Multiple SATA HDDs prevent virtual host from starting => Fixed in 1.6.2

[Michael Tin]

Background: Host Iron: Sun Fire x4100 M2 4GB RAM 140GB SAS HDD Solaris Nevada Build 87 x64 (64bit kernel)

I am attempting to get this hardware virtualized:

1.5GB RAM 2x40GB SATA HDDs (NOT IDE) -- fixed size (not dynamic) 1xDVDROM (from ISO image) Linux 2.6 (Fedora based) guest OS

The machine can start with all the hardware combination above if only one SATA HDD is virtualized. As soon as I add the 2nd SATA HDD on port 1 (or 2,3,4,5...7) the VM no longer starts. I deduced this problem by slowly adding hardware until the machine produced the error. I can make the problem go away if only 1 SATA HDD is attached to the VM.

Here is the error message when 2 SATA HDDs are set to be used: Unknown error creating VM. VBox status code: -2161 (VERR_CFGM_NODE_EXISTS).

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

[Kasper Nielsen]

I'm having the same problem. Host: Ubuntu 8.04 2.6.24-16-generic SMP x86_64 Guest: SunOS opensolaris 5.11 snv_79a i86pc i386 i86pc Solaris (Indiana Preview 2)

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Known problem. Thanks for reporting it. We'll fix it asap.

[aeichner]

You may want to use VBoxManage until this issue is fixed.

VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sata on VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataportcount <1-30> #The number of ports usable in the VM VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataport<1-30> none|uuid|filename

You should be able to start the VM with more than SATA disk afterwards. However the QT Gui will show that every SATA disk is attached to port 0.

[aeichner]

You may want to use VBoxManage until this issue is fixed.

VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sata on
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataportcount <1-30> #The number of ports usable in the VM
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataport<1-30> none|uuid|filename

You should be able to start the VM with more than SATA disk afterwards. However the QT Gui will show that every SATA disk is attached to port 0.

[Michael Tin]

If I follow the VBoxManage procedure that was outlined, instead of 2 SATA disks, I get one SATA and one IDE disk. I know this because when I boot my guest linux OS, it sees 1 SATA(sda) and 1 IDE (hda).

VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sata on
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataportcount7
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataport1 none
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataport2 none
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataport1 /VMs/myfirstdisk.vdi
VBoxManage modifyvm <vm name> -sataport2 /VMs/myseconddisk.vdi

Result is:
1 IDE HD as Master on First channel
1 SATA HD on SATA port 0

QT GUI shows the same thing.

Is there another workaround?

[aeichner]

Do you have a space between -sataportcount and 7?