Arch Linux

Nazgulled

Member

Registered: 2009-03-08

Posts: 102

Moving from VirtualBox to VMware, how to clean up drivers?

Hi,

I'm moving all my virtual images from VirtualBox to VMware and I believe there's something to be done about the device drivers after the conversion...

1) VirtualBox probably uses some different drivers than VMware, and let's say that I've already converted a VirtualBox VDI image file into a VMware VMDK one and I'm able to boot it. How can I make sure I clean up all old and unused drivers from VirtualBox and install the new ones used by VMware?

2) By default, VirtualBox uses virtual IDE devices and VMware's SCSI (which seems to perform better with VMware). How can I configure my Arch virtual machine (after converting the image from VDI do VMDK) to recognize the virtual HDD as SCSI instead of IDE? Is there a simple way to do this or am I stuck and I'll have to use the IDE device unless I reinstall the whole thing?

djszapi

Member

From: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Registered: 2009-06-14

Posts: 1,439

Website

Re: Moving from VirtualBox to VMware, how to clean up drivers?

Hello Nazgulled!

http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/VirtualBox
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Installing_VMware

I think a simple remove/install is enough, and editing of the rc.conf, but maybe I'm wrong.
What's the exact problem? What can't work ?

---

http://lpapp.blogspot.com

Nazgulled

Member

Registered: 2009-03-08

Posts: 102

Re: Moving from VirtualBox to VMware, how to clean up drivers?

Yeah, I know about those links but they only help me getting rid of stuff from VirtualBox and configure VMware, by reading each appropriate wiki page. But they might not be enough for a complete migration from one to another without any errors.

I'm not sure what you mean by "remove/install", can you be a little more specific on what you mean by that?

The "problem" is (or may be) that VirtualBox has their own virtualization drivers for all the virtual hardware and VMware has theirs. Well, some may be common to one another but some others may not. I just want to make sure that I uninstalled all old (VirtualBox ones) device drivers and install the new ones (VMware ones). I'm not sure, but maybe a kernel reinstall would "fix" that? And if so, how can I do that in Arch? (couldn't find anything in the wiki)

As for question 2, like I said, VirtualBox runs on IDE disk drivers and although VMware works with that, it prefers SCSI. How can I change my Arch installation to SCSI from IDE without reinstall the whole thing?

djszapi

Member

From: Cambridge, United Kingdom

Registered: 2009-06-14

Posts: 1,439

Website

Re: Moving from VirtualBox to VMware, how to clean up drivers?

1. How can I change my Arch installation to SCSI from IDE without reinstall the whole thing? -> just change for the desired drivers ?

2. I'm not sure what you mean by "remove/install", can you be a little more specific on what you mean by that? Remove Virtualbox, Install Vmware?

It isn't clear for me. Do you use virtual engine in Archlinux, or archlinux in virtual software ?

---

http://lpapp.blogspot.com

Nazgulled

Member

Registered: 2009-03-08

Posts: 102

Re: Moving from VirtualBox to VMware, how to clean up drivers?

I have Arch installed as a virtual machine in VirtualBox, NOT VirtualBox installed inside Arch...