Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

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Boxy
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Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by Boxy »

Closing a VM: where has the option/checkbox "Restore current snapshot" in the selection dialog gone ?

For "semi readonly" machines that I've simply closed in 6.1 by checkbox "Restore current snapshot" checked (in 6.1 the checkbox state was even kept if it once was set :) ),
it's a two step process in 7.0.0: close the VM (closing option dialog but without the "Restore" checkbox) then in the main window restore the former checkpoint.

Would it be possible to get this nice feature in 7.0.0 too ?
scottgus1
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by scottgus1 »

That checkbox was removed because enough users were screwing up their VMs by not remembering that the box remembered its last status and cutting off the changed current state, see viewtopic.php?f=15&t=106910#p524226.
fth0
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by fth0 »

In addition to what scottgus1 wrote, also read viewtopic.php?f=15&t=106910#p524231 in the same thread for the extradata setting providing the behavior of the previous checkbox.
Boxy
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by Boxy »

extradata: set "GUI/DiscardStateOnPowerOff" to 1
As far as I understand, it sets the general behaviour of a VM under the hood to restore the latest snapshot on Power Off.

I see some problems using DiscardStateOnPowerOff :
  • It's dangerous compared to the former option, as it's not visible at the moment of Power Off
  • If one mostly does a snapshot fallback at Power Off, then forgets to reset DiscardStateOnPowerOff doing maintenance from time to time, he may even not notice that maintenance has gone.
  • There's no advantage in setting it manually or by scripts - just more steps.
As the appearance of the option doesn't matter to me (and as I think, other machine killers too), just the function itself,
maybe you think about a fourth (new) radio button in addition to other ones ("Save the machine state", "Send...", "Power off..."):
"Kill and restore last snapshot" ?

I don't know how much effort it is but IMHO it would fix the "feature was considered a problematic feature" and give us "machine killers" the simple shutdown-and-restore method back...
Poul
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by Poul »

I definitely miss that too.
Why would anyone KILL the VM and not want to revert to a stable snapshot. Killing a VM without restoring a snapshot can actually corrupt it.
JustinH
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by JustinH »

I concur. I will certainly miss this time-saving functionality, and I use it a lot. Kill and start again is so fast for my workflow.

I just went thru the irritating part of this (still on 6.1.x) and why I was so glad to find the option on the close VM pop-up. I wanted to restore a snapshot, so I hit 'restore' in the snapshot toolbar, now I have to uncheck 'create a snapshot ...", then click Restore. So now it will be 5 clicks instead of two to kill a VM and restore it's snapshot.
pozz
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by pozz »

Just echoing the frustrations with this being gone. Now taking more steps to do the same tasks which leads me to forgetting to do it. Pretty much cementing me to not leave 6.x ever.
matmoul
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by matmoul »

I am also extremely frustrated with this new behavior.
I rant about it everyday...
Isn't it possible to add a general option to choose the default behavior?
scottgus1
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Re: Close a VM: "Restore current snapshot" option missing

Post by scottgus1 »

Everyone who wants the checkbox back, please open a Bugtracker ticket requesting an option to put the box back in. The default should be to not show the box, to account for the powers-that-be's decision to remove it, and there should be an option in Preferences to show it as desired.

I will lock and sticky this topic so it can be seen by future posters. We on the forum cannot change this. You all will have to ask the devs politely through the Bugtracker, and the devs can compile the Bugtracker tickets to show their bosses that a middle-of-the-road approach would have been better. (Don't expect responses on the tickets, the devs may not have had a say in keeping or removing the box either.)
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