[Fixed] <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

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socratis
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[Fixed] <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

I opened a couple of VMs (any). The VM window was centered on the screen. I thought that was strange, so I took a look at the .vbox file and all the <ExtraData> section was gone! After I closed the VMs only the "GUI/LastNormalWindowPosition" was re-written to the .VBOX file. The rest vanished!

I do believe that this is a major problem. There are a lot of customization in that section, from EFI screen size to ScaleFactor, WindowPositions, Serial #s, etc. It shouldn't just ... disappear!
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bqbauer
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by bqbauer »

What's your host OS? I looked on mine (Solaris 11.3 host), and the ExtraData is still there, windows open where they were when using VM shortcuts.

However, I have the other problems mentioned in my other post.
socratis
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

My bad, should have mentioned it. OSX 10.9.5.
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socratis
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

Update: Even the aforementioned "GUI/LastNormalWindowPosition" gets reset upon restarting the VM.

@bqbauer
If you open your .VBOX file do you see an <ExtraData> section?
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bqbauer
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by bqbauer »

Yes, the section is intact, even after starting & stopping VMs a couple times. We have a different host OS, but I also am forced to start VMs with my pre-existing shortcuts since I can't open the main GUI. I doubt that would make a difference, but you might give a try to see.
socratis
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

Sorry for the bump, but no one else is seeing that? I can't test 5.1 because it kills all my extra preferences.
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socratis
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

OK, here are some real data so that you can see what's going on. The "OS X 10.9-5.1b3.zip" file that is attached contains:
  1. OS X 10.9-5.0.24.vbox : The unmodified .vbox from 5.0.24.
  2. OS X 10.9-5.1b3-Launched.vbox : The .vbox file right after the VM was started. You'll notice that besides the general cleanup that happens from the transition to 5.1, the whole ExtraData section just disappeared.
  3. OS X 10.9-5.1.vbox : A .vbox after the VM has shut down. The only ExtraData that are recorded at this point are "GUI/LastCloseAction" and "GUI/LastNormalWindowPosition". Of course these values are retained as long as VirtualBox is running. If you close VirtualBox and re-launch it, they are forgotten as well.
OS X 10.9-5.1b3.zip
(8.39 KiB) Downloaded 34 times
I'm not sure if this is the same "data eating" bug as the one with the DeviceFilters (viewtopic.php?f=15&t=78023), but unfortunately this VM didn't have any USB filters. I guess I'll have to do a new data gathering section, although that shouldn't be difficult to reproduce.
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klaus
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by klaus »

WOW. That was an evil one. The map assignment on OSX (VirtualBox 5.1 is built with Xcode 6.2 based on clang, we had to stop using Xcode 4.1 based on gcc) apparently doesn't correctly deal with self-assignment any more, which means that the innocent looking line "A = B;" cleared both A and B (which initially were non-empty), because they're the same object. That's how the extradata was lost shortly after parsing the XML. The next 5.1.0 build will have the fix.
socratis
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Re: <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

Testbuild, testbuild, testbuild!!! Please, pretty please... with sugar on the top :D

No, seriously, 1) glad I wasn't/ain't going mad, but most importantly 2) glad that you found it. Looking forward to finally be able to test 5.1 (b4?).
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socratis
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Re: [FIXED] <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

socratis wrote:Looking forward to finally be able to test 5.1 (b4?).
My wish is your command ;)

Seems to be fixed with 5.1.0_RC1 r108607.

It even made it to the changelog ;)
• API: on OS X host don't lose extradata (5.1 Beta 1 regression)
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klaus
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Re: [Fixed] <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by klaus »

Wonder if we should patent "just in time fixing" for software :) This bug was squashed only hours before wrapping up RC1.

With the good description of the symptoms (which pointed at losing extradata when reading the VM config, because the extradata settings the GUI writes on VM termination were present) it was relatively straightforward to debug the problem. Could've been a lot worse, as finding the reason for quirky behavior in standard C++ library code is always challenging. Don't know for sure yet if it's a real bug in the stuff Apple is shipping or if our code exploited unspecified behavior.
socratis
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Re: [Fixed] <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by socratis »

Yeah, thankfully it made it to RC1. Just to give you an idea, here's the timeline for the <ExtraData> bug:
b1 announced: 03/06/2016, 21:05
Bug report: 03/06/2016, 21:36 (1/2 hour later, I believe it was the 1st bug report)
Fixed: 07/07/2016, 18:03 (more than 1 month later)
RC1 released: 08/07/2016, 00:11 (6 hours after the fix, I believe it was the last fix)
8)
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klaus
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Re: [Fixed] <ExtraData> section gets deleted!

Post by klaus »

Better don't assume that the extradata fix was the last one before building RC1, because it's not true. There were 6-8 more changes going in after it, ignoring truly cosmetic stuff. You can have a peek at the timeline...
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