"Saved" guest reverts to "Powered Off" after host reboot

[homercycles]

I'm running 3.1.2 on 64-bit Windows 7 Pro with all updates. I have a guest which is Ubuntu 9.10 amd64 and when I close the guest's window, and choose "Save the machine state" and click OK, it says "Saving the execution state of the virtual machine". In the main VBox window the guest says "Ubuntu" and "Saved" beneath it with a blue floppy-disk icon with a green tick on it.

My problem is that if I reboot Windows 7 Pro, the VM state is back to "Powered Off" and it goes through the whole boot-cycle when I start it. How do I "pause" the VM state and have it retained between host OS reboots?

Thanks

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

I am seeing the same results running 3.1.2 on Windows 7 x64. I'm not sure when this regressed, but it needs to be fixed.

[homercycles]

VirtualBox is the only free VM out there, isn't it? I know there's VMware Player but it doesn't really let you configure the VM or to take snapshots. And I doubt Virtual PC supports linux guests. I wish I hadn't put so much time into configuring Ubuntu in VirtualBox since coming back to Windows

[jnewmarch]

I have the same problem using version 3.1.2 r56127 on Windows XP SP3, except that I do not even have to reboot the host - just close the SUN Virtualbox program!

If I do not close the SUN Virtualbox after saving a snapshot, then that snapshot can be restored in its running state. However if I close the SUN VirtualBox program then attempting to restore a snapshot results in booting Windows in the guest.

I notice the original post on this topic was a few days ago, but I see no response that indicates that the developers have taken note of this problem.

Is this the correct place to post "bug" notices?

[jnewmarch]

The problem seems to be caused by not using the standard locations for snapshots etc. Humour Virtualbox and allow it to keep all its files in the standard directory, i.e. c:\Documents and Settings\%user%\.VirtualBox\. Unfortunately VirtualBox wont let you change the snapshot directory unless you delete all snapshots, but it would not allow me to delete the last snapshot! In desperation I uninstalled and reinstalled VirtualBox and then recreated the guest - what a schlep - but at least it now works properly!

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

The problem seems to be caused by not using the standard locations for snapshots etc. Humour Virtualbox and allow it to keep all its files in the standard directory, i.e. c:\Documents and Settings\%user%\.VirtualBox\. Unfortunately VirtualBox wont let you change the snapshot directory unless you delete all snapshots, but it would not allow me to delete the last snapshot! In desperation I uninstalled and reinstalled VirtualBox and then recreated the guest - what a schlep - but at least it now works properly!

Come to think of it, i have changed the snapshot directory. This sounds like a bug to me. Not sure what we have to do to get a bug filed. Anyone?

[jnewmarch]

This sounds like a bug to me. Not sure what we have to do to get a bug filed. Anyone?

Looks like: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Bugtracker

[homercycles]

The problem seems to be caused by not using the standard locations for snapshots etc. Humour Virtualbox and allow it to keep all its files in the standard directory, i.e. c:\Documents and Settings\%user%\.VirtualBox\. Unfortunately VirtualBox wont let you change the snapshot directory unless you delete all snapshots, but it would not allow me to delete the last snapshot! In desperation I uninstalled and reinstalled VirtualBox and then recreated the guest - what a schlep - but at least it now works properly!

I've changed the location of all my VirtualBox stuff to "M:\Virtual Machines" which is a SATA spinning hard disk whereas my C: drive is a solid state disk and I didn't really want to run a VM off my SSD. bummer. thanks for the info, though. Certainly explains it.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

This sounds like a bug to me. Not sure what we have to do to get a bug filed. Anyone?

Looks like: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Bugtracker

Looks like i don't have permissions. Can anyone else who is a little more involved help us out?

So far there are two of us running 3.1.2 on Windows 7 x64 that are experiencing this bug. Are there any other hosts that can reproduce?

[jnewmarch]

Are there any other hosts that can reproduce?

Windows XP has this problem as well. I suspect that it is not host specific, but rather generic to all hosts.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

Are there any other hosts that can reproduce?

Windows XP has this problem as well. I suspect that it is not host specific, but rather generic to all hosts.

Yea, i figured it would be. Thanks for posting. We'll have to wait for someone important to see this i guess.

[MarkCranness]

You need to create a separate account for the bugtracker. It is quite easy to do so, just click the Register link at the top right of the Bugtracker page.
Attach your VirtualBox.xml and machine xml to the ticket and perhaps also a VBox.log.
Include a link back to the URL of this forum topic.

[hasinasi]

I had the same problem on a kubuntu 9.10 (karmic), 32bit host.
In my case, I didn't even have to move the actual snapshot files around. I simply reset the snapshot location in the VM settings to the original location (not sure if this is necessary) and created a there symlink to the actual (old) position of the snapshot files.

[sathyabhat]

I've been facing the same problem, on my Windows 7 Host, ArchLinux Guest. I had raised a ticket about a week ago - http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6027

Thanks to @hasinasi for bringing the thread to my notice.

[OrdinaryAverageGuy]

The ticket for this bug can be found here http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/5656. It was just raised to a critical priority; so, hopefully we'll see a fix in the next update.