VirtualBox using a RAW partition on a MacBook with BootCamp: Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 9.10

raw-partition-vmdk.sh

#!/bin/bash
# as far as I can remember, this is the procedure for creating a vmdk:
mkdir -p /var/root/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks
VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename /var/root/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/ubuntu.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/disk0 -partitions 1,3,4,5 -register
dd if=/dev/disk0 of=/var/root/Library/VirtualBox/HardDisks/ubuntu-pt.vmdk bs=512 count=40

ubuntu.vmdk

# Disk DescriptorFile
# MacBook with BootCamp: Snow Leopard and Ubuntu 9.10
version=1
CID=1659866e
parentCID=ffffffff
createType="partitionedDevice"

# Extent description
# The values are from the GPT "End LBA" - "Start LBA" + 1
# on Snow Leopard: Application > Utilities > Partition Inspector
# FLAT for partitions you want to access
# ZERO for those that should not be acessed
# XXX CAUTION WITH WHITESPACES AT EOL
RDONLY 40 FLAT "ubuntu-pt.vmdk" 0
RW 409600 FLAT "/dev/disk0s1" 0
RDONLY 134217728 ZERO 
RDONLY 264152 ZERO 
RW 67109790 FLAT "/dev/disk0s3" 0
RW 12000001 FLAT "/dev/disk0s4" 0
RW 274394532 FLAT "/dev/disk0s5" 0
RDONLY 1325 ZERO

# RW 409639 FLAT "/dev/disk0s1" 0
# RW 134217728 ZERO 
# RW 264152 ZERO 
# RW 67109790 FLAT "/dev/disk0s3" 0
# RW 12000001 FLAT "/dev/disk0s4" 0
# RW 274395857 ZERO 


# The disk Data Base 
#DDB

ddb.virtualHWVersion = "4"
ddb.adapterType="scsi"
ddb.geometry.cylinders="16383"
ddb.geometry.heads="16"
ddb.geometry.sectors="63"
ddb.uuid.image="bc56421b-ac2b-4704-91aa-05e4bfdb8729"
ddb.uuid.parent="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
ddb.uuid.modification="71335e64-1871-4753-9b6f-3823b4af3811"
ddb.uuid.parentmodification="00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"
ddb.geometry.biosCylinders="1024"
ddb.geometry.biosHeads="255"
ddb.geometry.biosSectors="63"

ubuntu.xml

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.9-macosx">
  <Machine uuid="{d20b8996-faca-4ec6-b522-20ca83250034}" name="Ubuntu 9.10 desktop i386" OSType="Ubuntu" lastStateChange="2010-05-11T15:21:45Z">
    <ExtraData>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/AutoresizeGuest" value="on"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Fullscreen" value="off"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastCloseAction" value="shutdown"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastWindowPostion" value="424,126,800,622"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/MiniToolBarAlignment" value="bottom"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/MiniToolBarAutoHide" value="on"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/SaveMountedAtRuntime" value="yes"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Seamless" value="off"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/ShowMiniToolBar" value="yes"/>
    </ExtraData>
    <Hardware version="2">
      <CPU count="1">
        <HardwareVirtEx enabled="true" exclusive="false"/>
        <HardwareVirtExNestedPaging enabled="true"/>
        <HardwareVirtExVPID enabled="true"/>
        <PAE enabled="true"/>
      </CPU>
      <Memory RAMSize="1024"/>
      <Boot>
        <Order position="1" device="Floppy"/>
        <Order position="2" device="DVD"/>
        <Order position="3" device="HardDisk"/>
        <Order position="4" device="None"/>
      </Boot>
      <Display VRAMSize="64" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="true" accelerate2DVideo="false"/>
      <RemoteDisplay enabled="false" port="3389" authType="Null" authTimeout="5000"/>
      <BIOS>
        <ACPI enabled="true"/>
        <IOAPIC enabled="true"/>
        <Logo fadeIn="true" fadeOut="true" displayTime="0"/>
        <BootMenu mode="MessageAndMenu"/>
        <TimeOffset value="0"/>
        <PXEDebug enabled="false"/>
      </BIOS>
      <USBController enabled="true" enabledEhci="true"/>
      <Network>
        <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="0800277A55A3" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <BridgedInterface name="en0: Ethernet"/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="1" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027B8A246" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="2" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027648182" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="3" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027446501" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="4" enabled="false" MACAddress="08002700FBBE" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="5" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027B35E56" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="6" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027BD0776" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="7" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027F24B04" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
      </Network>
      <UART>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
      </UART>
      <LPT>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
      </LPT>
      <AudioAdapter controller="AC97" driver="CoreAudio" enabled="true"/>
      <SharedFolders/>
      <Clipboard mode="Bidirectional"/>
      <Guest memoryBalloonSize="0" statisticsUpdateInterval="0"/>
      <GuestProperties>
        <GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/HostInfo/GUI/LanguageID" value="en_US" timestamp="1273591311791335000" flags=""/>
      </GuestProperties>
    </Hardware>
    <StorageControllers>
      <StorageController name="IDE Controller" type="PIIX4" PortCount="2">
        <AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" port="1" device="0"/>
      </StorageController>
      <StorageController name="Floppy Controller" type="I82078" PortCount="1">
        <AttachedDevice type="Floppy" port="0" device="0"/>
      </StorageController>
      <StorageController name="SATA Controller" type="AHCI" PortCount="1" IDE0MasterEmulationPort="0" IDE0SlaveEmulationPort="1" IDE1MasterEmulationPort="2" IDE1SlaveEmulationPort="3">
        <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" port="0" device="0">
          <Image uuid="{bc56421b-ac2b-4704-91aa-05e4bfdb8729}"/>
        </AttachedDevice>
      </StorageController>
    </StorageControllers>
  </Machine>
</VirtualBox>