virtualbox.org

Hi all,

I have been trying unsuccessfully to get a VMWare vm running inside VirtualBox. This is because VMWare server is not stable inside a Windows 7 host. I would also like to get it running as I need another VM from one of my clients in order to test hardware and that is in VirtualBox.

Any pointers at all would be appreciated.

I had followed this...
blog. hutzoft. com/2010/10/18/importing-vmware-vmdk-disk-to-oracle-virtualbox/ to attach my existing disk (with disasterous consequences... see my previous post).

I want to give this a go, but when I boot the VM, I get the windows is starting but it just fails to fully boot.

There's no special trick. Remove the VMWare tools, create a VirtualBox VM around the VMDK, make the VM recipe as close as possible to what VMWare had. Make sure IO APIC is enabled.

OK, I will try all that later on a copy.

I am also assuming I need to turn off my snapshots as well on the VMWare VM.

Is all I need the .vmdk file or do I need any other files that VMWare has created?

I will keep you up to date.

I would get rid of all snapshots before attempting to port it to VirtualBox. If you have snapshots then you need all files (not just the base VMDK), control files too - and it's much harder to do.

Well, I removed my snapshots and also removed VMWare tools. I was then able to boot my Windows XP guest in VB.

I am still getting used to it and not yet sure what I can do... an example of what I would like, that was available in VMWare tools was that I could stretch the window that the VM is inside and that would be my screen resolution.

How can I do this?

All I can see at the moment in the guest is the default VGA options, which don't really suit my host.

I have installed the extension pack, but I can't see anything in there that will help me.

I have tried clicking Install Guest Additions, but I cannot see what this does. I cannot see any way to stretch my guest desktop (apart from Host C, which is not suitable for me).

If you click on install guest additions in the top tab it will mount them in the guests CD drive. Now sometimes they don't auto-start due to various reasons including having auto-start turned off in the guest. If that happens you open the guests file manager (Windows) and execute the installer manually. Linux is slightly different but I will not go into that unless you state this is a Linux guest. Once they are installed you will be able to drag the screen to what ever size you want or use the host+f toggle to go in and out of full screen.

Ah, excellent... thank you very much guys for your help. I seem to be up and running now.