VirtualBox starts SAME virtual machine multiple times

[user2568]

Hello everyone.
I have Virtualbox 6.1.4 r136177 (Qt5.11.3) running on Debian Buster + i3wm and I have encountered a strange issue. When starting a virtual machine with VBoxManage it allows me to start the SAME machine multiple times. So for example, if I have a Windows10 machine running and I run the command ' VBoxmanage startvm "Windows10" ' again it will open another instance of the same machine! Basically I have the same WIndows10 booted twice. Is this normal? Wouldn't this corrupt the disk image, have having two or more machines using the same disk? Also if i start a machine using VBoxManage it doesn't show up as running in the GUI so I can start it again from there...

[scottgus1]

It is very abnormal for Virtualbox to allow running the same guest multiple times.

A suitable test would be to open the guest once, make a change in a file in My Documents, then start the guest again and see if the same file has been changed in the second run.

If you find this happening, please post as text in

Code: Select all

 tags the output of this command:

[pre][color=#800080]vboxmanage list vms[/color][/pre]

Also, start the guest from cold boot, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the guest from within the guest OS. Then please zip and post a guest vbox.log, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[user2568]

Well I tried to replicate it but now it looks like it's working properly When I try to open the win10 guest the second time it says the machine is already locked. So now it works as it should.
Anyway the guest is dead now, after it starts and gets to the Desktop is constantly "refreshes" (screen flickering). Restored from snapshot and seems ok.
Need any more info on this or should I classify it as a one off bug?
Thanks

[scottgus1]

Let's pass it as a one-off bug for now, and come back to it if it happens again.

Glad you're running again!