[Solved] Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

[Solved] Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

I just upgraded my VBox installation on my MacBook Pro (15-inch, mid 2012; OS X El Capitan, 10.11.6; 2.3Ghz; 8 GB RAM; SSD HD [92GB free]) plus the extensions and now my Windows 7 guest crashes right at the end of 'Restoring virtual machine ...' The popup error I get is 'Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Windows 7 (MacBook) 64 GB., and these are the details:
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Windows 7 (MacBook) 64GB.
Unsupported version 6 of data unit 'hda' (instance #0, pass 0xffffffff) (VERR_SSM_UNSUPPORTED_DATA_UNIT_VERSION).
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
This is a VDI VM.

Help!
Last edited by socratis on 26. Jan 2018, 08:26, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Marked as [Solved].
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by socratis »

RossW wrote:I just upgraded my VBox
RossW wrote:my Windows 7 guest crashes right at the end of 'Restoring virtual machine ...'
  1. Downgrade your VirtualBox installation to what you had before.
  2. Restore the VM from its saved state.
  3. Shut down the VM completely from within the guest.
  4. Upgrade VirtualBox to the latest and greatest.
  5. Start the VM.
It's never a good idea to upgrade the "hardware" while your guest is "hibernating"...
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RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

Will do. Is downgrading to an earlier version of VBox easy? Where do I find older versions (It would've been the one previous)
Last edited by socratis on 25. Jan 2018, 05:44, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unnecessary verbatim quote of the whole previous message.
socratis
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Posts: 27330
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Primary OS: Mac OS X other
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Location: Greece

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by socratis »

RossW wrote:Is downgrading to an earlier version of VBox easy?
Yes, piece of cake...
RossW wrote:Where do I find older versions
Where exactly did you search for them? And couldn't find them?
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
michaln
Oracle Corporation
Posts: 2973
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Primary OS: MS Windows 7
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Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by michaln »

Which VirtualBox version exactly did you upgrade from? Or rather which version was the saved state from?
RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

socratis wrote:
RossW wrote:Is downgrading to an earlier version of VBox easy?
Yes, piece of cake...
RossW wrote:Where do I find older versions
Where exactly did you search for them? And couldn't find them?
By 'piece of cake' do you mean:
  1. Uninstall current version of VBox (any tricks here?)
  • Install older version
  • Start VM and then shutdown guest
  • Re-upgrade to latest version of VBox
I found the older versions, so no issues there.
RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

michaln wrote:Which VirtualBox version exactly did you upgrade from? Or rather which version was the saved state from?
I keep it up-to-date, so it would've been the next earliest version. I think.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by socratis »

First of all, can you keep a backup of the saved state? michaln might want to take a look at it, just because it's too small of an upgrade and it shouldn't have such a... dramatic effect. Oh, and the VBox.log.zip if you can from such a failed attempt...
RossW wrote:I keep it up-to-date, so it would've been the next earliest version. I think.
That's quite relative. Did you check for updates manually? What's your "Check for updates" setting in the VirtualBox preferences » Update? Stable, New or Pre-releases? Because the update Stable flag was just set for 5.2.6, so the last update notification would have been in the 5.1.x series.

But, the downgrade process you got it absolutely right. What I usually do is:
  • Mount the DMG of the version I'm about to install (older or newer, doesn't matter)
  • Run the VirtualBox_Uninstall.tool
  • Install the VirtualBox.pkg.
  • Install the matching ExtPack.
Total time: less than 1 1/2 min...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

Thanks Socratis. Your method is the easiest.

Is there a way to confirm what was my earlier version? I'm not at home now so I can't check my update settings.
socratis
Site Moderator
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VBox Version: PUEL
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Location: Greece

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by socratis »

RossW wrote:Is there a way to confirm what was my earlier version?
The only way I can think of is if you have older VBox.log versions, i.e. VBox.log.1, .2 and .3. That's a certain, if you look at the first line of those logs.

Another possible way would be to look at the ".vbox" file, again with a text editor (do *not* modify it). If you look towards the end, you'll see something like:
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Components/VBoxControl.exe" value="5.1.26r117224"
So for example this guest was last updated with VirtualBox 5.1.26, rev. 117224. But that requires that you've kept the Guest Additions up to date.

Before downgrading, can you please post a list of the contents of the "Snapshots" folder in the VM's folder? Right-click on the VM, Show in Finder, navigate to the Snapshots folder, tell me what's in there. Or even better post the output of the command "ls -alR" executed in that folder...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
mpack
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Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by mpack »

Terminology: what you describe is a deliberate error message, not a crash. A crash implies badly written code that doesn't do enough checks. An error message implies just the opposite.

Solution: for some reason no-one seems to have pointed out that you can get rid of the error by right clicking the VM and choosing "Discard saved state". I personally don't find it too surprising that saved states aren't always portable, since different versions have different states that need saving.

I also don't see that a version downgrade is called for, at least not before the obvious fix is tried.
RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

Thanks mpack. What is the impact of discarding the saved state - will it revert to the last snapshot (taken quite some time ago). Should I either clone or backup the .vdi first?
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
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Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by socratis »

mpack wrote:for some reason no-one seems to have pointed out that you can get rid of the error by right clicking the VM and choosing "Discard saved state"
Because 'michaln' wants to take a look at it. From talks, the saved state is supposed to be able to be restored if it is from a really close VirtualBox version (let's say from 5.2.4 to 5.2.6). If it can't be restored, it's a bug. That's why I'm asking for a backup of the saved state, so that the devs can have a look at it...
mpack wrote:I also don't see that a version downgrade is called for, at least not before the obvious fix is tried.
Discarding the saved state will be like powering off the machine; you might lose whatever in in the RAM at the time. You might not want to. That's why I first propose the downgrade to the previous version, shut down the VM, then upgrade. You won't lose a thing, as opposed to pulling the plug ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by socratis »

@RossW
I just noticed that we posted at the same exactly time, I hope that the answer that I gave covered your questions. But a backup never hurt anyone. Except maybe your free HD space... ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
RossW
Posts: 36
Joined: 14. Aug 2015, 03:14

Re: Upgrade to VBox 5.2.6 Causes Guest to Crash

Post by RossW »

Yeah, the .vdi's plus snapshots do take up a large chunk of HD space ...

I'll get the requested info tonight and post, then try the earlier version first.

BTW, I have my preferences set to:

Check for updates once per month
Check for Stable Release Versions

So, I might need to grab a 5.1.x
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