Launching VM from GUI vs Terminal gives different machines

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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msatterlee
Posts: 3
Joined: 12. May 2022, 15:56

Launching VM from GUI vs Terminal gives different machines

Post by msatterlee »

Setup: I have two Virtualbox (ver 6.1.32) VMs running on Linux Mint 20.3. There are two VMs running Windows XP. They're called Jerry and Cindy. They run finance sw and the Jerry machine hosts the data.

My problem is with one machine called Jerry... the problem is that if I launch the VM from the GUI interface, the machine that comes up is NOT attached to our domain and has data from 2020. If I launch from the terminal (sudo VBoxManage startvm Jerry), the machine that comes up is attached to the domain and has current data from 2022.

So the thing I can't figure out is why/how there is two versions of the Jerry machine and how to get rid of the 'bad' one. I'm afraid that when I backup or snap shot, that I'm getting the machine that I don't want.

Also, I'll apologize in advance. I'm way behind the learning curve on VMs and linux, this whole thing was setup by another tech, so I'm sorry if I'm missing something obvious.
msatterlee
Posts: 3
Joined: 12. May 2022, 15:56

Re: Launching VM from GUI vs Terminal gives different machines

Post by msatterlee »

An additional bit of info. I've found launching the Jerry machine from the terminal without the "sudo" will start the bad version of that machine, so I tried "vboxmanage list vms" with and without the SUDO. Here are the results (below).

hdno@VM-Host:~$ vboxmanage list vms
"Cindy-SRVR" {3653a7bd-a7be-4808-b0ee-7d7a393f1c67}
"Jerry" {b9db9537-c0aa-4d07-8273-9f038887ecbe}

hdno@VM-Host:~$ sudo vboxmanage list vms
[sudo] password for hdno:
"CINDY-NEW-SRVR" {e80af477-141a-42e6-8c7b-5dafb0b02d1f}
"Jerry" {893f3cb3-d96c-4d61-8efe-9590919312fa}
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Launching VM from GUI vs Terminal gives different machines

Post by mpack »

VMs are stored in user data folders. If you log in as a different user a different set of VMs will be present. I guess 2020 is when the other user was active. Probably some time later you copied the VM folders (or just the disk images) to a new user location, but did not destroy the originals.

VirtualBox does not cause VMs to blink into existence nor mysteriously revert to an earlier state without backups (both would be neat tricks if they were possible), so it has to be something like I've said.
msatterlee
Posts: 3
Joined: 12. May 2022, 15:56

Re: Launching VM from GUI vs Terminal gives different machines

Post by msatterlee »

More info... The Cindy-SRVR machine shows as running in the GUI, Jerry shows "powered off" in the GUI.

Ran the command "vboxmanage list runningvms" with and without SUDO and got different results.

hdno@VM-Host:~$ vboxmanage list runningvms
"Cindy-SRVR" {3653a7bd-a7be-4808-b0ee-7d7a393f1c67}

hdno@VM-Host:~$ sudo vboxmanage list runningvms
[sudo] password for hdno:
"Jerry" {893f3cb3-d96c-4d61-8efe-9590919312fa}
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