Booting from USB flash in Virtualbox

[ghiyasimehr]

I have a knoppix USB bootable flash that I can boot PC from it correctly. I want to boot it in VirtualBox.
So I created a disk by:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename mydisk.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdc

Then I created a new virtual machine and used mydisk.vmdk as existing disk. When I boot virtual machine, it shows error:

    Waiting (USB)...
    Waiting (USB)...
    Waiting (USB)...
    Waiting (USB)...
    Could not mount disk to /mnt-system. Starting debugging shell...
    sh: can't access tty: job control turned off.
    / #

[Werner P. Schulz]

Sometimes Knoppix has difficulties to find the folder '/mnt/system' immediately if you use an USB-device; therefore it starts to look if there are other devices with this folder. In your case you can influence the start of Knoppix using the cheatcode

knoppix fromhd=/dev/sda1

Now Knoppix will only search for this folder at '/dev/sda1'.

You can use Micro-Remastering to have this cheatcode fromhd=/dev/sda1 permanent within your flash disk installation.

[ghiyasimehr]

My USB doesn't have syslinux.cfg but it has boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg:

DEFAULT knoppix
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime
TIMEOUT 0
# TOTALTIMEOUT 0
# KBDMAP german.kbd
PROMPT 1
F1 boot.msg
F2 f2
F3 f3
DISPLAY boot.msg
LABEL knoppix
KERNEL linux
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime no3d wheelmouse

Where should I change? Where should I put fromhd=/dev/sdc1? Should I recreate vmdk from sdc1 instead of sdc?

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename mydisk.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdc

[Werner P. Schulz]

My USB doesn't have syslinux.cfg but it has boot/isolinux/isolinux.cfg:

Are you sure you has removed the Knoppix CD/DVD within VirtualBox? Isolinux is the bootloader for CDs.

I have a knoppix USB bootable flash

I supposed, you had done a "Flash disk install". Please tell us what kind of Install you really did.

Your

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename mydisk.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdc

is correct, if the USB device is the 3.rd device within your Host system. Within VirtualBox - the Guest system - the USB device is the 1.st device. Therefore you have to use cheatcode fromhd=/dev/sda1 (not sdc1).

[ghiyasimehr]

I supposed, you had done a "Flash disk install". Please tell us what kind of Install you really did.

My friend gave me this bootable USB flash. I can boot PC by it but I want to use it in VirtualBox. I don't know how this is created? Can I realize it?

[Werner P. Schulz]

Connect within VirtualBox your mydisk.vmdk with SATA controller port 0 and let IDE controller port 0 empty (without Knoppix CD/DVD). Can you boot without the cheatcode? If not, try to boot with the cheatcode I've told you in the other posting. What happens?.

[ghiyasimehr]

Without cheat code, the same error is shown which I've told you.
I changed isolinux.cfg to:

DEFAULT knoppix fromhd=/dev/sda1
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime
TIMEOUT 0
# TOTALTIMEOUT 0
# KBDMAP german.kbd
PROMPT 1
F1 boot.msg
F2 f2
F3 f3
DISPLAY boot.msg
LABEL knoppix fromhd=/dev/sda1
KERNEL linux
APPEND ramdisk_size=100000 lang=en apm=power-off initrd=minirt.gz nomce libata.force=noncq hpsa.hpsa_allow_any=1 loglevel=1 tz=localtime no3d wheelmouse

but the same error is shown.

[Werner P. Schulz]

There ist something wrong with your friends USB flash if you have "isolinux.cfg". I suggest you create an USB install by yourself following Flash disk install.