Virtualbox host missing tools and machine summaries

[wrkbear]

Yesterday, virtualbox crashed and when I restarted it, the entire pane on the right side with all the information completely disappeared. The tools also disappeared and the menus on the tools and virtual machine entries do not respond when you left click on them.

I have two virtual machines installed (Windows XP and Windows 7). Both virtual machines open if I double click on them but I have unable to change the capture/release state of any usb device. For example, if a virtual machine is running, I can't release the printer so I can't use the printer in any host program without shutting down the virtual machine.

I uninstalled virtualbox and reinstalled it and there was no change. I have not been able to decipher the logs for clues what might have happened or how to fix it. I want to back up my system, but I don't want to back it up with a broken virtualbox. Any help in solving this problem would be greatly appreciated.

[scottgus1]

Somehow you dragged the right pane closed.

Move your mouse over to the right side of the window. There the cursor will change to a "grab a vertical pane slider" cursor. Drag left.

[wrkbear]

That would be nice if it would, but it doesn't.

[scottgus1]

Ok, plan B:

Log off and back on again to shut down all Virtualbox processes.
Go to /home/{you}/.config/Virtualbox.
Rename Virtualbox.xml to Virtualbox.xml-bad
Rename Virtualbox.xml-prev to Virtualbox.xml
Try Virtualbox again.

[wrkbear]

Good idea, but it didn't work. I probably screwed it over when I reinstalled VB.

I have another VB running on a similar system. (Both systems are running VirtualBox 6.1.14 on Ubuntu 20.4.1) I'm wondering what will happen if I copy the config file from that one over to this one.

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Later: The configuration files for the two systems are so different that I'm reluctant to even try that. Also, the virtualbox.xml files are stored in completely different locations in the file system.

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Still later: I just discovered that there are two virtualbox.xml files on the system that is misbehaving. The first one is at
/HOME/VirtualBox/virtualbox.xml and is dated 19 Apr 2018. (This folder also contains the vdi files)
The other virtualbox.xml file is at
/HOME/.config/VirtualBox/virtualbox.xml and is dated today.

I have no idea how this happened but I worry that they could conflict. Is that possible? Should I get rid of one of them?

[wrkbear]

PROBLEM SOLVED

Two entries in virtualbox.xml were set to maximize the left hand pane. I changed those entries as follows:
"GUI/LastWindowPosition" value="0,61,1400,965,max" changed to value="280,265,878,550"
"GUI/SplitterSizes" value="1399,0" changed to value="270,607"

Now I have both left and right panes with all the information. All the menus have returned and I can capture or release the USB devices.

[scottgus1]

Sounds like there's been some considerable configuration changes to Virtualbox on your host OS. Either one of my suggestions were driving at changing the XML data you posted, without having to edit the file with the attendant possibilities of damage occurring.

Glad you're up and running!

[wrkbear]

Thanks - and thanks for the help. It was your mention of the virtualbox.xml file that led me to it. I normally don't edit configuration files without some trepidation, but when I saw those values and compared them with the working system, I worked up the courage to change them manually.

I'm going to rename the older .xml file in the /HOME/VirtualBox folder and verify that it isn't being used by VB. I'm pretty sure it isn't as it is dated April, 2018 and was probably left over from a previous installation. (I have upgraded Ubuntu as well as VB.) If renaming it doesn't cause any problems, I'll remove it entirely. There are also old VBoxSVC.log files in that folder.

Incidently, when I upgraded Ubuntu on this system, I did the upgrade from 16.01 in multiple steps rather than doing a clean install. I'm wondering if that resulted in the old .xml file being retained while a new one was installed.

Thanks again.