Virtualization for Beginner

[Richard Shaw]

On Wed, Apr 22, 2009 at 12:21 PM, Daniel B. Thurman <dant at cdkkt.com> wrote:
> das wrote:
>>
>> Hello Friends
>>
>> As a member of a local linux group called GLT, a few different distros
>> of GNU-Linux we have to handle. One or two versions of each Fedora,
>> Ubuntu, and OpenSuse.
>>
>> Earlier, I installed more than one Linux on the HD just for getting
>> some suggestion when someone is in problem. Gradually, due to the UUID
>> and all this is becoming problemsome. One brute way out is to rewrite
>> 'fstab' with device-names in place of UUID-s. But people say these
>> days a lot of applications read the UUID-s, so this may get
>> problemsome.
>>
>> So, after some friends suggested, I now want to go into
>> virtualization. And I know nothing. I have a really huge amount of HD
>> space, and 4GB memory. And my CPU has the virtualization flags. I am
>> myself using Fedora 11 Beta and I want to have virtual installations
>> of Ubuntu and OpenSuse on my system.
>>
>> Can you people please suggest me from where to start, some good
>> documentation, and not too technical. We are a Linux-User group,
>> mainly teachers in profession.
>>
>> Thanking You
>>
>
> Ok, I followed that wonderful guide, installed VirtualBox,
> and chose XP as my first Virtual Machine, but I was
> perplexed with "Virtual Hard Disk" menu.
>
> It seems that VM Wizard wants to create an "image", but my
> problem is, that I already have a multiboot setup with XP in
> it's own primary partition.
>
> The choices I have is to:
> 1) Create new hard disk
> 2) Use existing hard disk
>
> and then it has a drop down for `media'
>
> What exactly does it mean by choice (2)?
>
> Do I have to use the XP CD/DVD and create a NEW
> hard disk partition or what?  What are my options?
>
> Thanks!
> Dan

Take a look at section 4.1 or 4.2 in the manual I can't remember it
exactly. Or search the mailing list as this has been discussed
recently. To use an existing partition you create a .vmdk file using
the command line, sorry no graphical method yet that I know of. You
can add access to the whole disk (not recommended) or just to that
single partition (recommended).

Richard