Mac – Virtualbox: Raw linux partition not booting

multi-bootpartitioningUbuntuvirtual machinevirtualbox

I have a dual-boot laptop with Windows 7 and Ubuntu 12.04. I am trying to boot the ubuntu partition from windows using Virtualbox. I have successfully created the .vmdk, and created the virtual machine. However, I can't get it to boot (in Virtualbox). All I get is a black screen with the cursor in the top left.

I wonder if I'm specifying the partitions correctly. My Ubuntu install has 3 partitions: \, \boot, \home. No swap partition. These are all in Disk 0, partitions 3,4,5 respectively.

The command I used to create the .vmdk is:

 VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename C:\Users\abalter\.virtualbox\ubuntu.vmdk -rawdisk \\.\PhysicalDrive0 -partitions 3,4,5

Then I create a virtual machine based on that .vmdk.

Why won't it boot?

Best Answer

It's a known bug: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9926 This http://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/784138-howto-boot-existing-ubuntu-partition-using-virtualbox-inside-windows/ suggests creating a custom iso that bootstraps grub2 as a workaround.

Related Question