virtualbox.org

A few weeks ago I upgraded my Windows 7 client to Windows 10 due to the coming EOL of Windows 7. The installation went smoothly and many updates after installation installed without a problem, but the system update to version 1903 will not install. Neither will another minor update. The Windows logs are completely useless and say nothing but "Update Failed" with an error number. There's no information on the error on Microsoft's site except a few steps to try. Those steps don't work.

Edit: W10 v1903 is installed. The updates I'm trying to apply include a major update for that version.

I have spent the last 2 weeks working with Microsoft and after maybe 30 hours working on it I'm right were I started. I've even reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch and formatted the virtual drive - same problem.

Microsoft support has been pretty useless, not calling back when they've said they would and trying the same steps repeatedly. Yesterday they started talking about my computer needing a BIOS update. I'm not all that familiar with the internals of Virtualbox, but I would think the system BIOS is hidden from a guest OS. Windows 7 is looking pretty good right now.

Has anyone else run into this problem with a Windows 10 guest?

tazman wrote:I would think the system BIOS is hidden from a guest OS.

You would think correctly. The guest has its own BIOS and never sees the host BIOS.

Did you change the formerly-Windows-7 guest OS type to Windows 10? Please zip and post the guest's .vbox from the guest's folder, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

tazman wrote:I've even reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch and formatted the virtual drive - same problem.

What is the "problem" with this case?

tazman wrote:I've even reinstalled Windows 10 from scratch

Then that should have given you version 1903 from the get-go. Did you download a fresh ISO from Microsoft?

tazman wrote:Has anyone else run into this problem with a Windows 10 guest?

Microsoft Updates are consistently known for one thing; random failures...

Finally, just because an OS/program that runs in the context of VirtualBox has a problem, it doesn't make it a VirtualBox problem necessarily. You're having an issue that has nothing to do with VirtualBox, so my suggestion would be to treat it as such, as a native problem with the guest OS.

scottgus1 wrote:Did you change the formerly-Windows-7 guest OS type to Windows 10?

Yes - changed when the VM was upgraded

scottgus1 wrote:Please zip and post the guest's .vbox from the guest's folder, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

Done

scottgus1 wrote:What is the "problem" with this case?

Exact same problem as before the complete reload. Windows Update fails, just as before.

socratis wrote:Then that should have given you version 1903 from the get-go.

MS support provided an ISO link for download. It didn't have all the current updates. My initial post was incorrect though. The ISO was for v1903, but didn't include a major update to that version.

socratis wrote:IMicrosoft Updates are specifically known for one thing; random failures...

True, and I've had similar problems before with W7, but MS support has always been able to resolve the problem. This time they started blaming the system BIOS.

socratis wrote:Finally, just because an OS/program that runs in the context of VirtualBox has a problem, it doesn't make it a VirtualBox problem necessarily. You're having an issue that has nothing to do with VirtualBox, so my suggestion would be to treat it as such, as a native problem with the guest OS.

I didn't suggest Virtualbox was specifically to blame, nor would I have spent days trying to resolve it with MS support before posting here if I thought VB was the problem. This is almost certainly a problem with W10's interaction with VBox caused by a problem in W10 code, but if that is the case other people should experience the same problem when trying to apply these same updates.

<Chipset type="ICH9"/>

RED FLAG!!!
Any particular reason why you decided to override the template defaults, and go with an unsupported, experimental, OSX-guests-only option? Please change it back to the default PIIX3. Do not change the defaults unless you know what you're getting into.

<Display controller="VBoxSVGA" VRAMSize="128" accelerate2DVideo="true"/>

3D acceleration is not enabled, you might want to enable that.

<Controllers>
  <Controller name="OHCI" type="OHCI"/>
  <Controller name="EHCI" type="EHCI"/>
</Controllers>

Since you already have the ExtPack installed, you could enable xHCI (USB3).

<Image uuid="{2302bbfa-89bd-4a6a-9b25-4510e23e600b}" location="/home/steve/Downloads/VBoxGuestAdditions_6.0.14.iso"/>
...
<AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" hotpluggable="false" port="1" device="0">
  <Image uuid="{2302bbfa-89bd-4a6a-9b25-4510e23e600b}"/>
</AttachedDevice>

Get into the habit of removing the GAs ISO once you're done installing the GAs. And you should not be downloading the stand-alone GAs, unless specifically instructed to do so. There's a major possibility that your main VirtualBox program and the GAs won't match.

Finally, can you please be specific about what KB fails to install? I'm really not too crazy about generic statements like "an update failed to get installed", that update should have a name, no?

socratis wrote:RED FLAG!!!
Any particular reason why you decided to override the template defaults, and go with an unsupported, experimental, OSX-guests-only option? Please change it back to the default PIIX3. Do not change the defaults unless you know what you're getting into.

I changed that setting early on when I had a laundry list of updates that wouldn't install. It did improve things and I was able to shrink the list. Changed it back and it made no difference.

<Display controller="VBoxSVGA" VRAMSize="128" accelerate2DVideo="true"/>

3D acceleration is not enabled, you might want to enable that.

I had some minor video issues with 3D acceleration enabled and don't need it for anything in particular.

<Controllers>
  <Controller name="OHCI" type="OHCI"/>
  <Controller name="EHCI" type="EHCI"/>
</Controllers>

Since you already have the ExtPack installed, you could enable xHCI (USB3).

Machine only has USB2 interfaces..

<Image uuid="{2302bbfa-89bd-4a6a-9b25-4510e23e600b}" location="/home/steve/Downloads/VBoxGuestAdditions_6.0.14.iso"/>
...
<AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" hotpluggable="false" port="1" device="0">
  <Image uuid="{2302bbfa-89bd-4a6a-9b25-4510e23e600b}"/>
</AttachedDevice>

Get into the habit of removing the GAs ISO once you're done installing the GAs. And you should not be downloading the stand-alone GAs, unless specifically instructed to do so. There's a major possibility that your main VirtualBox program and the GAs won't match.

Noted. Didn't realize this would be a problem.

Finally, can you please be specific about what KB fails to install? I'm really not too crazy about generic statements like "an update failed to get installed", that update should have a name, no?

The one I'm concerned with is:

KB4517389 - Cumulative update for Windows 10 V1903

Can't imagine what is going wrong. That update installed fine for me in a vm.

The latest ISO from the Microsoft download does no include cumulative updates. It is only updated when a new version is released. You still need to install the latest cumulative update (and the anti-virus definitions - sorry, Security Intelligence Update for Windows Defender!)

BillG wrote:Can't imagine what is going wrong

It's not a matter of "imagination", it's a matter of knowledge.

Microsoft updates are known to fail all the time. It has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they're being applied to a VM, same thing on a physical computer. I have a Win7-64 that for the longest time (months now) refuses to install KB4519976. I've tried everything known to this side of the universe, but alas...

There's nothing in the case of 'tazman' that would link the Update failure to the fact that it's a VM. Just like 'BillG' thousands and thousands that have successfully installed that specific update, including myself.

Marking as a [WorksForMe].