After cloning VM Vbox, VERR_PDM_DRVINS_NO_ATTACH

[fermulator]

Hey all,

As per TOPICID = 52624, I recently had some problems with the VDI disk being "read only".
One suggested solution via googling was to clone the entire VM (full clone) --

I did that
1. Opened VM manager
2. Right clicked on the problem VM, cloned, FULL

Now when I start this CLONED VM, I get the following error:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine MyClonedVM.

PIIX3 cannot attach to status driver (VERR_PDM_DRVINS_NO_ATTACH).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {db7ab4ca-2a3f-4183-9243-c1208da92392}

What gives?

[fermulator]

Was unable to resolve this issue. No longer attempting to fix.

[mpack]

You don't mention what the guest is - which would have been helpful. As would posting in the correct forum ("Windows Hosts" is irrelevant to your question).

Cloning the VM changes the UUID of the disks. If your guest is using (say) a grub boot script which identifies the boot disk from its UUID, then you would have to change that script. Either correct the UUID or better yet refer to the boot disk by its device name, that way future clones will not also have to be fixed.

Edit:  Looking at your previous messages I see that your questions relate to an Ubuntu guest. Hence I'm moving this topic to "Linux Guests".

[fermulator]

Why would any of that matter? The guest didn't even make it to the grub boot loader. If it were a simple matter of the disk UUID changing, grub boot loader would have indicated so within the guest upon boot. The guest OS (Ubuntu Server 11.04) wouldn't even start.

[mpack]

Ah, sorry, I misread the error message. In that case you would need to provide the complete VM log before anyone had a hope of knowing what the cause is.

[Perryg]

Humm,

I have seen this error before and it was due to a mounted CD that could not be found. Most likely the host CD but I believe it might even happen for an ISO.

I would check what the UUID db7ab4ca-2a3f-4183-9243-c1208da92392 is associated with in the media manager.

Another possible reason was a crash that corrupted the *.vbox file usually caused because the current state uuid could not be found. Replacing the *.vbox file with the *.vbox-prev file usually fixes that issue.

[mpack]

@Perry. Are you sure that UUID is a disk UUID? That's exactly the mistake I made in my earlier response. On re-reading I noticed it's an interface UUID, which might make it a COM thing - simply identifying the COM object that returned the error.

Given that the context is cloning I think it does however have to relate to something which usually changes when cloning: e.g. a disk UUID or a network adapter MAC address. That's assuming the OP is providing full info and has not renamed or deleted a disk image without mentioning it.

[Perryg]

Not sure about anything but the error I have seen before. Once when cloning and I had left the CD in the host drive while cloning (I thought they had fixed that one a long time ago but still see it on occasion) and once after a crash.

Given the cryptic error messages I can only guess why, and point to what I have seen. But I read that the clone was made off of a crashed guest which was then cloned. Seemed strange that the lock was still active.

I also see where the OP issued the following (on another topic) after I wrote the previous comment.
viewtopic.php?f=6&t=52624&p=240961#p240961

Code: Select all

VBoxManage setextradata VM_NAME "VBoxInternal/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/Config/ReadOnly" 1

Which I believe would make the VDI read only to start with.

I think at this point everything is moot. I think the actual fix would have been to replace the *.vbox with the backup *.vbox-prev.