Transfer VirtualBox from one computer to another. Ununtu 9.10 to Ubuntu 10.04

pizzipie · 11-14-2010, 02:45 AM

I have a working VirtualBox on Computer-1 running Ubuntu 9.10. I exported an Appliance on that machine. Now I am trying to import that Appliance to Computer-2 running Ubuntu 10.04.

The virtualbox group includes me as user. Permissions of ~/.VirtualBox are set to 777.

I import the Appliance and try to start winxp3-1 (my virtual OS) all that happens is that I get the NS_ERROR_FAILURE 0x80004005:
Component: Machine

I have run: sudo /etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup and tried to start VirtualBox with sudo VirtualBox. Nothing fixes this problem. Don't know where to go from here. Help!!

Thanks in advance for any hints you can give me.

RP

tronayne · 11-15-2010, 08:55 AM

I have done transfers of virtual machines from one server to another by simply copying the tree with scp -pr; assuming you have an SSH connection between the two servers (like through a router or bridge).

First, you install VirtualBox on machine 2 -- don't create a machine, just get it installed to the point that you can start it (and stop it). Then copy both .VirtualBox (in your home directory on machine 1) and the tree containing the "xp.vdi" file. Then you can start VirtualBox. You may have to fiddle with Virtual Machine Manager (in the File drop-down).

The .VirtualBox tree in your home directory will look pretty much like this:

Code:

ls -al .VirtualBox
total 44
drwxr-xr-x  2 yourid users  4096 2010-11-15 09:33 ./
drwxr-xr-x 75 yourid users 12288 2010-11-14 09:08 ../
-rw-------  1 yourid users  1999 2010-11-15 09:33 VirtualBox.xml
-rw-------  1 yourid users  2065 2010-11-15 09:33 VirtualBox.xml-prev
-rw-r--r--  1 yourid users  1236 2010-10-15 12:53 compreg.dat
-rw-r--r--  1 yourid users 14383 2010-10-15 12:53 xpti.dat

And the virtual machines tree structure will look something like this (mine are not in my home directory):

Code:

tree /var/lib/virtual
|-- HardDisks
|   `-- XP.vdi
|-- Machines
|   `-- XP
|       |-- Logs
|       |   |-- VBox.log
|       |   |-- VBox.log.1
|       |   |-- VBox.log.2
|       |   `-- VBox.log.3
|       |-- XP.xml
|       `-- XP.xml-prev

Note that only the parent virtual machines directory ("virtual" above) needs to be group vboxusers; all the other files are owned by you, group users. The directories are mode 755, the files are mode 600.

Also note that the "xp.vdi" file is huge -- it's the disk image of the virtual machine (mine is 10,025,476,608) and it'll take quite a while to copy (make sure you've got enough room, too).

Now this may take some fiddling and twiddling (and I can't remember precisely what I did but it wasn't much) to get it going but if you've got an SSH connection between the two boxes, it's a heckuva lot easier.

Hope this helps some.

pizzipie · 11-23-2010, 03:48 PM

Thanks Tronayne,

We are in the middle of a trip, traveling to Hawaii and I can't get back to this problem just yet. I appreciate your help and will give your advice a try and get back to you.

Thanks, RP