copy existing partition to an image file...for use with Xen

[dvh]

I have a current partition that contains a solid 32-bit gentoo system (single partition for entire system, including boot). I would like to copy this partition to an image file so that it can be portable, used as a Xen DomU. I have searched this forum, and the larger web for help. The closest I have come is this link:

http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-55 ... +disk.html

This link is old, so I am hoping that something has changed in the last couple of years. in essence, the advice is to use "dd" to copy the partition to an image file (easy, I can do this) and then use qemu-img to convert it to whatever format I want (again, easy, I can do it). but I need the image to be bootable by Xen, and it does not appear that "dd" will do the job.

Is there any straightforward way to convert an existing partition into a bootable image file?

-dvh

[suicidal_orange_II]

I've never used Xen but if you can boot a CD or iso in it with the disk image as the primary hard drive you could probably chroot into the file/drive and run grub to make it bootable? I would assume the script adds some kind of partition table to the dd'd image, and grub would add itself to the blank bootloader section.

Hope that helps

[dvh]

Thanks for replying. I had thought about doing something like you suggested. Also, I thought maybe I could copy a currently working image that does boot, then completely replace the image contents using some form of copy from the existing partition. But surely I cannot be the first who want to do this. isn't there a cleaner way?

-dvh

[dvh]

I have managed to boot a Xen VM using my disk image, because Xen holds the kernel within the Dom0 domain. once the VM is running, it would seem simple to install grub. but when I run grub, and try to set the root like this:

Code: Select all

grub> root (hd0)

Error 21: Selected disk does not exist

grub> 

you can see that hd0 is not the right designator. anybody know what the correct syntax here might be?

-dvh