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Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 15. Oct 2011, 17:40
by paultilling
I tried to upgrade VirtualBox 4.04 to VirtualBox 4.14. The upgrade failed so I restored the VirtualBox v4.04 application file using Time Machine, however the restored version will not run.

Can anyone please tell me where the other files of Virtual Box are located? I assume the upgrade somehow corrupted the supporting files and I need to locate them to restore them as well.

Any advice would be tremendously appreciated.
Paul (Macbook, MaxOs Leopard).

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 15. Oct 2011, 23:22
by Sasquatch
Why did you use TimeMachine to revert to a previous version? For programs, that's the most illogical choice. You always remove the application and then install the older version. Check the downloads page, you can find older releases there.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 13:50
by paultilling
Thanks very much, I was not aware of this. How can I now re-install an older version as you suggest but without losing the custom contents, ie Snapshots etc.? Does it have a special file like a text file or something tucked away, and if so where please?

Paul Tilling

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 13:58
by Sasquatch
Applications are stored separately from the user settings. That's why you can remove MS Office without loosing your settings or documents.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 16:21
by paultilling
Yes, but I am trying to find out where these settings are actually located so that I can back them up. I am afraid that if I de-install my Virtualbox v4.14 then it might also de-install my settings, or when I re-install the new (old) v1.04 program it might replace my settings with an empty set.

Paul

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 18:41
by rpmurray
paultilling wrote:Yes, but I am trying to find out where these settings are actually located so that I can back them up.
You don't suppose there may be something in the User Manual about it? OMG! There is! Right on page 162 there is a section called "Where VirtualBox stores its files". How about that! I would never have expected that to be right there in the documentation that nobody seems to read. Amazing!

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 20:05
by Sasquatch
Adding to rpmmurray's surprise, I can't believe it was all in my signature! How about that, it was noted several times where to look first. Can you believe it?

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 21:49
by paultilling
Thank you, yes of course i should have tried the manual first, but this manual has not been written with the novice in mind. It refers to an 'XML settings file' with a .vbox extension in a common folder called 'virtualBox VMs', in the 'current system user's home directory (I presume they mean users/username/documents or library).
Well on my machine there is no such folder or file, anywhere on the disk! So I am back to square one. It goes on to say about a log file with a snapshots subfolder but I find nothing. As you see the manual is not very helpful to the layman.

Paul

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 16. Oct 2011, 22:11
by Sasquatch
Check /Users/yourusername/LIbrary/VirtualBox or similar. You got spotlight, to search on your hard drive. You can just search for parts of the program name and you should get what you're after. If you already have a VM, simply searching for the VM name will do fine as well.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 17. Oct 2011, 01:54
by theDaniel
By default Spotlight won't look for system files or hidden/invisible files. So, (for Snow Leopard and Lion) you may want to look in /private/var/db/receipts/
Continuing, try in:
/Library/Extensions/
/usr/bin/
/Library/Startup Items/

-Daniel

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 17. Oct 2011, 14:55
by rpmurray
paultilling wrote:It refers to an 'XML settings file' with a .vbox extension in a common folder called 'virtualBox VMs', in the 'current system user's home directory (I presume they mean users/username/documents or library).
By default VirtualBox will place the VBox application settings in the path:

[hard drive]/Users/[your account]/Library/VirtualBox/

the files will consist of:

compreg.dat
VirtualBox.xml
VirtualBox.xml-prev
xpti.dat

If you did not tell it to store the guests that it creates somewhere else then there will also be a folder called "VirtualBox VMs" that will contain the guest hard drives that you created and their individual settings files. The VirtualBox application itself will always need to be in the Applications folder in order to run.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 18. Oct 2011, 17:03
by theDaniel
If one installs an older version over a newer version, will the older version overwrite the newer version files? i.e. kexts.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 18. Oct 2011, 19:49
by Sasquatch
theDaniel wrote:If one installs an older version over a newer version, will the older version overwrite the newer version files? i.e. kexts.
Your question belongs on an Apple forum, not here. Kext files are part of the OS, we don't discuss the OS here.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 18. Oct 2011, 23:12
by rpmurray
theDaniel wrote:If one installs an older version over a newer version, will the older version overwrite the newer version files? i.e. kexts.
They should, but if you want to make sure you can run the uninstaller for the newer version before re-installing the older version.

Re: Location of VirtualBox Files

Posted: 19. Oct 2011, 15:51
by theDaniel
Sasquatch wrote:Kext files are part of the OS, we don't discuss the OS here.
Are you saying VirtualBox does not install kernel extensions?

System Kext (kernel extension) files are in /System/Library/Extensions/. They include both Apple system extensions and some third party extensions, like LittleSnitch, too.

VirtualBox kext files along with some other third party kexts are located in /Library/Extensions/. Namely, they are:
VBoxDrv.kext
VBoxNetAdp.kext
VBoxNetFit.kext
VBoxUSB.kext

These have changed when updating from 4.0.4 to 4.1.4, this, according to the Mac's Get Info panel.

-Daniel