Rawdisk vmdk files created with VBoxManage command aren't compatible with VMware products

[truem1215]

Summary:
Even though the rawdisk vmdk files created by VMware work well on both VMware and VirtualBox, the rawdisk vmdk files created with "createrawvmdk" of VboxManage command don't work on VMware Products.

Detail:
I made a virtual rawdisk of my USB flash drive with the command below:

VBoxManage internalcommands createrawvmdk -filename raw_vb.vmdk -rawdisk /dev/sdb

Created rawdisk "raw_vb.vmdk" works well on VBox, but doesn't works on VMware Server 1.0.8 and VMware Player 2.5.1 (also 2.5.0). In raw_vb.vmdk, I can see these following lines are included:

# Extent description
RW 3940479 FLAT "/dev/sdb"

Then, I made another virtual rawdisk of my flash with VMware Server 1.0.8. In the created file, I can see these following lines:

# Extent description
RW 3940479 FLAT "/dev/sdb" 0

This virtual rawdisk works perfectly on both VMware products and VirtualBox.

The difference between VBox's and VMware's rawdisk is only the last "0" in "Extent description". (yes, it's true that there are other differences, but they didn't make any BIG effects in virtual machine's behaviour)

I will try to attach actual vmdk files :)

[truem1215]

virtual rawdisk created by VBox

[truem1215]

virtual rawdisk created by VMware Server 1.0.8

[Klaus Espenlaub]

This has been fixed, and VirtualBox 3.1.0 will write the previously missing "0". The VMDK spec had a single sentence on this which obviously didn't make it into the code.