Icarus3000 Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 I see many discussions about converting a vmware installation into a native installation, but haven't been able to find any discussion of the reverse. Currently, I have a triple-boot system: Windows XP, OSx86 10.4.8, Ubuntu. For simplicity, say I have three partitions on a single drive: Part1: XP, Part2: OSx86, Part3: Ubuntu Using grub, I can succesfully boot into any of these OS's without any problem. What I would like to do though, is to boot into Ubuntu most of the time, and then use VMWare player to access the two other OS's. I am able to do this with my XP installation, by following this guide: http://www.advicesource.org/ubuntu/Run_Exi...are_player.html I don't see why I would not be able to do the same thing to boot into OSX86, but I think I will need some help from someone more experienced with creating VMDK and VMX files. I don't know how to tell VMWare player to boot into /dev/hda2. Has anyone been able to get something like this to work? Thanks! Icarus3000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgirl Posted February 26, 2007 Share Posted February 26, 2007 Sure, since installation doesn't see which components you have, is not like windows. Also is faster because you can attach an Image of the DVD and it reads at HD speed instead of DVD drive speeds. check the Tutorials Forum for guides. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus3000 Posted February 27, 2007 Author Share Posted February 27, 2007 Sure, since installation doesn't see which components you have, is not like windows. Also is faster because you can attach an Image of the DVD and it reads at HD speed instead of DVD drive speeds. check the Tutorials Forum for guides. What I am looking to do is boot my physical OSx86 installation through vmware in Ubuntu. I have searched for vmware in the tutorials section, and read through many of the threads, but I can't find information on this exact topic. Most of them refer to installing OSx86 directly through vmware, but that's not what i want to do, since I already have OSx86 installed on a physical partition of the drive. If you have seen a tutorial explaining how to do this, can you help point me in the right direction? Many thanks, Icarus3000 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgirl Posted February 27, 2007 Share Posted February 27, 2007 Ok I get you now. Yes you can run native installations, I could not say about Linux running OSX86 on VMware but I run my native Installation of OSX86 on Windows' VMware, in the configuration of the virtual machin there is an option to use Physical Disk or Physical Partitions, I don't know if Linux's VMware has that option. The VMX file has these entries: ide1:1.redo = "" ide1:1.present = "TRUE" ide1:1.fileName = "PhysicalDrive2.vmdk" ide1:1.deviceType = "rawDisk" ide1:1.autodetect = "FALSE" ide1:1.mode = "independent-nonpersistent" the PhysicalDrive2.vmdk has these: # Disk DescriptorFile version=1 CID=23aafc98 parentCID=ffffffff createType="fullDevice" # Extent description RW 160071660 FLAT "\\.\PhysicalDrive2" 0 # The Disk Data Base #DDB ddb.geometry.cylinders = "9964" ddb.geometry.heads = "255" ddb.geometry.sectors = "63" ddb.geometry.biosCylinders = "9964" ddb.geometry.biosHeads = "255" ddb.geometry.biosSectors = "63" ddb.adapterType = "ide" ddb.toolsVersion = "0" ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus3000 Posted March 7, 2007 Author Share Posted March 7, 2007 Ok I get you now. Yes you can run native installations, I could not say about Linux running OSX86 on VMware but I run my native Installation of OSX86 on Windows' VMware, in the configuration of the virtual machin there is an option to use Physical Disk or Physical Partitions, I don't know if Linux's VMware has that option. The VMX file has these entries: ide1:1.redo = "" ide1:1.present = "TRUE" ide1:1.fileName = "PhysicalDrive2.vmdk" ide1:1.deviceType = "rawDisk" ide1:1.autodetect = "FALSE" ide1:1.mode = "independent-nonpersistent" the PhysicalDrive2.vmdk has these: # Disk DescriptorFile version=1 CID=23aafc98 parentCID=ffffffff createType="fullDevice" # Extent description RW 160071660 FLAT "\\.\PhysicalDrive2" 0 # The Disk Data Base #DDB ddb.geometry.cylinders = "9964" ddb.geometry.heads = "255" ddb.geometry.sectors = "63" ddb.geometry.biosCylinders = "9964" ddb.geometry.biosHeads = "255" ddb.geometry.biosSectors = "63" ddb.adapterType = "ide" ddb.toolsVersion = "0" ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4" I finally got around to trying this today, and am still not able to get it to work. In the Windows version of VMWare Workstation, is there a specific option to set the guest OS as Mac? In the Linux version the only options I have are "Windows", Linux, Novell Netware, Sun Solaris, or Other. I think my main problem though is that I have Mac installed on a partition of the disk, not on the whole disk. There is actually an option to select a partition of a physical disk, but when I try to configure it that way, I end up with a Grub Error 17. Is your Mac OS set up on a totally separate disk, or on a partition of the same disk as XP? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-TiLT- Posted March 7, 2007 Share Posted March 7, 2007 I have got a strange feeling, that this line createType="fullDevice" of the PhysicalDrive2.vmdk might be a good place to start the hunt. ;-) -> hint: createType="partitionedDevice" Additionally you might need more lines for the Extent description like: # Extent description RW 63 FLAT "FreeBSD-pt.vmdk" 0 RW 33559722 FLAT "\\.\PhysicalDrive1" 63 RW 33559785 ZERO RW 245457135 ZERO It might be better if you could use a GUI for choosing the partition, because all parameters of the drive have to be precise if you do not want to screw your harddrive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icarus3000 Posted March 7, 2007 Author Share Posted March 7, 2007 I have got a strange feeling, that this line createType="fullDevice" of the PhysicalDrive2.vmdk might be a good place to start the hunt. ;-) -> hint: createType="partitionedDevice" Additionally you might need more lines for the Extent description like: # Extent description RW 63 FLAT "FreeBSD-pt.vmdk" 0 RW 33559722 FLAT "\\.\PhysicalDrive1" 63 RW 33559785 ZERO RW 245457135 ZERO It might be better if you could use a GUI for choosing the partition, because all parameters of the drive have to be precise if you do not want to screw your harddrive. I actually did end up using the VMWare Workstation GUI, It's pointing to the right place, but when it starts the "virtual" Mac I end up with a Grub Error 17. I think I may scrap the whole idea and try to build a virtual Mac from scratch. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts