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Virtual Machines from Real Partitons

Posted: 17. Nov 2010, 05:20
by FireLizzard
I'm trying to get VirtualBox to launch virtual machines using the partitions for Windows 7 and Linux Mint 9. I used 3.0.8 to create the vdmk files:

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VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -partitions 2 -filename /Users/<username>/Library/VirtualBox/Windows\ 7.vmdk -register
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -partitions 3 -filename /Users/<username>/Library/VirtualBox/Linux\ Mint.vmdk -register
Before this, I added my user to the 'operator' group and sudo chmod 777'ed /dev/disk0, /dev/disk0s2, and /dev/disk0s3. I then created the two VMs in VB (Windows 7 and Ubuntu (64-bit)), and added the VHDs as IDE devices. Both Linux and WIndows tried to boot, but they are both broken anyways, so neither of them actually booted. I closed VB, messed around with some files and stuff so that I could finally actually modify what I needed to on the WIndows partition such that it would hopefully boot again, and then re-launched VB, and, for both VMs, it said the Images were read only. Help?

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% sudo fdisk /dev/disk0
Disk: /dev/disk0	geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 sectors]
Signature: 0xAA55
         Starting       Ending
 #: id  cyl  hd sec -  cyl  hd sec [     start -       size]
------------------------------------------------------------------------
 1: EE 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [         1 -     409639] <Unknown ID>
 2: 07 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [    409640 -  796912375] HPFS/QNX/AUX
*3: 83 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 797322015 -   88084395] Linux files*
 4: 82 1023 254  63 - 1023 254  63 [ 885406410 -   16771860] Linux swap

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% diskutil list /dev/disk0
/dev/disk0
   #:                       TYPE NAME                    SIZE       IDENTIFIER
   0:      GUID_partition_scheme                        *1.0 TB     disk0
   1:                        EFI                         209.7 MB   disk0s1
   2:       Microsoft Basic Data Shadowfax               408.0 GB   disk0s2
   3:       Microsoft Basic Data Gwahir                  45.1 GB    disk0s3
   4:                 Linux Swap                         8.6 GB     disk0s4
   5:                  Apple_HFS Radagast                1.1 GB     disk0s5
   6:                  Apple_HFS Gandalf                 536.9 GB   disk0s6

Re: Virtual Machines from Real Partitons

Posted: 17. Nov 2010, 23:09
by JimBushWhack
Please see the discussion in:
http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 66&start=0
Which I believe is pertinent to your problem. VB does not currently work with disk partitions very well.