Trouble running VirtualBox with "real" partition

[djbon2112]

^^ I do that, but I get this:

joshua@joshua-laptop:/home$ VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp.vdmk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 4 -mbr /home/joshua/opensource.mbr -relative
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 1.5.6
(C) 2005-2008 innotek GmbH
All rights reserved.

Error opening the raw disk: VERR_ACCESS_DENIED

If I run it as sudo, I get this:

joshua@joshua-laptop:/home$ sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp.vdmk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 4 -mbr /home/joshua/opensource.mbr -relative
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 1.5.6
(C) 2005-2008 innotek GmbH
All rights reserved.

ERROR: VMDK: could not create new file '/mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp.vdmk'
Error code VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND at /home/vbox/vbox-1.5.6/src/VBox/Devices/Storage/VmdkHDDCore.cpp(2146) in function int vmdkCreateImage(VMDKIMAGE*, const char*, VDIMAGETYPE, uint64_t, unsigned int, const char*, uint32_t, uint32_t, uint32_t)
Error while creating the raw disk VMDK: VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND

Any suggestions?

[karyonix]

how about

sudo chown joshua:disk /dev/sda*
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp.vdmk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 4 -relative
install-mbr -f -p 4 /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp-pt.vdmk

[djbon2112]

how about

sudo chown joshua:disk /dev/sda*
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp.vdmk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 4 -relative
install-mbr -f -p 4 /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp-pt.vdmk

Tried it, but I still get the same error I got when I did sudo earlier ( VERR_FILE_NOT_FOUND at /home/vbox/vbox-1.5.6/src/VBox/Devices/Storage/VmdkHDDCore.cpp ).

[analyzer123]

Hey Tichondrius ,
I am interested to know how you get the linux apps to run directly onto windows desktop. I use x-win32 server but how do i configure linux to export its display to windows?

[karyonix]

djbon2112,
1. Are you sure the disk you want to do raw access is /dev/sda partition 4 ? If the partition does not exist, create it first.
2. After chmod, verify that you can read from /dev/sda and /dev/sda4. try "fdisk -l /dev/sda", "hd -n 512 /dev/sda4".
3. Make sure that the directory /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/ exists. and you can write to that directory.
4. If the files /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp.vmdk, and /mnt/external/vmware/xp_real/xp-pt.vmdk already exist, delete them before running VBoxManage .
5. Have you tried create raw vmdk for whole disk (without "-partitions 4 -relative") ? successful or not ?

[djbon2112]

It worked, all I had to do was mkdir the new directory.

[vexorian]

Do yourself a favor, and avoid running a virtual machine on physical hard drives, It looks like it works, until BAM! Windows becomes unable to boot...

[DarkW0lf]

I used :

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /media/data/vbox/guests/WinVista/WinVista.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -partitions 1 -mbr /media/data/vbox/guests/WinVista/WinVista.mbr -relative -register

(that should be all one line).
And I get that winload.exe error on VM start.
The mbr was created using install-mbr.

Should I try dd instead ?

[DarkW0lf]

Just tried it with mbr from using dd (like first post) and I still get the winload.exe error (that my hardware or software changed).

So what do I about this ?

[DarkW0lf]

To get past the error for hardware changes on boot I found this recovery disc online:
http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/window...disc-download/

Checksum:
aff5ceef6dbf202cc1beb9fc81e8d02b

I didn't have my system restore partition and Compaq didn't send cd's with the laptop. So that disc helped with the winload.exe error. I booted the Vista VM with that cd iso mounted to the drive. Ran through the repair steps and rebooted to Vista.

But now I got to reinstall device drivers for VBox hardware but it is working now.
(Have to find drivers for Ethernet and Base System Device[??])