VirtualBox Raw Access, Windows Host, Linux Guest

Guitarist88 · 11-13-2008, 10:07 PM

I am currently attempting to run openSUSE 11 from a raw disk on VirtualBox 2.04 and I have found that information about doing it with a Windows host and Linux guest is scarce. I have followed the VirtualBox Help in creating the vmdk file. However when booting the vm, I run into a problem with Grub. I receive an Error 21. And so you know, grub is on my mbr.

If someone could let me know how to work around this, that would be great.

Thanks.

syg00 · 11-14-2008, 05:09 PM

I don't use raw, but with grub not being able to find the disk, sounds like you haven't registered and/or assigned the image for the guest. I would expect the commands for entire disks to be applicable to partitions as well.
But like I said, I haven't tried it - OpenSuse as a normal guest using an expanding disk image on XP seems to work fine for what I need.

Guitarist88 · 11-14-2008, 05:41 PM

Yeah I got passed this problem using a supergrub disc to boot into the opensuse bypassing grub. I don't think this is even something that is supposed to be done though. I guess I thought Vmware Fusion does it with bootcamp partitions, why can't I do it with my linux partion, WRONG! It was very messed up booting into it as it would look for both my hdds and wouldn't find them, leaving me at a console with no functionality. No fun. I just wanted to run my linux partition without rebooting.