CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
BasMevissen
Posts: 23
Joined: 20. May 2015, 23:43

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by BasMevissen »

As you brought it up again, let me explain my current position :-)

It is new information for me that CloneVDI will be actively supported on Wine (I might have missed that in the lengthy discussion thread). That is definitely good news. Until now, I assumed that we should be happy it was fine on Wine.
My wish to not rely on Wine for CloneVDI is for running it for example on a Linux NAS to compact VDI backup copies. You don't want Wine nor a GUI there.

Given that CloneVDI on Wine is supported and Don is not keen on spending time on something else than win32/wine support, I don't think it makes much sense to pursue a native version. It would be a heavily modified clone because of using a different toolkit (e.g. Qt) or a command-line version only. That is not what I want to create and maintain.

So in summary: Don, thanks for creating this tool and maintaining it on Wine.
mpack
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Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

I did tell the story early in this long discussion topic. Basically CloneVDI was going to be a fun learning exercise for me: I was going to be using a new compiler (I experimented with Eclipse+gcc, CodeBlocks, maybe others - I forget). I was willing to start learning a new graphics API in order to achieve multiplatform-ness (and learn a bit more about Linux), so I naively started researching what the standard graphics API for Linux was... and to my dismay I found that there isnt one. Yes there's a basic underlying X infrastructure, but I gather that people don't target that directly, instead there was a whole bunch of competing APIs. It was literally pointless my learning that stuff because I would not achieve the multiplatform coverage that I hoped, not without imposing an onerous burden on my core Windows users to no benefit ISTM.

Then I realized that Wine actually does all that I needed and more: OS X is supported too, and probably others.
King Nothing
Posts: 4
Joined: 26. Oct 2013, 21:36

Re: VDI-file size increase

Post by King Nothing »

Don,
Just downloaded CloneVDI, installed and ran it. I had created a VDI-file of 2 GB as test and installed XP on it. During installation of updates I already got the message that there was insufficient diskspace.
So I ran CloneVDI, loaded the small VDI-file and enlarged it to 20 GB. I also checked "Increase partition space" and clicked "Proceed". IT WORKED like a charm.
Great tool!

Thanks so much :P
mpack
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Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

Thanks. :)
Thaaaru
Posts: 1
Joined: 13. May 2016, 15:54

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Thaaaru »

Hi mpack,

I tried using the tool to convert a Windows 2003 VMDK to VDI with the option Keep UUID, however when I open the newly created VDI from Virtualbox, the Windows 2003 is deactivated ?
Is there anyway I can make it work ?

Really appreciate your help on this .

thanks
thaaaru
mpack
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Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

If this was originally a VirtualBox VM then Win2k3 should not be aware of any change. However if you have copied this VMDK from a different VM platform then many more things than hdd UUID count towards the activation signature, practically speaking there would be no way to avoid the need to reactivate. This shouldn't be a problem - just reactivate it?

Incidentally: VMDKs don't always have a UUID, but VDIs must. So, sometimes CloneVDI has to create a new UUID regardless of how you set that option.
AnrDaemon
Posts: 134
Joined: 7. Feb 2010, 23:41
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu Linux, Windows

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by AnrDaemon »

On top of that, I'm not sure if disk UUID is ever visible inside a VM.
mpack
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Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

AnrDaemon wrote:On top of that, I'm not sure if disk UUID is ever visible inside a VM.
It is, via DMI I think.

The activation of a retail XP/Win2k3 VM can be affected by hdd UUID. This changed from Win7 on - hdd UUID was no longer weighted significantly (if at all), VM (seen as motherboard) UUID counted instead, and probably more strongly.

Some Linux grub boot scripts (i.e. those that identify the boot drive by UUID) can also be broken when the hdd UUID changes.

These facts are after all why CloneVDI offers a "keep UUID" option. If only VirtualBox cared then it wouldn't matter so much.
AnrDaemon
Posts: 134
Joined: 7. Feb 2010, 23:41
Primary OS: MS Windows 7
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu Linux, Windows

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by AnrDaemon »

To my knowledge, i.e. GRUB looking at filesystem UUID, not disk UUID (not even partition UUID).
I looked at DMI, and only found a part of the disk UUID represented as disk serial number.

Code: Select all

SerialNo=VB<first eight octets of image UUID>
mpack
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Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

I don't have time to confirm your result, but it doesn't seem to make a practical difference to anything I said. I.e. disk UUID is visible to the guest, and it may affect activation or grub boot. If you want to debate that then please don't do it in this topic as I believe the parts relevant to CloneVDI have been covered already.
Soob
Posts: 3
Joined: 8. Jan 2014, 02:46

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Soob »

v 2.51 running under W7x64, it goes unresponsive as soon as I click browse for source. I made no changes to any default settings, I have not used previous versions. Have tried as administrator, same result.
mpack
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Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

That sounds like a normal host OS problem. CloneVDI asks the Windows shell to display a file browser, and it's the shell which hangs, usually because some kind of external resource is not responding. When I saw this before it was a buggy BlueTooth driver stack.
Soob
Posts: 3
Joined: 8. Jan 2014, 02:46

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by Soob »

Hmm, everything else on the host seems normal, no bluetooth on the machine BTW, I'll try again after a reboot but I've manually done what I needed now so no need for a reboot soon.
miroslavres
Posts: 3
Joined: 26. Jun 2016, 19:06

Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by miroslavres »

I want to clone single virtual machine 10 times.
Is there an option in VirtualBox to do it?
If there is, can you tell me how to do it.

Thanks
Miroslav
mpack
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Re: CloneVDI tool - Discussion & Support

Post by mpack »

This is not the VirtualBox cloning support topic, this is the CloneVDI (a third party tool) discussion topic. But briefly: yes, I have no doubt you could use the command line and a batch file. I will not give further details here - please ask questions about VirtualBox cloning in an appropriate forum, e.g. the "Using VirtualBox" forum.
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