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Linux is a family of open source Unix-like operating systems based on the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released on September 17, 1991 by Linus Torvalds. Linux is typically packaged in a Linux distribution (or distro for short).

Distributions include the Linux kernel and supporting system software and libraries, many of which are provided by the GNU Project. Many Linux distributions use the word "Linux" in their name, but the Free Software Foundation uses the name GNU/Linux to emphasize the importance of GNU software, causing some controversy.

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Can a Linux installation be run as a VM in Windows? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) by Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/linux@lemmy.ml

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This might sound daft, but something similar used to work with live discs.

I've got Windows 10 and Mint 21.1 dual booting on my computer at the moment. Every so often I'll realise that I've missed something from my Windows installation. If it's important, I then have to boot to Windows to get the information, or the settings etc.

Is there a way to virtualise my Mint installation so that I can run both the OSs at once to make sure that I've got everything?

VirtualBox had a tool to do this with a live USB, but that was back in the MBR days, so it probably won't work with modern hardware.

EDIT: Sorry, I should clarify, Mint and Windows are on the same physical disk, and the plan is to remove Windows once I'm done.

Update: I'm giving up. It looks like it is possible if you have separate disks with separate boot partitions, but getting it to work with a shared boot partition is harder work than I'm willing to do right now.

VMware Player can use a partition or disk, but might be in read only mode, I couldn't get far enough to check.

Thanks for all the replies :)

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[–] Mountaineer@aussie.zone 8 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago) (1 children)

I think all the existing answers are on the basis of creating a new Linux VM.

And if I understand you correctly, you already have a bare metal Linux install that you want to run whilst Windows is up.

This is the best search result I could find: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=93437

It sounds like Virtualbox will indeed create a pseudo vhdx that points to a real partition, but windows is going to give you permissions drama.

The above link is out of date though, so its best viewed as info rather than guide.

Good luck.

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 3 months ago

Thanks for the link :)

Unfortunately, it doesn't look like they got it working from a partition, but I've found this link for VMWare that might work:

https://superuser.com/questions/1309308/boot-physically-installed-linux-in-vmware-workstation-on-windows-10