OT: Virtualisation of dual-boot partitions

Matthew Saltzman mjs at ces.clemson.edu
Mon Jun 26 19:59:12 UTC 2006


On Mon, 26 Jun 2006, D. Hugh Redelmeier wrote:

> | From: John Austin <ja at jaa.org.uk>
>
> | On Sat, 2006-06-24 at 11:00 +0200, J.L. Coenders wrote:
>
> | > Perhaps a bit OT, but I was wondering if there is a virtualisation
> | > system available that lets you boot a dual-boot partition instead of a
> | > virtual partition.
>
> | http://www.vmware.com/products/ws/
> |
> | >From VMware Workstation Manual - ws55_manual.pdf
> | "Many users install VMware Workstation on a dual-boot or multiple-boot
> | computer so they can run one or more of the existing operating systems
> | in a virtual machine. If you are doing this, you may want to use the
> | existing installation of an operating system rather than reinstall it in
> | a virtual machine."
> |
> | Note: VMware Workstation supports booting from physical disk partitions
> | only on IDE drives. Booting guest operating systems from physical SCSI
> | drives is not supported. For a discussion of the issues on a Linux host,
> | see Configuring Dual- or
> | Multiple-Boot SCSI Systems to Run with VMware Workstation on a Linux
> | Host on page 257.
> | Setting up a physical disk configuration for a virtual machine is more
> | complicated than using a virtual disk. Virtual disks are recommended
> | unless you have a specific need to run directly from a physical disk or
> | partition."
>
> Wow.  That is impressive.  I've really wanted this feature but assumed
> that it wasn't feasible.
>
> The instance (installation) of WinXP needs to be runnable both in the
> virtual machine and native.  Since WinXP (as I understand it) doesn't like
> hardware seriously changing between boots (at the very least, I expect it
> to call out the licensing police), that means the VMware must
> virtualize/emulate a whole bunch of real I/O devices. The video card, for
> example, ought to be extremely hard (I had assumed that they just emulated
> a single model of video card).

They don't.  What you get when you boot XP raw is a bunch of warnings 
about how switching too often will incur the wrath of the Licensing 
Police.

>
> I would expect that a Linux guest might be easier -- it isn't actively
> trying to fight you.  Even then, kudzu might ask a bunch of questions
> to reconfigure whenever you changed between kinds of boot.

Yes, if you have XP, that's the less inconvenient way to go.

>
> Since the quoted VMware documentation suggests I'm wrong about WinXP,
> can somebody explain how VMware manages to avoid this problem?  Do
> they emulate a whole bunch of video cards (and network cards, and
> ...)?  Is WinXP more flexible that I give it credit for?
> The answer to this may indicate how easily the OSS systems can follow
> suit.

It works for me because my XP is site-licensed.  The site-licensed version 
doesn't phone home on every hardware change.

-- 
 		Matthew Saltzman

Clemson University Math Sciences
mjs AT clemson DOT edu
http://www.math.clemson.edu/~mjs




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