VBox upgrade 4.0 → 4.0.2: guest won't start from a saved state => Fixed in SVN

[john.doe]

"dev box" guest was saved before shutdown, then I've upgraded VirtualBox 4.0 to 4.0.2 using proprietary .deb package and tried to start all guests.

vm@host:~$ VBoxManage list vms
"dev box" {be1ab640-fc7d-4c9c-82e6-783267e9dd42}
"production box" {xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}
"Windows 2008 Server" {xxxxxxxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx}

vm@host:~$ VBoxManage startvm "dev box" --type headless
Waiting for the VM to power on...
VBoxManage: error: Found no handler for unit 'ich9pci' instance #0 (VERR_SSM_INTEGRITY_UNIT_NOT_FOUND)
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component Console, interface IConsole, callee

[wRAR]

That's because changing PIIX3 to ICH9 in the UI doesn't change the config file.

[frank]

Correct. The reason is that the settings version is not correctly raised. This bug will be fixed in the next maintenance release. A workaround for such saved VMs is to manually edit the settings file and to change the settings version to 1_11 (version="1.11...") and to add <Chipset type="ICH9"/> into the Hardware section. Once the settings version is raised to 1.11 the new setting is stored persistent.

Don't forget to create a backup of that file before you edit it!

[john.doe]

bug still appears when I've upgraded 4.0.4 to 4.0.8
the situation is much the same: saved a guest's state through VBoxManage, then upgraded an installed VirtualBox package, then tried to start a suspended guest (from GUI and then from CLI), failed to start in both cases

$ VBoxManage startvm "Windows 2003 Server"
Waiting for the VM to power on...
VBoxManage: error: The virtual machine 'Windows 2003 Server' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 0
VBoxManage: error: Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component Machine, interface IMachine, callee

only explicit setting "--type headless" option was helpful

$ VBoxManage startvm "Windows 2003 Server" --type headless
Waiting for the VM to power on...
VM has been successfully started.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.