[aklug] Re: convert Vmware img to Vbox img

On Monday 21 September 2009, barsalou wrote:
> Quoting Greg Madden <gomadtroll@acsalaska.net>:
>
> <snip>
>
> > I have a nice little thread to myself, hmm nice :-) Never able to
> > just give up, I found that the problem with W2K was it was trying to
> > load 'agp440.sys' and failing.. Seems like an issue in the windows
> > world,lots of google hits,enabling both ACPI and IO APIC in
> > Virtualbox setup, fixed the problem.
> >
> > So you can convert vm's from Vmware to VirtualBox
>
> Nice work Greg. Care to share the new settings? Did this work for
> the NT4 image as well?
>
> Mike B.

NT4 is a different kettle of fish, no joy yet.

Here is my Windows 2000 mini howto, inspired by;
http://ubuntulinuxhelp.com/converting-vmware-images-to-virtualbox-a-
simple-method/

You need to have Virtualbox and qemu installed to do the image
conversions.

I used VirtualBox 3.0.6_OSEr52128, ,qemu (0.10.6-1. Debian Squeeze

Prep the Windows install:
1. Remove the vmware-tools package from the Windows VM before starting.
I used VGA 800x600 for the video.

 I did the conversion in my Vmware directory, ~vmware/W2k/. The
conversion did not do anything to my existing images and files. I have a
backup of my vmware directory :-)

Convert the vmware image to a .bin file: My vmware images are flat files,
ymmv.
'qemu-img convert xxxx-flat.vmdk xxxx.bin'

Convert the .bin file to a .vdi file:
"VBoxManage convertdd xxxx.bin xxxx.vdi"

The vitualbox setting that made it all work for me is enabling ACPI, and
IO APIC, not sure why but W2K would not boot without both.

PCnet-FAST III (Bridged adapter, eth0), I am using bridged networking not
the default NAT.

I used the IDE controller,
COM1, Host Device (/dev/ttyS0)

This is interesting, vmware flat files are images that can be used with
losetup, loop devices.

http://www.cromoteca.com/en/blog/mountflatvmwarediskimagesunderlinux/index.html

Installed; this all matches my kernel 2.6.30-1-686

virtualbox-ose 3.0.6-dfsg-1 x86
virtualization solution - base binaries

ivirtualbox-ose-guest-modules-2.6-686 2:2.6.30-3 PC
virtualization solution for Linux 2.6 on PPro/Celeron

virtualbox-ose-guest-modules-2.6.30-1-686 2.6.30+3.0.2-dfsg-3 PC
virtualization solution for Linux 2.6.30 on PPro/Cel

virtualbox-ose-guest-utils 3.0.6-dfsg-1 x86
virtualization solution - non-X11 guest utilities

virtualbox-ose-guest-x11 3.0.6-dfsg-1 x86
virtualization solution - X11 guest utilities

virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6-686 2:2.6.30-3 PC
virtualization solution for Linux 2.6 on PPro/Celero

virtualbox-ose-modules-2.6.30-1-686 2.6.30+3.0.2-dfsg-3 PC
virtualization solution for Linux 2.6.30 on PPro/Cel

virtualbox-ose-qt 3.0.6-dfsg-1 x86
virtualization solution - Qt based user interface

qemu: on a Debian system there are depends that come with qemu.

The following extra packages will be installed:
  bochsbios debootstrap libvde0 libvdeplug2 openbios-ppc openbios-sparc
openhackware sharutils vde2 vgabios
Suggested packages:
  kqemu-source vde2-cryptcab kvm
The following NEW packages will be installed:
  bochsbios debootstrap libvde0 libvdeplug2 openbios-ppc openbios-sparc
openhackware qemu sharutils vde2 vgabios
0 upgraded, 11 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.
Inst libvde0 (2.2.3-3 Debian:testing)
Inst libvdeplug2 (2.2.3-3 Debian:testing)
Inst openhackware (0.4.1-4 Debian:testing)
Inst vgabios (0.6c-1 Debian:testing)
Inst bochsbios (2.4.1-1 Debian:testing)
Inst openbios-ppc (1.0-3 Debian:testing)
Inst openbios-sparc (1.0-1 Debian:testing)
Inst qemu (0.10.6-1 Debian:testing)
Inst sharutils (1:4.6.3-3 Debian:testing)
Inst vde2 (2.2.3-3 Debian:testing)
Inst debootstrap (1.0.15 Debian:testing)
Conf libvde0 (2.2.3-3 Debian:testing)
Conf libvdeplug2 (2.2.3-3 Debian:testing)
Conf openhackware (0.4.1-4 Debian:testing)
Conf vgabios (0.6c-1 Debian:testing)
Conf bochsbios (2.4.1-1 Debian:testing)
Conf openbios-ppc (1.0-3 Debian:testing)
Conf openbios-sparc (1.0-1 Debian:testing)
Conf qemu (0.10.6-1 Debian:testing)
Conf sharutils (1:4.6.3-3 Debian:testing)
Conf vde2 (2.2.3-3 Debian:testing)
Conf debootstrap (1.0.15 Debian:testing)

-- 
Peace
Greg Madden
---------
To unsubscribe, send email to <aklug-request@aklug.org>
with 'unsubscribe' in the message body.