Mounting a VHD image

bitfuzzy · 11-18-2023, 10:14 PM

Am I wrong? or is it not possible to mount a VHDx image to read/copy its contents in Slackware?

Ser Olmy · 11-18-2023, 10:22 PM

Not without installing additional software, as VHDX is a proprietary Microsoft (HyperV) disk format not recognised by any of the utilities shipped with Slackware.

libguestfs contains the necessary tools to mount a number of virtual disk formats, including VHDX.

___ · 11-18-2023, 10:31 PM

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/15.0/system/hivex/

Ser Olmy · 11-18-2023, 10:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ___

https://slackbuilds.org/repository/15.0/system/hivex/

AFAIK, that SlackBuild only covers the HiveX tool, used to access Windows Registry files.

bitfuzzy · 11-18-2023, 11:33 PM

That explains it :\

Thank you

henca · 11-19-2023, 05:54 AM

If you have qemu installed you can probably use qemu-img to convert the VHDx image to a raw image which you with some trickery to pass the partition table will be able to mount.

Something like:

Code:

qemu-img convert -f vhdx -O raw old_image.vhdx  new_file.raw
su
losetup -Pf new_file.raw
mount /dev/loop0p1 /mnt/hd

regards Henrik

allend · 11-19-2023, 06:25 AM

If you have qemu installed you can probably use qemu-nbd. I have never had need for VHDx but have used qemu-nbd in the past for qcow2 images.

bitfuzzy · 11-19-2023, 09:46 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ser Olmy

libguestfs contains the necessary tools to mount a number of virtual disk formats, including VHDX.

YIKES!, The required package list is massive... Explains why I didn't find a Slackbuild or a package from Alien Bob

Currently I'm able to access the images when I need to by using a Windows VM,
It's just tedious to fire one up for something which should be simple to handle in Linux. Though I do get it.

This isn't something I run across often enough to make going through trying to compile and install libguestfs worth it.

Quote:

If you have qemu installed you can probably use qemu-nbd. I have never had need for VHDx but have used qemu-nbd in the past for qcow2 images.

I don't, I'm using Virtualbox for my VM needs

henca · 11-19-2023, 10:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bitfuzzy

I don't, I'm using Virtualbox for my VM needs

Unfortunately Virtualbox is not as feature rich as qemu, its conversion tool VBoxManage is only capable of converting from raw to some formats supported by Virtualbox.

However, even if you have no plans to use qemu for virtualization of x86 and other platforms like arm and sparc, you can still install qemu from slackbuilds.org at https://slackbuilds.org/repository/15.0/system/qemu/ only to use qemu-img to convert your VHDx image to a format readable by Virtualbox as well as the linux kernel loop device functionality.

Qemu from slackbuilds.org has no dependencies.

If you like virtualbox you should not load the kvm kernel module which speeds up x86 emulation in qemu. That kernel module will stop virtualbox from working as it cannot coexist with vboxdrv needed by virtualbox.

regards Henrik

SpacePlod · 11-28-2023, 09:06 AM

libvhdi (on SBo) might work for you.

There was a version released just yesterday (libvhdi-alpha-20231127) that indicates added support for VHDx images. I'm the maintainer, and I will try and get an update to SBo before the Friday update cycle if I can get it properly tested by then.

opty · 12-03-2023, 12:50 PM

I hope libvhdi works with *.avhdx, thanks for mentioning!

OutSiderBR · 12-03-2023, 04:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by henca

Unfortunately Virtualbox is not as feature rich as qemu, its conversion tool VBoxManage is only capable of converting from raw to some formats supported by Virtualbox.

However, even if you have no plans to use qemu for virtualization of x86 and other platforms like arm and sparc, you can still install qemu from slackbuilds.org at https://slackbuilds.org/repository/15.0/system/qemu/ only to use qemu-img to convert your VHDx image to a format readable by Virtualbox as well as the linux kernel loop device functionality.

Qemu from slackbuilds.org has no dependencies.

If you like virtualbox you should not load the kvm kernel module which speeds up x86 emulation in qemu. That kernel module will stop virtualbox from working as it cannot coexist with vboxdrv needed by virtualbox.

regards Henrik

henca,
I use VirtualBox at home and qemu at work. My home notebook runs VirtualBox normally and it loads the kvm module on boot. Was that you meant ? Here is a printout:

Code:

dell:~$ lsmod | grep kvm
kvm_intel             344064  0
kvm                  1064960  1 kvm_intel
irqbypass              16384  1 kvm

SpacePlod · 12-05-2023, 08:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by opty

I hope libvhdi works with *.avhdx, thanks for mentioning!

The update for libvhdi is submitted. It passed the basic vhdx (v2) tests, but I don't have access to differencing disk files to test with, so YMMV.

jefro · 12-05-2023, 10:40 PM

https://github.com/brandonkal/guestfs ???

henca · 12-06-2023, 12:40 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by OutSiderBR

henca,
I use VirtualBox at home and qemu at work. My home notebook runs VirtualBox normally and it loads the kvm module on boot. Was that you meant ?

No, I meant that regardless of plans to use qemu for virtualization it should be possible to use qemu-img to convert the VHD image to a raw format possible to mount as a loopback device.

Your choice of virtualization tool sets the kernel module you load. Those kernel modules are not compatible, you cannot run qemu and virtualbox at the same time on the same host machine. But even if you are running virtualbox you can use the tool qemu-img without any kvm kernel module loaded.

regards Henrik