Guest with VMware HD won't start in VirtualBox

[DanR]

I have a Windows XP guest using a VMDK file that was originally created in VMware Workstation 7. It was working correctly in VMware until I upgraded the host OS from openSUSE 11.3 to openSUSE 11.4. Unfortunately the openSUSE 11.4 kernel requires a VMware upgrade . . . which I'd like to avoid since I'd prefer to move to VirtualBox.

The VM tries to start - I get the Windows Spash screen for a split second, a BSOD for a split second (no time to read it), and then it goes to the Safe Mode startup screen. This happens no matter what choice I select on the Safe Mode startup screen.

Any suggestions on how I can debug this?

Thanks!

Dan

[Perryg]

Probably the settings are wrong.
From the hosts terminal/command window type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use " " if the name has a space in it.

Note if the host is Windows you need to be in the directory that has VBoxManage.exe for the command to work.

[DanR]

Thanks . . . here's the vminfo. The host is openSuse Linux version 11.4 (kernel is version 2.6.37.6-0.11-desktop).

========== Cut here =================
Name: test2
Guest OS: Windows XP
UUID: 66f41a7c-9fa1-472e-903b-1f97632eb317
Config file: /home/drawson/VirtualBox VMs/test2/test2.vbox
Snapshot folder: /home/drawson/VirtualBox VMs/test2/Snapshots
Log folder: /home/drawson/VirtualBox VMs/test2/Logs
Hardware UUID: 66f41a7c-9fa1-472e-903b-1f97632eb317
Memory size: 1024MB
Page Fusion: off
VRAM size: 32MB
HPET: off
Chipset: piix3
Firmware: BIOS
Number of CPUs: 1
Synthetic Cpu: off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode: message and menu
Boot Device (1): HardDisk
Boot Device (2): Not Assigned
Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI: on
IOAPIC: on
PAE: off
Time offset: 0 ms
RTC: local time
Hardw. virt.ext: off
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
Nested Paging: off
Large Pages: off
VT-x VPID: on
State: powered off (since 2012-02-05T00:12:26.000000000)
Monitor count: 1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Storage Controller Name (0): IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX3
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Bootable (0): on
IDE Controller (0, 0): /opt/vmware/machines/Windows XP .vmdk (UUID: f4f5da1e-6cea-42a2-88bb-72dc07a76057)
IDE Controller (1, 0): Empty
NIC 1: MAC: 080027201548, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C973, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0
NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket( send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window( send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2: disabled
NIC 3: disabled
NIC 4: disabled
NIC 5: disabled
NIC 6: disabled
NIC 7: disabled
NIC 8: disabled
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1: disabled
UART 2: disabled
Audio: enabled (Driver: PulseAudio, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
VRDE: disabled
USB: enabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Shared folders: <none>

VRDE Connection: not active
Clients so far: 0

Guest:

OS type: WindowsXP
Additions run level: 0
Configured memory balloon size: 0 MB

[Perryg]

VMware may have used scsi instead of IDE, and did the guest run in SMP? you have IO apic enabled.

Is there any way you can verify the settings from the VMware configuration? Windows is not as forgiving as Linux and the setting must match really close if not exactly the same.

Also if it has one post the guests log file (as an attachment)

[DanR]

VMware is using IDE - I've attached the VMware config file. Note the IDE0 lines:

ide0:0.present = "TRUE"
ide0:0.fileName = "/opt/vmware/machines/Windows XP .vmdk"

It doesn't say anything about SMP . . . . and I don't remember

VirtualBox log is also attached, but this is the error that makes it reset:

00:00:00.549 ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={09eed313-cd56-4d06-bd56-fac0f716b5dd} aComponent={Display} aText={Could not take a screenshot (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)}, preserve=false

Thanks for the help!!

Dan

[Perryg]

Did you remove the VMware extension or additions (what ever they call them)
I also see you have a few shared folders. These will also produce errors if you do not remove them first.

Another thing that you can try is to export the from VMware or I think they call it convert. Then import in VirtualBox as an ovf file.

[Perryg]

You can also stop that error above by disabling the mini preview windows in the VirtualBox main program.

[DanR]

Exporting to OVF worked . . . I was able to import the OVF and get it running, thanks!

Note that (since I can't start the old VMware machine), the VMware tools for things like removing the shares fail . . . . but the convert tool didn't care

Thanks again . . .

Dan