[Solved]Guest machines choke on startup

jordanwb · Post by **jordanwb** » 29. Jan 2009, 23:52

I'm running Gentoo Linux amd64 with modified 2.0.6 ebuilds so I could install 2.1.2 Now I have this problem that when I start a virtual machine, I get the new window and a black square where the guest should be and it stops. I don't get the Sun splash page with the dude and his laptop. This isn't 2.1.2 specific, I got the same problem in 2.0.6 The problem started after I performed an upgrade of my system. Below is a list of the programs that were upgraded (version is current version):

sys-libs/timezone-data-2009a
media-libs/freetype-2.3.8
net-misc/tor-0.2.0.33
sys-fs/udev-135-r4
sys-fs/fuse-2.7.4
dev-lang/python-2.5.4-r2
sys-devel/gcc-4.3.3
media-libs/libsdl-1.2.13-r1
net-print/cups-1.3.9-r1
net-fs/samba-3.0.33
app-crypt/pinentry-0.7.5-r1
app-crypt/gnupg-2.0.9-r1
net-p2p/deluge-1.1.1
dev-util/git-1.6.1.1
mail-client/evolution-2.24.2-r2

This is the log for one of the machines that won't start:

http://pastebin.com/m10e14879

I'm running vanilla-sources-2.6.28

Post by **TerryE** » 30. Jan 2009, 14:20

Thanks for a detailed post. The problem lines are:

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00:01:58.300 Guest Log: BIOS: int13_harddisk: function 15, unmapped device for ELDL=81
00:02:14.802 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'SUSPENDED'.
00:02:16.413 Console::powerDown(): A request to power off the VM has been issued (mMachineState=8, InUninit=0)

That is everything is going to plan and the VM BIOS is searching through the boot sequence to start to boot from the hd0. BTW, this warning is quite common, and will normally be followed by bootstrap loading of the OS into the NT Kernel which then starts to load other devices such as the keyboard. None of this happens. 16 secs your VM shuts down. However, from the lines

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00:02:16.426 /Devices/ATA0/Unit0/PIO               579 times
00:02:16.426 /Devices/ATA0/Unit0/ReadBytes      386048 bytes

you can see that the disk has been used. The NTldr is ~250Kb, so this is probably the NT loader plus a few of its reads. The NT kernel is nearly 2Mb so your boot never got this far.

Have you tried booting from a LiveCD or the XP distro in recovery mode just to see if the machine config is basically healthy? Also what are your VM settings?

jordanwb · Post by **jordanwb** » 30. Jan 2009, 16:10

TerryE wrote:Have you tried booting from a LiveCD or the XP distro in recovery mode just to see if the machine config is basically healthy? Also what are your VM settings?

I can't boot anything. I can't boot Windows, I can't boot Linux from a drive or from live CD's. Nothing will boot.

Post by **TerryE** » 1. Feb 2009, 15:52

Jordan, the fact that your VM read 386,048 bytes before hanging means that some part of the HD based loader from the MBR was started and read some code before hanging.

You are just saying words to the effect "nothing works". That great if you are looking for sympathy, but if you want answers then we need data. So I say again " What are your VM settings?"

jordanwb · Post by **jordanwb** » 1. Feb 2009, 20:18

This is the xml config for the VM that uses my Scanner:

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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!-- Sun xVM VirtualBox Machine Configuration -->
<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.6-linux">
  <Machine uuid="{53c885fd-5879-4c80-9b8f-76e2f97f477b}" name="HP Scanner" OSType="WindowsXP" lastStateChange="2009-02-01T18:16:21Z" aborted="true">
    <ExtraData>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/SaveMountedAtRuntime" value="yes"/>
    </ExtraData>
    <Hardware>
      <CPU count="1">
        <HardwareVirtEx enabled="false"/>
      </CPU>
      <Memory RAMSize="512"/>
      <Boot>
        <Order position="1" device="Floppy"/>
        <Order position="2" device="DVD"/>
        <Order position="3" device="HardDisk"/>
      </Boot>
      <Display VRAMSize="12" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="false"/>
      <RemoteDisplay enabled="false" port="3389" authType="Null" authTimeout="5000"/>
      <BIOS>
        <ACPI enabled="true"/>
        <IOAPIC enabled="false"/>
        <Logo fadeIn="true" fadeOut="true" displayTime="0"/>
        <BootMenu mode="MessageAndMenu"/>
        <TimeOffset value="0"/>
        <PXEDebug enabled="false"/>
        <IDEController type="PIIX4"/>
      </BIOS>
      <DVDDrive passthrough="false"/>
      <FloppyDrive enabled="true"/>
      <USBController enabled="true" enabledEhci="true">
        <DeviceFilter name="Hewlett-Packard HP Scanjet Scanner [0100]" active="true" vendorId="03F0" productId="1405" revision="0100" manufacturer="Hewlett-Packard" product="HP Scanjet Scanner" serialNumber="CN3C3S47QK" remote="no"/>
      </USBController>
      <SATAController enabled="false" PortCount="1" IDE0MasterEmulationPort="0" IDE0SlaveEmulationPort="1" IDE1MasterEmulationPort="2" IDE1SlaveEmulationPort="3"/>
      <Network>
        <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="08002756532E" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973">
          <NAT/>
        </Adapter>
        <Adapter slot="1" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027BD8B1E" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="2" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027CBF81D" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="3" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027480F4B" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="4" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027320F00" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="5" enabled="false" MACAddress="0800272BCDE6" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="6" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027D56671" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
        <Adapter slot="7" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027D56058" cable="true" speed="0" type="Am79C973"/>
      </Network>
      <UART>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
      </UART>
      <LPT>
        <Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
        <Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
      </LPT>
      <AudioAdapter controller="AC97" driver="Null" enabled="false"/>
      <SharedFolders/>
      <Clipboard mode="Bidirectional"/>
      <Guest memoryBalloonSize="0" statisticsUpdateInterval="0"/>
      <GuestProperties>
        <GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/HostInfo/GUI/LanguageID" value="C" timestamp="1233512186143499000" flags=""/>
      </GuestProperties>
    </Hardware>
    <HardDiskAttachments>
      <HardDiskAttachment hardDisk="{e309bb53-f9ea-404a-b7c5-df48c1f2ec17}" bus="IDE" channel="0" device="0"/>
    </HardDiskAttachments>
  </Machine>
</VirtualBox>

It seems to be actually working. I set up a machine to use the SystemRescue CD and its reading/booting from the disk but nothing shows up in the window.

For fun I'll install VBox on my XP install and see what happens.

Edit:
I can get the VMs to start in XP but despite setting up a USB filter I can't use my scanner.

Edit:
I'm having the same problem as this guy

jordanwb · Post by **jordanwb** » 1. Feb 2009, 21:38

I got vbos to work. In the list of packages that were upgraded, libsdl is one of them. I downgraded libsdl to version 1.2.13, reinstalled virtualbox-bin and virtualbox-drivers, "modprobe -r vboxdrv", "modprobe vboxdrv" and it works. Now I got to get VBox to compile for my laptop.