vdi disks created the former way (or from the image file) I tried also dd the USB stick to an image file and create the. Now you have a usb.vmdk disk created from your bootable USB stick. the USB stick) to a VirtualBox disk sudo VBoxManage convertfromraw /dev/sdb. vmdk disk by converting the raw device (i.e. Insert USB stick and identify it (mine is /dev/sdb, running Sabayon Linux) Ĭreate a.Here it is (thanks to Gean Santos for the research): I chmod and chown the usb.vmdk disk, and so I was able to attach it to a VM but it simply didn't work.įinally, I tried another solution and this one has worked flawlessly. So I tried to point the USB stick to a VMDK disk (as in Terrance answer) by creating vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb I don't want to use Plop Boot Manager, because my USB stick is already bootable. Then you MUST REBOOT your system in order for the changes to take effect. It is as dangerous as having sudo access to write to a raw disk. Note: Adding your user to the disk group can be dangerous and a security risk. To add your user to the disk group, run the following command: To add your user to the vboxusers group, run the following command: sudo usermod -a -G vboxusers username vmdk file to your VirtualBox Virtual Machine and make sure that you can boot to it. Then all you should have to do is to add the. Take ownership of the new file: sudo chown $USER:$USER ~/usb.vmdk Note: Some people have had issues of ownership of the newly created file. Then you should see something similar to this: RAW host disk access VMDK file /home/ravan/usb.vmdk created successfully. Or sudo VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb vmdk file that points to the USB drive: sudo vboxmanage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename ~/usb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb Next, type in the following from a terminal window to create the. So, the physical drive would be /dev/sdb.

We are going to assume that your drive is mounted as /dev/sdb1. Not every situation is the same so this may not work for every case.įirst, you need to have your USB you created in your system, and determine what the physical drive is. This can be helpful if there is persistence on the USB that you want to keep. This also does not copy the USB drive to the hard drive and uses the USB directly. You MUST also add your account to the disk group as well, or you cannot add the.

NOTE: You MUST add your user account to the vboxusers group for VirtualBox to see your USB.

vmdk file that points to your USB drive for booting to it. Since VirtualBox does not boot to USB drives, you can create a. I am looking into if the raw disk can be created from the UUID of the drive instead as that will not change. When you reboot your computer for any changes please remove the USB drive prior to rebooting. It was /dev/sdi before I rebooted, after reboot it was /dev/sdc. Leaving the USB drive in the computer when you reboot can change the /dev/sd drive letter designation causing the raw usb.vmdk file to point to the incorrect drive so it does not boot in VirtualBox.

Install ubuntu from usb virtualbox