VirtualBox COM API from C#

[forzar]

I am trying to use the VirtualBox COM API (VBoxC.dll) from C#. I ran

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tlbimp VirtualBox.tlb

against the typelib included in the VirtualBox SDK. Referencing the output assembly builds OK but at runtime I get a SafeArrayTypeMispatchException ("Specificed array was not of the expected type") whenever I try to access properties that return arrays.

I can see, for example, that IVirtualBox.get_Machines() is defined as

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[return: MarshalAs(UnmanagedType.SafeArray, SafeArraySubType=VarEnum.VT_DISPATCH)]
[MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.InternalCall, MethodCodeType=MethodCodeType.Runtime), DispId(0x60020009)]
public virtual extern IMachine[] get_Machines();

How can I get this call to marshall correctly?

[DEmberton]

I'm not familiar with the VBox API, but I do know from doing COM in C# that tlbimp can't cover all cases. Pointers to arrays of pointers for example and it gets confused, which sounds like your problem. You may need to write some unsafe C#, or what I found easier was to write a C++ .NET wrapper and call that from C#.