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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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[–] Dagamant@lemmy.world 4 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I did this back in 2008 using virtual box. Had a dual boot system and got curious as to whether or not I could boot the Linux partition as a VM. I don’t remember it being difficult to do but this was before EFI and secure boot so those may cause trouble. I’m not 100% sure I used virtual box either :/

[–] Tippon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 3 months ago

I remember doing it with a file that came with one of the multi ISO tools, LiLo perhaps? It was just named VirtualiseThisKey.exe and would open the key as if it was booting on a PC. I deleted it back last year though as my copy had been corrupted, and I hadn't used it for a long time so didn't bother replacing it.