How to convert root filesystem to virtual disk format (img, vmdk or vdi)

conversionvirtual machine

I unpacked the contents of a Mageia 6 ISO image, including a Linux root file system in it, and I've updated the root file system by chrooting into it and running dnf update. I also installed a few extra packages and I'd like to know how to turn the directory into a virtual disk format I can run in VirtualBox, or Virt Manager. If I can boot this root file system, without converting it to a virtual disk format, describing how I might manage this would also be an acceptable answer.

Best Answer

Try this:

dd if=<path of squashfs root> of=~/filesystem.img bs=1m

The should give you a raw mountable partition. If you run into errors, mounting, try without the bs argument. It will be slower, but it’s safer.

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Linux – Good tutorial for setting up a KVM/Xen box and advice on which would be better

Arch Linux KVM tutorial

Installing Xen on Arch

An opinion on Xen vs. KVM that I agree with.

The performance is comparable with arguments on both sides at the moment. Time will tell which solution gets the most love (and improves most) in the long-run. My guess is KVM.

Red Hat is investing quite a lot of time, energy, money, and risk to move away from Xen to KVM. Would they do that for no reason?

Partition Virtual Machine – Convert Partition Image to Disk Image with Partition Table

You can do this on the host machine. Most tools like fdisk will operate on files, and kpartx gives you access to partitions in a file.

Create a new empty 100GiB sparse image (make this slightly bigger than the size of the partition image)
```
dd if=/dev/zero of=myvm.img bs=1G count=0 seek=100
```
Partition the image file with fdisk
```
fdisk myvm.img
```
Make the partitions in the image file available is individual devices
```
sudo kpartx -a myvm.img
```
Copy the partition image into the partition
```
sudo cp image.bin /dev/mapper/loop0p1
```
Extend the filesystem to fill the entire partition
```
sudo resize2fs /dev/mapper/loop0p1
```
Close the partitions
```
sudo kpartx -d myvm.img
```
Dismantle the loopback device
```
sudo losetup -D
```

Best Answer

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