guestcontrol fails with VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER

[Tino Schwarze]

After updating from VirtualBox 4.0.0 to 4.0.2 guestcontrol commands stopped working.

I've updated the guest additions as well (to VBoxGuestAdditions_4.0.2-update-69551.iso) - no change.

Example:

> VBoxManage guestcontrol mkdir WS2003R2_MSSQL2005 'c:/testdir' --username Administrator --password 'ourpassword' --verbose
Creating directory "c:/testdir" ...
VBoxManage: error: Process could not be started: VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER.

The command worked again if I looged out from my remote desktop session. The VM is running headless, I'm accessing the Windows 2003 Server via rdesktop (not via VRDP).

This used to work with 4.0.0 - I developed the remote commands while being logged in via rdesktop.

The VBox.log does not look helpful (I'm cut'n pasting since it's very little):

00:00:20.717 Guest Additions information report: Version 4.0.3 r69551 '4.0.3'
00:00:20.717 Guest Additions information report: Interface = 0x00010004 osType = 0x00034100
00:00:20.717 Guest Additions capability report: (0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no
00:00:20.717 Guest reported fixed hypervisor window at 0x0000000000400000 (size = 0xc00000, rc = VINF_SUCCESS)
00:00:23.597 Guest Log: VBoxVideo: using HGSMI
00:00:30.587 Guest Log: VBoxDisp[0]: VBVA enabled
00:00:30.587 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=00007f9e94353000 w=866 h=645 bpp=32 cbLine=0xD88, flags=0x1

no remote session yet, just create the directory:

00:00:51.226 Creating guest directory "c:/testdir" as  user "Administrator" ...
00:00:51.226 Executing guest process "vbox_mkdir" as user "Administrator" ...
00:00:51.362 Guest process (PID 2112) started
00:00:51.363 Guest process (PID 2112) exited normally

-> worked. Logging in via rdesktop:

00:03:46.081 Starting host clipboard service
00:03:46.081 ClipConstructX11: X11 DISPLAY variable not set -- disabling shared clipboard
00:03:46.091 Guest Additions capability report: (0x5) seamless: yes, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
00:03:46.094 Guest Additions capability report: (0x5) seamless: yes, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes

-> calling guestcontrol mkdir again:

00:03:48.711 Creating guest directory "c:/testdir" as  user "Administrator" ...
00:03:48.711 Executing guest process "vbox_mkdir" as user "Administrator" ...
00:03:48.732 Guest process (PID 0) could not be started because of rc=VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER
00:03:48.732 Executing guest process "vbox_mkdir" as user "Administrator" failed with VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER

-> failed. Logging out:

00:04:35.268 Stopping the host clipboard service

-> mkdir works:

00:07:45.583 Creating guest directory "c:/testdir" as  user "Administrator" ...
00:07:45.583 Executing guest process "vbox_mkdir" as user "Administrator" ...
00:07:45.640 Guest process (PID 2424) started
00:07:45.641 Guest process (PID 2424) exited normally

The same issue happens for "guestcontrol execute".

[Tino Schwarze]

As a workaround, I created another user in the guest OS, then running the command works no matter whether I'm logged in via rdesktop (as another user) or not.

BUT: --wait-for waits infinitely, even if I just start a simple test.bat which just echoes it's arguments. No matter what --wait-for argument I use, the "VBoxManage guestcontrol" command does not return, but hangs at 'Waiting for process to exit ..." The VBox.log states correctly that the gues process exited while the VBoxManage command still hangs.

[Frank Mehnert]

For the --wait-for problem see #8235.

[Frank Mehnert]

Could you recheck with VBox 4.0.6 (including updated additions)?

[ossy]

Just to let you know,

I have that same problem with version 4.0.16 As long as the Administrator is logged in via RDP, I cannot launch commands via guest control (VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER). Once logged of from Windows it works again. I'm also running the Windows Guest Server in headless mode.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.