How to Mount a VMware Image in QEMU

QEMU is an open source emulator avaible on Linux.

QEMU is an open source process emulator available on Linux distributions. It is like VMware in that it supports running virtual operating systems within Linux. In order to mount a VMware image in QEMU, you must have the full QEMU package installed so you can use the convert function.

Instructions

1. Open the "System" menu, then "Administration", and click the "Synaptic Package Manager" command, then enter your password.

2. Click the "Search" button and type "QEMU" in the window that appears. Click "Search" to find the available packages.

3. Right-click each QEMU package that isn't installed and click "Mark For Installation". Mark dependency packages for installation if prompted.

4. Click the "Apply" button at the top of the window, and again in the confirmation window.

5. Open a terminal prompt and type the following command to convert the VMware image "qemu-img convert vmwareVM.vmdk -O qcow2 qemuVM.img." Replace "vmwareVM.vmdk" with the file name of the VMware image and "qemuVM.img" to the name you want the new image to have.

Tips & Warnings

• The new image can also be compressed by using the "-c" parameter.

References

• Synaptic Package Manager
• QEMU Emulator User Documentation