Lost guest properties in cloned snapshot

[DavidA]

Hi

Running Linux VM on Win7 host, using VBox 4.0.8 and Guest Additions.

I added some guest properties to my Linux VM, checked they worked and then took a snapshot.

I then cloned the snapshot (using VBoxManage clonehd) and created a new VM on another host using the clone. I found that the added guest properties are not in the clone. I tried again in case I had made a mistake and again found that the guest properties are not in the clone.

Am I misunderstanding how this works?

David

[mpack]

Yes, I'm afraid you are misunderstanding how it works.

Guest properties - along with all other VM configuration items - are stored in the .vbox settings file. It is not stored in any of the disk images which you may have attached to the VM, and hence will not be copied when you clone one of those disk images.

However it should be easy to recreate the properties, or a more advanced solution is to copy/paste the necessary config lines between the respective xml files. I am not going to tell you how to do that: if you are qualified to do it then you don't need my instruction. Make backups first if you are not sure.

[DavidA]

Thanks for your explanation. This is a bit tedious as a I want to distribute the VM, and support guest properties, to a number of users. However, now I understand how it works I can work around it.