ubuntu package upgrade destroys .Virtualbox directory

[csfreak]

Doing an aptitude install virtualbox-4.0 virtualbox-3.2- (which should install 4.0 and remove, not purge 3.2) destroys the /home/<user>/.Virtualbox directory, which is where 3.2 stores vms without migrating the data to the newly created directory. This is almost certainly a packaging bug that has the potential to destroy all of the virtualbox data including config files, disk images, mounted isos, etc.

[Klaus Espenlaub]

Very odd - VirtualBox install/uninstall doesn't touch .VirtualBox or any other VM directory. I can't even guess what might cause such a misbehavior. The installation of the new VirtualBox package should fail if there is any running VM or VBoxSVC from the previous install. So there can't be two VBoxSVC processes accessing the same config files, destroying them accidentally with concurrent accesses.

[csfreak]

Replying to klaus:

Very odd - VirtualBox install/uninstall doesn't touch .VirtualBox or any other VM directory. I can't even guess what might cause such a misbehavior. The installation of the new VirtualBox package should fail if there is any running VM or VBoxSVC from the previous install. So there can't be two VBoxSVC processes accessing the same config files, destroying them accidentally with concurrent accesses.

In this case, There wasnt a running VM. And the only VM was one I dont run regularly, which Is why I upgraded so quickly. I will take a look at the .deb and see If I can figure out what happened. I guess user error is always a possibility, however unlikely I think that answer is.

[csfreak]

Looking through the packages, there is nothing that even mentions that folder. I guess It is safe to say that this is not a bug in the packaging. I still dont know what blew away that folder, but It at least isnt a bug here. This can be closed.