virtualbox.org

I made a mistake, and deleted ~/.Virtualbox/VirtualBox.xml, and now when I start it, it shows some bad assertion error, etc.
I removed the whole ~/.Virtualbox/, hoping it would be recreated, but it wasn't. Therefore I uninstalled it, and reinstalled it. But it won't help:

$ dpkg -l virtualbox
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
un virtualbox <none> (no description available)
$ sudo dpkg -r virtualbox
dpkg - warning: ignoring request to remove virtualbox which isn't installed.
$ sudo dpkg -i virtualbox-2.2_2.2.2-46594_Ubuntu_jaunty_amd64.deb
(Reading database ... 129163 files and directories currently installed.)
Preparing to replace virtualbox-2.2 2.2.2-46594_Ubuntu_jaunty (using virtualbox-2.2_2.2.2-46594_Ubuntu_jaunty_amd64.deb) ...
* Stopping VirtualBox kernel module * done.
Unpacking replacement virtualbox-2.2 ...
Setting up virtualbox-2.2 (2.2.2-46594_Ubuntu_jaunty) ...
addgroup: The group `vboxusers' already exists as a system group. Exiting.
* Starting VirtualBox kernel module * done.
$ dpkg -l virtualbox
Desired=Unknown/Install/Remove/Purge/Hold
| Status=Not/Inst/Cfg-files/Unpacked/Failed-cfg/Half-inst/trig-aWait/Trig-pend
|/ Err?=(none)/Hold/Reinst-required/X=both-problems (Status,Err: uppercase=bad)
||/ Name Version Description
+++-==============-==============-============================================
un virtualbox <none> (no description available)
$VirtualBox
"Failed to load the global GUI configuration from /home/udippel/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml.
The application will now terminate.
Assertion failed at '/home/vbox/vbox-2.2.2/src/VBox/Main/VirtualBoxImpl.cpp' (1585) in virtual nsresult VirtualBox::GetExtraData(const PRUnichar*, PRUnichar**).
Unexpected exception 'N3xml12EIPRTFailureE' (Runtime error: -102 (File not found.)).
Please contact the product vendor!."

(How can it start, when it is not installed??)

Please, advise how to get out of this catch-22 situation: VirtualBox is not installed, and when I install it, it remains uninstalled.

Thanks,

Uwe

Did you reboot between attempts? try with an empty /home/udippel/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml file.

User error, VB is package virtualbox-2.2, as shown on my system . Any removal of the VirtualBox.xml file should result in the recreation of the file. Make sure that any additional file in the folder is removed too, so xpti.dat and compreg.dat too. The VMs can be kept, but they won't be registered anymore. You have to do that manually again.

No success:

$ rm -Rf .VirtualBox/
$ VirtualBox
Failed to load the global GUI configuration from /home/udippel/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml.
The application will now terminate.
$ ls -l .VirtualBox/
total 20
-rw-r--r-- 1 udippel udippel 1055 2009-05-05 07:42 compreg.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 udippel udippel 14404 2009-05-05 07:42 xpti.dat
$ touch .VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml
$ VirtualBox
Failed to load the global GUI configuration from /home/udippel/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml.
The application will now terminate.
$ ls -l .VirtualBox/
total 20
-rw-r--r-- 1 udippel udippel 1055 2009-05-05 07:42 compreg.dat
-rw-r--r-- 1 udippel udippel 0 2009-05-05 07:43 VirtualBox.xml
-rw-r--r-- 1 udippel udippel 14404 2009-05-05 07:42 xpti.dat
$

So it does recreate the compreg and xpti, but not the VirtualBox.xml, and then fails on the config.

I did find an error in what I did: the package is called virtualbox-2.2. I also uninstalled it (this time it works!), removed the .VirtualBox, and reinstalled it (also works), but the trouble remains.
"Assertion failed at '/home/vbox/vbox-2.2.2/src/VBox/Main/VirtualBoxImpl.cpp' (1585) in virtual nsresult VirtualBox::GetExtraData(const PRUnichar*, PRUnichar**).
Unexpected exception 'N3xml12EIPRTFailureE' (Runtime error: -102 (File not found.))."

Now it is getting really weird. Excuses for my oversight of the package name, though.

Uwe

The problem was solved by purging virtualbox-2.2 (again, take care, the install name might be wrong: In Debian/Ubuntu usually the version is left out. It makes life much easier when the packages are just called {softwarename}); followed by rm -Rf ~/.Virtualbox; and a sound reboot. After the reboot, I installed the package again, and now it doesn't cry any more about the lost VirtualBox.xml.

Nevertheless, it still is a minor bug when it dies with an assertion error when the GUI layout cannot be found. It could gracefully recreate a file it is missing.

Thanks for the suggestion to reboot!

Uwe