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Large chunk of chapter 9 in online VirtualBox User Manual is missing

Posted: 30. Oct 2017, 09:08
by nachanon
Today I'm trying to find an instruction on how to set up custom video modes in VirtualBox VGA BIOS. Which a Google search landed me on Chapter 9 in online version of VirtualBox User Manual, and its Table of Contents lists "9.8.1. Custom VESA resolutions".

However, when I clicked on "9.8.1. Custom VESA resolutions" entry, the browser went to ch09.html anchor #customvesa, but does not jump to the desired section, and scrolling through entire page does not reveal the "Custom VESA resolutions" section either.

From a look at the bottom of chapter's Table of Contents and section 9.20.4, large chunk of the page seems to be missing: namely after 9.10 entry in Table of Contents to a bit before the start of 9.20 content section. (If you looked at page's HTML source, you would see the anomaly just after the end of `<dt>` tag of "9.10. Legacy commands for using serial ports" table of contents entry).

This problem seems to be recent, as the section could still be read from Google Cache of the page (dated 28-Oct-2017).

Exact steps to reproduce:
  • Visit main directory of VirtualBox user manual. (www DOT virtualbox DOT org SLASH manual)
  • Scroll down to "9. Advanced topics" in Table of Contents.
  • Click "9.8. Advanced display configuration", the browser would go to anchor #idm8247 of ch09.html.
  • You would see that the browser ended up start of chapter 9 instead of the desired section.
  • Click "9.8.1. Custom VESA resolutions" on chapter's table of contents, the browser would go to ch09.html anchor #customvesa.
  • You would see that the browser is still at the start of chapter 9 instead of the desired subsection.
  • Scroll down to the end of chapter's table of contents.
  • You would see that the first section content visible is "9.20.3. Configure VM selector menu entries" rather than "9.1. VBoxSDL, the simplified VM displayer".
  • You would see that chapter's table of contents is truncated at section 9.10, rather than completing with section 9.35.

Please investigate and fix.
(I ended up reading the section in PDF manual as a workaround)

Note #1: I can't link to each relevant web address directly, sorry. This is my first post on VirtualBox forum, the forum software don't allow me. (I can't even say "U" "R" "L" word literally, but that is an unrelated problem).

Note #2: For other users who are trying to find the same missing parts of this chapter, apart from Google cache mentioned above (which I don't know how long it would be available), you can still read them in:
  • The PDF manual (download DOT virtualbox DOT org SLASH virtualbox SLASH UserManual.pdf).
  • The Internet Archive.

Re: Large chunk of chapter 9 in online VirtualBox User Manual is missing

Posted: 30. Oct 2017, 10:12
by socratis
I'm sorry, but I do not see any of the symptoms you describe. Did you try to empty your browser's cache? What's your browser/OS? Did you try with a different browser?

Re: Large chunk of chapter 9 in online VirtualBox User Manual is missing

Posted: 30. Oct 2017, 11:30
by nachanon
@socratis,
As you said that, I just re-checked it with a new private browsing session of the same running browser instance, and it seems to be back to normal now. So this might be either client-side cache problem, or some one-off server-side sync problem (but that's less likely). It's very rare to see webpage with missing chunk in the middle rather than at the end.

Regarding cache, at the time I encountered the problem, I vaguely remembered checking this on two separate browsing session (one normal, one private) of the same browser instance, with at least 2 times of refresh on the normal browsing session (regular F5 refresh, not hard Ctrl+F5 refresh).

Anyway, thanks for checking, and for bearing with me. If the problem doesn't turn up again in few days, I will eventually mark the thread as "Solved"; and I will report the "U-R-L" literal detection problem of new forum member's postings on a separate thread.

Browser: Pale Moon 25.8.1 (JavaScript disabled)
System: Debian GNU/Linux 7.0 Wheezy i386

Re: Large chunk of chapter 9 in online VirtualBox User Manual is missing

Posted: 30. Oct 2017, 12:35
by socratis
A glitch? A network reset? Could be a gazillion of things... Glad you got it back up and running.

There was a small glitch when 5.2.0 was released, but that was resolved within 10 min. Nothing to do with chunks of the manual missing. It is generated automatically via a script in any event. The glitch was something entirely different (a missing linked file).