VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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lyallp
Posts: 49
Joined: 14. Nov 2008, 01:53
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: Linux & Win xp,7,8

VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by lyallp »

Anyone else experienced this?

I am running 3.2.0 on a "Linux pearcely 2.6.32-gentoo-r7 #1 SMP PREEMPT Tue Apr 27 08:57:44 CST 2010 i686 Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU E6550 @ 2.33GHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux" with a Windows XP Pro Guest.

I deleted a cold snapshot (with a subsequent hot snapshot) and the VM was dead on next powerup.

Luckily, I had a 3 week old snapshot I could go back to.

Can't say I am a particularly happy camper!
Last edited by lyallp on 25. May 2010, 02:41, edited 1 time in total.
Perryg
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Re: VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by Perryg »

Explain the motions that you went through to delete the snapshot.
Please be as detailed as you can.
lyallp
Posts: 49
Joined: 14. Nov 2008, 01:53
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: Linux & Win xp,7,8

Re: VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by lyallp »

Using the VBox GUI on the Linux host, using Fluxbox Window manager.
Click on the VM in question (left panel)
Click the Snapshots Tab (right panel)
I had 2 cold snapshots and one hot one (the latest being a hot snapshot after which I had done an experimental software install)
I went to select the hot snapshot, clicked the wrong one (the newest cold snapshot) and hit the 'delete' button.
I realised my error, but by that time it was too late and in a vain hope to cancel the delete, I clicked the close window button, to no effect.
I resigned myself to having deleted that snapshot - only an inconvenience.
Booted the VM after the snapshot delete had finished and missing files, windows failed to boot.
Wrote off the current state and deleted the latest state and reverted to an older cold snapshot.
Rebooted and proceeded to recover.
Whilst it was recovering, I attempted to delete the Oldest snapshot (I was currently running from the second oldest).
That failed with a parameter error. Sorry, didn't take note of the exact code.
Since then, I am not game to go anywhere near snapshots. I use my VM for devlopment, I can't affort to lose it.
I have asked a collegue who also had a snapshot failure to post his details as well, I think he is a bit more upset, however, as I don't think he had the snapshot to go back to, like I did.
WombatBuiltForCombat
Posts: 1
Joined: 25. May 2010, 03:17
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Kubuntu

Re: VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by WombatBuiltForCombat »

I've experienced the same but the other way around : host is Windows XP, guest is Kubuntu.

I've taken various snap-shots along the way over the past 12 or so months, I've upgraded VirtualBox as new releases come about (and for the past week or so I've been running 3.1.8 nicely), and 2 days ago I upgraded my Kubuntu 9.04 to 9.10, with the intention of then upgrading to 10.04 LTS.

The 9.10 upgrade was fine and I did another snapshot to protect that effort, but the 10.04 upgrade failed for reasons I can't recall now, so I simply deleted the "current state" snap-shot, i.e. take me back to the post-9.10 upgrade attempt that was fine and get rid of the subsequent rubbish.

When I hit delete, I got a dialogue box telling me it was "merging differencing image {some GUID}.vdi". About 10 mins later, it was done and I hit Start on the 9.10 snap-shot and just got 'grub' in a window. Hmm. Once I'd figured out how to get that to boot the kernel, it failed miserably. Lots of errors and messages that proved to me the FS was stuffed.

I deleted the post-9.10 upgrade snapshot hoping to get back to my very stable 9.04 release snap-shot. Again I got the merging dialogue box, and this time I got some message about there being nothing to boot from (standard BIOS message?)

Like lyallp, I'm not a happy camper and didn't even have the luxury of the stuff backed up somewhere else (not enough disk space to do that), so I've lost a stable Linux system. With no other option (or disk space), I had to delete the entire .VirtualBox sub-dir, and start again from scratch, having lost all the code I'd written within the 9.04 image and who-knows how many packages I'd downloaded over the months.
Perryg
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Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
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Re: VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by Perryg »

Humm. I would suggest that you report this to bugtracker. You will need to setup an account there as it is on a different system.
It would also help if you can post the ticket number here so other can see the progress, add information, or see the final results.

As a final note I would strongly suggest that anyone trying this make sure that you have a full backup first to be safe or do not use the snapshot feature or the newest hot delete until there has been a determination as to what happened.
lyallp
Posts: 49
Joined: 14. Nov 2008, 01:53
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: Linux & Win xp,7,8

Re: VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by lyallp »

http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/6803

With additional info - it's repeatable - reverted back to 3.1.8 and all is roses, for me.
lyallp
Posts: 49
Joined: 14. Nov 2008, 01:53
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: Linux & Win xp,7,8

Re: VB PEUL 3.2.0 Delete Snapshot - DEAD VM

Post by lyallp »

3.2.6 seems to have fixed the problem, even though the defect, in the tracker is still there.
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