VMware->VirtualBox conversion - keyboard & mouse not working

[Jules]

I've seen a couple of other forum posts on this topic, but unfortunately the solutions described in them don't work for me, so I figured the best thing was to start a new one.

Background: I used to use vmware server to run a variety of virtual machines. The machine that it was licensed to failed, and as I didn't really want to go through the hassle of relicensing to a different machine (the primary reason I *hate* professional proprietary software... too much licensing junk) I figured a free solution would be the way forward. To that end, I'm migrating to virtualbox (which I've been using on my desktop for a while now).

One of my images is a Windows XP Pro system. Roughly following the guide at www virtualbox org wiki Migrate_Windows (add necessary punctuation, apparently I'm not allowed to link to pages on VB's own site) I copied the machine's disk images to my virtualbox system, and set up a new VM using them. As VirtualBox supports the PIIX ATA interface the VM was using, MergeIDE was (fortunately) unnecessary, and after disabling agp440.sys and intelppm.sys I am able to get the machine to boot into safe mode (and into VGA-only mode, although not normal mode).

Unfortunately, the keyboard and mouse don't work. AIUI, this is due to VMWare Additions having installed custom keyboard and mouse drivers that aren't compatible with anything VirtualBox supplies. A number of tricks have been suggested in forum posts I've read to get this to work:

* Uninstall Additions from VMware before migration. Unfortunately, I no longer have a working VMWare system so this is not an option for me.
* Disable USB, forcing the system to fall back to PS/2 mouse and keyboard. No effect.
* Just install virtualbox additions. Can't do this, because I can't click on the 'finish' button on the dialog that pops up.
* Check the mouse pointer integration setting. No effect (yes, I did reenable USB).
* Use Safe Mode. Doesn't work in safe mode, either.

Does anyone have any other suggestions? I have set up a working alternative system to dual boot in the same VM, so can move files across/edit registry hives from there if necessary. I just don't know what to do to get this system working.

[michaln]

* Disable USB, forcing the system to fall back to PS/2 mouse and keyboard. No effect.

Disabling USB does not force the VM to fall back to PS/2, because PS/2 mouse and keyboard is the default.

* Use Safe Mode. Doesn't work in safe mode, either.

You might want to complain to VMware about that - their drivers aren't very nice if they disable the system like that when it's not running under VMware. Of course they may not have any incentive to help you...

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Try enabling USB keyboard and/or mouse in VirtualBox using VBoxManage modifyvm. Alternatively, you might be able to boot a Windows installation CD in the VM, go to the recovery console, and disable the VMware drivers. Deleting the VMware driver files might also work, but I would only try that as a last resort (it could make things even worse).

[Jules]

Does anyone have any other suggestions?

Try enabling USB keyboard and/or mouse in VirtualBox using VBoxManage modifyvm.

Unfortunately this doesn't work, either. I'm starting to think they've interfered with the system at a higher level than the drivers.

Alternatively, you might be able to boot a Windows installation CD in the VM, go to the recovery console, and disable the VMware drivers. Deleting the VMware driver files might also work, but I would only try that as a last resort (it could make things even worse).

The only difference this has made is that the system now works without me selecting vga mode.

At this point, I'm starting to think the best approach is to rebuild the system image from scratch. Should take less than day to get it up and running...

[Jules]

Something else that doesn't work, from a suggestion elsewhere (not about vmware, but generally about fixing broken input drivers): copying the system registry hive from c:\windows\repair to c:\windows\system32\config.

[michaln]

Unfortunately this doesn't work, either. I'm starting to think they've interfered with the system at a higher level than the drivers.

Did Windows show that it's installing drivers for new devices? If it did, but it made no difference, then indeed VMware's Tools probably are doing something above the driver level.

At this point, I'm starting to think the best approach is to rebuild the system image from scratch. Should take less than day to get it up and running...

Yes... and with Windows, it may not be a bad idea to reinstall from scratch every once in a while anyway.

[FrodoHobbits]

VMware Player is free, I'm sure you can use this to uninstall the VMware Tools.