Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Postings relating to old VirtualBox pre-releases
socratis
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by socratis »

chrstphrchvz wrote:I encountered this same issue ("Failed to acquire VirtualBox COM object")
Did you fix it? If yes, how? With the Run-As-Administrator?

BTW, being an administrator and using the Run-As-Administrator is *not* the same thing. Definitely not the same thing, even if you get asked at some point for your password/permission. See: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 56996.aspx, and understand that the patch above does exactly that; makes 100% sure that you are indeed run-as-administrator without resorting to the right-click trick...
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cbounds
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by cbounds »

It actually DIDN'T fix it for me. I've installed on two machines now. One Win10 home(version 1803, build 17134.471) , one Win10 enterprise (don't have access right now - can't get version). The first time was Win10 enterprise. I used normal installation and got the VirtualBox COM error. On the other machine, I used the "Run as administrator" trick, but at the end of the install, I unticked the 'Run Virtualbox now' box and started the VirtualBox GUI manually from the start menu, which got me the same error. On both machines, running the GUI once as administrator cured the problem. I didn't start any virtual machines as admin, just ran the GUI once, quit, and ran without admin authority and all was well.

I suspect that leaving that box ticked would have launched the GUI with admin rights. That actually might be the magic.
socratis
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by socratis »

@cbounds, thank you very much for the analysis!
cbounds wrote:On both machines, running the GUI once as administrator cured the problem.
Maybe there is a need for some registry keys to be created? And once they're created, it works? That would be interesting because VirtualBox doesn't actually use the registry (cross-platform and everything).
cbounds wrote:I suspect that leaving that box ticked would have launched the GUI with admin rights. That actually might be the magic.
Could be. I actually have filled a ticket about this, 2 years ago. Ticket #16003: Remove the "Start after installation" option from Windows installer, just to address this.

To everyone that solved the issue with Run-As-Administrator: can you try to run VirtualBox as a simple user? What happens? Did you run it immediately after the installation, while actually being "super" administrator?
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rliegh
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by rliegh »

Up to now, since using the "run as Administrator" trick I've been using Virtualbox as a normal user, without any issues.

I'm not sure, but I believe that I did let the installer run an instance of Virtualbox at the end -effectively running it as Administrator.

I uninstalled 6.0.0 RC1, renamed my .Virtualbox folder (so I could get my old stuff back after the experiment) and then reinstalled using "Run As Administrator".

When it was finished, I closed the installer without running Virtualbox and then ran it from my start menu as a regular user. It started up just fine (but unpopulated -because I had renamed .Virtualbox and it had to create a new one). No problems, no complaints.

As I typed previously; this is in Windows 10 x64 Home edition.
socratis
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by socratis »

Thanks @rliegh
I suspect some COM registration glitch in the registry. Once the keys have been created there should be no need to re-create them at every run, they only need to be created once. If there are not enough permissions to do so, then you'll get the error. But if they're already there (you run as administrator that *has* the permissions) then there's no need to create them anew.
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klaus
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by klaus »

Yes, was effectively a bug in the installer (which was cured by running VirtualBox once as administrator, because that triggered updating the COM registry information). The latest Test Build has a fix for this issue.
socratis
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by socratis »

klaus wrote:Yes, was effectively a bug in the installer
Yes... I know Klaus... I have the patch for the proper fix posted already... 8)

:lol:
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chrstphrchvz
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by chrstphrchvz »

socratis wrote:
chrstphrchvz wrote:I encountered this same issue ("Failed to acquire VirtualBox COM object")
Did you fix it? If yes, how? With the Run-As-Administrator?
I did not resolve this simply by installing with "Run as administrator", however the issue did go away once I ran the installer as administrator again and performed a repair. After uninstalling VirtualBox and reinstalling it (even as an upgrade from older versions), I cannot reproduce the original issue on that machine.
socratis wrote:BTW, being an administrator and using the Run-As-Administrator is *not* the same thing. Definitely not the same thing, even if you get asked at some point for your password/permission. See: https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/librar ... 56996.aspx, and understand that the patch above does exactly that; makes 100% sure that you are indeed run-as-administrator without resorting to the right-click trick...
Yes, that link explains how to force the entire installer to always run as administrator (it will have the UAC shield icon as a result). But I would think having the installer request elevated permissions later is still a valid approach, such that forcing it to run as administrator hides problems rather than fixes them.

I tried testbuild 127640 on another machine that still had 5.2.x (without running as administrator; I was prompted for permissions at the install step), and could open the VirtualBox manager without any issue.
klaus
Oracle Corporation
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Re: Failed install 6.0.RC1 extension pack

Post by klaus »

Good, I take the previous post as a hint that explicitly running the installer as Administrator is no longer necessary, especially not with the final release.In other words: it was completely caused by the installer bug (which didn't update the COM registry correctly).
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