29 replies to this topic

[huisinro]

1 Linux as Real Appliance

With VBoot for Linux, you can pre-install and pre-configure Linux OS and its applications, then distribute the resulting virtual disk file in VHD format. The vhd can boot a real computer, with configuration and apps instantly available. This way, operating systems are truly manageable, as simple as files. We call such a Linux VHD to be a real appliance, in the sense that it boots physical computers.

It's very easy to setup and boot a computer with a vhd file. You download the vhd file, drop it to Windows or Linux file system, then configure the boot loader, and reboot the computer.

2 Linux as Virtual Appliance

The exact same vhd file also runs as a virtual machine using virtualization software, such as VMLite Workstation, VirtualBox, Xen and Virtual PC and Hyper-V, etc. By default, it's optimized for VMLite Workstation.

If VMLite Workstation is installed, you can simply double click the ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.mop file to launch the vhd as a virtual machine with VMLite Workstation.

A sample Ubuntu VHD package is ready for download:

http://www.vmlite.co...d/22-appliances (free site registration required)

download, extract it, then double click setup.exe on Windows, reboot
On Linux, need to configure boot loaders.

detailed instructions:

http://www.vmlite.co...910-readme.html

screenshot:

http://www.vmlite.co...vboot-grub2.png

- VMLite Team

[Brito]

Very cool.

I have a lot of friends that need Ubuntu and need to give away a partition of their machines and forcefully go through the install process.

This is a good solution to run the machine from both the VM when small things are needed or go into full boot when you need more power.

[huisinro]

Thanks.

We will release this as open source after some cleanups.

It should work on any Linux distributions too, basically need to compile the virtual disk module, then insert it to the initrd, etc.

[huisinro]

The following are some instructions from the readme.html file:

//////////////////////////////////////////////
VMLite VBoot - Linux VHD Boot
updated on Apr-09-10

Copyright © 2010, VMLite Inc.


1.3 The sample Ubuntu VHD
The sample ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd is a pre-installed 32-bit Ubuntu 9.10 desktop version in English.

self growing disk with disk capacity of 100G, with initial size about 3G

root username/password: user/welcome

2 System Requirements
Windows 2000 and Later, 32- and 64- bit, NTFS file system

Linux with GRUB, GRUB2 or other compatible boot loaders, 32- and 64- bit

Mac - to be supported soon

4G disk space

3 Download and Extract
The sample Ubuntu 9.10 package is a few hundred MB, so it will take quite some time to download, and it's recommended to use a download manager, such as FlashGet.

Once download is complete, first you need to extract the file, which is in .7z format. More info can be found at http://www.7-zip.org/download.html. On Windows, you can use WinRar or 7Zip to extract the file. On Linux, you can use the following commands to install 7zip, and unzip the file:

sudo apt-get install p7zip

p7zip -d ubuntu-910.7z

In order to boot a computer using the vhd file, make sure that it's not extracted to a network drive, or to another virtual disk. The vhd file must reside in a basic volume on internal or external hard disks (e.g., USB drives), otherwise, it won't boot.

4 Install on Windows
If your current host is Windows, you need to install VBoot loader, and add a boot entry to Windows boot manager. In addition, you need to tell VBoot where to find the vhd file.

4.1 Automatic Setup by running setup.exe
It's highly recommend that you use this method to setup VBoot on Windows, since it's extremely simple and automates everything. You simply double click setup.exe on 32-bit Windows, or setup64.exe on 64-bit Windows. The setup utility will install VBoot Loader, and configure the Windows boot loader to contain an entry to boot the Linux VHD.

After setup.exe is successfully run, you reboot the computer, and you should see a "VBoot - Ubuntu VHD Boot" entry as the last one, select this entry to boot to Linux.

4.2 Manual Setup
If somehow the automatic setup doesn't work, then you can perform the following manual steps:

4.2.1 Copy VBoot Loader Files

The VBoot loader is based on GNU GRUB2, and its files are located in vboot sub directory.

vbootldr.mbr and vbootldr are the two critical boot loader files that must be copied to the root directory of a drive, typical C:\.
The fonts directory contains font files to be used by our boot loader.
The grub directory contains grub2 modules, and the very import grub.cfg configuration file.
For example, if you want to copy the files to C:\, you need to copy the vboot directory to c:\, so you will have c:\vboot directory. Then you must copy vbootldr.mbr and vbootldr to c:\.

The following commands can be used to copy the files. Make sure to run from the extracted dir.

md c:\vboot
xcopy /s vboot c:\vboot
copy vboot\vbootldr c:\
copy vboot\vbootldr.mbr c:\

4.2.2 Configure grub.cfg

A sample grub.cfg file is placed in c:\vboot\grub directory (or d:\vboot\grub depending on where you have copied the files). This is the GRUB2 configuratrion file to load operating systems. Inside this file, the vhd file path is hard coded, and thus you have to modify it.

grub.cfg is a text file that you can use notepad to open and modify. The relevant portion is shown below:

menuentry "VHD Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
insmod vhd
vhd vhd0 (hd0,1)/ubuntu-910/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd --partitions
linux (vhd0,1)/boot/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 vloop=/ubuntu-910/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd quiet splash
initrd (vhd0,1)/boot/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic-vboot
}

menuentry groups a specific operating system. The first line insmod vhd inserts our vhd.mod module to the boot loader. vhd.mod is a GRUB2 module that treats a vhd file as hard disk, and allows GRUB2 to read files from the vhd. For example, the Linux kernel and initrd are loaded from the vhd file, as configured above.

There are three paths (as shown in red) related to the vhd file that you need to change depending on the directory to which the vhd file is extracted.

The vhd path (hd0,1)/ubuntu-910/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd is in GRUB2 format where (hd0,1) indicates hard disk 0 and partition 1, with the rest is the absolute path in UNIX format. For example, if your vhd file is inside a folder called 123 on an external USB disk, then you need to change this path to something like (hd1,1)/123/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd. The path immediately after vloop= should be the same absolute path without the disk number and partition number.

The root path is the Linux device name for the disk where the vhd file resides. The number is the partition number, and the letter 'a', 'b', 'c', etc, represents which disk. For (hd0,1), the name would be /dev/sda1; For (hd1,1), it would be /dev/sdb1; For (hd2,4), it would be /dev/sdc4, etc.

44.2.3 Configure Windows Boot Loader

Once VBoot Loader and the vhd file are ready, you need to configure Windows boot manager, so you can boot to the Linux VHD. You need to append the vbootldr.mbr entry to the [operating systems] section. The following is sample boot.ini file with VBoot entry added at the very last. Shown in red is what you need to add to boot.ini. Change C: to whatever drive you have copied VBoot Loader files.

[boot loader]
timeout=30
default=multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS
[operating systems]
multi(0)disk(0)rdisk(0)partition(1)\WINDOWS="Microsoft Windows XP Professional" /noexecute=optin /fastdetect
C:\vbootldr.mbr="VBoot - Ubuntu VHD Boot"

4.2.3.2 Windows Vista/2008/7
Windows Vista and above use a different mechanism other than boot.init to boot, and you need to run bcdedit.exe to make changes to the boot manager. The following are the commands to run if you have copied VBoot Loader to drive C:. You must rum these commands as Administrator. Go to Windows Start menu > All Programs > Accessories, then right click on "Command Prompt", then select "Run As Administrator". Once command prompt window is open, you can enter these commands.

bcdedit /create {D3DCE997-7447-41FC-9740-A8D20EE3BF55} /d "Ubuntu VHD Boot" /application BOOTSECTOR
bcdedit /set {D3DCE997-7447-41FC-9740-A8D20EE3BF55} device partition=C:
bcdedit /set {D3DCE997-7447-41FC-9740-A8D20EE3BF55} path \vbootldr.mbr
bcdedit /displayorder {D3DCE997-7447-41FC-9740-A8D20EE3BF55} /addlast
bcdedit /timeout 30

5 Install on Linux
On Linux systems, there is no need to install VBoot Loader. Instead, you only need to add an entry to your current boot loader so the Linux VHD can be booted.

5.1 Configure GRUB2
You can edit the GRUB2 config file, /boot/grub/grub.cfg, using any text editor, and insert an entry like the following:

menuentry "VHD Ubuntu, Linux 2.6.31-14-generic" {
linux (hd0,1)/ubuntu-910/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 vloop=/ubuntu-910/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd quiet splash
initrd (hd0,1)/ubuntu-910/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic-vboot
}

There are some subtle differences between Linux and Windows host. On Windows where our GRUB2 module,vhd.mod, is available, you can configure GRUB2 to load the Linux kerenl and initrd from the exactly same vhd file, whereas on Linux systems, the kernel and initrd are separate files residing externally. In other words, on Windows, it's strictly only one vhd file is required; whereas on Linux, 3 files (kernel, initrd, vhd) are required. We will try to make the vhd.mod module to support Linux file system soon.

Obviously, you need to change the paths depending on the directory to which the kernel, initrd and vhd files are extracted.

The path (hd0,1) indicates hard disk 0 and partition 1, with the rest is the absolute path in UNIX format. For example, if your vhd file is inside a folder called 123 on an external USB disk, then you need to change this path to something like (hd1,1)/123/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd. The path immediately after vloop= should be the same absolute path without the disk number and partition number.

The root path is the Linux device name for the disk where the vhd file resides. The number is the partition number, and the letter 'a', 'b', 'c', etc, represents which disk. For (hd0,1), the name would be /dev/sda1; For (hd1,1), it would be /dev/sdb1; For (hd2,4), it would be /dev/sdc4, etc.

5.3 Configure Legacy GRUB
For GRUB 0.97 and similar, you can add an entry to your GRUB config file, /boot/grub/menu.lst, using any text editor, and insert an entry like the following:

title VBoot - Ubuntu VHD Boot
kernel /boot/ubuntu-910/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 vloop=/boot/ubuntu-910/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd quiet splash
initrd /boot/ubuntu-910/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic-vboot
quiet

Obviously, you need to adjust the paths according to your own locations for the Linux kernel, initrd and vhd file.

5.4 Configure other Boot Loaders
We haven't tested other Linux boot loaders, such as LILO and SYSLINUX, but they may work as well. The important thing is to add vloop= argument to the Linux kernel line:

root=/dev/sda1 vloop=/boot/ubuntu-910/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd

The above tells where to locate the vhd file.

This is two screenshots:

XP Boot Loader


The VHD boot menu:

[huisinro]

If you tried the VHD, please post here whether or not it work for you.

We will post instructions on how to make your own Linux VHDs to boot once we cleanup our source code, and you can compile the virtual disk kernel module yourself.

Thanks,

[_deXter_]

Interesting. Never heard of VMLite before. It says on the website it's based on VBox but "will" offer new features? What's the advantage of VMLite then, (at present) over VBox?

Anyways, the Linux as an appliance is an interesting development. It's a nice addition to other solutions like Wubi, Co-Linux and Remastersys.

Will try the VHD and let you know.

[hoak]

Very handsome site and product execution huisinro! I collect operating systems and am especially interested in the prospect of being able to use VHD Boot to run operating systems directly on the hardware from a virtual file system.

While Linux would allow one to build an image in a virtual machine and then boot and configure it for the native hardware, some older and more obscure operating systems are more problematic... Similarly the 'New To Linux Windows User' that could benefit from VHD Boot to explor Linux with native performance will probably be in over his/her head as far as configuring his Linux of choice this way. Might there be a way to 'virtualize' boot so an OS installer would see an empty VHD as a drive it could install to the way Windows 7 and Vista can do this?

Regardless it's always nice to see new builds of emulators, and the VHD Linux boot is very exciting, especially if there is easy means to for the New User means try their Linux of choice and see its native performance next to Windows in this fashion; this could expand Linux exploration adoption considerably.

[Droopyear]

if someone try this, pls tell here can use the usb ports, i remember the wmlite not supported the usb, this a lower version from virtualbox

[Rootman]

DL'd and installed on a Latitude D620 laptop (Windows XP SP3) in a docking station attached to a digital external monitor. The install went fine and on reboot the boot.ini shows the Vboot entry and chains to Vmlite with the VHD Ubuntu on the selection list. I choose it and see the Ubuntu logo for a while. I hear the Ubuntu startup sound and then get a black screen.

When undocked I get the Ubuntu desktop, so external monitors are not supported well. Possibly because the laptop screen is wide and the external monitor is 4/3. Changing the rez while undocked, shutting down and placing it back in the doc and reboot produced a torn up screen and a mouse cursor. This is more than likely an Ubuntu problem and not a VMLite issue.

While in Ubuntu I plugged my WD Passport and it mounted just fine, so it appears that USB devices ARE supported under virtualization- at least USB hard drives are. I was also able to get onto our wireless network using WPA-WPA2 Personal encryption, so the network virtualization is working.

The system seems snappy, a lot more so then running under a VM in Windows XP. I'm going to try the Workstation next.

Now how do we get XP installed as a virtual appliance to make a fully virtual FULL USB bootable version of XP?

[huisinro]

Thanks for seeing the potentials of VHD Boot. Another powerful thing can be done is snapshoting. Once you boot to a VHD, you can take snapshot, this way the whole host OS is like a virtual machine, and you can discard, merge snapshots to base image, thus making the system totally recoverable. This is why we put the 2nd point on our front page (Recoverable Always).

Yes, you will be able to install Linux, XP, Vista and 7 to an empty VHD file. What you need to do is to add a boot entry with the new VHD file, then boot via CD to start the installation. The following screenshots show how XP can be installed to the vboot virtual disk:

Very handsome site and product execution huisinro! I collect operating systems and am especially interested in the prospect of being able to use VHD Boot to run operating systems directly on the hardware from a virtual file system.

While Linux would allow one to build an image in a virtual machine and then boot and configure it for the native hardware, some older and more obscure operating systems are more problematic... Similarly the 'New To Linux Windows User' that could benefit from VHD Boot to explor Linux with native performance will probably be in over his/her head as far as configuring his Linux of choice this way. Might there be a way to 'virtualize' boot so an OS installer would see an empty VHD as a drive it could install to the way Windows 7 and Vista can do this?

Regardless it's always nice to see new builds of emulators, and the VHD Linux boot is very exciting, especially if there is easy means to for the New User means try their Linux of choice and see its native performance next to Windows in this fashion; this could expand Linux exploration adoption considerably.

[Rootman]

Well I tried workstation mode and it runs pretty poky as most VM's do. Upping the RAM to 1GB helps.

While Virtualbox / VMLite offers to allow USB connections from the host to the guest, my passport drive fails to show up in the list under devices in the VMLite interfae. It shows in the host but will not connect to the guest.

[huisinro]

Thanks for trying. As for the display problem, you can imagine that we didn't pre-install the driver. Need to pre-install more drivers to cover more hardwares. If you install Linux to the VHD yourself, your hardware will be discovered. Next step is to integrate VBoot to Linux installations.

The XP/Vista/Windows 7 vhd boot is not released yet, it won't be freely available even after release.

DL'd and installed on a Latitude D620 laptop (Windows XP SP3) in a docking station attached to a digital external monitor. The install went fine and on reboot the boot.ini shows the Vboot entry and chains to Vmlite with the VHD Ubuntu on the selection list. I choose it and see the Ubuntu logo for a while. I hear the Ubuntu startup sound and then get a black screen.

When undocked I get the Ubuntu desktop, so external monitors are not supported well. Possibly because the laptop screen is wide and the external monitor is 4/3. Changing the rez while undocked, shutting down and placing it back in the doc and reboot produced a torn up screen and a mouse cursor. This is more than likely an Ubuntu problem and not a VMLite issue.

While in Ubuntu I plugged my WD Passport and it mounted just fine, so it appears that USB devices ARE supported under virtualization- at least USB hard drives are. I was also able to get onto our wireless network using WPA-WPA2 Personal encryption, so the network virtualization is working.

The system seems snappy, a lot more so then running under a VM in Windows XP. I'm going to try the Workstation next.

Now how do we get XP installed as a virtual appliance to make a fully virtual FULL USB bootable version of XP?

[Rootman]

FREELY as in "not for free" like it will cost money, or FREELY as in NOT distributed at all?

[huisinro]

We will charge license fee, may provide a time limited free trial with all functions
thanks,

FREELY as in "not for free" like it will cost money, or FREELY as in NOT distributed at all?

[Rootman]

Any time frame for its release? Being a strong PE forum I know many users will be anxious for this.

How much virtualization does this provide in the Windows "real appliance" mode? Is all I/O pumped through a virtual layer? If we were to install this on a USB drive could we boot the VHD on ANY PC then? Or is the VHD still tied to PC hardware? If this can boot a full blown Windows from a USB drive from any PC I'll be first in line to order it!

[huisinro]

One unique feature we will release soon is something we call a "VMLite VM", to run the same host OS inside a virtual machine. for example, you will be able to create the exact same Windows 7 vm from your running Windows 7 host, in a couple of mins, with same config and apps. This provides you a way to do vm without using any external resources.

Interesting. Never heard of VMLite before. It says on the website it's based on VBox but "will" offer new features? What's the advantage of VMLite then, (at present) over VBox?

Anyways, the Linux as an appliance is an interesting development. It's a nice addition to other solutions like Wubi, Co-Linux and Remastersys.

Will try the VHD and let you know.

[Rootman]

One unique feature we will release soon is something we call a "VMLite VM", to run the same host OS inside a virtual machine. for example, you will be able to create the exact same Windows 7 vm from your running Windows 7 host, in a couple of mins, with same config and apps. This provides you a way to do vm without using any external resources.

If you guys can do this legally and make it boot as an appliance from a VHD this will open up a new chapter in Windows history. I would abandon all my PE work and go to this instantly.
This will boot from a drive as an appliance as well as inside an OS as a guest from the SAME file(s)?

If this is true I'll get a USB 3 HDD and run my full OS from it then not have to update when I change hardware and use full XP installations on passport drives to repair and reimage other PCs.

[huisinro]

We will try to release something within next 2 months.

VBoot itself does not allow you to boot from more hardware, but you can apply tricks to the vhd, i.e., to put more drivers to the vhd file, so it can boot on more PCs. one such example is this thread:

http://www.boot-land...amp;#entry97593

Any time frame for its release? Being a strong PE forum I know many users will be anxious for this.

How much virtualization does this provide in the Windows "real appliance" mode? Is all I/O pumped through a virtual layer? If we were to install this on a USB drive could we boot the VHD on ANY PC then? Or is the VHD still tied to PC hardware? If this can boot a full blown Windows from a USB drive from any PC I'll be first in line to order it!

[huisinro]

If you guys can do this legally and make it boot as an appliance from a VHD this will open up a new chapter in Windows history. I would abandon all my PE work and go to this instantly.
This will boot from a drive as an appliance as well as inside an OS as a guest from the SAME file(s)?

If this is true I'll get a USB 3 HDD and run my full OS from it then not have to update when I change hardware and use full XP installations on passport drives to repair and reimage other PCs.

Yes, you can boot with a vhd, and then launch a vm using same files. Or even without using VHD, you can launch a vm from sharing files with the host. I am not sure whether can replace PE, but we are working towards the direction to reduce that the difference between the real machine and virtual machine. Our primary focus initially is to provide a proteced environment to users (with only a few clicks), so he can trap virus/spyware, or test any programs inside the vm, yet keep the same configuration as his host OS instance.

There is a bit more info here, with a screenshot showing Vista vm running on Vista laptop:

http://www.vmlite.co...ext-version-316

[hoak]

Very impressive and exciting huisinro! It looks like you're both on top of and behind some of the coolest developments to come along in cross-platform file system and machine virtualization -- making it vastly more useful, practical, and versatile!

As Windows 7 and Vista HAL can be reset once installed to a VHD, would it not also be possible to boot a Windows 7 or Vista VHD on Linux host? And on a related note will the ability to install 'other os' to a bare VHD on a Linux host be possible for native hardware detection at installation?

So excited!

[huisinro]

Very impressive and exciting huisinro! It looks like you're both on top of and behind some of the coolest developments to come along in cross-platform file system and machine virtualization -- making it vastly more useful, practical, and versatile!

As Windows 7 and Vista HAL can be reset once installed to a VHD, would it not also be possible to boot a Windows 7 or Vista VHD on Linux host? And on a related note will the ability to install 'other os' to a bare VHD on a Linux host be possible for native hardware detection at installation?

So excited!

Thanks, hoak.

Yes, you got it right. You should be able to drop Windows VHD to linux, or even Mac host systems, and boot it. We want to provide something that makes the host OS to be managable, just like what you do with a vm today. You can live snapshot your host os, boot a snapshot, etc., and run the same OS inside a vm if needed.

Since we also do application virtualization, so later on, apps will be another mix. still a long way to go !

[fuwi]

@huisinro

I've made some test with the Ubuntu 910 desktop appliance:
I have a bootable USB drive with the grub4dos bootmanager.
In the root of this USB drive i made a folder 'UBUNTU' and i copied
the files vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic, initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic-vboot & ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd
to the UBUNTU-folder.

My menu.lst enty looks like this:

title Boot Ubuntu VHD
kernel /UBUNTU/vmlinuz-2.6.31-14-generic root=/dev/sda1 vloop=/UBUNTU/ubuntu-910-desktop-i386.vhd quiet splash
initrd /UBUNTU/initrd.img-2.6.31-14-generic-vboot

Now i have booted this USB drive on 4 different Laptops:
If the internal harddisks of the Laptops are removed, Ubuntu starts flawless on each Laptop.
As soon as the internal Laptop harddisk is reinserted, Ubuntu begins to start from the booted USB drive (e.g. the Ubuntu logo is visible),
then the screen is black.
If i hit <enter> this error message is on the screen:


I dont't think that this is a path problem because the linux start files are found -> what means /host/UBUNTU/... ?

fuwi

[fuwi]

@huisinro

sorry, forget it, problem solved!

i have changed in menu.lst the root path from root=/dev/sda1 to root=/dev/sdb1
now Ubuntu starts as expected...

fuwi

[Droopyear]

Our primary focus initially is to provide a proteced environment to users
(with only a few clicks), so he can trap virus/spyware, or test any programs
inside the vm, yet keep the same configuration as his host OS instance.

hmm, i have a small scepticism, that screenshot a standard virtalbox without
USB support, i guess this an OSA release from sun.
And the "same configuration" is mbe best lookin in the
control panel-system-device manager button

[huisinro]

Hi Droopyear,

you are right, and I am aware of those difference in hardware devices. However, unless you are developing device drivers for those devices, it won't matter. For all the programs and software, the config is same on host and inside the vm.

If that's really the concern, then you don't use the vm way, you take a snapshot using our software on the live host, and you can run all apps under protected. If anything wrong, you discard the changes. This way, even hardware layer are identical, and you are not running from a vm.