VBoxBFE params to kick off on a existing vdi file

omgparticle · Post by **omgparticle** » 14. Feb 2008, 11:21

I have an existing vdi file that works fine with the VirtualBox gui and binary installation.

I have also compiled virtualbox from svn and it has worked.
I unloaded the kernel module and loaded the newly compiled one.
I am then able to kick off VBoxBFE with a damn small linux iso file via the cdrom boot param.

However when I try to kick it off with my existing vdi file I get a blue screen during the windows xp boot up (generally after Mup.sys). I've tried a few variations of the following but have not been able to get it to work so far through the sdl application.

./VBoxBFE -m 528 -vram 8 -ioapic -acpi -hda ~/Library/VirtualBox/VDI/XPsp2.vdi
VirtualBox Simple SDL GUI built Feb 13 2008 20:12:47

The vdi file does work if I then go through the virtualbox gui that was installed from the binaries.

Any ideas what I should pass ?

The VBoxBFE.log file doesn't show any obvious message to me but I can post it if needed.

00:00:10.032 fff8 - 0000ffff 00cf9b00 - base=00000000 limit=ffffffff dpl=0 CodeER Accessed Present Page 32-bit HyperCS
00:00:10.032 ***
00:00:10.032 ************** End of Guest state at power off ***************
00:00:10.032 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'OFF'.

Thanks for any tips.

Post by **frank** » 14. Feb 2008, 18:03

Compare the VBox.log file when starting with VirtualBox and when starting with VBoxBFE. The configuration entries in that file must match. Look for the PIIX4 emulation, it is possible that VBoxBFE provides a PIIX3 while your VM settings provides a PIIX4 or vice versa. Of course, the I/O APIC and ACPI settings must match as well.

omgparticle · Post by **omgparticle** » 14. Feb 2008, 22:58

Hey thanks Frank, think you are right.

The binary install config file XPsp2.xml
has
<BIOS>
<ACPI enabled="true"/>
<IOAPIC enabled="false"/>
<Logo fadeIn="true" fadeOut="true" displayTime="0"/>
<BootMenu mode="messageandmenu"/>
<TimeOffset value="0"/>
<PXEDebug enabled="false"/>
<IDEController type="PIIX4"/>
</BIOS>
And it's log of config does show different,
/Devices/piix3ide/0/Config/] (level 4)
00:00:01.146 PIIX4 <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)

Is there a way to pass that as a parameter or use my xml config file?
(Usage isn't showing anything obvious to me)

I tried adding, rc = CFGMR3InsertInteger(pCfg, "PIIX4", fPIIX4);
into VBoxBFE.cpp , but then compilation complains "Invalid configuraton for device pcbios device!"

I'm guessing I probably should get VirtualBox Frontend to compile instead of trying to use VBoxBFE Frontend?

omgparticle · Post by **omgparticle** » 15. Feb 2008, 02:37

ok......

So I've sudo port install qt-mac

then cp'd the lib and includes to /usr/lib/qt yadda yadda (seemed easier as configure script checks there)

I commented out the QT = 0 bit in configure

# Automatically disable XPCOM on darwin.
if [ "$OS" = "darwin" -a $WITH_XPCOM -eq 1 ]; then
WITH_XPCOM=0
WITH_LIBIDL=0
#WITH_QT=0
WITH_SDL=0
WITH_SDL_TTF=0
WITH_X11=0
echo "Disabling checks for XPCOM related components."
fi

then get some grumbling however about

***** Checking Qt devtools *****
found version ./configure: line 1: /usr/lib/qt/bin/moc: No such file or directory

evidentally the qt-mac port isn't going to cut it -doesnt come with moc.

not really wanting to download the one with kitchen sink X included so I've grabbed the one from ftp://ftp.trolltech.com/qt/source/qt-ma ... -4.3.3.dmg

K, it no longer grumbles about qt, time will tell if I need to go the long route and get the X version download.

Now I've commented out the #WITH_XPCOM=0 and configure complains about libxml2.
***** Checking libxml2 *****
Package libxml-2.0 was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libxml-2.0.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
No package 'libxml-2.0' found
** not found

Seems I have no ".pc" file for pkg-config and I've not used pkg-config before.I do have the libxml2 in /opt/local/lib/libxml2.2.6.27.dylib ......

Any know what I should put in the ".pc" file so it'll find em?

omgparticle · Post by **omgparticle** » 16. Feb 2008, 06:50

well , I created the libxml-2.0.pc and mucked with the configure script to now have.
SDK_VBOX_LIBXML2_INCS := /opt/local/include/libxml2
SDK_VBOX_LIBXML2_LIBS :=/opt/local/lib/libxml2.2.6.31.dylib

added to the autoconfig.kmk and now have
#WITH_XPCOM=0
#WITH_LIBIDL=0
#WITH_QT=0
out of configure. only 3 more in there but not sure I'll need em yet
(WITH_SDL=0, WITH_SDL_TTF=0, WITH_X11=0)

(*note also had to copying over VirtualBox-settings-common.xsd from source and VirtualBox-settings-macosx.xsd from my binary install)

Anyway now it compiles and I have a VBoxSDL and VBoxManage and can't recall if VBoxSVC was there before but I have one of those too.

So now it looks like I might be able to get my IDEController parameter PIIX4 to be used by VBoxSDL

It almost init's but has a problem with the xsd file or a parameter in there.
./VBoxSDL -m 554 -hda /Users/omgparticle/Library/VirtualBox/VDI/XPsp2.vdi -natdev1 080286000042 -rawr0 -rawr3 -patm -csam
VirtualBox SDL GUI 1.5.51_OSE built Feb 15 2008 12:22:24

Failed to create VirtualBox object! Error info:
Could not load the settings file '/Users/omgparticle/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml'.
Internal error: xmlSchemaCheckFacet, value was not computed.
Location: '<NULL>', line 0 (0), column 0.
Internal error: xmlSchemaCheckFacet, value was not computed.

So I need to figure out what is causing the problem. I notice some kind of logging flag in VBoxSDL.cpp and wishing I had a step threw debugger so I could walk through VirtualBox::init().

any suggestions appreciated.....