A while ago I turned my PC into dual boot with Windows and Ubuntu.
But my experience is, that I rarely boot into Ubuntu, so I wanted to make it available as virtual machine in Windows rather than as a second OS.
Can you provide me some information which is the tool of my choice and how I can achieve this migration?
I already have VMWare Player installed.
Add a comment
|
3 Answers
Have you tried VMWare vCenter Converter (http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/)? The information on the page looks promising as well as being free.
-
Yeah this looked promising on the first sight, but unfortunately it just converts the running (Windows) or a remote machine, there's no option for another local OS– dan-leeCommented Apr 15, 2012 at 15:11
-
1@DanLee There is a Linux version of the vCenter Converter. It's on the download page right beneath the Windows version. Commented Apr 23, 2012 at 20:37
-
@ScottChamberlain Thanks for hinting this, I couldn't register on the site on this date, so I had to rely on 3rd party sites. However I have another machine where I need to apply the same procedure. If this will work there, I will change my accepted answer to this.– dan-leeCommented Apr 23, 2012 at 20:47
-
Unfortunately that was a dead end too. Either I am too dumb or it simply does not work like I intend it to. But on that way I found another possibility to it, and it's edited in my answer.– dan-leeCommented Apr 25, 2012 at 19:49
After much juggling around, I finally found a tutorial which helped me the way through: Virtualizing a Linux System
Basically it's simple but needs a bit of work.
I needed to create images from all the existing partitions on my physical Ubuntu. I recreated a similar virtual machine and then I restored the boot loader. That's it.
Historically, another method would be to use Remastersys (much easier!) However, the project is now dead.
-
Your link to remastersys links to a manufacturing company. I don't see how that would help with linux.– spuderCommented Jan 18, 2017 at 21:55
-
Remastersys is no longer active. The link has been updated to point to a historical version of the site. Commented Dec 10, 2019 at 18:37
Here I explain another way for those who have Windows OS beside the linux OS on the same machine.All of these steps are done in Virtual machine and it doesn't have any effect on your physical drives. First I give a summery to show the main idea and then I give more details.
1-In the Windows environment, create a backup of your linux EX4 partition.You can use any available backup software.(Here I used Acronis True Image 2016)
2-Create a new virtual machine in Vmware and start recovering process using the backup that you've created in previous section.
3-After doing recovery, you have the same Linux partition in your new virtual machine. Now to enable booting, you need to repair the Linux Grub which is capable of booting your system....And its done!
Some Details for implementation:
In the case of using "Acronis True Image 2016", these notes will be helpful.
1-When your are going to create a new virtual machine in Vmware, you should add "tow" hard drives for it.One hard drive must have "physical" access to your external HDD which your backup resides there.Another one must be the "virtual drive" and must be a little bigger than your Ex4 Linux partition.
2-For doing recovery process in boot, Acronis Gives you a rescue disk. Use this rescue disk in Vmware and boot the virtual system.
3-Because the virtual HDD that Vmware gives your is Raw, it is not accessible in Acronis rescue boot menu. So before starting recovery , you must create an EX4 partition from "add new disk" menu in rescue disk boot menu.
4-After doing the recovery process, you will have the exact copy of Linux EX4 partition in your VM.Now For Enable booting, use a Ubuntu live Disk for Repairing boot menu. To do so you can use this link.
