Bootable snapshot of a virtualbox

[feeling-lucky-punk]

Hi all and compliments of the season to all

I run a backup copy of MX Linux in a virtualbox as my kind of testing ground. Then it ocurred to me... while in the virtualbox machine, I thought to create an .iso snapshot, then create a bootable USB from that snapshot and potentially create a live system from it. I've successfully done this and I just wondered if this approach officially supported or did I just get lucky? Because if we are able to experiment in a safe place like a virtualbox and then create a perfect bootable replica, I think all my future Christmasses would have come at once

All the best,

C

[m_pav]

I've done that before, nothing out of the ordinary here and you're just touching the edge of the iceberg here, there's so much more that can be done.

You can use Virtualbox to boot a real USB drive if the Live USB has the same kernel as the ISO the VM is being booted from. There's a bit of setting up to do it, but it's very doable. I've done this to bring a live USB up to date by remastering it through VirtualBox when I needed to use my Laptop for boring stuff and I was low on bandwidth, so didn't want to dl a full ISO Snapshot. 415MB of data vs 2.2GB was enough to convince me when I had 3GB left of my 300GB allocation before speeds dropped to 3.5 down and 0.4 up. Need is the mother of invention.

The key element to do this is both the ISO chosen to initially boot the VirtualBox machine, and the Live USB must have the same kernel. It gets a bit tricky when the kernel increments to a new version because it becomes necessary to have 2 kernels onboard the Live USB.

Now I'm sure that'll get the grey matter churning

[nadir]

I've successfully done this and I just wondered if this approach officially supported or did I just get lucky?

You did it with iso-snapshot or iso-snapshot-cli ?

[feeling-lucky-punk]

I've successfully done this and I just wondered if this approach officially supported or did I just get lucky?

You did it with iso-snapshot or iso-snapshot-cli ?

so MX Linux XFCE is my host and I have MX Linux KDE as a VM. In the KDE VM I used the snapshot tool provided. Then I moved the file to my host system because I don't yet know how to use USB drives in a VM. From my host system with the KDE .iso file saved locally, I created a live USB trying both the built-in Live USB Maker as well as Balena (both worked). So I think what I did was the former, not second cli option you mentioned...

[feeling-lucky-punk]

I've done that before, nothing out of the ordinary here and you're just touching the edge of the iceberg here, there's so much more that can be done.

You can use Virtualbox to boot a real USB drive if the Live USB has the same kernel as the ISO the VM is being booted from. There's a bit of setting up to do it, but it's very doable. I've done this to bring a live USB up to date by remastering it through VirtualBox when I needed to use my Laptop for boring stuff and I was low on bandwidth, so didn't want to dl a full ISO Snapshot. 415MB of data vs 2.2GB was enough to convince me when I had 3GB left of my 300GB allocation before speeds dropped to 3.5 down and 0.4 up. Need is the mother of invention.

The key element to do this is both the ISO chosen to initially boot the VirtualBox machine, and the Live USB must have the same kernel. It gets a bit tricky when the kernel increments to a new version because it becomes necessary to have 2 kernels onboard the Live USB.

Now I'm sure that'll get the grey matter churning

hahaha that humbling experience where one thinks one's just split the atom and then you realise the whole world has been doing this for years LOL

Well that's my New Year's Eve wrecked - I'll be learning how to boot USB drives from a VM (and loving every minute of it!)

[nadir]

I've successfully done this and I just wondered if this approach officially supported or did I just get lucky?

You did it with iso-snapshot or iso-snapshot-cli ?

so MX Linux XFCE is my host and I have MX Linux KDE as a VM. In the KDE VM I used the snapshot tool provided. Then I moved the file to my host system because I don't yet know how to use USB drives in a VM. From my host system with the KDE .iso file saved locally, I created a live USB trying both the built-in Live USB Maker as well as Balena (both worked). So I think what I did was the former, not second cli option you mentioned...

Thanks.
Yes, my main question was which tool you used. I am not too experienced with antix or MX. I did this for years with refractasnapshot, before that with debians live-build (until it stopped working that easy with that)
Just tried it, refractasnapshot, on damn-small-linux (based on antix), but couldn't quickly install it.
So it took me a while to figure out what tool to use on MX/Antix . I found the both mentioned "iso-snapshot" and "iso-snapshot-cli" (the former failed, but the cli version worked nice and easy).
So my main question was if that is the "usual" or "correct" tool for that, or if that is the one you used. Looks like it is it.

And yes, it always is fun. Mainly if it works :-)

[DukeComposed]

So it took me a while to figure out what tool to use on MX/Antix . I found the both mentioned "iso-snapshot" and "iso-snapshot-cli" (the former failed, but the cli version worked nice and easy).
So my main question was if that is the "usual" or "correct" tool for that, or if that is the one you used. Looks like it is it.

MX Linux includes MX Snapshot, which can run as a GUI or from the command-line only with the --cli option.