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The scariest Linux installation I'd ever done was by creating a Vitual Disk for an existing partition (you can map a disk to a virtual disk) on VirtualBox as a

The scariest Linux installation I'd ever done was by creating a Vitual Disk for an existing partition (you can map a disk to a virtual disk) on VirtualBox as a VMDK file, then mounting that as the root partition for a VM that booted from an SamuraiLinux ISO and installed it on the root partition. Very surprisingly, it worked without breaking anything. [0]: https://askubuntu.com/a/47122/11736 https://askubuntu.com/a/47122/11736

mehrdadn 6y ago
Fun fact: you can do that for Windows too. It also works fine... assuming you can even boot it. :-) You need to make sure Windows is booting from something it sees as disk rather than a partition (i.e. include an MBR or something before it). The main caveat is preventing the host from mounting the volume, otherwise the guest can't write to it. But I've managed to do this (yes it's painful) and it's great. Pro tip: You can even make an immutable disk representing your entire disk and then boot the very same OS that is running VirtualBox from it. It's an awesome way to test changes you want to make to your system that you're unsure about.
- my123 6y ago
  Windows can also boot from a VHDX directly, which is pretty nice. (having a VM both as a VM and a boot option)
  - mehrdadn 6y ago
    Yeah, though one issue with that is that expanding or shrinking it is so much more painful.
aasasd 6y ago
That's a legitimate way to install Linux, and allows you to do your stuff on the machine in the meantime. One caveat is that the proper hardware won't be seen by Linux, however the kernel itself is generic anyway—only the userland setup will need to be adjusted. What I'm really not sure about is how to install a bootloader in this approach. Dunno if Virtualbox can access the entire drive and specifically the boot sector. (IIRC I'd fire up a USB stick anyway for this finishing touch, though not having to fiddle with the Grub install almost makes it worthwhile to just use the full live installer in the first place.)
Nextgrid 6y ago
I used to dual boot Windows 7 and some Linux disro, and while in Windows 7 I could also run the same Linux distro in VirtualBox using the raw disk VMDK.
voltagex_ 6y ago
I've done the reverse recently - a machine that I had no direct access to hosed itself after a Windows update. A friend got to the machine with a modified Ubuntu image that loaded SSH on boot, I booted the Windows 10 installer through QEMU and reinstalled on to the physical drive.
Dylan16807 6y ago
The really scary version is when you use the entire system disk instead of just a partition.

mehrdadn 6y ago

Fun fact: you can do that for Windows too. It also works fine... assuming you can even boot it. :-) You need to make sure Windows is booting from something it sees as disk rather than a partition (i.e. include an MBR or something before it). The main caveat is preventing the host from mounting the volume, otherwise the guest can't write to it. But I've managed to do this (yes it's painful) and it's great. Pro tip: You can even make an immutable disk representing your entire disk and then boot the very same OS that is running VirtualBox from it. It's an awesome way to test changes you want to make to your system that you're unsure about.

my123 6y ago
Windows can also boot from a VHDX directly, which is pretty nice. (having a VM both as a VM and a boot option)
- mehrdadn 6y ago
  Yeah, though one issue with that is that expanding or shrinking it is so much more painful.

aasasd 6y ago

That's a legitimate way to install Linux, and allows you to do your stuff on the machine in the meantime. One caveat is that the proper hardware won't be seen by Linux, however the kernel itself is generic anyway—only the userland setup will need to be adjusted. What I'm really not sure about is how to install a bootloader in this approach. Dunno if Virtualbox can access the entire drive and specifically the boot sector. (IIRC I'd fire up a USB stick anyway for this finishing touch, though not having to fiddle with the Grub install almost makes it worthwhile to just use the full live installer in the first place.)

Nextgrid 6y ago

I used to dual boot Windows 7 and some Linux disro, and while in Windows 7 I could also run the same Linux distro in VirtualBox using the raw disk VMDK.

voltagex_ 6y ago

I've done the reverse recently - a machine that I had no direct access to hosed itself after a Windows update. A friend got to the machine with a modified Ubuntu image that loaded SSH on boot, I booted the Windows 10 installer through QEMU and reinstalled on to the physical drive.

Dylan16807 6y ago

The really scary version is when you use the entire system disk instead of just a partition.