[Resolved] Error 'You must specify a machine to start'

[PTP23]

I thought I finally had everything running fine, then I closed the VM and tried to open VirtualBox again and got this error.

You must specify a machine to start, using the command line.

Usage: VirtualBoxVM --startvm <name|UUID>
Starts the VirtualBox virtual machine with the given name or unique identifier (UUID).

[socratis]

How did you get this error? How did you try to start VirtualBox exactly? This sounds like a misconfigured shortcut...

[Rennrot]

Hi - I woke up this morning with the exact same issue and have no idea why. It was working fine yesterday and I just shut down the VM was usual and then this morning I get this weird message. Uninstalling and reinstalling VitualBox fixed it. I was running 6.0.6 but reverted back to 6.0.4 as 6.0.6 seemed buggy (was having issues with graphics and now this issue). Hope that helps!

[socratis]

Uninstalling and reinstalling VitualBox fixed it.

Rare on OSX, but interesting none the less...

[Star Gray]

When starting my Mac, I get the following error as if the VB is automatically trying to start from the terminal upon starting my Mac. I don't recall setting it up this way and I actually don't know how. I recently removed VB and reinstalled but now I'm thinking I didn't completely remove the 1st VM and now have a second one. How do I get rid of this error? Thanks for any help you can offer. I've tried finding the solution online but nothing seems to fix this.

[socratis]

as if the VB is automatically trying to start from the terminal upon starting my Mac

Go to the OSX System Preferences » Users & Groups » select your account » Login Items tab (on the right). What do you have there?

This message seems like what you'd get if you created a shortcut for a VM from within the VirtualBox Manager (select VM » Create Alias on Desktop) with a version prior to 6.0.0, and now you're trying to run it with 6.0.x. Do you remember doing anything like that?

[Russw]

I had v6.0.4, was running fine, just installed 6.0.8 and now I get this same error. I have only one VM setup and it was not running and is not setup to run automatically or via a shortcut. My Login Items has nothing related to Virtualbox.
If I start VB from the Applications folder, it starts fine. If I start it from the Dock, I get that error. I removed it from the dock, re-docked it, now it works fine, so something in that dock version got corrupted from the update.

[socratis]

If I start it from the Dock, I get that error

Finally, somebody told me the steps to reproduce this!

I removed it from the dock, re-docked it, now it works fine, so something in that dock version got corrupted from the update.

No, nothing got corrupted from the update, I've been updating (either upgrading or downgrading) 4 times/day, never had that. But I think I know what happened...

There are two applications; VirtualBox and VirtualBoxVM. The first is the VirtualBox Manager, the latter is the process responsible for actually running a VM. Check your Activity Monitor. The separation happened because of security reasons.

What must have happened is that you launched a VM, therefore having two identical icons in the Dock; VirtualBox and VirtualBoxVM. You still do every time you launch a VM. Then you either moved the VirtualBoxVM icon, or you right-clicked on the Dock and selected "Keep in Dock". That pinned the VirtualBoxVM icon, and not the VirtualBox one. Since you can't start VirtualBoxVM without any arguments (the vm|uuid to start) you were getting that error.

[Star Gray]

You are awesome, was able to remove this error by following your steps! Still not sure how that happened, as I don't recall configuring the VM to fire up on start up of Mac.
Thank you so much!

[socratis]

Glad I could help. Marking as [Resolved].

[LillyB.]

Dear Socratis,

I saw that you responded and helped fix the problem with the duplication of icons on the dock (MAC). I am also having trouble with that after installing the VM, I am not able to restore the original sate snapshot. When I do, upon starting the VM, it gets stalled (rainbow icon), so I have to forcequit, and when I do, there are two VMs to quit, so it seems to be the same problem. However, I do not understand what to do to resolve this problem. I would appreciate your assistance. thank you.

[socratis]

@LillyB.
Do not hijack other threads, create your own. Choose the title carefully.