Is it possible to dual-boot and virtualise at the same time?

[matACCADACCA]

I was wondering whether or not it would be possible to install an os (On external hard drive), then have have the option to either boot it fully or virtualize from inside opensuse, depending on the task. I would probably be installing a snow leopard hackintosh.


Thanks.

P.S. And was this the appropriate section of the forums to post in?

[Knurpht]

Appropriate section? I'd say yes.


Doing what you want? I'd say technically yes, but you're pretty much on your own, I guess.�

[gogalthorp]

There was a way to do it from VMware Server but that product is very hard to install with newer kernels and VMware does not seem to want to fix it. But it was complicated to set up booting from a normal partition rather then an image file. I'm not sure about Virtual Box.

[malcolmlewis]

There was a way to do it from VMware Server but that product is very
hard to install with newer kernels and VMware does not seem to want to
fix it.

Hi
Not now
http://en.opensuse.org/SDB:Installin...or_workstation

--
Cheers Malcolm ��� (Linux Counter #276890)
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 11 (x86_64) Kernel 2.6.32.23-0.3-default
up 22:12, 2 users, load average: 0.13, 0.06, 0.01
GPU GeForce 8600 GTS Silent - Driver Version: 260.19.12

[BobTheBull]

If you mean have two distros, eg. SuSE 11.3 and windows, installed in dual boot and then also have windows run in VirtualBox as a guest under SuSE, yes. You could also run linux in windows as a guest. If you are in linux and decide you need to be in full windows, not a guest, you would have to reboot into windows, of course. However, using VB in linux you can go back and forth from windows to anything on your desktop at will. Windows acts just like another window in your desktop.

Now, as to doing this with OsX, all this can be done to some extent. I am not sure about the various versions and how they work in VB, or how VB for OsX works in hackintosh versions on a pc. Check the VB forums and you should be able to find all about this.

[gogalthorp]

I think the OP was wanting to use the normal Windows partitions and run them in a VM. Normally VM's run out of a virtual file system in a file(s) on the host OS's FS. I have seen a writeup on how to do this with VMware but I have never seen a writeup for Virtual Box using the raw Windows partition.

[lslezak]

I don't know if it's possible to use a physical drive in VBox in a VM at all (in XEN that's possible).

However, the biggest problem I see is that the virtualized machine will have a completely different HW setup (different sound card, storage controller, network card....). Look at the VBox options for HW emulation possibilities.

AFAIK MS Windows require system re-registration when the hardware is changed too much. I don't know if the same applies for OSX, but you would need to install new drivers for the virtualized HW anyway.

[tsu2]

If I understand what you're describing, it's possible using VMware and specifically the option to configure a VM using Raw Disks.

Be aware that it's a highly risky configuration only very expert people might venture since this disables numerous safeguards preventing disk corruption.

A brief description of the Raw Disk configuration...
Normally a VM is constructed so that an entire disk file system is built into a single file, the VM will read the single file as a representation of an entire physical disk. A raw disk configuration though doesn't read a single file, it reads a regular physical disk's files just like a regular OS installed on hardware but running in the virtualized VM environment. Normally an OS puts locks on many files or at least expects sole use of those files but when you run OS which can use and possibly modify files unexpectedly, you can expect a very ugly, possibly irrecoverable crash.

Tony

[gogalthorp]

Windows can be set to use different HD configurations. But it is kind of buried.

[idanan]

Windows can be set to use different HD configurations. But it is kind of buried.

I do not know how to do this BUT I was told it is possible using Windows 'Hardware Profiles'. Maybe you'll have some luck
if you search for that. Basically, you're telling windows that it can run on different hardware one profile will be for inside
the VM and the other will be for the real-world.

Good luck!

- Itai