VirtualBox on OSX host does not replace $VBOX_USER_HOME/compreg.dat when it should

[Kyle]

VirtualBox on OSX host does not replace $VBOX_USER_HOME/compreg.dat when it should.

On Linux hosts, if compreg.dat has OSX's libraries listed, it replaces it with a new compreg.dat that will work on the local system.

On OSX hosts, it dies with the error

Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object. The application will now terminate.

Details Callee RC: NS_ERROR_FACTORY_NOT_REGISTERED (0x80040154)

[Kyle]

Screenshot of the error

[Christian Pötzsch]

Can you explain what you do exactly to create this situation?

[Kyle]

Using a $HOME on NFS or other such network drive: Create a VM on OSX. Run it on OSX, close it. Open the VM, or even just the VirtualBox binary on a linux box. Close the VM, or the VirtualBox binary if that's all that was opened. --Up until this point, everything behaves as it should!

Try and open the VirtualBox binary on OSX, or run the VM. -- This is the point where things break, because compreg.dat is not replaced or updated.

[Kyle]

Note, by default OSX puts VBOX_USER_HOME in $HOME/Library/VirtualBox. To use the same home for both, the VBOX_USER_HOME environmental variable must be used.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.