[SOLVED] Can linux and virtual box do this:

MBA Whore · 08-20-2009, 08:52 PM

Is it possible to image my linux host OS, save it, then load that saved image into virtualbox?

Doing so would result in an exact duplicate that I could run as a guest.

Doing so appeals to me. Otherwise, I would have to re-configure the OS settings from memory once running in virtualbox.

Doing it this way would be very slick.

Is this possible? Or is it not that simple?

karamarisan · 08-20-2009, 09:07 PM

It would probably work - Linux is pretty resilient when it comes to hardware changes. However, it's probably overkill for what you want, and likely won't work as well as a fresh install without a lot of work. More likely, it'd be sufficient to just transfer the relevant config files. Have you considered just copying .* from your homedir, and maybe /etc (though that could cause issues with some software)?

MBA Whore · 08-21-2009, 12:35 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by karamarisan

It would probably work - Linux is pretty resilient when it comes to hardware changes. However, it's probably overkill for what you want, and likely won't work as well as a fresh install without a lot of work. More likely, it'd be sufficient to just transfer the relevant config files. Have you considered just copying .* from your homedir, and maybe /etc (though that could cause issues with some software)?

Sorry, what is:

.*

I don't recall a folder / file labeled as such.

Regardless, do you think a fresh install into virtualbox would yield better results?

Thanks.

XavierP · 08-21-2009, 12:55 PM

karamarisan means moving all the hidden files and folders (all files prefixed with a . are hidden) as that would move any personalised configurations and profiles over.

mostlyharmless · 08-21-2009, 02:20 PM

The vmware P2V convertor works great. VirtualBox can run the vmdk vmware image.

http://www.vmware.com/products/converter/

Hope that helps.

karamarisan · 08-21-2009, 03:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MBA Whore

Regardless, do you think a fresh install into virtualbox would yield better results?

I do. What you described can work, but I don't think it's worth the effort if the only reason you have is saving your configs.

As XavierP said, the purpose of .* is to copy the hidden files and directories in your homedir, which is where applications store their configurations. Because it has a * in it, it's not a filename but a glob - a pattern against which other things are matched. In your shell (which I am assuming to be bash), a simple * will only match non-hidden files, so you need .* to get all the hidden ones.