Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

clever · 2018-06-18 00:18:41

Hi guys
I Have Arch And Windows 10 Installed on Same Disk Shown as Below (MBR\BIOS)

sda      8:0    0 698.7G  0 disk   
├─sda1   8:1    0   500M  0 part ### Windows Boot (First Drive)
├─sda3   8:3    0 141.7G  0 part ### Windows Partition
├─sda5   8:5    0   500M  0 part /boot
├─sda6   8:6    0    40G  0 part /
├─sda7   8:7    0   250G  0 part /home
├─sda8   8:8    0    16G  0 part [SWAP]
└─sda9   8:9    0   250G  0 part ### Extra NTFS

Specs: Dell XPS L502x, Ci7, 8GB Ram, Intel HD 3000 + Nvidia 540m

and want to be able to boot in Windows 10 Via VirtualBox in Linux?
Any Step By Step Tut?
I Know This First:

#Getting Original MBR
sudo dd if=/dev/sda of=Windows10RAW.mbr count=1 bs=512
#Create Raw Disk From Windows Boot & Root Partition
sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename Windows10RAW.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sda -mbr Windows10RAW.mbr -partitions 1,3

Questions And Cues:
1. Which Drivers Should I Remove from windows or Do i need to?
2. How to preserve licensing?
3. Risks & Cushions?
4. How to ProvideVirtualbox, Disk Access with my user, Without Risking Other Partitions being modified?
5. How to Hide Windows Boot + Windows Root Partitions from file manager to avoid accidental mount? or at least promt warning that is in use by vbox
6. How to create a grub iso for virtualbox that only boot to windows not linux

for #6 i found this but i'm not sure

#Create a Grub CD that Only Boot Windows ### Disable VirtualBox HDD Boot
sudo pacman -S libisoburn mtools
mkdir -p ~/WindowsRAWgrubiso.temp/boot/grub                                         # create temporary grub folder
sudo chmod -x /etc/grub.d/10_linux                                                            # disable Linux 
sudo chmod -x /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+                                                # disable memtest86+ 
sudo grub-mkconfig > ~/WindowsRAWgrubiso.temp/boot/grub/grub.cfg        # create new grub.cfg 
sudo chmod +x /etc/grub.d/10_linux                                                          # enable Linux
sudo chmod +x /etc/grub.d/20_memtest86+                                               # enable memtest86+ 

# create GRUB CD
sudo grub-mkrescue –-modules="linux ext2 fat fshelp ls boot ntfs" –-output=/home/WindowsRAW_GRUB.iso ~/WindowsRAWgrubiso.temp/   
sudo chown $USER /home/WindowsRAW_GRUB.iso                             # change owner to user
sudo rm -R ~/WindowsRAWgrubiso.temp                                                  # delete temporary GRUB folder

References:
HOWTO: Windows 7: In both VM and native -- VBox3.x
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic … 56#p149094
Anyone have success booting Windows 10 raw partition as a guest in VirtualBox?
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=77237
Windows 7 as native and as raw guest on Ubuntu host ###GRUB IMAGE###
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic … 36#p208193
Arch Wiki
https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vi … VirtualBox

Last edited by clever (2018-06-20 21:30:41)

Lone_Wolf · 2018-06-18 10:36:34

Have you checked https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vi … VirtualBox ?

clever · 2018-06-20 19:19:00

Lone_Wolf wrote:

Have you checked https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Vi … VirtualBox ?

Yep first of all it's about UEFI not MBR!
Second There is no Information about Q 1,4,5,6?

Lone_Wolf · 2018-06-22 15:43:58

I overlooked the UEFI note in the wiki, but main reason i didn't answer in detail is that your goal is unclear.

You have a physical windows partition (A) which hold a windows install x .
Your description suggests you want to run a guest VM B that uses A as it's windows partition.

This would basically give you 2 ways to access x :
- boot into A
- boot linux, start B

The commands and links you posted however create a copy C of A .
Starting C connects you with the virtual windows install y , NOT the physical x .

I have some questions for you :
- Which one do you want, VM B == x or VM C == y ?

- Are you open to use other virtualisation software then virtualbox ?
If so, does it matter whether it's open or closed sourcecode ?

clever · 2018-07-05 10:06:50

hey
I want to boot linux, start B

Lone_Wolf wrote:

The commands and links you posted however create a copy C of A .
Starting C connects you with the virtual windows install y , NOT the physical x .

I fount it here, and actually it does not duplicate partition but create a pointer
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic … 56#p149094

I Want VM B == x

I prefer virtualbox because of it's extensions and ease of use
but open to try new && better tools!!!

progandy · 2018-07-05 10:30:33

Be aware that this wil result in licensing issues since Windows 10 regards bare metal and VM as two different machines.

Lone_Wolf · 2018-07-05 15:41:36

It seems I misread that windows7 howto, it does indeed run windows from the physical partition.
Since your questions are not vbox specific, i'll use hypervisor instead.

- 2. Licensing

I agree with progandy about the potential license issues and you'll need 2 licenses ,
I do think windows 10 home allows running windows as a VM guest alongside a windows host installation, but that's not your setup.
Windows 10 professional and business license however might allow your usecase.
You should contact microsoft to verify.

- 3.risks & cushions

Accessing the windows partition like this requires code below filesystem level.
Crashes/problems in host, hypervisor or guest could corrupt the entire drive the partitions are on.
Backup often.

I'd also suggest to put linux and windows on seperate drives to reduce consequences.

- 1. drivers / perforfmance

I have run similar setups using windows xp , vista and server 2003 .
performance was very bad and the setups were only good for a few limited usecases, but IOMMU was in it's infancy.
According to colleagues windows 7 & server 2008 improved things, a few years AMD Vi , Intel VT-d and such came and performance became tolerable.

The more hardware you can pass-through, the closer the vm will get to native performance .
Which hypervisor is used also plays a big part, bare-metal hypervisors tend to be better in this.

Having multiple drives with their own dedicated controller/data connections also helps, especially if host and guest need to perform simultaneously.

In the setups i was involved in directly i had to use hardware profiles to make both physical and vm setups work, no idea how windows 10 does this.

-
4. How to ProvideVirtualbox, Disk Access with my user, Without Risking Other Partitions being modified?
5. How to Hide Windows Boot + Windows Root Partitions from file manager to avoid accidental mount? or at least promt warning that is in use by vbox

Put all windows partitions in /etc/fstab with the option noauto and never add x-systemd.automount for those partitions.
create a separate user that can't start a login shell to run the vm.
Use sudoers to give them the option to mount the win partitions with root rights..

mount/dismount the partitions in a script that starts/stops the vm .
This should prevent accidental access.

- 6. How to create a grub iso for virtualbox that only boot to windows not linux

Not sure what that means, do you want an option to boot windows guest vm from your host bootloader screen ?
That would probably use some kind of scripted autologon that starts linux > hypervisor > guest vm.

progandy · 2018-07-05 15:53:16

Here is one example of the tricks you might have to use to keep windows activated, but this uses QEMU/KVM: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-1 … art-0.html
Even if you are allowed to run an additioanl VM by your license, using the same partition might be difficult.

Last edited by progandy (2018-07-05 15:54:50)

Arch Linux

#1 2018-06-18 00:18:41

Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#2 2018-06-18 10:36:34

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#3 2018-06-20 19:19:00

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#4 2018-06-22 15:43:58

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#5 2018-07-05 10:06:50

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#6 2018-07-05 10:30:33

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#7 2018-07-05 15:41:36

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

#8 2018-07-05 15:53:16

Re: Need Help Running Physical Windows 10 As a RAW Guest VM in Linux Host

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