Please how do I fix the broken 3D drivers after upgrade?

[matteosistisette]

Hi,

I have been using VirtualBox since version 3.something or even 2.something (Windows 7 64bit guest on Ubuntu 11.10 host). Now I've upgraded to 4.1.8 and I can't install direct3D support with the guest additions because the previous version left a corrupt/broken 3d driver that I can't get rid of.

I've already followed section 12.3.10 of the user manual but the instructions given there simply DON'T WORK (they involve deleting system files that windows won't let me delete, neither in normal nor in safe mode nor as administrator, NO WAY).

I've also read a few forum threads that I'm not sure were in this forum (can't find them now) but none of the suggested tricks works. Basically it seems I can't delete the files because they are in use.

So please for god's sake, how do I fix the guest and get it to work again? (now I'm forced to use no hardware acceleration and hence the guest has become unusably slow).

thanks
m.

[Perryg]

If all else fails you can always mount the Windows guest as a second drive to another guest and replace the files. That way Windows is not actually using them and it becomes a simple expand and replace. Be sure that the guest/s are shut down and not in saved mode though to start with.

[matteosistisette]

Is it possible to somehow mount the virtual disk on the host (Ubuntu) so that I can replace the file without a second virtual machine?

[Perryg]

Not that I am aware of. You could try to use a LiveCD and mount the VDI as a second drive if Disk space is a concern.

[matteosistisette]

Ok.
The "auxiliary" guest doesn't need to be windows ¿right?

[Perryg]

Actually no and it may be better that it isn't since I don't know of a LiveCD version of Windows. Just be sure you have everything ready. You need the un-compressed version of the original files and a way to copy them into the proper locations.

[matteosistisette]

Oh my god now I cannot even browse the contents of my Windows 7 installation CD from the Windows 7 guest (and I'm sure I did browse the same disk in the past).

It shows up as only containing a README.txt file which says (oh sh** now even copy-paste from guest to host doesn't work) which says:
"This disc contains a 'UDF' file system and requires an operating system that supports the ISO-13346 'UDF' file system specification."

I suspect this is a side effect of the fact that, since the upgrade disaster, the guest has become so damn slow that a lot of basic operations time out (I get a lot of timeout errors at startup).

[matteosistisette]

At second try it could open the CD, but 7zip won't open install.wim.....

[Perryg]

Well I would keep at it. 7zip is what I used to decompress the files.

[matteosistisette]

Is it safe to assume that this tremendous slowness of the guest (which began after upgrading vb and breaking the GPU drivers) is actually caused by the lack of graphics hardware acceleration and will be fixed by fixing the 3d driver thing?

[Perryg]

I have no idea. Only speculation as I am not actually diagnosing the guest. Remotely one can only advise I am afraid.

[matteosistisette]

So I guess you're not working on this issue - I mean providing a way to recover from a broken windows guest caused by upgrading from vb3 to vb4 (caused in turn by the old guest additions).
Do you realise that everybody who upgraded had to either go through this hell or reinstall the guest system from scratch? (maybe many people are just happy reinstalling the guest, though)

No luck with 7zip even after reinstalling the latest version... the .wim file has no special icon and 7zip just doesn't open it (it says "funzione non corretta")...

[Perryg]

You know I do understand your frustration, however I do not understand your criticism. I created this VirtualBox version 4.1.8 and WDDM issues in an attempt to help others. I can not do this for you so that is the best I personally can do.

[matteosistisette]

Well by "you" I meant Oracle or whoever is responsible for the development of VirtualBox, not (necessarily) you personally.

What I criticize (which doesn't mean I don't appreciate the rest) is the lack of a serious effort to provide a reasonably quick fix for an issue that affects every user upgrading from older versions ov virtualbox. To start with I would expect a list of links to directly download the right version of the two dll files for each version of windows (maybe a tool for detecting which version) instead of having to look for and extract them. And then a tool that could be run as administrator to do the replacement (there must be a way to shut down whatever service or monstruous thing is preventing those files from being overwritten, or maybe not) OR if that is not possible in any way, a minimum-size pre-built VM that one could download and boot (by attaching the VDI to it) and launch a program that would do the fix..... or WHATEVER that would just work...

[matteosistisette]

sfc /scannow (in safe mode) didn't detect any anomaly
Reinstalling direct x didn't work (it said a later or same version is already installed and gave no option to install anyway).

For some reason after a few reboots 7Zip does open the install.wim file, so I'm trying again with the procedure described in the manual, however:

3. Locate file install.wim and double click it. After 7-Zip utility opens the file, you'll get a few numbered folders. Each numeric subfolder represents a different version of Windows (Starter, Home Basic, and so on)

4. After entering into the one of the numeric folders, browse into Windows\System32 (or C:\Windows\SysWOW64 for 64 bit version) directory locate d3d8.dll and d3d9.dll and extract

how do I know which numbered folder corresponds to which windows version? Or doesn't it matter?