virtualbox.org

Host: Windows XP, VBox 3.2.0-BETA1

After upgrading VirtualBox, many VM refuse to start

details:
I have many VMs (shutdown, aka offline snapshots), with GuestAdditions.iso still inserted in them, because I forgot to eject it.
Obviously they all refuse to start, because GuestAdditions.iso path on host has changed from "Sun" to "Oracle". See screenshot.

Steps to reproduce:
1. Install Sun VirtualBox 3.x (3.1.6 recommended)
2. Create empty VM (you don't need guest OS)
3. insert GuestAdditions.iso
4. Create offline snapshot
5. Run VM
6. Create live snapshot
7. kill VM
8. upgrade to Oracle VirtualBox 3.2.x

Actual behavior:
VMs refuse to start

Recommended behavior:
1. Since those VMs are offline snapshots (shut down), the most logical is to warn user about lacking CD, and create new GUI dialog with buttons: "Eject CD and Launch VM" and "Shutdown VM". This will solve the problem all CDs, not just GuestAdditions, but only offline snapshots. (because in some cases I _do_ delete CD ISOs from HDD, esp. games that I stop playing)
-and-
2. Installer could try a bit harder to automatically change paths in XML files. This will solve the problem for both Live/offline snapshots, but only for GuestAdditions CD.

Wondering that there could be workarounds - e.g. 1) change the paths in the XML file
2) symlink from Oracle to Sun

In Windows one can create symlinks (not only "shortcuts")
in cmd:
> mklink [[/D] | [/H] | [/J]] link target

For the record: Beta 2 still does not contain a fix. We hope to get one for the final release. The correct fix is to make a missing .iso image a non-fatal error; same applies to shared folders -- we are aware of this.

Hi Frank,

Frank Mehnert wrote:For the record: Beta 2 still does not contain a fix.

In this case, could the "[SOLVED]" topic be changed?

I tried Beta2 today and it did not fail for me anymore, but then I am not sure if the link with the guestadditions had been removed previously.

Frank Mehnert wrote:We hope to get one for the final release.

IMO, this would be a showstopper bug.

The original error I saw was somewhat different: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6636 but not sure if that was because of http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=30325

Beta 2 respin contains the fix so the problem can be regarded as solved.