Not able to start a converted SLES guest

[kibeha]

Hi,

I have trouble starting a Suse Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP4 guest image (that is converted from a VMWare VXF image) on my Windows 10 host with a 5.1.6 r110634 (Qt5.5.1) VirtualBox and 5.1.6 r110634 Extension Pack.


The original VXF is startable with VMWare Player, no problem. But I would like to run it in VirtualBox to be able to make snapshots (don't have licence to VMWare Workstation) and because I'm used to VirtualBox

Using OVFTOOL.EXE from the VMWare Player installation I have created an OVA file. The OVA I have imported to VirtualBox using Import Applicance. So far so good.

When I start the guest, I get the boot menu where I can choose between booting SLES or SLES in failsafe mode. Whichever I pick, a few lines of text appear - quicker than I can read the text it is replaced with black screen and nothing further happens. I have to power off the guest.

Attached zip contains VBox.log and VBoxHardening.log from the start to the power off.


I'm assuming some parameter or other needs to be set, that the OVFTOOL conversion didn't take care of or set wrong. But I haven't a clue where to look

I have tried turning off VT-x, as the VirtualBox wiki on Guest OSes says disable VT-x for SUSE 9/10.0. But it makes no difference whether VT-x is turned on or not.


Any ideas on what I could try next?

Thanks in advance for any help


Regards
Kim Berg Hansen

[mpack]

The problem is kinda of obvious just by looking at the file list inside the ZIP, particularly the fact that the VBox.log file is 6MB, with a 96% compression ration. That's because the log largely consists of zillions of lines like the following :-

00:00:08.193814 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=764 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193825 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=766 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193836 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=768 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193848 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=770 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193860 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=772 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193871 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=774 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193881 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=776 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193892 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=778 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193903 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=780 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b
00:00:08.193914 GIM: KVM: VCPU 0: Enabled system-time struct. at 0x0000000000372220 - u32TscScale=0xc5610479 i8TscShift=-1 uVersion=782 fFlags=0x1 uTsc=0x389933ac1 uVirtNanoTS=0x15d1abf2b

Since KVM is mentioned, the first thing I'd try is disablingKVM support in the VM settings.

After that, I think you should try installing SLES from scratch in VirtualBox, not import from VMWare.

p.s. Please don't post the hardening log unless you have a hardening problem, the main symptom of which is that VirtualBox prevents the VM from starting. Not to be confused with the guest OS failing to boot.