take-restore snapshot broken (Error: failed to start machine. Error message: Failed to load unit 'PATM' (VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC))

[pmos69]

taking a snapshot and restoring it result in error when starting vm. steps to reproduce:

$ VBoxManage snapshot "Windows XP" restorecurrent
Restoring snapshot a570b155-7d35-495c-8e5e-10816912aa5a
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

### NOTE: Snapshot1 - Taken with 4.3.2 ###

$ VBoxHeadless --startvm "Windows XP" &
[1] 7888
Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 4.3.4
(C) 2008-2013 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

VRDE server is listening on port 3389.

### Runs fine ###

$ VBoxManage snapshot "Windows XP" take "Snapshot2"
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

$ VBoxManage controlvm "Windows XP" poweroff
0%...VRDE server is inactive.
10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%
[1]+  Done                    VBoxHeadless --startvm "Windows XP"

$ VBoxManage snapshot "Windows XP" restorecurrent
Restoring snapshot c3e4b715-58f3-4aa8-becd-0298703957d3
0%...10%...20%...30%...40%...50%...60%...70%...80%...90%...100%

$ VBoxHeadless --startvm "Windows XP" &
[1] 7991
Oracle VM VirtualBox Headless Interface 4.3.4
(C) 2008-2013 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

VRDE server is listening on port 3389.
VRDE server is inactive.
Error: failed to start machine. Error message: Failed to load unit 'PATM' (VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC)

[1]+  Done                    VBoxHeadless --startvm "Windows XP"

--- reproducible everytime

[pmos69]

VBox.log

[pmos69]

PS: Restoring Snapshot1 and running works fine.

[Jacob Klein]

I noticed this problem also, restoring a BOINC Test4Theory (T4T) VM (which does not use VT-X) snapshot. I tried to restore a different T4T work unit's snapshot, though, and the second one worked. So, for me, it seems there might be an additional step needed to reproduce the error, or it is somewhat sporadic. But it is still a major issue.

For the time when it failed, the vbox.log file said:

00:00:02.792560 SSM: LoadExec failed for 'PATM' instance #0 (version 56, pass 0xffffffff): VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC
00:00:02.808857 VMSetError: D:\tinderbox\win-4.3\src\VBox\VMM\VMMR3\SSM.cpp(8275) int __cdecl ssmR3LoadExecV2(struct VM *,struct SSMHANDLE *); rc=VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC
00:00:02.808864 VMSetError: Failed to load unit 'PATM'
00:00:02.808885 NAT: set redirect TCP host port 55542 => guest port 80 @ 10.0.2.15
00:00:02.809210 Changing the VM state from 'LOADING' to 'LOAD_FAILURE'.
00:00:02.809238 Changing the VM state from 'LOAD_FAILURE' to 'POWERING_OFF'.
...
...
00:00:03.082777 Changing the VM state from 'DESTROYING' to 'TERMINATED'.
00:00:03.143335 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_FAIL (0x80004005) aIID={8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6} aComponent={Console} aText={Failed to load unit 'PATM' (VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC)}, preserve=false
00:00:03.217484 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC, rc=E_FAIL (0X80004005))

[Jacob Klein]

VBox.log - VirtualBox 4.3.4 error resuming BOINC T4T snapshot

[Jacob Klein]

Can you please fix this?

Also, if you happen to find out (via code inspection) that there are additional steps to reproduce this, could you indicate what those steps might be? I'm having difficulty reproducing this problem, but it for sure did happen once for me (as noted in prior message and attached log file)

Host: Windows 8.1 x64
Guest: Linux 2.6 x86 (VM is NOT using VT-x/AMD-V)

[Felix Yan]

I'm having the same error while running the same guest as Jacob, but my host is Arch Linux x86_64.

00:00:01.493552 ERROR [COM]: aRC=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) aIID={8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6} aComponent={Console} aText={Failed to load unit 'PATM' (VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC)}, preserve=false
00:00:01.494446 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_SSM_STRUCTURE_MAGIC, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))

[TheZork]

Same here, on Arch Linux x86_64, guest WinXP. Do not need to use snapshot it is enough to save VM state and try to restore it.

I have this error every time I try to save/restore state.

[Nick Hibma]

On Mac OS X host, with FreeBSD 9.2 guest I get a PATM warning too.

(Lengthy me-too, as I cannot add myself to the CC list otherwise).

[Frank Mehnert]

Fixed in VBox 4.3.6.

Actually this was a very nasty problem. It is not always reproducible (depends on the guest) and therefore our testing didn't catch it immediately. VBox 4.3.4 contains a fix for a related bug in VBox 4.3.2. For the fix, there were some pedantic error checks enabled for writing saved states. Unfortunately some of these checks did fail without reporting the error back to the controlling function. The result was that the outer function was not aware of the problem and the operation succeeded but only apparently.

The unfortunate result is that saved states created with VBox 4.3.4 for VMs with VT-x/AMD-V disabled are broken and cannot be restored! This applies to VMs which are terminated by saving the state as well as for snapshots. Sorry for that!

VBox 4.3.6 contains the complete fix. With VBox 4.3.6 it should be possible to load saved states created with VBox 4.3.2 but saved states created by VBox 4.3.4 must be discarded. Again, this applies only to VMs running in software virtualization mode (VT-x/AMD-V disabled).

[sergiomb]

yes, it works for me with 4.3.6 , thanks,

[Frank Mehnert]

Thanks for the feedback!

[White_King]

screenshoot of the error window

[White_King]

Im getting the same error on windows 7 64x Vitual Box: Version 4.3.12 r93733