On 18/09/10 12:27, Daniel Convissor wrote: > Hi Folks: > > I'm thinking of getting a Lenovo X201. Of course, they all come with > Windows, blargh. I plan to run Ubuntu, install VirtualBox, and then > install Windows 7 into that. But here's the catch... > > The last two ThinkPads I got don't have the OS installed initially. They > have source for the OS is a hidden partition that gets booted to the > first time you turn the machine on. > > Here's what I'm thinking. Let me know if I'm crazy and/or this won't > work. > > The first time I turn on the machine I'm going to boot to Ubuntu on a USB > flash stick. I'll use dd to copy the hidden partition and boot sector > somewhere else. I'll then install Ubuntu on the whole drive. Install > VirtualBox and create a vm for Windows 7. Then I'll load the drive image > into that vm hard drive space. Finally, I'll "reboot" that vm instance, > which I hope jump into the Windows 7 install process. Or something along > those lines. > > OR... Am I going to have to actually install W7 on the physical machine > first (though not register/activate it), install Ubuntu in a dual-boot > setup, install VirtualBox, make a vm and convert/image/(please let me > know what the right term is) the Windows install and then turn that into > the vm guest.
I'm shopping for a new laptop, too. I have a different plan in mind. I would install W7, because I think Virtual Box can use a partition to boot a guest os from. After installing W7, I would repartition the drive, reducing the primary W7 partition to whatever size I wanted. Then I would create an extended partition with a number of logical partitions. The next step would be to install grub on the extended partition and linux in the logical partitions. Then make the extended partition active. This method leaves the MBR alone. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Start uncovering the many advantages of virtual appliances and start using them to simplify application deployment and accelerate your shift to cloud computing. http://p.sf.net/sfu/novell-sfdev2dev _______________________________________________ VBox-users-community mailing list [email protected] https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/vbox-users-community
