Complete image of HD and Windows license "transfer" on VM for a newly bought laptop

[LastStarDust]

Hello,
I am pretty sure that what I am going to ask has been already covered somewhere else but, to my best efforts, I couldn't find a web resource that describes in detail what I need. The fact is that in April I am going to buy a new laptop (a Lenovo Carbon X1) and it will come with Windows 10 pre-installed. I would like to install Ubuntu on it, as the only OS and use Windows only sporadically as a Virtual Machine.

So I have two questions:

• How can I create an identical image of the HD, so that if the laptop develops any hardware problem, I can flash the original image back and send it to Lenovo without interfering with the warranty? Lenovo says that you don't loose warranty if you install Ubuntu but they may be not able to repair the PC. And I don't want to find myself in that situation. Is Clonezilla the right software here, isn't it? In case what would be the best course of action?
• This is tricky. I would like to transfer the Windows license from the HD to the Virtual Machine. Is it possible? I know that it isn't a question strictly relevant to this forum, nevertheless, it is part of the problem. In case, how can I transfer the license?

Thank you very much for your help.

[sudodus]

I use Clonezilla, it works well for me. Create an image of the whole drive. Test that you can restore it to another drive (of at least the same size), if you want to be sure that you have a good backup image.

I think Microsoft considers a virtual machine as another machine, and you should have another license for it (or buy a licence, which is not bound to a particular machine, but such a license is much more expensive).

[howefield]

Thread moved to the "Virtualisation" forum.

[QIII]

As for transferring the image to a VM -- no, it won't work. OEM Windows installations are activated and locked to a specific machine. A VM is a different machine. Windows would detect that and demand that you re-activate, which will be impossible.

If your warrantee allows (check first!), you could remove the original drive, set it aside and use a different drive for Ubuntu.

Otherwise, dual booting will work if you are very careful.

[KillerKelvUK]

Hi, so I'm not certain what side of the license legality this falls on so I'm not going to post the details here in case it is in the "grey" zone and thus contravening forum rules. However I believe I would be permitted to at least advise you google this phrase exactly and select the top link "qemu windows oem smbios", if you get to where I propose then scroll to the post in that forum thread that describes a process for what you seek. My view is that provided you ONLY EVER use the Windows vm on that same physical hardware platform then you aren't operating in a way that penalises the software house, just outside of there supported operating policies.

[LastStarDust]

As for transferring the image to a VM -- no, it won't work. OEM Windows installations are activated and locked to a specific machine. A VM is a different machine. Windows would detect that and demand that you re-activate, which will be impossible.

If your warrantee allows (check first!), you could remove the original drive, set it aside and use a different drive for Ubuntu.

Otherwise, dual booting will work if you are very careful.

Thank you for your suggestions. It is good to have other options, too. I have experience with dual-booting, but never when one of the OSs is OEM Windows. Is there any particular precaution to follow in that case?
Anyway, swapping the disk leaves me with the very same problem of having to install a VM for Windows. Because I need Windows from now and then.
The dual-boot could be a solution but I like the VM option the best, because in that way I would be able to use Windows applications at the same time as Linux ones, that is a great time saver. And I don't want to spend my life battling with Wine.

[LastStarDust]

Hi, so I'm not certain what side of the license legality this falls on so I'm not going to post the details here in case it is in the "grey" zone and thus contravening forum rules. However I believe I would be permitted to at least advise you google this phrase exactly and select the top link "qemu windows oem smbios", if you get to where I propose then scroll to the post in that forum thread that describes a process for what you seek. My view is that provided you ONLY EVER use the Windows vm on that same physical hardware platform then you aren't operating in a way that penalises the software house, just outside of there supported operating policies.

Thank you for the suggestion! Of course, I will only ever use the Windows VM on the same physical hardware. I think I found the discussion that you were hinting at. I would use VMWare as a virtualization software, so I think that it would be actually simpler than that.

[KillerKelvUK]

I would use VMWare as a virtualization software, so I think that it would be actually simpler than that.

Assuming you aren't meaning an ESXi server on your laptop as I don't see how that gets you where you want then are you talking VMware Workstation? I've no experience here to assist further sorry but if you can configure a guest in that to the same granularity i.e. SMBIOS info, apci, disk serials and network mac's then crack on, it would be good if you can come back and advise on your success or otherwise. The only callout I'd make is that Workstation I believe is a type 2 hypervisor as such performance isn't going to be as good as using a type 1 such as qemu with KVM. Also I'm not sure on what support options you have with VMware from an Ubuntu perspective, I'm sure there will be a community here for it but I dont recall seeing many posters on that topic so you may struggling this way. Just points to bare in mind, not suggesting you need to change your mind, work with what you are comfortable with.

[QIII]

Thank you for the suggestion! Of course, I will only ever use the Windows VM on the same physical hardware.

It is not that simple. The VM is a different machine. Its hardware abstraction layer presents different virtual hardware to the OS. It will be identified by the OS as a different machine and will demand re-activation -- which cannot be done because it will have been locked to the physical machine's hardware. The physical machine's hardware is invisible to the guest OS because it is behind the VM hardware abstraction layer.

A VM is a different machine from the physical machine.

Further, an OEM version installed by the OEM often comes with a Microsoft EULA forbidding its use in a VM.

[KillerKelvUK]

Hey QIII so technically speaking I agree with your points about vm's providing a different HAL than the physical PC and this causing the OEM installation to de-activate. However the suggested process in the referenced forum posited that using qemu with libvirt allows sufficient hardware markers from the licensed host to be effectively recreated in the guest thus allowing it to activate and once again consume the OEM license the actual physical hardware is allocated.

Further, an OEM version installed by the OEM often comes with a Microsoft EULA forbidding its use in a VM.

As for the EULA permissions... https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/Uset...10_English.htm ...sections 2.b. and 2.d.iv. would seem to permit this activity. However I must admit I have not read the EULA in full, nor have I searched for any competing/conflicting permissions which quite plausibly exist.