[Solved] Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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paok1926
Posts: 7
Joined: 6. Oct 2011, 03:43
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: windows xp

[Solved] Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by paok1926 »

hello all,

i had some guests running on Vmware, but i moved them to my Imac, successfully, where i run VirtualBox 5.1.30.
they are .vmdk files, with a text .vmdk file, which helped me to import them to VirtualBox.

Now its time to move them to a Debian 9, running VirtualBox 5.2
I have setup the host, everything works, but i tried to transfer a host there and failed. I think that .vmdk files are not supported on Linux VirtualBox..
Is there any guide, anything i have to take care before moving them to the Linux host ?

regards,
George
Last edited by socratis on 17. Jan 2018, 22:08, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Marked as [Solved].
socratis
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Location: Greece

Re: Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by socratis »

paok1926 wrote:i tried to transfer a host there and failed.
How and why? How did you try to transfer them, and why did it fail, what was the failure?
paok1926 wrote:I think that .vmdk files are not supported on Linux VirtualBox.
Not a true statement.
paok1926 wrote:Is there any guide, anything i have to take care before moving them to the Linux host ?
I thought you'd never ask! ;)
There is a guide which is for all hosts, there's nothing Linux specific: "Moving a VM".
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
paok1926
Posts: 7
Joined: 6. Oct 2011, 03:43
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: windows xp

Re: Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by paok1926 »

hello,

this article is about moving a VM between hosts with a graphic environment..
in my case, i want to move some guests, from a host with a graphic environment to a host without.. :)
mpack
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Re: Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by mpack »

Adapt it. It's very obvious that you need command line equivalents of the command mentioned, so RTFM.
paok1926
Posts: 7
Joined: 6. Oct 2011, 03:43
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: windows xp

[Solved] Re: Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by paok1926 »

well.. this is the procedure i followed to move my VMs from Vmware (esxi 5.5) to Virtualbox (debian linux 9, headless, vbox 5.2), using my Imac (vbox 5.1)

I downloaded both files from vmware server, xxx.vmdk and xxx-flat.vmdk
I created a new VM on my Imac, using the xxx.vmdk file (it has all the info, about disks, etc)
I got sure that the VM was working on Imac, so i exported it as .ova and transferred it to Linux.
then i used the following command to import it..
vboxmanage import --vsys 0 --unit 10 --disk /path to my images/xxx-disk001.vmdk ./xxx.ova

and everything works flawlessly :)

thank you very much all, for the support, especially, Socratis :)
socratis
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Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
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Re: Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by socratis »

Hey, I didn't write that moving HowTo, mpack did, but I'll take it ;)
Glad you got it going. Marking as [Solved].

PS. I just noticed that you did mark your last reply as [Solved]. For future reference, you mark the 1st message in the thread, mainly because that's the one showing in the thread list, and in the search engine results. But thanks anyways...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
paok1926
Posts: 7
Joined: 6. Oct 2011, 03:43
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: windows xp

Re: [Solved] Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by paok1926 »

a small detail..
when you move a vm from Vmware to Virtualbox, dont forget to uninstall Vmware Tools, because you will be not able to shutdown Windows :)

if you do a VBoxManage controlvm <id> acpipowerbutton it ..restarts :)
(win xp + win 2k3)
socratis
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Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
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Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: [Solved] Moving guests from Macos to Linux..

Post by socratis »

paok1926 wrote:if you do a VBoxManage controlvm <id> acpipowerbutton it ..restarts
That's because you have configured your guest to do that? Have you double-checked in (usually) the Power Preferences? Something like "Choose what the power button does", or similar...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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