Ubuntu – How to boot into a Virtual Box VM with a Live Image

isolive-environmentvirtualboxvirtualization

I am in need of booting into a VM (with a guest OS already installed) from a Live Image (a .iso file that I have) to do some partitioning work, I am running the latest version of Virtual Box, and Ubuntu GNOME 15.10 with GNOME 3.18 is the host, so how can I do this?

Best Answer

Addition section:

1. Select the VM you want to boot into with the Live Image.

2. Click Settings.

3. Go to the Storage section.

FORK 1

Now that you have got this far there are two ways of continuing, you may either add the Live Image as a new optical drive, or you may just link it up to the current Empty slot. If you wish to go with the first option just continue on with these instructions, or if you want to go with the second option, go down to FORK 2.

4. In the Storage Tree select the Empty optical disk.

5. Click the pull-down menu with the image of a disk in the Attributes section.

6. Select the Choose Virtual Optical Disk File... option.

7. Locate the ISO Live Image you wish to boot from on your system and press OK on any remaining windows. When you now run the VM it should boot into the Live Image.

For removal instructions go to the final section titled Removal section.

FORK 2

4. Click the Adds optical drive. button.

5. Choose the Choose disk option and select the ISO file you wish to boot from.

6. After doing so press OK and the next time you boot into your VM it will boot into it from the Live Image which you have just selected.

For removal instructions go to the final section titled Removal section.

Removal section:

If at any point you wish to boot into the VM's original hard drive as opposed to the Live Image follow the following instructions for the different forks:

FORK 1 removal instructions:

1. Once you are in the Storage section select optical disk which you added.

2. Click the pull-down menu with the image of a disk in the Attributes section.

3. Select the Remove Disk from Virtual Drive option.

4. Press OK on any remaining windows and when you next boot into your VM it should boot using its original hard drive.

FORK 2 removal instructions:

1. Once you are in the Storage section select optical disk which you added.

2. Press the Remove selected storage attachment button.

3. Press OK on any remaining windows and when you next boot into your VM it should boot using its original hard drive.

Additional note: By default the VM will boot into the first optical drive, so if you have multiple ones attached and are having any problems from with this, when you first start the VM you can choose which you want to boot into by pressing F12 on startup (it should indicate at the bottom when you can do this to get the boot options).

Related Solutions

Ubuntu – Setup static Ip in virtual box

It would help to post the following:

#ifconfig eth0

Validate that the Static IP Address is in fact assigned to your virtual machine.

It's quie possible that due to a typo or error the static IP address never binded properly to your Ubuntu Instance. You did mention that upon initial install DHCP was able to acquire an IP Address, so we know the network is working.

Just as a quick test try doing the following:

Example:

#sudo ifconfig eth0 down
#sudo ifconfig eth0 192.168.1.55 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.1
#sudo ifconfig eth0 up

First set of octets is going to be your client IPADDRESS

Second set is the netmask

Third set is the gateway

That should temporarily set up eth0 with a static IP. Does that happen to work?

In the meantime please post the output of the following commands in a pastebin.ubuntu.com link

#ifconfig eth0

#cat /etc/default/interfaces

#dmesg

Ubuntu – How to mount disk image taken in linux and run in virtual box

Select a virtual machine by clicking its name in the VirtualBox window
Click the Machine menu at the top of the VirtualBox window, and click Settings
Click the Storage category in the Settings window
Right-click in the storage tree pane, and click Add Floppy Controller
Right-click the Floppy Controller device, and click Add Floppy Device
Click the Choose Disk button in the prompt window that appears

Navigate to the floppy disk image file (.IMG) on your computer and double-click it
If that doesn't work, try renaming the .IMG as .ISO and mount it.

If that too doesn't work, use VBoxManage's convertfromraw command as follows:

VBoxManage convertfromraw --format VDI [filename].img [filename].vdi

Finally, mount the VDI as a hard disk.