[VBoxVmService] -> Discussion & Support

[nimrod]

I solved it!!!

After much painfull investigation I got down to the point of running the contents of the u_0_run.bat (which becomes u_0_run.exe). Which is thus:

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"C:\Program Files\VBoxVMService\tools\runasv.exe" "C:\Program Files\VBoxVMService\tmp\u_0_sub.exe" \read\virtual.box "******"

This was still resulting in the same thing.

I tried making it call u_0_sub.bat rather than the exe, which I was surprised to find was ok, but still didn't work.

My breakthrough came when I added the following to the end of the line in u_0_sub.bat...

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 > c:\output.log

This successfully caught the output of the call to VBoxHeadless.exe, which revealed that I was apparently calling an invalid VM name. This showed me that it was an issue with access, not a setup issue.

The actual issue eventually turned out to be the fact that my VirtualBox.xml file was referencing the VDI and MACHINE directories relatively. After changing this to fully qualified paths it worked. I don't understand why this would make a difference because it should be running as the virtual.box user in whose directory structure they reside.

Here's what I changed...

from:

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...
<MachineEntry uuid="{195feec8-eb7c-4048-8db6-8b0c305e015f}" src="Machines\Ubuntu-SVN\Ubuntu-SVN.xml"/>
...
<VirtualDiskImage filePath="VDI\Ubuntu-SVN.vdi"/>
...

to:

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...
<MachineEntry uuid="{195feec8-eb7c-4048-8db6-8b0c305e015f}" src="c:\docume~1\virtual.box\.VirtualBox\Machines\Ubuntu-SVN\Ubuntu-SVN.xml"/>
...
<VirtualDiskImage filePath="c:\docume~1\virtual.box\.VirtualBox\VDI\Ubuntu-SVN.vdi"/>
...

Now I just have to find the fix that stops it leaving the run files behind, and it'll be all good.

[mattz]

I solved it!!!

Now I just have to find the fix that stops it leaving the run files behind, and it'll be all good.

First off: It's not that easy to actually offend me. I have to say: Good job and quite a great hint for future users. I will definitely add this to the appropriate section of the manual.

The option to kill any left over runfiles is "BRUTEFORCE" which needs to be added to the startup-calls for each VM within the VBoxVmService.ini-file.

So try this one:

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CommandLineUp=c:\PATH-TO-YOUR\startup.exe 0 BRUTEFORCE 

Good luck!

--mattz

[nimrod]

Thank mattz.

It's all running like a dream now!! I can't tell you how happy I am to have this working.

Thanks, Colin

[TerryE]

yet again, i have to promote vboxvmservice ...

Mattz, the thing about vboxvmservice is that we don't have a crisp integrated user guide which you can point users to. What we have is complex discussion with over 60 posts in it. What you should consider doing is a trick that I've learnt on other forums and started to use here which is to have two topics: one of which is your documentation / tutorial which only you post to and a link to a separate discussion topic. You can then use the posts within the main topic to create a chapter structure. I realise that this is a bit of a cludge, but it can be made to work.

Normally we would lock the main topic, so that only moderators post to it. Hover we can't in this case, but what we can do is if you put at the the end of the main topic a general comment "please use XXX (hyperlink) to discuss this. Any posts here will be deleted by the moderators" then we can police this for you. I would suggest that you might be an appropriate candidate for a moderator to this forum, but even though you clearly have a lot of expertise in VBox, you don't really contribute to the forum other than on the single subject of vboxvmservice.

[mattz]

... but even though you clearly have a lot of expertise in VBox, you don't really contribute to the forum other than on the single subject of vboxvmservice.

Hi TerryE, you are absolutely right - my contributions here are focussed on VBoxvmservice and you are correct about this thread, as well. It really is becoming a little "difficult" to follow. Yet again there is a user guide bundled with VBoxVmService (available in english and german).
I leave the judgement on it's "crispness" to others. *gg*

My contributions to other topics here are very limited, since I run a startup software-company with a few great people working there and I carry a responsibility for them, so my focus is clearly there.

Furthermore my gorgeous fiance (still) likes me being around from time to time in real life...

So let's pick up your great idea and ask a mod to start two threads.
I suggest:

"VBoxVmService - Announcements"
"VBoxVmService - Discussion & Support"

It would be great if the posts from this thread could be sorted/splitted accordingly to these new topics. Any mod here, who is willing to spare an hour of his time?

--mattz


PS: I will definitely continue to support VBoxVmService the best possible way, since it has become one of my favorite projects.

[TerryE]

Mattz, the easiest way is to create a new topic to act as the tutorial, and then make this post the discussion by editing / replacing the first post changing the title and making it into a discussion preamble. If you don't want to fight the BBCode crap, I'll make you an offer: if you sent me your draft of the tutorial in RTF / DOC / ODT format I have some magic macros which automate most of the conversion, and I'll put up your tutorial and swap the stickies around. My email is my user id at OpenOffice.org. //Terry

[mattz]

Mattz, the easiest way is to create a new topic to act as the tutorial, and then make this post the discussion by editing / replacing the first post changing the title and making it into a discussion preamble. If you don't want to fight the BBCode crap, I'll make you an offer: if you sent me your draft of the tutorial in RTF / DOC / ODT format I have some magic macros which automate most of the conversion, and I'll put up your tutorial and swap the stickies around. My email is my user id at OpenOffice.org. //Terry

Ok, you should have my email by now.

--mattz

[diogoscs]

hi guys,

I read all the posts, but I couldn't solve my problem! I have the same problem of Shriike, but he disapeared and I don't know if he solve too.
My OS is a Windows 2003 Server Enterprise R2, and the #$!#$ vboxheadless.exe never show in taskmanager, only the vboxsvc... i'm really crazy! I wondering if this problem is the same that the Vista...

thanks guys

[mattz]

how many times....?

1. post your VBoxVmService.ini-file!

2. check your VirtualBox.xml-file for relative links and change them to absolute values (as described by nimrod three or four posts earlier)

3. try using BRUTEFORCE as a startup option parameter (all caps)

---mattz

[diogoscs]

Sorry like we said in my land "foi mal!!"

This is my .ini file....

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[Settings]
ServiceName=VBoxVmService
PathToVBoxSDL=C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\VBoxSDL.exe
PathToVBoxVRDP=C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe
PathToVBoxManage=C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\VBoxManage.exe
RunAsUser=administrador
RunAtDomain=ibeu
UserPassword=*******
[Vm0]
VmName=Bibsrv
CommandLineUp=C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms\startup.exe 0 BRUTEFORCE
CommandLineDown=C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms\shutdown.exe 0
WorkingDir=C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms
StartupMethod=vrdp
ShutdownMethod=savestate
VrdpPort=3390

I read about the relatives names, but to me everything's ok...

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<MachineEntry uuid="{ca2410bc-85e9-4572-b798-7058a40f3f83}" src="C:\Documents and Settings\administrador\.VirtualBox\Machines\Bibsrv\Bibsrv.xml"/>

.....

<VirtualDiskImage filePath="C:\Documents and Settings\administrador\.VirtualBox\VDI\Bibsrv.vdi"/>

[mattz]

ok, this seems to be ok so far... next steps:

1. check your service control manager for vboxvmservice. it needs to be registered there to work properly.

2. open up a console, cd to your vms dir and try kicking up your vm manually with "startup_cli 0" (optionally add BRUTEFORCE)

does this work?

[diogoscs]

ok, this seems to be ok so far... next steps:

1. check your service control manager for vboxvmservice. it needs to be registered there to work properly.

2. open up a console, cd to your vms dir and try kicking up your vm manually with "startup_cli 0" (optionally add BRUTEFORCE)

does this work?

In fact no... When I run the startup_cli 0 open the promtp with...

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No previously started VM operations to wait for. Continuing...
Reading global parameters...
Reading parameters for VM0...
Using custom VRDP-Port: 3390

C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms\tmp\u_0_sub.bat ==> C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms\tmp\u_0_sub.exe  (-hidden)


C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms\tmp\u_0_run.bat ==> C:\Program Files\Sun\xVM VirtualBox\vms\tmp\u_0_run.exe  (-hidden)

Installing temporary service "runserv"...
Shutting down "runserv" to avoid malfunctions...
Restarting "runserv"...
Starting VM: "Bibsrv" via vrdp as a service using account: "administrador"...
Moving lockfile: STARTUP to RUN
Shutting down "runserv"...
Removing temporary service "runserv"...
Removing temporary helpfiles...
Done. -- Hit any key to quit --

I look for some VBoxHeadless.exe in taskmanager but he not show, only vboxsvc (he disapear some times )

And the service is ok... he start when I turn on the machine, don't create any message in Event Viewer he start vboxsvc too but not the VBoxHeadless.exe

[originofstorms]

okay, at long last, figured out why runasv wasnt behaving for me. after quite a bit of detective work, i found that despite running as user micah, and being able to do things that only user micah can do, runasv gaves me the profile of Default User in windows 2003 server. so, i used the same fsutils technique to hardlink ~\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml as Documents and Settings\Default User\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml. ta da.

many thanks to nimrod for the "> output.log" suggestion. that put me on the right track. sticking the output of "vboxmanage list vms" and "vboxmanage list systemproperties" into that log was very helpful too.

[diogoscs]

okay, at long last, figured out why runasv wasnt behaving for me. after quite a bit of detective work, i found that despite running as user micah, and being able to do things that only user micah can do, runasv gaves me the profile of Default User in windows 2003 server. so, i used the same fsutils technique to hardlink ~\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml as Documents and Settings\Default User\.VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml. ta da.

many thanks to nimrod for the "> output.log" suggestion. that put me on the right track. sticking the output of "vboxmanage list vms" and "vboxmanage list systemproperties" into that log was very helpful too.

I didn't uderstand something... where exactly I put the "> output.log", I didn't find the u_0_sub.bat...

[mattz]

There is no more need to patch VBoxVmService yourself, in order to obtain more or more detailed information on the status of it's components. The logging within the new release 20081009 now combines all component feedback into one single logfile.

--mattz