Booting vm of a Linux Macrium Reflect Image using ViBoot

cereberus · Feb 21, 2023

So I thought I would try something different.

In another post, I showed how I had created a Macrium Reflect image of a stand-alone Linux installation.

It wondered if Viboot would open that image as a Hyper-V VM, so I just tried it.

It did not object during setup, then fell over as it was loading it.

I though "ah well - probably asking too much"/

Then a "light bulb" moment occurred.

I shut down the vm in the Hyper-V menu, and turned off secure boot.

Well flabber my ghast - it booted into Linux.

Cool - eh!

So Viboot will boot non Windows OSs - Rock on!

Bree · Feb 21, 2023

cereberus said:
I shut down the vm in the Hyper-V menu, and turned off secure boot.
Well flabber my ghast - it booted into Linux.

Yes, I also had to do that for my Linux Mint VM. It's a standard Hyper-V VM, not a viBoot one.

jimbo45 · Feb 21, 2023

Hi folks

I thought you guys all "Hated Linux" -- as a VM although even for Windows diehard users there's features that are worth using. !!!

HYPER-V is actually now quite good -- it used (at least on W11 domestic machines ) to be hideous for Linux VM's or booting various OS'es from VHDX files.

BTW HYPER-V on Windows server is another order in magnitude on performance -- try the free 180 day trial of W2002 server LTSC. !!!!

Now apart from a few not really significant niggles HYPER-V on most editions of Windows s a "Hideously good VM platform" !!!!!. --You still can't beat the performance on HYPER-V VM's tough though it is with W11 as a Host compared to W2022 server -- after all HYPER-V was designed for the server system and only came to consumer editions of W11 as an after thought.

Anyway -- It works !! and very successfully too.

I still though (bigoted I might be) prefer running Windows VM's on an arch linux host using KVM/QEMU as the VM software -- but that doesn't denigrate the fact that HYPER-V has improved by leaps and bounds over the last couple of years for domestic W11 machines,

Cheers
jimbo

cereberus · Feb 21, 2023

jimbo45 said:
Hi folks

I still though (bigoted I might be) prefer running Windows VM's on an arch linux host using KVM/QEMU as the VM software -- but that doesn't denigrate the fact that HYPER-V has improved by leaps and bounds over the last couple of years for domestic W11 machines,

Cheers
jimbo

My tests show a Windows vm via Hyper-V far outperforms KVM/QEMU.

All the literature on KVM/QEMU is contradictory - it says KVM is a type 1 Hypervisor but QEMU is type 2 but all installers install KVM/QEMU. So which is it type 1 or type 2?

I did manage to glean this in my web searches:

"KVM is not a clear case as it could be categorized as either one. The KVM kernel module turns Linux kernel into a type 1 bare-metal hypervisor, while the overall system could be categorized to type 2 because the host OS is still fully functional and the other VM's are standard Linux processes from its perspective."

pparks1 · Feb 21, 2023

jimbo45 said:
Hi folks

I thought you guys all "Hated Linux" -- as a VM although even for Windows diehard users there's features that are worth using. !!!

Cheers
jimbo

I think most are tolerant of Linux, it's just a different beast and many don't make much progress with it.

The hatred is for Apple. LOL

Bree · Feb 21, 2023

cereberus said:
Viboot will boot non Windows OSs - Rock on!

Note that the viBoot in Reflect Free is v8.0 and does not support VirtualBox 7.0, only 6.0/6.1. VB 7.0 support was added with v8.1.

However, viBoot is quite independent of Reflect itself. You can copy the viBoot.exe and its associated VBoxIface_n_n.dll files from v8.1 into Reflect Free's folder. Then you can use VirtualBox 7.0. You don't need the Home version of v8.1, the files from Reflect v8.1 Trial will do.

cereberus · Feb 21, 2023

Bree said:
Note that the viBoot in Reflect Free is v8.0 and does not support VirtualBox 7.0, only 6.0/6.1. VB 7.0 support was added with v8.1.

However, viBoot is quite independent of Reflect itself. You can copy the viBoot.exe and its associated VBoxIface_n_n.dll files from v8.1 into Reflect Free's folder. Then you can use VirtualBox 7.0. You don't need the Home version of v8.1, the files from Reflect v8.1 Trial will do.

Nice to know. Having said that I use HyperV where I can.

My tests were more about exploring viboot. I alwaya assumed it was only going to handle Windows based OSs. I have never seen anybody post about using it for non Windows OSs, but I am glad it works fine.

In the end, perhaps I should not be surprised as there is nothing it does thst you cannot really do from a vm with a bootable Reflect iso. It just does it more slickly.

Bree · Feb 21, 2023

cereberus said:
Nice to know. Having said that I use HyperV where I can.

So do I, but I do have VirtualBox on my test machine. At first it was just to see how well viBoot works with VB, but recently I've used VB to run VMs of OS's that Hyper-V cannot handle, such as Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows '95.

jimbo45 · Feb 22, 2023

Bree said:
So do I, but I do have VirtualBox on my test machine. At first it was just to see how well viBoot works with VB, but recently I've used VB to run VMs of OS's that Hyper-V cannot handle, such as Windows for Workgroups 3.11 and Windows '95.

Hyper-V doesn't particularly like XP either although it will work -- remember XP has no "official" USB3 support either so your host has to support USB2. Also XP needs IDE drivers which need to be emulated in the "Virtual hardware". Hyper-V good as it is is a bit more intolerant of older discontinued OS'es.

Cheers
jimbo