I already asked this under a different title, and got no responses, so perhaps the title was misleading. I've got a Win7 system running the latest VMware Workstation Player, and I've got a physical hard disk that contains a working Ubuntu installation that I can boot from. I want to boot from it inside a virtual machine. The install process doesn't make this easy, so I'm probably doing something wrong. When I try to boot the VM I created, it tries to boot from the network, and if I cancel it, I get a message that no OS is installed on the machine.
So how do I get the VM to boot from the physical disk I specified? The only page on the VMware site I found that seemed relevant was this one:
https://pubs.vmware.com/ws6_ace2/ws/wwhelp/wwhimpl/common/html/wwhelp.htm?context=ws&file=ws_disk_ad...
but its description looks like it is for an older version. But it also says nothing about how to ensure that the VM will boot from an already bootable disk that I just added. I've also attached most of the small files from my VM folder:
What follows is a list of the things I did to create the VM:
New Virtual Machine Wizard
Welcome to the New Virtual Machine Wizard:
I chose "I will install the operating system later" since neither of the other choices made any sense.
Select a Guest Operating System:
I chose Linux, then Ubuntu 64-bit.
Name the Virtual Machine:
I accepted the default "Ubuntu 64-bit" and the default location.
Specify Disk Capacity:
Although I intended to use a physical disk, I didn't have any choice but to answer this, so I accepted the default 20GB split.
Ready to Create Virtual Machine:
I selected "Customize Hardware..."
Hardware
Memory:
Changed from 2GB to 4GB.
Processors:
Changed from 1 to 2, but didn't check any virtualization boxes.
New CD/DVD:
I turned off "Connect at power on" since I don't want to use a CD/DVD.
Network Adapter:
I selected Bridged, because I want this to behave like a separate machine on the network. I didn't select "Replicate physical network connection state" because I don't know what that means. Under "Configure Adapters" I turned off a couple of things, leaving only my Ethernet enabled.
USB Controller:
I changed USB 2.0 to USB 3.0.
Sound Card:
I turned off "Conencte at power on" because I don't want to use sound.
Display:
I accepted the defaults.
I clicked "Close".
New Virtual Machine
I clicked "Finish".
VMware Workstation 15 Player
I right-clicked "Ubuntu 64-bit", and "Settings..."
Virtual Machine Settings (Hardware tab)
I clicked "Add..."
Add Hardware Wizard
Hardware Type:
I selected Hard Disk.
Select a Disk Type:
I selected SATA.
Select a Disk:
I chose "Use a physical disk".
Select a Physical Disk:
I chose "PhysicalDrive1", since that's my Ubuntu disk according to Windows, and "Use entire disk" since it's got several partitions including the swap partition.
Specify Disk File:
I accepted the default "Ubuntu 64-bit-0.vmdk".
I clicked "Finish".
Virtual Machine Settings (Hardware tab)
I selected Hard Disk (SCSI), which had the default 20 GB virtual drive, and clicked "Remove", since the only reason it was there is that I couldn't create a machine without a virtual drive in the first place, even though I don't need it.
Virtual Machine Settings (Options tab)
Under General, I turned on "Enhanced keyboard", since I had included it in the installation.
Under VMware Tools, I turned on "Synchronize guest time with host".
I accepted all the other defaults.
I clicked "OK".
