virtualbox.org

I'm new to VB and would like to open up some of my VMWare images in Ubuntu. I do not have VMWare installed on my Ubuntu install and do not plan to. Here are the things I would like to do without installing VMWare on my Ubuntu OS..

1. Run my VMWare image within VB. I do not want to convert them. These still need to work in VMWare.
2. Mount my VMWare images in Ubuntu (this forum might not be the best place for this question).

I know there are lots of info on the web but it is still rather confusing. Some articles say that I have to convert the image. Others say I have to open them up in VMWare and change some hard drive controller config files. Others say that I need to boot off a cd and run some clean up tool because the virtual drivers VMWare uses will screw up VB.

Right now I have the image added to the VB image library. I made a new VB and assigned it to this VB hard drive. When I try to launch it I get the Sun splash screen then a black screen that just hangs there.

The black screen on startup is probably because you didn't enable the IO APIC in Vbox. There is no "correct" setting for the IO APIC, but it needs to be the same as whatever it was before: and I understand that VMWare defaults to having it enabled.

As to the rest: VBox virtualises different hardware than VMWare. It's possible but not trivial to set up a different hardware profile... but it's not something I've ever needed to do, and don't know if it can be done without changing the user account. Depending on Windows version and license you may well also have a problem with activation: the two sets of hardware requiring separate activations, which isn't practical with a single Windows license.

And of course, VMWare Guest Additions will not work with the VBox host software, and vice versa.

In summary: VBox is a distinct application, not a free version of VMWare. It is not realistic to expect one to use the files of the other without issues. While one time VM conversion is quite possible, I doubt that portability between VBox and VMWare is practical with a Windows guest. ISTM that the obvious solution is for you to switch to VBox entirely, since it will run on all the platforms you need it to.

mpack wrote:The black screen on startup is probably because you didn't enable the IO APIC in Vbox. There is no "correct" setting for the IO APIC, but it needs to be the same as whatever it was before: and I understand that VMWare defaults to having it enabled.

As to the rest: VBox virtualises different hardware than VMWare. It's possible but not trivial to set up a different hardware profile... but it's not something I've ever needed to do, and don't know if it can be done without changing the user account. Depending on Windows version and license you may well also have a problem with activation: the two sets of hardware requiring separate activations, which isn't practical with a single Windows license.

And of course, VMWare Guest Additions will not work with the VBox host software, and vice versa.

In summary: VBox is a distinct application, not a free version of VMWare. It is not realistic to expect one to use the files of the other without issues. While one time VM conversion is quite possible, I doubt that portability between VBox and VMWare is practical with a Windows guest. ISTM that the obvious solution is for you to switch to VBox entirely, since it will run on all the platforms you need it to.

Thank you for your help on this.