Vista -- Cannot install VirtualBox -- Rollback

[lewellyn]

I have been trying (unsuccessfully) to install VirtualBox on Vista Home Basic SP1. However, each time I try, it rolls back with no good information as to why.

The Event Log doesn't have anything terribly edifying. And the installer log doesn't appear to have anything which is useful for me to diagnose the cause of the fault.

Perhaps someone here can point me in the right direction to get it installed. (And, yes, I allow the installer to elevate when it prompts...)

I tried to attach my log file, using /l*, but I see no widget for that. Any ideas are welcome.

Edit: I uploaded my log file, instead of attaching it... http://nepheliad.net/public/fora/cheshi ... -36011.log

[TerryE]

If you don't need the extra 2. functionality, then try 1.6.6 -- it's a lot more stable.

[lewellyn]

Hm, well... I kinda need to use existing VHDs... So, in my experience, that rules out VirtualBox < 2.0. (I've never been able to convert them properly, at least. Can't get even a simple converted DOS VHD to boot, even.) Also, the VT-x fixes may be nice. Though, it'd be nice to know what fixes these may be...

Unless someone has a foolproof method for converting VHDs for use with 1.6.6, I need 2.0. Hence my repeated attempts at installing 2.0.0.

In the meantime, I'm re-downloading from dlc.sun.com in the off chance that there is some bit corruption happening betwixt me and virtualbox.org.

[TerryE]

Don't bother redownloading, I have manage to get VHDs to boot in my 2.0, but a lot of people are reporting problems. Mind you when I start VBox 2.0, most of of my 4Gb memory seems to vanish.

[lewellyn]

Yeah, the one downloaded from Sun.com didn't install, either. I didn't really expect it to; just a shot in the dark.

I'm hoping that someone who can interpret MSI install logs wanders by and can figure out what's going wrong. I get the impression that the Vista "WARNING" while installing the USB driver package is somehow raising an error condition.

I'll try again without USB support; I can live without USB, if needed, for now.

[lewellyn]

Well, I've gotten it installed. But it's going to be pretty useless for my needs; I told it to install both driver sets when first used. (Or whatever the exact text read; the hard disk with a "1" on it...)

Unfortunately, it doesn't seem terribly interested in actually installing the drivers. (At least I can't figure out how...) And I kind of need network access from within my VMs.

But, at least now we know what was failing. I suppose that if someone doesn't drop by with an "Oh, yeah. Try this!" in the next hours, I'll open a ticket.

[lewellyn]

*sigh* I guess I can't be rid of Virtual PC just yet... While attempting to start a machine I created with an existing (known-good in VPC) VHD, I get the following error:

Unknown error creating VM.

VBox status code: -2(VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {d5a1cbda-f5d7-4824-9afe-d640c94c7dcf}

Perfectly cryptic. And that's with USB and Networking disabled in the VM's properties.

Guess I'll wait till 2.0.1 pops out and then report my issues if they're still outstanding, as they're apparently too numerous to make for a good bug report. And people wonder why you shouldn't use X.0.0 version software...

[lewellyn]

I don't want to bump my thread, really. But, I wanted to note that 2.0.2 exhibits the same exact behaviors. I'd attach a new log, but nothing worth noting is different.

Has anyone had any luck installing 2.0 on Vista yet? If so, what did you have to do?

[lewellyn]

I guess after 5 months, it's fair to bump my thread. I still can't get VirtualBox installed, even 2.1.4, on Vista. Is Basic unsupported?

[vbox4me2]

According to the 2.14 manual it doesn't mention anything specific about sub vista versions so it should install. Maybe something else is going on that is blocking installation.

[lewellyn]

Per fmehnert on IRC, I'm bumping this thread with a newer log file. This one is from 3.0.6 beta 1 on Vista Ultimate 64 SP1. I can confirm this same issue across the whole gamut of Vista versions from 32-bit Home Basic on SP1 to Ultimate on SP2 these days; the latest version of VirtualBox I can run on any of my Windows machines is 1.6.x.

Latest log file.

I would post my setupapi logs, but they're multi-megabyte files, so they will require some trimming if someone needs to see them. In that case, please feel free to ask me for a specific file.

[pentagonik]

I just took a look into your newest log file (3.0.6). Unfortunately there's only error 1603 showing up, which means "installation failure", not very helpful. Another interesting thing is the line

DIFXAPP: ERROR encountered while installing driver package C:\Program Files\Sun\VirtualBox\drivers\USB\device\VBoxUSB.inf
DIFXAPP: InstallDriverPackages failed with error 0x5

The error "0x5" basically means "Access denied". So we need to try figure out where's what denied. Which USB device do you have connected to your PC while installing VBox? Please read the second section "Driver Installation Log" of this page to retrieve more information on what's going on while installing the USB driver: http://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/MSI_Logging

[lewellyn]

Yeah, all of my logs have been about that useful in regards to what, exactly, is failing. (i.e. They all "appear" to fail on installing the USB driver.)

I have probably a dozen USB devices attached to the host I posted the log from. As I said, my other log files are multimegabyte files. So, I need to know which you want to see, so I can trim those ones down to a reasonable size... And it's almost certainly not a specific USB device, as there are no USB devices which are on all of the failing hosts. So that certainly does not make life easier...

One interesting thing I can note is that the network is never reset on the host during installation, so it's not trying to install the network drivers. As I haven't seen a proper installation on my hosts in a very long time, I do not know for sure whether this is supposed to happen before or after the USB drivers are installed. If it's supposed to happen before, I can tell you that all of the hosts have Atheros WiFi NICs. That's about all that the machines have in common aside from being Intel 64-bit CPUs (even if the OS is 32-bit), and running some flavor of Vista. Oh, that and all the machines have at least 2 gigabytes of RAM. They may all also have Bluetooth stacks installed (probably all Toshiba...), even if they have no Bluetooth radios attached, but I cannot be certain of that quickly.

So, if you can tell me which (or all...) of the setupapi log files you want to see, I'll trim those down tomorrow evening (GMT-8).

[pentagonik]

Please provide the "setupapi.dev.log" file if possible/present, or just the plain "setupapi.log" file if not. Before starting the VBox installation again make sure you deleted (as written in the article) the files to not have old lines in it.

[sunnysmith70]

Hi lewellyn,

To all who still have problems installing Virtual Box: Please get the "Windows Installer CleanUp? Utility" from microsoft and run it. It tries to clean up some things regarding the Windows installer database.

Also, re-registering the Windows installer service might help. For doing that, open a Windows command line and type:

msiexec /unregister
msiexec /register
regsvr32 msi.dll
regsvr32 msihnd.dll