[Solved] Failed to replace .xml (Win7 VM on Mac OS Yosemite)

[Mac Frank]

Hi all

I'd like to move a W7 VM to a new computer (and with different user)
I cloned the VM and copied to the new Mac
I cannot register the new machine because VB says:

"Failed to replace '/Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml' with '/Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml-tmp': -38(Access denied.).
/Users/vbox/tinderbox/4.3-mac-rel/src/VBox/Main/src-server/VirtualBoxImpl.cpp[4308] (nsresult VirtualBox::saveSettings()).
Codice 'uscita:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Componente:
VirtualBox
Interfaccia:
IVirtualBox {fafa4e17-1ee2-4905-a10e-fe7c18bf5554}"


I created a user with the name I have on the old machine and everything works smooth.
Is it a problem of permissions (the new user has w/r permissions on the clone) or some files might have been corrupted on the new machine?

Any hint would be greatly appreciated
Thanks

[mpack]

Obviously it's a permissions problem on the target OS X machine. There's a command you can use to repair permissions, perhaps you can find it on Google.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_ ... gws_rd=ssl

[socratis]

There's a command you can use to repair permissions

That would repair the system's permissions, not the user directories' ones.

@Mac Frank: Select the /Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox/ folder in the Finder and press Cmd-I and verify that you have read-write access. Or even better, open up Terminal and post the output of the command:

ls -alR /Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox

[Mac Frank]

Here is the output:

Last login: Sun Feb 15 19:53:10 on console
MacBook-Alida:~ alida$ ls -alR /Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox
total 20640
drwxr-xr-x+ 24 alida staff 816 14 Feb 10:11 .
drwxr-xr-x@ 54 alida staff 1836 15 Feb 09:53 ..
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 10432166 1 Apr 2014 Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.10.vbox-extpack
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 3122 15 Feb 19:55 VBoxSVC.log
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2711 10 Feb 20:48 VBoxSVC.log.1
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2381 17 Gen 12:08 VBoxSVC.log.10
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2381 8 Feb 12:02 VBoxSVC.log.2
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2491 7 Feb 21:12 VBoxSVC.log.3
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2381 7 Feb 12:16 VBoxSVC.log.4
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2381 3 Feb 22:29 VBoxSVC.log.5
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 3235 2 Feb 21:42 VBoxSVC.log.6
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2381 22 Gen 20:18 VBoxSVC.log.7
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2268 20 Gen 21:36 VBoxSVC.log.8
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2381 18 Gen 15:05 VBoxSVC.log.9
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2753 14 Feb 08:36 VirtualBox.xml
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2753 10 Feb 20:48 VirtualBox.xml-prev
-rw------- 1 alida staff 2753 15 Feb 19:55 VirtualBox.xml-tmp
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 1267 1 Apr 2014 compreg.dat
-rw------- 1 alida staff 1303 15 Feb 19:55 compreg.dat.tmp
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 826 15 Feb 19:55 selectorwindow.log
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 825 8 Feb 14:20 selectorwindow.log.1
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2606 1 Apr 2014 vbox-ssl-cacertificate.crt
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 24597 1 Apr 2014 xpti.dat
-rw------- 1 alida staff 24597 15 Feb 19:55 xpti.dat.tmp

[socratis]

Compare yours:

-rw-r--r--+  1    alida  staff    2753 14 Feb 08:36 VirtualBox.xml

with mine:

-rw-------   1 socratis  staff   11507 15 Φεβ 21:24 VirtualBox.xml

I'm not worried about the 'group' and 'other' having read access (the two purple 'r') but about the extra ACL permissions (the red '+'). As mpack correctly guessed, you will need to reset the permissions on your home folder. Read the following article: Mac Troubleshooting - Reset User Account Permissions.

Before you do that however, it would be nice to know what the status is right now, so please post the output of the command:

ls -le /Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml

Plus, what on earth is the Extension Pack from 4.3.10 doing in your VirtualBox preferences folder?

[Mac Frank]

@Socratis
Here is the output:

MacBook-Alida:~ alida$ ls -le /Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml
-rw-r--r--+ 1 alida staff 2753 14 Feb 08:36 /Users/alida/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml
0: group:everyone deny delete

I don't know why the (old) extension pack was there actually !! Deleted now.
Now I'll read the article you suggest, because I see some issues on this computer I never saw before upgrading to Yosemite
Thanks

[socratis]

There you have it. Everyone is denied the delete privilege. You should definitely read and apply the advice in the article.

Mind you, mine took almost two days to fix (but I have over 317 thousand files in my home directory; don't ask). Better do it on the weekend or in a time where you don't need access to your computer. Just for comparison, the command "time find ~ -type f | wc -l", which counts files in your home directory, on my system returned after 51 sec. YMMV.

[Mac Frank]

I have not as many files as you ...
I think it will end before tomorrow morning, if I launch it now
I'll keep you updated!

[Mac Frank]

@Socratis

"Reset password" didn't work for the user Alida.
I solved with:
"sudo chmod -N /Users/name/Library/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml"
suggested by a friend of another forum.
The VM is now mounted and running.
The remaining issue is that the computer asks at every boot the Apple ID and the "accept" for the Apple User license,
but this not a matter for this forum.
Thanks for you help

[socratis]

Well, you solved your VirtualBox problem, but I think that you're going to be facing more issues (like your AppleID). My .02€ would be to do a "sudo chmod -R -N /Users/alida" to remove all potential ACLs from your files. But, as you said, this is not the forum to try and fix a botched OSX installation.

[Mac Frank]

The "chmod" you suggested and another pair of command lines I got from an OS X mailing lis solved all the issues.
Now the MB is back, running and working. Tks