Cant start VM after OS X crash

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Mac OS X hosts.
Maboz
Posts: 5
Joined: 11. Sep 2010, 08:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows 7

Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by Maboz »

OS X crashed and I had to power it down to restart, after that my Windows 7 VM wont start. I get this error message:

Resultatkod:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Komponent:
ProgressProxy
Gränssnitt:
IProgress {856aa038-853f-42e2-acf7-6e7b02dbe294}

Anyone know whats happened?
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by Perryg »

Sounds like the crash killed the VirtualBox.xml file. Restore from backup.
Or if you have no backup and do not have any snapshots you can create a new VM and attach the original VDI file instead of creating a new one.

Oh and look to see if there might be a VirtualBox.xml-prev file. If so rename it to VirtualBox.xml and see if it works.
Maboz
Posts: 5
Joined: 11. Sep 2010, 08:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows 7

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by Maboz »

Perryg wrote:Sounds like the crash killed the VirtualBox.xml file. Restore from backup.
Or if you have no backup and do not have any snapshots you can create a new VM and attach the original VDI file instead of creating a new one.

Oh and look to see if there might be a VirtualBox.xml-prev file. If so rename it to VirtualBox.xml and see if it works.
I had a virtualbox.xml-prev file, renamed it and voila! It worked! Thanks alot. :D
rpmurray
Volunteer
Posts: 918
Joined: 3. Mar 2009, 00:29
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows 7, Mac OS X (various flavors)
Location: Between Heaven and Hell

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by rpmurray »

Maboz wrote:I had a virtualbox.xml-prev file, renamed it and voila! It worked! Thanks alot. :D
Might want to make a copy of it in case this happens again.
ptram
Posts: 75
Joined: 10. Dec 2008, 18:58

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by ptram »

I had my Mac crash while VirtualBox was running, and now I see a "Running" label in the list of the virtual machines. I tried the "virtualbox.xml" replacement trick, but the status remains "Running". Is something I can do to let VB understand I had a crash, and try to restart the machine?

Paolo
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by Perryg »

Try right clicking the guest and then click on discard or click once on the guest and at the top click Discard. This should discard the running state.
ptram
Posts: 75
Joined: 10. Dec 2008, 18:58

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by ptram »

Hi Perry, the Discard command is greyed out, so I cannot select it. Maybe there is a way to force this command via the command line?

I also recovered an older .vdi from TimeMachine, but it doesn't work either. I replace all the .xml files too, but with no success: the VM remains in 'running' state.

When trying to run a new VM, using the same (recovered) .vdi file, I get the following errore message:

-----------
The virtual machine '[name]' has terminated unexpectedly during startup because of signal 6.
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Machine
IMachine {6d9212cb-a5c0-48b7-bbc1-3fa2ba2ee6d2}
-----------

I recovered the application and deleted the preferences, but nothing.

Also, I removed a new machine I just created, and now it is listed in the UI, but when I choose "Remove" it cannot remove it (since it can no longer find the folder I overwrote). Where are the machine list and status saved?

Paolo
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by Perryg »

You can also try

Code: Select all

VBoxManage controlvm <uuid>|<name> acpipowerbutton
The rest of the CLI commands are located in Chapter 8.2. Commands overview in your VirtualBox users guide.
ptram
Posts: 75
Joined: 10. Dec 2008, 18:58

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by ptram »

Thank you, Perry, but I'm still lost. I run this exact command:

VBoxManage controlvm MBP_Paolo_Win acpipowerbutton

where <MBP_Paolo_Win> is the name of the VM I want to turn off. I removed the <uuid> part (that I don't even know what is for).

The terminal only shows a copyrigt notice:

-----------
Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.8
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.
-----------

And nothing more. If I try to reinstall VirtualBox, the installer says the VM is still running. What am I doing wrong?

Paolo
ptram
Posts: 75
Joined: 10. Dec 2008, 18:58

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by ptram »

SOLVED!
The right command was: VBoxManage controlvm MBP_Paolo_Win poweroff
I have the VM running perfectly, now.
THANK YOU!

Paolo
bhepdogg
Posts: 1
Joined: 23. Jun 2011, 10:11
Primary OS: Mac OS X Leopard
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: CentOS

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by bhepdogg »

Running Mac OS X 10.6.7 and Virtualbox 4.0.8 r71778

I got the same error message of signal 6. My OS X session crashed and after I logged back in I could not start the VM at all. It was in an aborted state. I figured since I just had a new X session started after the crash that it was the same as a reboot. Just for kicks, before trying any of the hints in this thread, I just rebooted the entire Mac. When it came back up, the VM was in a Powered Off state and no longer in an aborted state. The VM was able to successfully start. Maybe it is something that was fixed in the newer version of Virtualbox. I was glad to not have to mess with anything else.
bhamail
Posts: 22
Joined: 23. Jan 2009, 04:30

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by bhamail »

FWIW, I just had a very similar sympton, and even a brand new VM refused to start, giving a "signal 6" error.

I found this post, and decided to just reboot the Mac, and now things are working - no more "signal 6" errors.

VBox 4.1.6

OSX 10.6.8

Mac Pro (intel xeon)
tresf
Posts: 1
Joined: 6. Feb 2014, 04:03

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by tresf »

Rebooting host fixed this for me too.

This seems to happen after I remote into the Mac Mini. I believe it's related to hardware acceleration because the guest seems to be more responsive and respond better to compositioning when I'm not remoted in.

This is almost certainly a bug since powering the guest should allow it to reboot and choose the best settings again. I would assume a process or file gets locked when the hang occurs which is fixed by rebooting.
Ness
Posts: 1
Joined: 6. Mar 2014, 00:35

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by Ness »

I have the same 'Signal 6' error. Rebooting worked for me also! Phew!
ThomasNilsson
Posts: 1
Joined: 3. Oct 2009, 18:20
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: win98, winxp, ubuntu

Re: Cant start VM after OS X crash

Post by ThomasNilsson »

For me, just restarting the VirtualBox application worked, after deleting the "stale" state. (MacOSX 10.9.4, VB 4.3.14)
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