Insanely weird Windows XP login problem.

[d4n]

I am trying to run an XP box in VirtualBox 3.0.12 on Ubuntu 9.10. The guest XP machine was previously running in VMware Server, which in turn was previously a physical image that has been P-to-V'ed. I have done the various tweaks to prepare it for VirtualBox (MergeIDE, remove agp440.sys etc etc), but am running the disks from native VMDK.
The XP machine has one NIC that needs to be bridged onto the hosts local network.

When I boot the guest in VMware Server the bridging works and I can login with either a domain or local account (both with administrator rights).

When I boot the guest in VirtualBox the bridging doesn't appear to work (as I don't see the DHCP requests leave the machine). The machine boots successfully up to the Windows login box and I am unable to login as either the domain user (which is cached and can login without network connectivity normally) OR the local user. They both consistently return a refusal. I have been trying to get this to work for a while so I know it's not PEBCAK as far as the login is concerned.

This may sound nuts , but has anybody got any ideas on what this could be?

--Dan

[Sasquatch]

Did you remove the VMWare tools? They ship drivers for the NIC and those conflict with the NIC emulated by VB. Even putting the VM back to a physical machine with that NIC can cause problems. If removing isn't possible, or it doesn't solve it, use a different adapter. You might need to grab the drivers for it and install it before it works. Transfer the drivers through shared folders.

[Erik_FL]

I am trying to run an XP box in VirtualBox 3.0.12 on Ubuntu 9.10. The guest XP machine was previously running in VMware Server, which in turn was previously a physical image that has been P-to-V'ed. I have done the various tweaks to prepare it for VirtualBox (MergeIDE, remove agp440.sys etc etc), but am running the disks from native VMDK.
The XP machine has one NIC that needs to be bridged onto the hosts local network.

When I boot the guest in VMware Server the bridging works and I can login with either a domain or local account (both with administrator rights).

When I boot the guest in VirtualBox the bridging doesn't appear to work (as I don't see the DHCP requests leave the machine). The machine boots successfully up to the Windows login box and I am unable to login as either the domain user (which is cached and can login without network connectivity normally) OR the local user. They both consistently return a refusal. I have been trying to get this to work for a while so I know it's not PEBCAK as far as the login is concerned.

This may sound nuts , but has anybody got any ideas on what this could be?

--Dan

It sounds like you have two problems combining to create the symptoms. What I suggest is to completely remove or disable the VirtualBox network adapter and then test if you can log in to the Windows XP guest. If you can then the problems are all directly or indirectly due to not having proper network communication. Windows XP authentication behaves differently depending on whether it has a working network adapter or not. Your situation is that you have a network adapter that appears to be working and connected in Windows XP but it can't communicate. Just making sure that Windows XP does not see a "good" network adapter may allow you to log in. You may have to log in to fix the network communication problems.

Also be aware that the most important information used by Windows Activation is the type and hardware MAC address of the first detected network adapter. Moving Windows XP from one virtual machine program to another almost always changes enough information to break Windows Activation. If you can temporarily set the MAC address for the VirtualBox network adapter to be the same as it was in the VMWare network adapter then you might have less problems logging in. Don't be surprised in any case if you have to Activate Windows XP again. The hardware configuration plus (most importantly) the network adapter MAC address uniquely identify the hardware. To avoid problems it helps to make sure that the first detected network adapter and its MAC address are consistent and don't change.

I am not sure what role Windows Activation plays in computer / domain authentication. It's possible that an un-activated Windows XP OS will not allow domain logon even when it did work previously while Windows XP was Activated. I recommend that you sort out your Windows Activation issues before you try to log in to a domain.

[MarkCranness]

When I boot the guest in VirtualBox the bridging doesn't appear to work...

Would that be the existing Ubuntu bridging, or the VirtualBox bridging (or even the old VMware bridging)?
Bridged networking in VirtualBox does not require any host interface bridging to work, just in case you are still doing that.

[d4n]

Hi, thanks for your feedback.

MarkCranness: I did originally try the host interface bridging but now I am just using the bridging in VB. Since removing the host bridging config I have reinstalled VB entirely.

Erik_FL: I don't think there is an activation issue because this box is a corporate machine with full licenses. Booting with the mac-address changed to the one allocated by VMware makes no difference, I still can't login with any user. If I boot with the VB NICs completely disabled I still get the same problem, however if I do the same thing in VMware I can login with the local and domain users, therefore I do not think that there is a dependence on the NIC state/presence to allow local user access, or even the domain user.

Sasquatch: Yup, removed VMware tools competely. I have tried with enabling multiple adapters in VB but I still can't get past the login screen. It's very odd, it's gotta be VMware screwing something up...

[MarkCranness]

Does this post help at all? http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=24300

[spm2011]

I have the same problem too. No local or domain user can login. The link did not help.
Did you solved this problem meanwhile?