virtualbox.org

I was about to upgrade my installation on Vista (64-bit) to version 3.0.8. As far as I understand, it should not be necessary to uninstall the old version (3.0.2 in my case) before upgrading. However, when running the installer, it suggests a different installation folder than my current installation:

Current installation folder for 3.0.2: C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\
Suggested installation folder for 3.0.8: C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\

I cancelled the installation, as I suspected the installer had not detected the current installation.

Any good suggestions on what to do? I assume one of these:
a) Uninstall 3.0.2 before installing 3.0.8
b) Change the 3.0.8 installation folder to C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\ in order to overwrite the current installation
c) Continue the installation as default, as the installer will do it right even if does not seem like it

Thanx!

These steps should be a bit better:
A) Unregister the Guest Additions ISO from the Media Manager, because this is located in the install folder and could cause problems with inaccessible VM's (see some topics here, including the 3.0.6 and 3.0.8 discussion threads).
B) Install 3.0.8 in it's suggested location, the old version will be removed automatically and you won't have problems with newer upgrades about the location.

Step A) is very important. You could do with your own step b), but new releases will have the same suggested install folder as 3.0.6 and 3.0.8.

Thanx Sasquatch!

However, I wasn't able to unregister the Guest Additions ISO from the Media Manager before installation, as both the Release and Remove buttons were disabled. Even after removing the image from the VM's where it was used.

I continued anyway with the installation, and it went fine. The old folder is gone as you said, replaced by the new one.

So now I still have an old and unavailable VBoxGuestAdditions.iso item in the Media Manager, along with the new one.

I'm guessing I could edit the config file C:\Users\.....\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml and just remove the obsolete node Seems I may have to boot in Safe Mode to do it, as the file is constantly locked.

As you may guess, I'm quite a newbie on VirtualBox. Decided to give it a chance in stead of VMWare on a new machine. I must say I'm impressed so far.

The xml file will unlock if you close ALL VM,s and the VBox program. You may need to wait a minute but it will clear and then you can edit the file.
Double check that the VBoxSvc is not running in the task manager then edit away.

Perryg wrote:The xml file will unlock if you close ALL VM,s and the VBox program. You may need to wait a minute but it will clear and then you can edit the file.
Double check that the VBoxSvc is not running in the task manager then edit away.

Thanx - that did the trick!