Clone OpenSuse VirtualBox vm

gistfile1.txt

Tested with OpenSuse 11.3

Before cloning, you will need to change some hdd stuff in fstab & menu.lst. Let's begin:

1) Start the vm to clone and login as root.
2) Get the info from your partitions: 


opensuse11:~ # fdisk -l 

Disco /dev/sda: 8589 MB, 8589934592 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1044 cylinders
Units = cilindros of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x000ed24a

Disposit. Inicio    Comienzo      Fin      Bloques  Id  Sistema
/dev/sda1               1          95      761856   82  Linux swap / Solaris
La partición 1 no termina en un límite de cilindro.
/dev/sda2   *          95        1045     7625728   83  Linux

====
so we got here that: 
SWAP: /dev/sda1
/ : /dev/sda2

3) Edit /etc/fstab and change the way we choose the dev, as OpenSuse uses the id of the hdds and we need to use the name.

opensuse11:~ # cat /etc/fstab
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part1 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part2 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0

As you see, swap partition is: /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part1, so this will be our /dev/sda1 
And /dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part2 will be /dev/sda2
Finally our fstab is like this:

opensuse11:~ # cat /etc/fstab 
/dev/sda1 swap                 swap       defaults              0 0
/dev/sda2 /                    ext4       acl,user_xattr        1 1
proc                 /proc                proc       defaults              0 0
sysfs                /sys                 sysfs      noauto                0 0
debugfs              /sys/kernel/debug    debugfs    noauto                0 0
usbfs                /proc/bus/usb        usbfs      noauto                0 0
devpts               /dev/pts             devpts     mode=0620,gid=5       0 0


4) Now, we need to change grub options to boot system, edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and do the same, change the way you select the disk drives:

opensuse11:~ # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Jul 25 10:04:57 CEST 2013
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.34-12
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part2 imagen=ontsi resume=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part1 splash=silent quiet showopts
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.34-12-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.34-12
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-default root=/dev/disk/by-id/ata-VBOX_HARDDISK_VB874fb2ed-0a6c812d-part2 showopts apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.34-12-default
=======

Once changed, your config file will be like this:
   
opensuse11:~ # cat /boot/grub/menu.lst
# Modified by YaST2. Last modification on Thu Jul 25 10:04:57 CEST 2013
# THIS FILE WILL BE PARTIALLY OVERWRITTEN by perl-Bootloader
# Configure custom boot parameters for updated kernels in /etc/sysconfig/bootloader

default 0
timeout 8
gfxmenu (hd0,1)/boot/message
##YaST - activate

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: linux###
title openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.34-12
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-default root=/dev/sda2 imagen=ontsi resume=/dev/sda1 splash=silent quiet showopts
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.34-12-default

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: failsafe###
title Failsafe -- openSUSE 11.3 - 2.6.34-12
    root (hd0,1)
    kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.34-12-default root=/dev/sda2 showopts apm=off noresume edd=off powersaved=off nohz=off highres=off processor.max_cstate=1 nomodeset x11failsafe
    initrd /boot/initrd-2.6.34-12-default

5) Reboot the vm, check that everything is ok and you're done. Now you can clone the vm without problems.