Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

[doctordruidphd]

I am wondering if this can be done at all:

I cannot boot any of the live CDs (that has been beaten to death, it won't work, period, EOF), but I can boot and install them in virtualbox. I can also copy everything from virtualbox to a USB stick. I can also copy from the USB stick to a partition, and attempt to boot. That much works.

The problem is that the virtual machine in VB is of course very different from the hardware in my actual system, so the installed system will not boot. I could probably chroot into it, though. Question is, is there a way to reconfigure the installation so it sees my actual hardware, without having to run the installer program?

Just an experiment, not suggesting this should be done on a routine basis by anyone else.

[kapil]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

interesting...

just a crazy thought.. don't mind if you were not seeking a workaround..
will it be possible to burn an iso image from the installed VM?

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

will it be possible to burn an iso image from the installed VM

That I don't know. I suppose k3b is there, but how well it will work through the chain of drivers?
I could try it, but what would I burn?

[oshunluvr]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

I have done it with PCLinuxOS because it has a nifty utility script to create your own installable bootable iso. Then I just burned the iso to a cd from the vbox machine and voila.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

create your own installable bootable iso

Are you able to boot on different hardware this way?

[dibl]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

@DD, there are multiple approaches to building a "Live CD" on a USB stick. If your rig will boot from a USB device, then you could use one of these methods to make a "Live CD" on a USB stick, boot that, and proceed to install it or play with it:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3089474.0

http://manual.sidux.com/en/hd-instal...omiso-grub-leg (check out the "fromiso on bootable usb stick")


and if you hate to waste a 4GB USB stick on a 950MB Live Linux:

http://kubuntuforums.net/forums/inde...opic=3107512.0


Hope this helps.

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

there are multiple approaches to building a "Live CD" on a USB stick

OK on all that, but the problem is a little different.

I can, and have, made a "live USB" as opposed to a live CD using the original .iso. It doesn't work (won't boot, crashes just like a live Cd.) Dead end.

I did install the live CD to virtual box, then (from within virtualbox) boot with the live CD and make a copy of the system onto the USB. So I now have an exact clone of my virtualbox system on the USB. Then boot a normal hard-disk system, and copy (sudo rsync -av, actually) the USB to an empty bootable partition, then run update-grub. And modify /etc/fstab appropriately. So now I can boot the cloned system.

Well, not exactly. That's the problem. The system installed on the virtualbox is set up to use the virtual hardware, with drivers and configurations that are different from what the actual hardware in the real machine is (even though both are amd_64). Consequently, it won't boot. The problem is analogous to transferring a system from one brand of computer to another, with different system boards, displays, etc. Simply copying won't work.

So what I am wondering is if this can even be done -- is it a matter of reconfiguring the kernel, or ?? So far, I haven't figured out what to do, or how to do it.

[dibl]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

I know you've been contending with a booting issue on that rig -- it sounds odd. If the Grub system is actually getting to the kernel image, and then crashing, I guess it's fair to point at the kernel. But are you sure the BIOS is identifying bootable devices correctly? Have you tried fiddling with the "mode" settings on your SATA and/or IDE channels? I've seen the Kubuntu installer crash and burn on "AHCI", but happily install on "legacy IDE" mode, for a SATA channel, for example. Also for USB, you might check out "legacy USB" versus "USB2", if you haven't tried it. It almost smacks of a BIOS issue, although if it's happy with older versions of Live CDs, then one can only wonder about what's happening when it hits the kernel image.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

create your own installable bootable iso

Are you able to boot on different hardware this way?

Yeah - if you don't strip out everything from the basic system. I have four computers using linux and know them all quite well so never had any trouble. PCLinuxOS is a "rolling" distro so if you installed from the 2007 iso you had about 500 updates. Doing it once and then installing saved a lot of time.

I think if you can't create a bootable USB stick you're unlikely to be more sucessful with an .iso.

Sounds like you may have a hardware issue...

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

I know you've been contending with a booting issue on that rig

Yeah, between that and the video issues, I'm about ready to trade for an abacus.

I have tried pretty much all the settings in the BIOS, which on this system, really doesn't offer much beyond 'enable' and 'disable'.

The history of this is that with the appearance of the -31 kernels, k/x/l/ubuntu cds quit booting, but sidux-aether and opensuse-11.2, which I believe are both -31, did boot. Sidux-moros, which is either a -32 or -33, won't boot. The nvidia .195 driver installs fine on karmic's -31 kernel, but chokes on anything after that. So I am thinking this all points to a kernel regression of some kind. When I get opensuse-11.3 downloaded, I will give that a try, as it's most likely a -32 or -33. I already tried the debian-squeeze beta, which dies in the same spot (as soon as the kernel loads).

In any event, I'm getting the idea that it isn't possible to do what I wanted to try, namely, installing the system in a virtualbox, then moving it to a regular hard disk. When I tried it, the kernel loads, and then complains right away about not finding hardware (as I would expect it to do). I guess there isn't a workaround for that.

I think if you can't create a bootable USB stick you're unlikely to be more sucessful with an .iso

I can create a bootable USB stick from an existing system, that will boot on the same hardware. What I am asking is if I set up a bootable system on one platform (which happens to be a virtualbox), is there a way to get that system to boot on another platform -- set up on 64-bit VB and then transfer to hard disk and boot on the real machine.
Maybe I'm not explaining this clearly. Since the hardware on the system I installed on is different from the hardware I want to run on, is there a way to migrate the system from one hardware platform to another without reinstalling? Just copying doesn't work, that has already been tried.
One can, for example, install a system in virtualbox, and copy the virtualbox file to another computer and run it in virtualbox on that computer, because the simulated bios's are the same. One can also create a system on a particualr computer, and copy the system to another identical computer, and it will run just fine - I have done that. But, when one sets up a system on one kind of hardware, and tries to run it on different hardware, it dies, because the system is configured for hardware that doesn't exist on the new system. The question I am asking is, is it possible to reconfigure a system from one hardware platform so it will run on different hardware, without having to reinstall?

[oshunluvr]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

Well, the pclinuxos script was designed to do just that but I never dug too far into it's inner workings. It was great because I could change my /etc/skel to my own settings, remove packages I didn't need, add one's I wanted, update everything, then burn my own "distro." It uses a program called "mklivecd" to create a bootable working remastered copy.

I haven't had any use for a liveUSB so I haven't tried yet, but what use is it if it will only boot on the system it was created The downloaded liveCD can do that.

Here's a debian tool based on the mklivecd mandriva tool:

http://www.geekconnection.org/remast...ersystool.html

There's links fro Ubuntu how-to and install. A quick read makes it look likes it's worth a try.


Back to your actual issue of not being able to boot the newer kernels, why not just stay with the older version

[doctordruidphd]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

Back to your actual issue of not being able to boot the newer kernels, why not just stay with the older version

Meaning, I am stuck with Karmic forever??

Actually, I have discovered something interesting. OpenSUSE-11.3 beta (or milestone, or whatever it is) boots and runs from the live cd. And it's kernel 2.6.33.

So there is some kind of regression in the debian branch kernels, since it affects debian, sidux and ubutnu.

I guess I have to start learning how rpm distros work. That's not the solution I was hoping for.

Edit: I had completely forgotten about remastersys. That might do the trick. Thanks.
Edit Again: look like remastersys depends on ubiquity, which is currently broken (dependency problems). Wait and see.

[oshunluvr]

Re: Moving a system from virtualbox to hard disk?

Yikes, you just can"t catch a break can you?


I guess you're right - you at least need to try the kernel's hoping whatever is broken ges fixed. Looks like you're in for some debugging!!!!