Using SLIC for Windows 7 Guest doesn't work

[Chris0]

I am trying to use a Windows 7 guest with a Ubuntu 18.04 host, but the ACPI table is not being recognized. I've added the SLIC to these two paths as you can see from my terminal output:

~$ VBoxManage getextradata "Windows Development Clone" "VBoxInternal/Devices/acpi/0/Config/CustomTable"
Value: /home/chris/SLIC

~$ VBoxManage getextradata "Windows Development Clone" "VBoxInternal/Devices/acpi/0/Config/CustomTable0"
Value: /home/chris/SLIC

Depending on where I looked for information, some sources said to use "CustomTable" and some said to use "CustomTable0". Neither has worked and I'm still getting this error when attempting to start the VM:

Configuration error: Invalid config key for ACPI device (VERR_PDM_DEVINS_UNKNOWN_CFG_VALUES).

Any help is appreciated

[klaus]

The official VirtualBox docs say CustomTable0 (to 3), and if you have any typos in such extradata tweaks (and if you have the CustomTable entry as mentioned below that's one) the chance is high that the VM doesn't start. Make sure that you delete such extradata tweaks again, then try again.

In this case: $ VBoxManage setextradata "Windows Development Clone" VBoxInternal/Devices/acpi/0/Config/CustomTable

[Chris0]

I removed the "CustomTable" value and it's now returning "No value set!" when using getextradata. However, I'm still receiving the same error and I tried restarting the service (service virtualbox restart).

[klaus]

There must be some other issue then related to extradata. The easiest way to sort it out would be if you'd provide VBox.log for the VM (in ~/VirtualBox VMs/<vmname/Logs by default) which doesn't start, plus the output of $ VBoxManage getextradata "Windows Development Clone" enumerate

This would speed up spotting what other incorrect tweaks you might have in place...

[Chris0]

I've attached the log file and here is the enumerate output:

Key: GUI/LastCloseAction, Value: PowerOff
Key: GUI/LastGuestSizeHint, Value: 1855,1056
Key: GUI/LastNormalWindowPosition, Value: 633,179,640,480,max
Key: GUI/LastScaleWindowPosition, Value: 640,297,640,508,max
Key: GUI/MiniToolBarAlignment, Value: Top
Key: GUI/RestrictedRuntimeDevicesMenuActions, Value: HardDrives
Key: GUI/RestrictedRuntimeMachineMenuActions, Value: SaveState,PowerOff
Key: GUI/ScaleFactor, Value: 1
Key: GUI/StatusBar/Enabled, Value: false
Key: GUI/StatusBar/IndicatorOrder, Value: HardDisks,OpticalDisks,FloppyDisks,Network,USB,SharedFolders,Display,VideoCapture,Features,Mouse,Keyboard
Key: VBoxInternal/Devices/acpi/0/Config/CustomTable0, Value: /home/chris/SLIC
Key: VBoxInternal/Devices/acpi/0/Config/SLICTable, Value: /home/chris/SLIC

[klaus]

Get rid of VBoxInternal/Devices/acpi/0/Config/SLICTable

[klaus]

That was your real issue actually... CustomTable should work actually when looking at the code, but let's stick to the documented stuff.

[Chris0]

I removed SLICTable, but I'm still receiving the same error.

[klaus]

Oh, sorry - didn't read your log file carefully enough. You're using VirtualBox 5.2, which doesn't have the "multiple custom ACPI table" feature (and won't get it). My look at the 6.0 code wasn't useful.

Delete the CustomTable0 and put the CustomTable variant back (which will also work when you're upgrading to 6.0).

These config tricks work in a place where we can't offer full compatibility across versions. In this case it's possible, with CustomTable.