Migrating (+etc) Win10 virtualbox VM to vmware

Preamble

• as virtualbox Windows10 guest does not support WSL2, I had to migrate to vmware.
  • it seems that the license is about to be changed to subscription, so I had to buy it before vmware 17 is out.
• just a memorandum.

Installing vmware

• Go to https://www.vmware.com/products/workstation-pro/workstation-pro-evaluation.html, Download "Workstation 16 Pro for Linux"
• execute that file with sudo.

Compiling kernel modules

sudo CPATH=/usr/src/linux-headers-$(uname -r|sed s/amd64/common/)/include/linux vmware-modconfig --console --install-all

acknowledgement: https://redtm.com/blog/vmware-workstation-on-kernel-5.16.0-1debian-testing/

If it even does not work, use https://github.com/mkubecek/vmware-host-modules/

Migrate VM

• on virtualbox, "File -> Export Appliance"
• on vmware, open the ova.
  • Hardware -> Processors -> Virtualize VT-x and IOMMU
  • Options -> General -> Guest Operating System -> Microsoft Windows

Start Windows

• Here Windows could be unstable for a while. Remove virtualbox guest addition as soon as possible and install vmware tools. Then shutdown.

Configure VM

Configure ethernet

• add ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3" to vmx conf
• "Custom: Specific virtual network", input /dev/vmnet8
• check /etc/vmware/vmnet8/nat/nat.conf ip and netmask. start windows again and configure NIC's IP to that.

Configure Display

• Accelerate 3D, video memory 128GB(?)
  • Without this, your VM will freeze so often...

should not need so much video memory after disabling memory page trimming

Configure CPU

• If somehow your VM is slow, set CPU "Number of processors: 2, Number of cores per processor: 2". Because somehow Number of processors is not recognized properly here...

Disable Drag-and-Drop and Copy-paste

• Seems they cause freeze...
• (from options -> guest isolation)

Disable memory page trimming

• (from options -> advanced)

acknowledgement: https://qwerty.work/blog/2015/03/vmwarefreeze.php#toc0

Convert to WSL2

• Install (WSL and) virtualization platform components.

#Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Windows-Subsystem-Linux # Should be already there right?
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V-All
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName Microsoft-Hyper-V
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName VirtualMachinePlatform
Enable-WindowsOptionalFeature -Online -FeatureName HypervisorPlatform

• Convert by wsl --set-version Debian 2

Note that from now on this wsl will not boot on virtualbox :(

Optionally set this to %USERPROFILE%.wslconfig (of course double-check about memory size)

[wsl2]
memory=8GB
swap=0

exclude Windows PATH by /etc/wsl.conf

[interop]
appendWindowsPath=false

Convert from MBR to GPT

(Do not perform this if you are booting UEFI or your disk is already GPT)

• Prepare Windows ISO media and GParted ISO. Note that Windows installation does not work during rebuilding boot record.
• Boot from GParted ISO, move the Windows partition to the right about 300MB.
  • If you cannot, you have to Expand Disk in VM settings.
• Boot from Windows ISO media, Troubleshoot -> Advanced options -> Command Prompt.

bootrec /fixmbr
bootrec /rebuildbcd
# here you could see strange drive letter but seems you can proceed.

• Boot Windows, run command prompt as admin

mbr2gpt /convert /allowFullOS

• VM setting -> Options -> Advanced -> Firmware type -> UEFI

• Optionally, you can reextend EFI partition. Unfortunately gparted cannot extend fat32 volumes, but temporarily you can use EaseUS Partition Master free.

Upgrade to Win11

• Before beginning this phase, do backup your machine. You cannot go back.
  • Also (sadly) this is the final state that you can backup your machine.
• We need to install TPM. We should already be using UEFI, so all we have to do is to encrypt the disk (on Linux, managedvm.autoAddVTPM = "software" does not work).
• Then download Windows 11 Installation Assistant from https://www.microsoft.com/software-download/windows11 and proceed.

Installing WSA

This does not work here somehow, so I don't recommend...

Recognize as SSD

(admin)

Set-PhysicalDisk -FriendlyName "Vmware Virtual SATA Hard Drive" -MediaType SSD

acknowledgement: https://superuser.com/questions/1634106/in-a-virtual-machine-with-ssd-solid-state-hard-drive-how-can-create-a-hdd-hard/1634148#1634148

Install WSA

Somehow Amazon Appstore is still grayed out...

1. open ttps://store.rg-adguard.net/
2. "ProductID", 9P3395VX91NR, "Slow"
3. Look for MicrosoftCorpolationII.WindowsSubsystemForAndroid.Msixbundle
4. Add-AppPackage -Path ...Msixbundle as admin

Install docker

• Follow https://docs.docker.com/engine/install/debian/
• sudo update-alternatives --config iptables /usr/sbin/iptables-legacy

X11

Somehow WSLg is too slow, so perhaps mobaxterm is better...

.wslconfig

[wsl2]
guiApplications=false

.profile

export DISPLAY=$(cat /etc/resolv.conf | grep nameserver | awk '{print $2}'):0.0
echo SYSTEM_DISPLAY=$DISPLAY | tee -a conf # if some system app use it in background

License

Bought in yahoo store. Hope it is not pirated (lol)