Refugee from VMWare Workstation

[portsample]

I am working on migrating from VMWare Workstation 12.5 to Virtualbox. Host is openSuse 15.0 (4.12.14 kernel) and my VMs are Win8 and Win10. Hardware is Thinkpad T61 w/8gb RAM, 2.8ghz dual core Penryn. I've succeeded in using ovftool to convert the Win8.vmx to Win8.ovf files. However, doing an "Import appliance" in Virtualbox gets blue Windows logo, followed by a "Preparing Automatic Repair", then a black screen with a "Your PC needs to restart" screen. Attached is the log file, and the png image file of the last screen. What am I missing here? Thanks in advance.

[socratis]

VirtualBox VM 5.2.12_SUSE r122571 linux.amd64 (May 19 2018 12:00:00) release log

It looks like you're using the distro's fork version of VirtualBox. You can either ask in their forums for help, or completely remove/uninstall/delete/purge their version and install the official version from the Downloads section of VirtualBox.

00:00:00.908165 Guest OS type: 'Other'

Change that to Windows » Windows 8.1. VM Settings » Basic » Type, Version. *IF* the log that you attached is from your Win8.1 VM. The name that you selected ("vm") isn't exactly telling. Otherwise adjust accordingly. And make sure that the 32- or 64-bit matches what you've got.

00:00:00.784120 Host RAM: 7897MB (7.7GB) total, 6330MB (6.1GB) available
00:00:00.987753 RamSize <integer> = 0x000000019fc00000 (6 975 127 552, 6 652 MB, 6.4 GB)
00:00:00.988282 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000000400000 (4 194 304, 4 MB)

You are assigning memory to your guest, that you do not have available. Either close some applications on the host, buy more RAM for the host, or reduce the amount of RAM assigned to the guest.

At the same time, your VRAM is not enough for a DOS client, not a full blown GUI-based OS. Max the VRAM. VM Settings » Display » Screen » Video Memory. Oh, and since you're there:

00:00:02.018053 GUI: 2D video acceleration is disabled

And so is the 3D acceleration. Shutdown the VM and enable them in the VM settings » Display. You'll also notice that the max VRAM will jump from 128 to 256 MB after that; max the VRAM as well. Then re-install the Guest Additions (GAs) in the guest.

00:00:01.487306 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2
00:00:00.987747 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000002 (2)
00:00:01.487627 Full Name: "Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Extreme CPU X9000  @ 2.80GHz"

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host (Core2 X900 with 2 cores) is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about physical processors (cores), not logical ones (threads). See "CPU Cores versus threads" and "Why is it a bad idea to allocate as many VCPUs as there are physical CPUs?".

00:00:00.988039 [/Devices/lsilogicsas/0/LUN#0/AttachedDriver/Config/] (level 6)
00:00:00.988046 Path <string> = "/external/laptop/f/vmware/VirtualboxVMs/vm/test-disk1.vmdk" (cb=59)

A couple of notes here:

• You have an LSIlogic SAS controller, you might want to change the controller to something more "compatible". You add a new SATA controller, remove the VMDK from the LSIlogic controller (without deleting it), re-add it to the SATA controller, remove the LSIlogic controller.
• You have a VMDK file. That's normal for imported VMs (by specification). You might want to convert it to VDI, since it's the most compatible virtual hard disk format.
• You have the virtual hard disk stored in an external hard drive. That might be 1) slow, 2) dangerous if you suddenly lose the connection. Consider moving the VM to your internal hard disk.

00:00:00.987971 [/Devices/ichac97/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)

You have the "ICH AC97" selected as your simulated audio card. You should switch that to the default "Intel HDA".

00:00:00.988205 [/Devices/pcnet/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)

You have the "PCnet FAST III" selected as your simulated network card. You should switch that to the default "Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop".

00:00:00.849460 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:00.849460   None installed!
00:00:00.988246 [/Devices/usb-ohci/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)

You could install the matching version Extension Pack in order to gain access to features such as USB2/3 among others.


Summary
Most of your options are not the default for a Win8.1/Win10 guest. And that's because you selected the "Other" version/type when you imported the VM. Here's what I would do:

1. Remove the VM that you already have. Do not remove the files.
2. Create a new VM, with an appropriate name ("vm" is way too generic). Do not attach a hard disk.
3. Convert the VMDK file to a VDI. Two ways you can do it:
   1. Using the CloneVDI under Wine.
   2. Using the "VBoxManage clonemedium <uuid|inputfile> <uuid|outputfile> --format VDI" command. For more information, see ch. "8.24 VBoxManage clonemedium" in the User Manual.
4. Move the resulting VDI to the newly VM's directory, then attach that VDI to the VM's SATA controller.

[portsample]

So far so good. Below is currently running and building a VDI file.

Code: Select all

VBoxManage clonehd --format VDI "/external/laptop/f/vmware/new/Windows 8 x64- 100gb/Windows 8 x64- 100gb.vmdk" \
/external/laptop/f/vmware/lz/Win8f.vdi

Keeping my fingers crossed. Thanks.

[socratis]

One thing that I don't understand is how this:

• "/external/laptop/f/vmware/VirtualboxVMs/vm/test-disk1.vmdk"

turned into this:

• "/external/laptop/f/vmware/new/Windows 8 x64- 100gb/Windows 8 x64- 100gb.vmdk"

[portsample]

Update: Discovered that specifying Windows 8.0 (64-bit) in Virtualbox when the VM being imported is Win8.1 64-bit is a real show stopper.

[socratis]

Yes it is. And the error that you got is a classical such error, that's why I mentioned that you have to carefully choose your type/version.