[Solved] Was able to launch gparted one time; second time just shell?

[hangerglide]

On a windows host with a windows 2008 server I wanted to adjust some partitions. The first time around with gparted it was easy. The second time it's a failure. For the life of me I can't see why.

The iso is gparted-live-0.29.0-1-i686.iso

The first time around my one and only ref was https://mtijhof.wordpress.com/2016/06/1 ... irtualbox/. Per that article I turned on EFI for the vm, and added the iso as a cd style storage device. It booted into gparted and it worked great. I noticed that after I'd used gparted the mounted iso seemed to be removed from the storage device list automatically. I don't understand that part. I had not switched on live cd or whatever that setting is, in case that makes any difference. I then switched off EFI and the vm booted normally.

Later I needed to adjust the partition again. I took the same steps - EFI enabled, mount the iso as a cd image. It gets to a shell screen which starts with UEFI Interactive Shell v2.1. That wasn't there before that I recall. It has info about a mapping table with BLK0 etc. It does not proceed to boot into gparted, it remains at a shell prompt. I've tried turning on the live cd setting and a few other things, nothing changes.

Anyone have suggestions for this situation?

[socratis]

Do not use EFI, use a normal template with BIOS and be done with it. Actually, you don't even have to change anything on your VM, just stick the ISO and boot from that. GParted is very flexible and can boot from almost every VM that I've ever tried. What was the VM that you were trying to adjust?

[hangerglide]

What do you mean by 'normal template with bios'? And thank your for the reply.

I tried turning off EFI; and even if I have the cd set for boot order #1 it boots to windows 2008 without delay. I had done this before just didn't report it was it seemed contrary to what worked last night and what that web page suggests.

I can't understand why last night it worke with EFI and the simple iso as cd.

[socratis]

You're trying to modify some HDs in a VM, no? Well stick that GParted ISO in the CD of the VM and boot it as is. That doesn't work for you? Why mess with perfection?

[hangerglide]

Yes that's what I'm trying to do. I do have the iso mounted as a cd; it does not boot to it, regardless of EFI or not, or the boot order spec'd for the vm. Last night it worked, simply, using the EFI switch.

[socratis]

I do have the iso mounted as a cd; it does not boot to it

Is the CD first in the VM Settings » System » Boot Order?

1. Start the VM. Not from a saved or paused state. Clean start. Let it boot completely.
2. Shut down the VM. Not saved or paused. Completely shut down.
3. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show Log..."
4. Save it (only the first VBox.log), ZIP it and attach it to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

I would also 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 to your response.

[hangerglide]

cd is the first boot device. It was not set that way yesterday when it did boot to gparted.

[socratis]

<Chipset type="ICH9"/>

Why are you using the ICH9 chipset, which is clearly labeled as experimental and should only be used with OSX guests? Please change it back to the default PIIX3.

Note that the ICH9 chipset emulation is experimental and not recommended except for guest systems (such as Mac OS X) which require it.

Also from your .vbox recipe:

<StorageControllers>
  <StorageController name="IDE" type="PIIX4" PortCount="2" useHostIOCache="true" Bootable="true">
    <AttachedDevice type="HardDisk" hotpluggable="false" port="0" device="0">
      <Image uuid="{abad27d2-321c-4eee-85c2-d42af2a5f19b}"/>
    </AttachedDevice>
    <AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" hotpluggable="false" port="0" device="1">
      <Image uuid="{d8b1c775-15db-4d0b-9087-621b4853550f}"/>
    </AttachedDevice>
    <AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" hotpluggable="false" port="1" device="0"/>
    <AttachedDevice passthrough="false" tempeject="true" type="DVD" hotpluggable="false" port="1" device="1">
      <Image uuid="{43b0c494-679a-4bd9-b87e-165364bcc99a}"/>    <-- GParted ISO
    </AttachedDevice>
  </StorageController>
</StorageControllers>

You have 3 DVDs in your recipe. Why? Your GParted.iso is mounted as a "Secondary Slave", no wonder it won't boot from that. Remove the two empty DVDs, and leave yourself with one hard drive (varenna.vhd) as the "Primary Master" and one DVD only (gparted.iso) which you will designate as the "Primary Slave".

[hangerglide]

The chipset part, I have no idea. This vm was converted from a physical box, years ago, and it was hard to get it to boot back then. Possibly the chipset was part of an attempt to get it to breathe.

I am sure the multiple cds is the issue. Believe it or not I didn't notice the stack of cd devices. This must explain what happened the first time around in part where the gparted iso seemed to unmount itself. The cd remained, sans the gparted iso.

And it did boot to gparted - thanks for your help.

[socratis]

The only CD that VirtualBox will boot from is either the Primary Master or the Primary Slave, nothing Secondary. Glad you got it going, I'll mark this as [Solved].