Xempy Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 I've been researching this for a while, and am going to try it tonight. I was just wondering if anyone has had any success with this and can share their method. I'm basically thinking there should be a way to mount the .vmdk, put the files on my E: Mac partition, and just use Chain0 to boot from it. Would that work? Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/145367-boot-virtual-machine-as-native/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
shavex Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 This is not impossible, but I'm sure it will take some work. Ubuntu's install disc comes with an automated setup process of installing Ubuntu like a program and when you restart you can choose to use Ubuntu or Windows but you skip all the partitioning of your hard drive and such and just use a virtual image. So its possible! but I wouldnt have any idea of how to go about it on your own. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/145367-boot-virtual-machine-as-native/#findComment-1031430 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Terc Posted January 7, 2009 Share Posted January 7, 2009 This would be nearly impossible, since the vmdk is stored on a filesystem. This means that the file is not sequential across the disk, and so the kernel would need to understand this and determine where the fragments were on the disk. This is a MAJOR undertaking. Instead, look into buying a second disk, then using VMware's raw disk access to run the machine from windows (I'm assuming Windows since you said E:). You would then be able to boot the machine when you wanted, but virtualize any other time. I'm not certain about how this is done in Windows, but here are linux instructions: http://www.mail-archive.com/expert@linux-m...m/msg37749.html Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/145367-boot-virtual-machine-as-native/#findComment-1031458 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xempy Posted January 8, 2009 Author Share Posted January 8, 2009 Ah, thanks for the responses guys. I'm probably going to end up needing an external HDD. I was hoping I wouldn't as I'm on a Laptop. But if it works. The reason I was trying to do a non-physical install was because I can only seem to get OS X running when it runs from a virtual disk. Whenever I try to install physical, none of the distros detect the partition I make for OS X. It's so strange. It will recognize my 232gb Vista drive and its 1.5 shared data partition, but not my 8gb partition. Kalyway (10.4.10) is the only distro that detects my 8gb OSX partition, but I can never get it to boot. Think getting an External HDD would help me with this case? I'm probably going to end up buying one as they're infinitely useful even without OSX. Thanks again, guys! Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/145367-boot-virtual-machine-as-native/#findComment-1031608 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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