virtualbox.org

Hello Everybody

Just wondering is it possible to import the ".vbox" file in a VM, the same manner one ties a virtual disk image to a VM?

I have tried to overwrite the ".vbox" by the one i wanted, but got an error (although i changed the Uuid prior using
the VBoxManage setextrada command):
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Machine UUID {7189896a-702a-6a67-f599-9487744549bf} in '/Users/My_Name/VirtualBox VMs/test/test.vbox' doesn't match its UUID {aebf99aa-1cef-4032-1181-42597c603df8} in the registry file '/Users/My_Name/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml'.
Code d'erreur :
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Composant :
Machine
Interface :
IMachine {810ce295-9d8e-4226-2c7c-cce4154fa038}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Thanks in advance for the help.

Best regards,

Jeff_59

Use Machine|Add... to register a .vbox file. It is expected to be accompanied by all the other contents of the VM folder.

You may first have to undo all those hacks you tried.

Hello mpack,

Thanks a lot for your answer. I'm still confused though. Indeed, although i managed to upload the configuration file (.vbox),
thanks to your explanation, in the virtual machine, i noticed no hardware differences when running HWinfo or dmidecode
on the guest. Is there anything that i missed?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Regards,

Jeff_59

Sorry, I'm having difficulty understanding that last message. I assume that "uploading" meant registering, but "noticing no hardware differences with ... dmidecode" is usually the intended goal. If that is not your goal then perhaps you could try to explain your problem more clearly.

Hello mpack

Thanks for your post (and sorry for my late answer).

Maybe i didn't understand properly, but i thought that the .vbox file is in fact a configuration file containing hardware specifications. So, when registering such file to the VM, one should be able to notice a change of setting in one way or another. That beeing said, maybe i completly missed the point.

Best regards,

Jeff.

The .vbox file is the VM. Yes, it includes the hardware recipe of the VM, it also includes a VM UUID (hence the error message in your first post), plus a list of all media and snapshot chains associated with the VM. If the VDI file is the hard drive in your PC, the .vbox file is the PC.

I don't know if that makes things any clearer - I'm still not getting what your goal is. We seem to be long past the error message you originally raised.

If you were asking: is it possible to extract the hardware settings from one VM and paste them into another VM, then no, VirtualBox provides no such feature. However, it's usually easy to do manually, i.e. have the .vbox file open in a text editor window when you manually check the settings of the second VM.

Hello mpack

Thanks a lot for your message.

mpack wrote:The .vbox file is the VM. Yes, it includes the hardware recipe of the VM, it also includes a VM UUID (hence the error message in your first post), plus a list of all media and snapshot chains associated with the VM. If the VDI file is the hard drive in your PC, the .vbox file is the PC.
I don't know if that makes things any clearer -

Yes indeed, it does

mpack wrote:I'm still not getting what your goal is

.

Try to configure the VM so that it looks like the physical PC it comes from (i got this configuration file and virtual disk image after running Virtualization Manager on the "physical" PC). For instance would it be possible to emulate a certain type of processor?
I just open the .vbox file and unfortunately couldn't find informations related to the processor it is supposed to mimic.

The VirtualBox manual says it is possible to specify the processor/board using the command "VboxManage setextrada", but i would still need to elaborate on this point. For instance : does this command just "store" the specification somewhere, or really emulate the hardware?

mpack wrote:If you were asking: is it possible to extract the hardware settings from one VM and paste them into another VM, then no, VirtualBox provides no such feature. However, it's usually easy to do manually, i.e. have the .vbox file open in a text editor window when you manually check the settings of the second VM.

Ok, i guess UUID conflict? However, this is not really

Thanks again, and sorry for beeing a pain.

Jeff_59

The very first sentence of your first post stated that you wished to import from a "vbox file" - this implies that you already had a working VirtualBox VM that you were trying to move or copy. Was that not correct? If this is a P2V project then that's a totally different discussion. Google for "P2V site:forums.virtualbox.org".

Also, VirtualBox is a VM platform, i.e. it's a PC simulator, not a CPU simulator. The two are very different. Code inside the VM runs at full speed on the host CPU. It isn't until that code tries to detect or touch the hardware that VirtualBox blocks the access and returns a simulated result instead. A CPU simulator runs orders of magnitude slower than a VM - useful for debugging or playing '70s classic video games, not much else.

Hello mpack

Thanks a lot for your message.

mpack wrote:The very first sentence of your first post stated that you wished to import from a "vbox file" -

Yes indeed.

mpack wrote:this implies that you already had a working VirtualBox VM that you were trying to move or copy.

No. In fact the P2V software (i don't know if i may tell its name) that i ran provided me not only a virtual hard disk image but also
a configuration file (the .vbox file we are talking about).

mpack wrote:If this is a P2V project then that's a totally different discussion. Google for "P2V site:forums.virtualbox.org".

I guess it is indeed a P2V migration project.

mpack wrote:Also, VirtualBox is a VM platform, i.e. it's a PC simulator, not a CPU simulator. The two are very different. Code inside the VM runs at full speed on the host CPU. It isn't until that code tries to detect or touch the hardware that VirtualBox blocks the access and returns a simulated result instead. A CPU simulator runs orders of magnitude slower than a VM - useful for debugging or playing '70s classic video games, not much else.

Thank you very much for that clarification. It helps in understanding.

I still have another question. I noticed another configuration file in the library folder (my host is macOS) : VirtualBox.xml
So i was wondering why VirtualBox needs two configuration files. In other words, are there some settings that should be
set only in one file and not in the other one?

Thanks again for your help.

Best regards,

Jeff_59

VirtualBox.xml configures the VirtualBox GUI, stores preferences, paths to VMs etc. This info is in the user manual: 10.1 Where VirtualBox stores its files.

Hello mpack

mpack wrote:VirtualBox.xml configures the VirtualBox GUI, stores preferences, paths to VMs etc. This info is in the user manual: 10.1 Where VirtualBox stores its files.

Ok, thanks a lot for your explanation.

Jeff_59