[Solved] Does Vbox unsupport harddiskID with Numbers？

[Oo_Antonio_oO]

Does Vbox unsupport harddiskID with Numbers？
MY harddisk is an SDD harddisk with serialnumber 154670400616.
But I want my virtualhost comes be same with my realhost.
I can change virtualhost's harddiskID like "J7265374" but I use numbers just like "154670400616".
It didn't work.



PIIX3 configuration error: failed to read "SerialNumber" as string (VERR_CFGM_NOT_STRING).
return code:E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:ConsoleWrap
interface:IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

[socratis]

I can change virtualhost's harddiskID like "J7265374" but I use numbers just like "154670400616".

What did you do exactly to change the serial number of the virtual HD? Did you look at Chapter 9.9.2 of the User Manual?

Also, I'd like to see the "recipe" of the VM, the ".vbox" file:

1. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show in Finder/Explorer/Whatever".
2. ZIP the selected ".vbox" file and attach it in your response.

[Oo_Antonio_oO]

sorry to bother you.
I need to run a program inbound a hardwareID.
After your answer ,I've reread the user manual,but 9.9.2 is about hosts automated guest logons and nothing to do with HarddiskID.


And thank you for your kindness.

[socratis]

Chapter 9.9.2 of the User Manual: Configuring the hard disk vendor product data (VPD).

I need to run a program inbound a hardwareID.

That may require more than the serial number of your hard disk, but you'd have to ask the software developer.

[__Greg__]

Exactly the same thing happened for me in VBox 5.2.30 r 130521 (Qt5.6.2).

If serial number begins with a letter, all is OK:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage setextradata GHOTI "VBoxInternal/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/PrimaryMaster/SerialNumber" "A2345678901234567890"

Guest OS reports the setup number.

but if serial number consist of digits only,

Code: Select all

VBoxManage setextradata GHOTI "VBoxInternal/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/PrimaryMaster/SerialNumber" "12345678901234567890"

the error is reported at VM's startup

Code: Select all

PIIX3 configuration error: failed to read "SerialNumber" as string (VERR_CFGM_NOT_STRING).
Result Code: 
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

Did some checking, and it seems serial number MUST contain at least a single letter anywhere within a string to make guest machine work.

Same happens for PrimarySlave device...

Could anyone please fix it? Thank You.

[mpack]

I'm surprised that wrapping it in quotes doesn't make it a string, unless the quotes are stripped off by the command line parser. What is the host OS?

We are not the devs, so none of us can fix it for you. For that you'd have to raise a BugTracker ticket and hope that a dev takes notice. It doesn't seem like it would be a high priority to me, on the other hand it should be a trivial fix (*) - provided the host OS shell passes the quotes on to the app.

I should warn you that the trivial fix I have in mind is to fix a minor bug whereby a string of digit characters is treated as a number even when wrapped in quotes. I'm not saying that it helps your ultimate goal in any way, as I doubt very much that any program restricts itself to that one easily fakeable thing - or uses it at all - when calculating the hardware signature of a PC.

[__Greg__]

Host OS is 64bit Win10.

And excerpt from the VBox log :

Code: Select all

00:00:01.598251 VD: Opening the disk took 2329142 ns
00:00:01.598438 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: disk, PCHS=3880/16/63, total number of sectors 3911680
00:00:01.598445 VMSetError: F:\tinderbox\win-5.2\src\VBox\Devices\Storage\DevATA.cpp(7662) int __cdecl ataR3Construct(struct PDMDEVINS *,int,struct CFGMNODE *); rc=VERR_CFGM_NOT_STRING
00:00:01.598459 VMSetError: PIIX3 configuration error: failed to read "SerialNumber" as string
00:00:01.598466 PDM: Failed to construct 'piix3ide'/0! VERR_CFGM_NOT_STRING (-2107) - The value is not a zero terminated character string.
00:00:01.611102 GIM: KVM: Resetting MSRs

[scottgus1]

There is a thought on strings vs all numbers in the manual, section 9.11, on editing the DMI info, that says:

all quoted parameters (DmiBIOSVendor, DmiBIOSVersion but
not DmiBIOSReleaseMajor) are expected to be strings. If such a string is a valid number,
the parameter is treated as number and the VM will most probably refuse to start with an
VERR_CFGM_NOT_STRING error. In that case, use "string:<value>". For example:

VBoxManage setextradata "VM name"
"VBoxInternal/Devices/pcbios/0/Config/DmiSystemSerial" "string:1234"

Maybe the hard drive serial number command goes through the same parser as the DMI commands? Interesting you're getting the same error as the DMI error is supposed to be.

[socratis]

Maybe the hard drive serial number command goes through the same parser as the DMI commands?

It looks like it does. I entered the command:

Code: Select all

VBoxManage setextradata "<VM name>" "VBoxInternal/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/PrimaryMaster/SerialNumber" "string:12345678901234567890"

and the VM started just fine, no errors or warnings.

In the .vbox file I see:

<ExtraDataItem name="VBoxInternal/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/PrimaryMaster/SerialNumber" value="string:12345678901234567890"/>

From the VBox.log:

00:00:01.205715 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/PrimaryMaster/] (level 5)
00:00:01.205716   SerialNumber <string>  = "12345678901234567890" (cb=21)

as opposed to:

00:00:00.988559 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/PrimaryMaster/] (level 5)
00:00:00.988560   SerialNumber <integer> = 0xab54a98ceb1f0ad2 (-6 101 065 172 474 983 726)

when the "string:..." is not used.

Excellent finding @scottgus1!

[mpack]

Well done. I wouldn't even know what to search for to find that. The stuff I found simply said it had to be a string. No explanation why, certainly no explanation of how to deal with a string of digits.

And Socratis's example illustrates my point that the string of alphanumeric characters "123456" is not the same ID as the number 123456, so better be sure which is needed!

[scottgus1]

Thanks, guys! There was a recent post about DMI, and the string thing hadn't been flushed from my head yet
I wonder if this nuance about strings should be put in the manual section 9.8.2 about the hard drive serial number, too?

[__Greg__]

Thanks for THE help.
It works lika a charm, now

Have a great day.

[socratis]

I wonder if this nuance about strings should be put in the manual section 9.8.2 about the hard drive serial number, too?

Not a bad idea, I'll throw it out on IRC, if it doesn't stick I'll open a ticket...

It works lika a charm

Great! Marking as [Solved]...