Parallels Vm To Virtualbox

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Migrating Parallels VMs to Oracles’ VirtualBox 1. Locate the VM file that you wish to import. It is located in your Parallels folder (where all the VM´s are located –. Locate the.hdd file, right-click and choose “Show Package Content” 3. Locate the.hds file, copy it to another location. I think the right way to do this right now (2020-Apr-27) with the newest stable Ubuntu (20.04) and the current Virtualbox (6.1.6) is to just do the following: sudo apt install virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-x11 virtualbox-guest-utils. I just did that and it worked. Free Windows 10 development virtual machines for HyperV, Parallels, VirtualBox, and VMWare February 18, 2021 Comment on this post 9 Posted in Win10 Sponsored By.

6.2. Importing an Existing Virtual Machine into VirtualBox

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  2. Yes, after a fashion First thing to do is have a copy of the Parallels VM without the Tools, Additions or whatever Parallels calls their package. If Windows Guest, just Uninstall via Control Panel(s) I prefer to then use Disk2vhd in the VM if a Windows Guest. While the resultant.VHD is usable as-is in VBox, most convert to.VDI via the Terminal command VBoxManage.

If you use another virtualization platform and have an export of an existing virtual machine in Open Virtualization Format (OVF or OVA), you can import the virtual machine into VirtualBox and use this to prepare the desktop template. To import a virtual machine, you need to start VirtualBox. On the host where you installed Oracle VDI and VirtualBox, on the desktop select the Applications menu, then the System Tools menu, and then Oracle VM VirtualBox. Alternatively, you can run the VirtualBox command in a terminal. The Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager is displayed, as shown in Figure 6.1.

Figure 6.1. Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager


In the File menu, select Import Appliance. The Appliance Import wizard is displayed in a new window, as shown in Figure 6.2

Figure 6.2. Appliance Import Wizard


Click Choose, browse to the location containing the *.ovf or *.ova file of the virtual machine you want to import, and click Open. The Appliance Import Settings step is displayed as shown in Figure 6.3

Figure 6.3. Appliance Import Settings


Parallels Vm To Virtualbox Convert

Make any adjustments you want to the displayed settings (you can also change the settings later) and click Import. The Appliance Import Wizard is closed and after a few moments, the imported virtual machine is listed in Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager.

After the import, select the imported virtual machine and in the toolbar click the Settings button. Review the virtual machine settings to make sure that the virtual machine has the hardware it needs to operate. Make sure that the virtual machine has a CD/DVD drive.

Once you have reviewed the settings, select the imported virtual machine and in the toolbar click the Start button. Verify that the virtual machine works.

Next, you need to install the VirtualBox Guest Additions, as described in Section 6.4, “Installing the VirtualBox Guest Additions”.

If you’ve seen my other post on running VirtualBox, you know that I’ve been running Parallels desktop for some time. I converted off BootCamp to VirtualBox a few months ago so I could update my older iMac to Mac OS X 10.9 (Mavericks). Over this past weekend, I decided to try and convert my main Windows/XP image (under Parallels Desktop) on my newer iMac to VirtualBox to prepare for Mavericks on that machine. There were a number of things I learned that I wanted to share.

For me, this was a must work scenario because of the almost daily updates being made to the Windows XP image by my kids as they navigate classes on SOS (Switched On Schoolhouse). Because of this, I did some pre-conversion research, documented those steps and then performed the full conversion on a Friday evening of a 3 day weekend. That way I had plenty of time test and back out (if necessary) before classes resumed on Tuesday.

Creating a VDI Image

Parallels

Based on the research, I opted for creating a VDI (Virtual Disk Image) file format instead of VHD (Virtual Hard Disk). Both can be read by VirtualBox, but the VDI (Virtual Disk Image) format allows for more flexibility (disk expansion) than VHD. I also found out that I would need to first create the VHD image using a MS utility (Disk2vhd) then use VBoxManage utility to convert it to VDI. It took 2-3 hours to run these 2 utilities since the boot image was almost 32GB. Here are the steps I took to accomplish this:

  1. Locate the Parallels images folder (/Users/<your username>/Library/Parallels)
  2. Copy the Windows XP image (will take a few minutes) and rename
  3. Launch the copied image in Parallels by doing the following:
    1. Start Parallels
    2. File –> Open and select copied/renamed image
    3. Click ‘Create New’
  4. Start XP. If it was asleep, perform a restart
  5. If you’re prompted to Activate Windows, click NO (we’ll do that later)
  6. Download the Disk2VHD utility (can be found here) and expand
  7. Remove the Parallels Tools via the Control Panel –> Add/Remove Programs. (Requires a reboot)
  8. On the Mac, enable file sharing (Settings –> Sharing –> Check ‘File Sharing’ and make sure to note the Shared Folder and User that has Read/Write access.
  9. Back on Windows XP, Start –> Explorer and map the Z drive to the MacOS drive (e.g. <ip address>Desktop)
  10. Run Disk2vhd.
    1. Check ‘Prepare for use in Virtual PC’
    2. Uncheck ‘vhdx’.
    3. Uncheck ‘Use Volume Shadow Copy’
    4. Specify filename using mapped drive (e.g. z:windowsxp.vhd).
    5. Press Create (this will take several minutes to complete)
  11. Back on Mac, bring up a Terminal window
  12. Run the following command to convert the VHD file to VDI: /usr/bin/VBoxManage clonehd Desktop<file>.vhd <file>.vdi –format vdi
  13. Shutdown Windows and Parallels
  14. Store the .VDI file under /Users/<your username>/VirtualBox VMs/Windows XP folder
  15. Bring up Virtual Box and make the following setting changes:
    1. System/Motherboad – Base memory to 2048M
    2. System/Processor – Configure 1 CPU
    3. Display/Video – Video Memory to 64MB, Check ‘Enable 2D Video Acceleration’
    4. Storage/Storage Tree/Controller: IDE/Attributes – Type to PIIX4 (needed to avoid BSOD (Blue Screen Of Death) at boot up)
    5. Make sure your .vdi file is listed in the Storage Tree
    6. Network/Adapter 1/Attached to: – Bridged Adapter
  16. Boot up Windows/XP guest image

Network Printer Setup

In order to print from your Windows XP VirtualBox Guest using a USB printer attached to your Mac OS X host, you’ll need to do the following:

  1. On the Mac, bring up System Preferences
  2. Double-click ‘Print & Scan’
  3. Make sure your USB printer is selected in the ‘Printers’ window
  4. Check ‘Share this printer on the network’
  5. Click on ‘Sharing Preferences…’
  6. Make sure the ‘Printer Sharing’ item is checked.
  7. Make sure your printer is listed under ‘Printers:’ and the ‘Everyone Can Print’ is listed under ‘Users:’.
  8. From the Windows XP guest, start the Control Panel
  9. Double-click on the ‘Add Printer’ icon
  10. Click Next
  11. Select the radio button next to ‘A network printer, or a printer attached to another computer’ and click Next
  12. Click Next. A list of printers should appear. Look for the computer the USB printer is attached to. You may have to type in the name of the printer in the the box labelled ‘Printer:’ as well before pressing Next.

Setting Up Variable Screen Size

In order to be able to adjust the Windows XP size, you’ll need to mount and install the ‘Guest Additions CD Image’. Safe Mode is required for the install so if your Mac keyboard doesn’t have an F8 key, you’ll need to find a USB keyboard that does. Here’s the steps to do the install:

Parallels Vs Vmware Vs Virtualbox

  1. Shutdown the Windows XP guest.
  2. Attached a USB keyboard to your Mac Desktop that has an F8 key
  3. Start the Windows XP guest and press the F8 key to bring up the Safe Mode window
  4. Select ‘Safe Mode with Networking’ and wait for the system to load
  5. Login with an administrator account
  6. Under the Devices pulldown menu, select ‘Insert Guest Additions CD image …..’
  7. You’ll be prompted to install the software
  8. Once it’s complete click the ‘Reboot Now’