[SOLVED] How to convert flat raw disk image to vmdk for virtualbox or vmplayer?

How to convert flat raw disk image to vmdk for virtualbox or vmplayer?

I have some old images of old Linux filesystems in flat file format. they can be used by Bochs, but I need to run them with Virtual Box. Virtual Box cannot use images in this format, so I need to convert these images from flat file to .vmdk file format. Is there any way to do this?

Solution

First, install QEMU:

On Debian-based distributions like Ubuntu, run: sudo apt-get install qemu-utils
On RHEL/Fedora run: sudo dnf install qemu
Windows 10 and later run (elevated): winget install -e --id SoftwareFreedomConservancy.QEMU

Then run the following command:

qemu-img convert -O vmdk imagefile.dd vmdkname.vmdk

I’m assuming a flat disk image is a dd-style image. The convert operation also handles numerous other formats.

For more information about the qemu-img command, see the output of

qemu-img -h