VERR_ACCESS_DENIED while installing Oracle VM Extension Pack

[nchillal]

Dear All,

I am getting error message as shown in the screenshot while i try to install Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.0.0-69151.vbox-extpack on top on Oracle VM Virtualbox 4.0.0 r69151

Noname.jpg (37.66 KiB) Viewed 20141 times

I have windows XP in which Oracle VM Virtualbox is installed. The install is done on a local file system and full control exists for any user on the folder shown in image.
Regards,
Nagendra Chillale

[lnoland]

I am having the same problem -- in my case, however, the host system is Windows 7. I had figured that the problem was UAC related until I saw that you were having the same problem on Windows XP.

If anyone out there knows the solution to this please give us a hand.

Things that I have tried:

Since the error is VERR_ACCESS_DENIED, I checked the security on the installation folder -- my account has full control so that should not be a problem. I know, however, that on Windows 7 there are limitations on placing things in directories under the program files folder and in some cases it actually writes them into a virtual directory (not sure of what those conditions are), so I tried monitoring the folder during the installation. It appears that the temporary directory does, indeed get created, but then is immediately removed when the rename fails.

As a bit of a long shot, I tried deleting the ExtensionPacks directory and replacing it with a symbolic link to a directory in the public folders area (i.e. I created <drive>:\users\public\ExtensionPacks, verified that it had full control by EveryOne, and then created the symbolic link <drive>:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\ExtensionPacks to point to the new folder). The results were the same.

I have tried installing by double-clicking on the extension pack file, adding it through preferences in the Virtualbox GUI, doing the same but running VirtualBox as administrator first, and by using VBoxManage in an elevated command prompt -- the results were the same in each case.

Though I doubt that it is the problem, since the directory gets created OK I wondered if the fact that the error message shows that it is mixing both forward and backwards slashes in running the command might suggest that the problem might be that the rename is not interpreting the path correctly.

I sure hope we can get this resolved sometime soon as I really need to access the machine using RDP and without the extender I'm guessing that's not going to happen.

- Les

[obensha]

I believe you need to load this from the main GUI adn not the way you tried to. for me on win7 it was go to file->preferences choose the 'extensions' link on the bottom left and then just do 'add pacakge' and select the doanloaded file.

Hope this works for you as well.

[atm055]

I've got similar problem on my VBOX 4.0.0 host=winxpsp3, guest=fedora13 (uses native linux disks of my dual-boot pc).
It complains about format of ext pack's ZIP header.
I launched it either from win explorer or from VBox main GUI preferences -> ... add package ...
I downloaded several time to ensure that checksum of the file is ok and 7zip (9.20) opens it without any problems.

2nd problem - it is not able to launch my fedora13 guest at all (just a black screen after fedora selection in grub boot menu).
as the result, I rolled back to 3.2.12 that works fine.

[lnoland]

I believe you need to load this from the main GUI adn not the way you tried to. for me on win7 it was go to file->preferences choose the 'extensions' link on the bottom left and then just do 'add pacakge' and select the doanloaded file.

Hope this works for you as well.

I'm not sure if you were replying to me or the OP but I tried loading it pretty much every way I could think of trying, including the way you described (and I tried doing so when running the GUI as administrator as well as when not running the GUI as administrator). I get the same results each time.

I opened a ticket on this so hopefully someone will look into it.

[hokv]

Hi, I upgraded recently to release 4.0.0 (Windows 7), and I'm having the same error. One question: did you guys upgrade to 4.0.0 or performed a fresh install?

Thanks!

Hiroshi Komatsu

[borrisl]

I've got the same issue and looking forward to someone having some type of resolution.

[lnoland]

Hi, I upgraded recently to release 4.0.0 (Windows 7), and I'm having the same error. One question: did you guys upgrade to 4.0.0 or performed a fresh install?

Thanks!

Hiroshi Komatsu

I did a fresh install. I have a couple copies of VirtualBox on other machines which I had planned to upgrade but after my experience with this one, I am reluctant to do so at the moment.

[lnoland]

PROBLEM SOLVED

It would appear that the OP and I have been fighting different issues. Mine appears to have been due to UAC (user account control). Since the OP was having the same symptoms on Windows XP, I discounted UAC as being the issue.

I tried installing version 4.0 on a Windows Vista Home Premium 32-bit host and had the same problems installing the extender pack. The fact that I was seeing it on Vista and Windows 7 and (apparently) most people aren't seeing the problem at all, brought me back to suspecting UAC. On the Vista machine, I decided to try turning off UAC. I turned it off, rebooted, and tried the extender pack installation again -- it went without a hitch. (I then turned UAC back on, of course).

Encouraged by these results, I tried the same in Windows 7. It didn't work, however. It appears to me that, in Windows 7, they have changed UAC in a way that, I suspect, you can't truly turn it off. You can get it to stop asking you for permission, and apparently some things will then install with Administrator privileges without notifying you, but I suspect that some things it still blocks and I suspect that certain operations involving writing into the "program files" folder is one of those things (which is good, in my book, as I never liked the programs that would store their data and such in that folder, anyway). Some things do belong in that folder, however, and it would seem that the extender pack scenario is a valid one. It appears, however, that whatever hand-waving Microsoft requires in order for one to legitimately write into that folder (or subfolders) in the way an installer does, the VirtualBox developers must not have done that hand-waving on the part of the extender pack installation. At that point, I thought I might just be sunk until the VirtualBox developers addressed my ticket (if ever -- being a non-paying user, my ticket likely automatically winds up at the bottom of the pile and gets shuffled back there regularly). I then had another idea and this one proved successful: I rebooted the computer into Safe Mode and installed the extender pack from there -- it worked with no issues whatsoever! (Note: I don't know if it is significant but, I still had UAC turned off when I booted into Safe Mode.)

I hope this can help someone else having this problem. (To the OP: though your issue can't be caused by UAC, since it didn't exist in XP, if you are still having problems, you might want to try installing the extender pack in Safe Mode and see if it makes a difference -- even though turning off UAC was enough in Vista, it may be that the problem in Windows 7 and XP is actually something different and Safe Mode is the way to overcome it.)

[hokv]

Hi, I followed your suggestion, but I didn't touch the UAC settings, just restarted in Safe Mode, and voilá!, installed the Ext. Pack smoothly.

Now I'm able to run my VMs without annoying messages.

Thanks for sharing your findings!

[inactivist]

Partial solution on Windows 7 64 bit (in case you don't feel like restarting in Safe Mode).

1. Enable the Windows system's Administrator account (if it's not already enabled). Use run => lusrmgr.msc and look in the "Users" node if you can't do this in the normal control panel. (The Administrator account is usually disabled by default). Be sure to create a secure password for the Administrator account...
2. Close any running copies of Virtualbox manager or VMs.
3. Log in as Administrator via the Welcome Screen (or just log out of your current account and log in as Administrator).
4. Run Virtualbox manager.
5. Uninstall previous extensions via Preferences menu. I received a detailed error message about being unable to delete the old extensions directory, which I dismissed. Preferences screen now shows the old extensions are no longer installed.
6. Installed new extensions via Preferences menu/screen. Installation proceeds without a hiccup, and Preferences screen shows the new extensions have been installed.
7. Log off as Administrator.
8. Log in to your normal user account.

I should note that right-clicking on the VirtualBox manager application and selecting "Run As Administrator" from your non-Administrator account won't work: you'll get the OP's error message, the install will stop, and the old extensions remain installed.

Why does it work (with the exception of the error message about not being able to delete a directory) when logged in as the actual Adminstrator account? Because, I've discovered, in Vista and Windows 7, even though your user account may be a member of the Administrators group, there are some functions that your account can't perform, even when you launch a process using the Run As Administrator feature. Members of the Administrator group do not have the same rights as the actual system Administrator account. (I learned this the hard way a while back on Vista.)

Ultimately, though, the Virtualbox software needs to do the install correctly and deal with the wonky WinVista and Win7 platform issues.

(This is one of the reasons I'm moving away from Windows and towards Linux... Microsoft's 'security' models are becoming incomprehensible to me, and I've been using and developing software under Windows since 1987/Windows 1.03. /rant)

[DukeFleed]

I tried this, it didn't work (my solution follows)

Partial solution on Windows 7 64 bit (in case you don't feel like restarting in Safe Mode).

1. Enable the Windows system's Administrator account (if it's not already enabled). Use run => lusrmgr.msc and look in the "Users" node if you can't do this in the normal control panel. (The Administrator account is usually disabled by default). Be sure to create a secure password for the Administrator account...
2. Close any running copies of Virtualbox manager or VMs.
3. Log in as Administrator via the Welcome Screen (or just log out of your current account and log in as Administrator).
4. Run Virtualbox manager.
5. Uninstall previous extensions via Preferences menu. I received a detailed error message about being unable to delete the old extensions directory, which I dismissed. Preferences screen now shows the old extensions are no longer installed.
6. Installed new extensions via Preferences menu/screen. Installation proceeds without a hiccup, and Preferences screen shows the new extensions have been installed.
7. Log off as Administrator.
8. Log in to your normal user account.

I should note that right-clicking on the VirtualBox manager application and selecting "Run As Administrator" from your non-Administrator account won't work: you'll get the OP's error message, the install will stop, and the old extensions remain installed.

Why does it work (with the exception of the error message about not being able to delete a directory) when logged in as the actual Adminstrator account? Because, I've discovered, in Vista and Windows 7, even though your user account may be a member of the Administrators group, there are some functions that your account can't perform, even when you launch a process using the Run As Administrator feature. Members of the Administrator group do not have the same rights as the actual system Administrator account. (I learned this the hard way a while back on Vista.)

Ultimately, though, the Virtualbox software needs to do the install correctly and deal with the wonky WinVista and Win7 platform issues.

(This is one of the reasons I'm moving away from Windows and towards Linux... Microsoft's 'security' models are becoming incomprehensible to me, and I've been using and developing software under Windows since 1987/Windows 1.03. /rant)

My method was as follows:
Navigate to where the extension packs are located on your computer under %programfiles% (usually C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\ExtensionPacks)
rename the extension file (was: Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack, I renamed it to Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack1)
Goto Vbox manager and remove the extension pack through File|Preference|Extensions
You should be all set.



Hope this helps

[jeea]

It's a permissions error, so run as admin to proceed. For Windows 7:

1. Close VM's and manager
2. Run the manager as an admin (right click menu)
3. In the manager, file->preferences->extensions, remove old and add new

[B4dT0bi]

I had the same problem. (Win 7 Pro x64)

You can also manually install the Extension Pack.

- Just use 7zip to decompress the extension Pack (first extract the *.vbox-extpack file, then extract the resulting file)
- You now should have a new Folder called something like that : Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.2
- Copy this Folder to C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\ExtensionPacks and rename it to Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack
- now the VM Manager should find the new extension pack.

regards Tobi

[DirtyColombian]

SOLUTION

Stop (or save) any running virtual machines. I had one running with the guest additions mounted. I unmounted it, but this was not enough. Once I suspended the virtual machine and tried installing again, the install worked fine.

* edit: corrected "extensions pack mounted" to "guest additions mount".