On Sun, 26 Feb 2023 15:20:28 -0500
Go Canes <letsgonhlcanes0(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On Sun, Feb 26, 2023 at 1:58 PM Franta Hanzlik via users
<users(a)lists.fedoraproject.org> wrote:
> I want to virtualize any old i686 Windows XP 32-bit physical PC on F37.
[...issues trying to use virt-p2v...]
> Has anyone done this? What optimal way would you recommend?
I've never used virt-p2v - do you really need the --arch option? I
would expect your 32-bit Windows to run just fine in a 64-bit VM.
Another possibility would be to create a 64-bit VM, and then move the
storage to a 32-bit VM (assuming you can't just change the VM
architecture).
I've never worked with virt-p2v, but all the tutorials I found
on the internet used it...
If you are willing to do the p2v steps by hand (it isn't hard):
Assuming your Fedora and Windows systems are separate computers (i.e.
not dual-booting), you have an external USB disk that has enough free
space to hold the data from the Windows XP system, and a way to boot a
clonezilla Live CD or USB on the Windows XP system:
WinXP system has two SATA disks, 1 TB + 500 GB. Windows uses only one
partition on each disk, and this partition are big, but contain little
data (850 GB partition with 10 GB data, and 400 GB partition with 85 GB
of data). There are also other partitions, which I probably don't need
(Acer? PQSERVICE partition + some recovery partition + partition from
other system).
I want to reduce the partitions used by the WinXP to some reasonably
small size before virtualization (hope gparted on some rescue disc
will be capable do it).
- boot clonezilla on the Windows system and let it walk you through
creating an image of the Windows disk
-- do not connect the USB drive until clonezilla tells you to do so
- move the USB disk to the Fedora system
- create the VM but skip the auto-install steps
- boot clonezilla in the VM and let it walk you through restoring the disk image
-- you may need to tell virtual-machine-manager to pass the USB disk
through to the VM
I used the program several times many years ago and I hardly know it
anymore. But isn't possible then use ntfsclone, or only dd partition
-> image file ?
I'm worried about booting, I don't know if it's possible to boot directly
from the partition, or if the entire disk structure (especially the MBR)
has to be.
If you insist on using virt-p2v you might have to see if there is a
Live CD for an older version of Fedora that still has it (assuming it
ever did).
---
Thanks, Franta