virtualbox.org

Hello,

For my LPIC 101 course I need to use some VM's for labs. I have a Macbook Pro running OSX El Capitan 10.11.6 and installed the latest version of VirtualBox .

When I try to open one of the VMX or VMDK files the courseleader provided me, they remain greyed out. Anyone who can help me out with this?

Thanks

A VMDK file is the default format for a virtual hard disk under VMWare, but VirtualBox can attach and can work with them. But VMX is the "recipe" of the VM and is the format that VMWare uses, not VirtualBox.
• Are you sure that you were told to use VirtualBox?
• Are you sure you downloaded the appropriate format?

As Socratis says, a VMX file is a VMWare control file, useless to anyone not using VMWare.

A VMDK is a VMWare disk. VirtualBox can use VMDK type disks, but it's a disk, not a VM, so you can't "open" it. You have to build a VM around it: just like in the real world if you only had the disk drive from an old PC, you'd have to obtain another PC to put it in before you could use the disk.