front end GUI to be integrated, and that hardly seems worth the bother.