how to dual boot and virtualize that os

[Turtleinahafshel]

i have a windows os and want to dualboot with a linux flavor is there a way to be able to natively run the os but then in windows run it as a vm. so that way i can dualboot but if i need something i an open it as a vm. a easier way to explain this is can a vm tool boot from partition.

[ProjectBox153]

I think there may be a way to do this, but I'd imagine that it would be a freaking nightmare with drivers. 

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, Turtleinahafshel said:

i have a windows os and want to dualboot with a linux flavor is there a way to be able to natively run the os but then in windows run it as a vm. so that way i can dualboot but if i need something i an open it as a vm. a easier way to explain this is can a vm tool boot from partition.

i don't think this is possible, VM programs tend to treat their "storage devices" as proprietary files so i can't imagine a VM could boot a real partition from a real drive. Although i can see a longwinded solution of constantly backing up your real linux partition into a VM image on a regular basis with some RAID/backup tool

[Turtleinahafshel]

Just now, DnFx91 said:

i don't think this is possible, VM programs tend to treat their "storage devices" as proprietary files so i can't imagine a VM could boot a real partition from a real drive. Although i can see a longwinded solution of constantly backing up your real linux partition into a VM image on a regular basis with some RAID/backup tool

this is not ideal because then if i change something in the vm it would have to reapply the image to the partition and it would be a pain to setup and maintain

[ProjectBox153]

1 minute ago, DnFx91 said:

i don't think this is possible, VM programs tend to treat their "storage devices" as proprietary files so i can't imagine a VM could boot a real partition from a real drive. Although i can see a longwinded solution of constantly backing up your real linux partition into a VM image on a regular basis with some RAID/backup tool

I saw one time. somewhere in the depths of the internet, how to boot a real drive from a virtual machine, but I still think drivers would be a huge pain in the ass. 

[DnFx91]

Just now, Turtleinahafshel said:

this is not ideal because then if i change something in the vm it would have to reapply the image to the partition and it would be a pain to setup and maintain

exactly, never said it would be easy, but what you are trying to do is rather obscure. I don't pretend to understand unRAID but this sounds like something that could be done in that environment.

 

[Turtleinahafshel]

Just now, Jamiec1130 said:

I saw one time. somewhere in the depths of the internet, how to boot a real drive from a virtual machine, but I still think drivers would be a huge pain in the ass. 

why?

[DnFx91]

Just now, Turtleinahafshel said:

why?

cos a VM always wants to use it's own drivers, because all it's devices are virtual. Using real hardware drivers would make the world melt

[Turtleinahafshel]

Just now, DnFx91 said:

cos a VM always wants to use it's own drivers, because all it's devices are virtual. Using real hardware drivers would make the world melt

right that makes sense maybe ill try the backup and reapply method 

[Turtleinahafshel]

 

1 minute ago, DnFx91 said:

cos a VM always wants to use it's own drivers, because all it's devices are virtual. Using real hardware drivers would make the world melt

but maybe it would be like removing and adding a device every boot so it could work

[Turtleinahafshel]

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-and-virtualize-the-same-partition-on-y-493223329 they did it here

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, Turtleinahafshel said:

 

but maybe it would be like removing and adding a device every boot so it could work

No, it's the fact that stuff like the GPU is virtualized. 

[DnFx91]

Just now, Turtleinahafshel said:

right that makes sense maybe ill try the backup and reapply method 

assuming there is a method, i can see the process train, but have no idea how to constantly inject OS changes into a VM image mirror of that OS.

 

I have a similar problem with clonezilla, where if i want to update an image, i have to clone that image onto a machine, make my changes, then replace the image with a new one which takes forever, i need a way to inject changes into a clone without having to put it on a machine first.

[Droidbot]

6 minutes ago, DnFx91 said:

i don't think this is possible, VM programs tend to treat their "storage devices" as proprietary files so i can't imagine a VM could boot a real partition from a real drive. Although i can see a longwinded solution of constantly backing up your real linux partition into a VM image on a regular basis with some RAID/backup tool

theoretically a bootloader could mount the HDD at boot and load the virtual hard drive file, but that's theoretically - I don't think something exists like that in practice. 

[ProjectBox153]

Just now, Turtleinahafshel said:

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-and-virtualize-the-same-partition-on-y-493223329 they did it here

You can try whatever that is, then. 

[DnFx91]

1 minute ago, Turtleinahafshel said:

http://lifehacker.com/how-to-dual-boot-and-virtualize-the-same-partition-on-y-493223329 they did it here

oh boy......... manual GRUB configuration lol

 

i'm out

[NumLock21]

You can run a VM as a direct bootable OS, without the need to boot into your host OS, but not the other way around. The feature is built right into the Pro version of the OS. All you need to do is head over to disk management and click on  Action and select "Attach a VHD". It only works with Windows Virtual Hard Disk, so when you create a VM, make sure to select VHD as your drive format.

[Turtleinahafshel]

1 minute ago, Droidbot said:

theoretically a bootloader could mount the HDD at boot and load the virtual hard drive file, but that's theoretically - I don't think something exists like that in practice. 

thats a good idea ill try that also

[Turtleinahafshel]

Just now, NumLock21 said:

You can run a VM as a direct bootable OS, without the need to boot into your host OS, but not the other way around. The feature is built right into the Pro version of the OS. All you need to do is head over to disk management and click on  Action and select "Attach a VHD". It only works with Windows Virtual Hard Disk, so when you create a VM, make sure to select VHD as your drive format.

yes i knew that but i is not the most helpful thing every

[Turtleinahafshel]

i realized hyper v has a real disk feature that lets you install a os to a real disk and you can boot from it but the catch is you have to put it offline so i i set up the grub to boot from that disk then i could work. but can hyper v use linux

[Turtleinahafshel]

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/12111233/how-to-modify-linux-kernel-for-mounting-a-vhd-file-at-boot-time-and-load-the-sys

maybe this could work

[brwainer]

Just to add more wrinkles to this - Windows can be set up to boot from a VHD/VHDX - this is mainly used in WindowsToGo, but there is a supported use case to take a VHD from a VM and boot it directly on real hardware, e.g. during disaster recovery. This is sort of the opposite of what you are asking, but maybe the option will help you out in some way.

[Turtleinahafshel]

3 hours ago, brwainer said:

Just to add more wrinkles to this - Windows can be set up to boot from a VHD/VHDX - this is mainly used in WindowsToGo, but there is a supported use case to take a VHD from a VM and boot it directly on real hardware, e.g. during disaster recovery. This is sort of the opposite of what you are asking, but maybe the option will help you out in some way.

no thanks you this is exactly what i wanted ill try it

[PianoPlayer88Key]

I've been wanting to be able to do something similar for a while, just haven't made any real effort to get it working.  For example, I might want to boot Windows & virtualize Linux simultaneously, or boot the same Linux & virtualize the same Windows.

 

One thing I've thought would be interesting would be a very lightweight bare-metal hypervisor, like a mini lightweight OS strictly for virtualization.  It would be light enough to only need a few hundred kHz of CPU, a few dozen kb of RAM, and use a couple hundred kb of storage on its own, leaving the rest of the resources for the guest OSs.

 

A while ago I was looking up those hypervisors, and none really met my needs.  Either they cost money, or they take too much system resources (maybe requiring a 1 GHz CPU & 1 GB RAM or something, I'd prefer it only take 0.000000001% of a 4790K + 32GB RAM), or they require a host OS, or other things.

 

While I think it should support VHDs & other virtual drives, I'd prefer it mostly use native OS installs as guests.  (Save the VHDs for ones that aren't natively supported by the hardware.)

[SCHISCHKA]

I remember seeing this a long time ago in either the arch wiki or forum but I can't find it. all I can find is migrating a native install to vm. 

I think if I were to do it now I would just setup windows in a xen hypervisor