I created a disk image of a Ubuntu (12.04) system by using
dd if=/dev/sda6 of=xxx.img
The VDI image was created by using
vboxmanage clonehd xxx.img xxx.vdi --format VDI
When I create a new VM in VirtualBox and use the created VDI as mass storage the system does not boot because VirtualBox finds no bootable medium:
FATAL: No bootable medium found! System halted.
What else do I need to do in order to make the VDI image bootable?
I did it in the following way:
~$ fallocate -l xxsizeM xxx.img
~$ fdisk xxx.img
Partition as needed and don't forget to leave some space at the beginning and set a partition bootable flag using 'a' and a partition number.
~$ losetup -f --show xxx.img
Will connect your file to a loop device /dev/loopY. Remember that Y number.
~$ kpartx -a /dev/loopY
Now you have access to this disk as if it was a normal HD through /dev/mapper/loopYpZ where Z are your partitions as you set them up using fdisk.
dd your ubuntu to the bootable partition (i would run mkfs.xxfstype /dev/mapper/loopYpZ first just in case).
~$ dd if=/usr/lib/syslinux/mbr.bin of=/dev/loopY conv=notrunc
to clone your mbr contents into the image's mbr.
~$ sync; kpartx -d /dev/loopY; losetup -d /dev/loopY
Convert your image to vdi/vmdk as you did, and now it should work for you... Hope that helps...
