General Failure "Do not use this!!!" on latest 5.0.10 r104061 for Debian 8

[C64]

Just upgraded from 4.3 to 5.0.10 on my Debian Jessie Box. Went to launch a VM and got this:

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General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!. (VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE).

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

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Uninstalled VB (and all traces of it including ~/.config/VirtualBox) and even chucked existing VMs on the hard drive. Re-installed fresh (including a new download w/verified SHA256 sums), copied VM from backup, and still getting the error!!

Looking at VBox.log, at the end there seems to be a reference to a path that does not exist on my system. Perhaps this is the problem?

--C64

[C64]

File attachment "Attach" on attachment form didn't work. Here is the end of the log as mentioned:

00:00:01.046653 PDM: Failed to construct 'hda'/0! VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE (-1) - General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!.[[BR]]
00:00:01.049259 AIOMgr: Flush failed with VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER, disabling async flushes[[BR]]
00:00:01.049562 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_cluster, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.049864 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_packet, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.049869 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.049872 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_jumbo_pagesize, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.050135 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_jumbo_9k, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.050275 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_jumbo_16k, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.050349 NAT: zone(nm:mbuf_ext_refcnt, used:0)[[BR]]
00:00:01.077390 VMSetError: /home/vbox/vbox-5.0.10/src/VBox/VMM/VMMR3/VM.cpp(367) int VMR3Create(uint32_t, PCVMM2USERMETHODS, PFNVMATERROR, void*, PFNCFGMCONSTRUCTOR, void*, VM**, UVM**); rc=VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE[[BR]]
00:00:01.077394 VMSetError: General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!.[[BR]]
00:00:01.077709 ERROR [COM]: aRC=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) aIID={872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed} aComponent={ConsoleWrap} aText={General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!. (VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE)}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0[[BR]]
00:00:01.077829 Console: Machine state changed to 'PoweredOff'[[BR]]
00:00:01.183974 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))
00:00:01.186629 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::resendSizeHint: Restoring guest size-hint for screen 0 to 800x600[[BR]]
00:00:01.186893 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_ACCESSDENIED (0x80070005) aIID={7303a66d-433b-25a4-f9a8-fcadf87e0c2a} aComponent={DisplayWrap} aText={The console is not powered up}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0[[BR]]

[Klaus Espenlaub]

Many people succeeded with attaching files, as long as the size limit isn't exceeded (and then zipping is the easy way around).

It's impossible to say much what causes the error, because the only information snippet pointing at the cause is the 'hda/0' bit, which means that something related to the HD audio device emulation failed. Since we can't tell what the config is (a full log would tell) that's not much.

[Frank Mehnert]

Can you reproduce this on VBox 5.0.12?

[ChrisD]

VBox.log file

[ChrisD]

I ran into this same issue on 5.0.10 and 5.0.12 when trying to power-on a Windows 7 VM guest running on a Centos 7.1 host. Workaround for now was to go into the VM settings, disable the Audio, then power-on the VM.

VBox Log File attached.

[mcost]

I just experienced the same issue on my Fedora 22 box.

Log file below.

00:00:00.573444 Shared Folders service loaded
00:00:00.577781 DrvBlock: Flushes will be ignored
00:00:00.577797 DrvBlock: Async flushes will be passed to the disk
00:00:00.577861 VD: VDInit finished
00:00:00.577941 AIOMgr: Endpoint for file '/backup3/govirtual_prod/mrc-govirtualworld1.vdi' (flags 000c0723) created successfully
00:00:00.642194 VD: Opening the disk took 64386879 ns
00:00:00.642227 AHCI: LUN#0: disk, PCHS=16383/16/63, total number of sectors 104857600
00:00:00.642244 AHCI: LUN#0: using async I/O
00:00:00.642391 AHCI#0: Reset the HBA
00:00:00.642503 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#0: no unit
00:00:00.642506 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#1: no unit
00:00:00.642525 DrvBlock: Flushes will be ignored
00:00:00.642527 DrvBlock: Async flushes will be passed to the disk
00:00:00.642565 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#2: CD/DVD, total number of sectors 0, passthrough disabled
00:00:00.642569 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#3: no unit
00:00:00.642585 PIIX3 ATA: Ctl#1: finished processing RESET
00:00:00.642599 PIIX3 ATA: Ctl#0: finished processing RESET
00:00:00.642720 IntNet#0: szNetwork={HostInterfaceNetworking-enp6s0} enmTrunkType=3 szTrunk={enp6s0} fFlags=0x8000 cbRecv=325632 cbSend=196608 fIgnoreConnectFailure=false
00:00:00.642932 Audio: Initializing PulseAudio driver
00:00:00.811809 PulseAudio: Audio input/output stopped!
00:00:00.811823 PulseAudio: Failed to connect to server: Connection refused
00:00:00.811943 PDM: Failed to construct 'hda'/0! VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE (-1) - General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!.
00:00:00.822295 AIOMgr: Flush failed with VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER, disabling async flushes
00:00:00.865126 VMSetError: /home/vbox/vbox-5.0.10/src/VBox/VMM/VMMR3/VM.cpp(367) int VMR3Create(uint32_t, PCVMM2USERMETHODS, PFNVMATERROR, void*, PFNCFGMCONSTRUCTOR, void*, VM**, UVM**); rc=VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE
00:00:00.865129 VMSetError: General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!.
00:00:00.865379 ERROR [COM]: aRC=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) aIID={872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed} aComponent={ConsoleWrap} aText={General failure - DON'T USE THIS!!!. (VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE)}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0
00:00:00.865455 Console: Machine state changed to 'PoweredOff'
00:00:00.986615 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE, rc=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0X80004005))

[mcost]

forgot to mention I was trying to run a Virtual machine running Windows 7 32 bits.

It was working perfectly till I rebooted the linux fedora 22 box then tried restarting it.

[Frank Mehnert]

VBox.log.1 shows that VBox couldn't connect to the PulseAudio server (Connection refused). The error code is misleading of course. The behavior of VBox 4.3.x in such cases is to fall back to the Null audio backend.

[Frank Mehnert]

Fixed in VBox 5.0.14. If the PulseAudio server cannot be reached, the VM will automatically switch to the Null audio driver now (same behavior as with VBox 4.3.x.).