#66 Remove dependency on Xandros VM
I have a Linux machine. Despite that it seems the only way to create and EeePC VMware image is to:
1) first create a VMware Xandros VM
2) then copy the EeePC ISO there (although I already had it on my PC)
3) then run vmware-convert to create the image inside the Xandros VM
4) copy the VMDK file out of the Xandros VM so I can use it in my existing VMware installation
Clearly steps 1, 2 and 4 are unnecessary and also a major pain to go through, especially creating the Xandros VM (takes a lot of time and disk space).
It seems all that is really needed to create the EeePC VMware image is:
* /usr/bin/vmware-convert
* /usr/share/vmware-convert
* also helpful would be to have access to the SDK PDF
These elements are not readily accessible on the EeePC SDK CD (though I did find the xandros-asus-sdk-guide but not the other relevant package(s)). They are also not offered for download on SourceForge.
Yet this is what should be done; offer a tar file containing the EeePC SDK and nothing else, such that one could convert the EeePC ISO into a VMware image without incurring the overhead of a whole Linux distribution.
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Another reason to drop the Xandros VM dependency: by default the virtual disk has a size of 8GB and that's not enough!
P.S.: I would also rename vmware-convert to something else to avoid confusion and possible name clashes for when VMware decides to call one of their tools 'vmware-convert'.
P.S.(2): I found the name of the EeePC SDK package: 'vmware-convert'. Not the most descriptive and intuitive choice.
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Here how I ended up creating my EeePC VM:
# Grab the EeePC ISO and the EeePC SDK (which is an even bigger ISO)
mount -oloop EeePC-SDK-2008.04.24_19.46.iso /mnt/iso
alien --to-tgz /mnt/iso/dists/xandros5.0/main/binary-i386/xandros/vmware-convert_2_all.deb
umount /mnt/iso
tar xfz vmware-convert-2.tgz
rm vmware-convert-2.tgz
# Optionally grab the documentation
alien --to-tgz /mnt/iso/dists/xandros5.0/main/binary-i386/doc/xandros-asus-sdk-guide_1.0-1_all.deb
tar xfz xandros-asus-sdk-guide-1.0.tgz
rm xandros-asus-sdk-guide-1.0.tgz
umount /mnt/iso
# Then fix vmware-convert
vi usr/sbin/vmware-convert
# Set DEBDIR to
DEBDIR=`dirname "$0"`/../share/vmware-convert
# Comment out the qemu-img step and replace it with
mv $WORK/P701L .
# As root:
./usr/sbin/vmware-convert L701_EN_1.0.6.6.iso
# This gives you a P701L file
# Next create a VMware virtual machine. Make sure to check the
# following points:
# - select an IDE disk!
# - make sure the network will work.
# - have it boot on a Linux Live CD. Pretty much any Live CD should
# do, as long as it has networking (this rules out the GParted
# Live CD)
# Boot the new virtual machine, make sure the network works, and
# in a command terminal as root:
ssh user@vmhost "cat /path/to/P701L" | dd of=/dev/hda bs=10M
# Then reboot the VM and the EeePC should come up.
# You're done.
# But for extra points, another reboot with GParted's Live CD should
# let you resize the partition to fill the disk (it worked for me).
# That way you'll get gigabytes of free space without having to
# remove important packages!
# http://gparted.sourceforge.net/livecd.php