Unable to restore from state saved with memory balloon active

[cb1]

Steps to reproduce:

1. Create a VM, install an operating system that supports the VirtualBox Guest Additions (Windows, Linux)
2. Install Guest Additions, Reboot guest
3. VBoxManage controlvm [vnname] [balloon size]
   (any balloon size grater than zero causes the issue)
4. Save the VM state
5. Attempt to start the VM

Error message is Failed to load unit 'pgm' (VERR_SSM_LOADED_TOO_LITTLE).

[Maakuth]

I have a similar issue with at least 4.3.18 and 4.3.20 (Win8.1 x64 host, Linux x64 guest), albeit with different error message:

ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_FAIL (0x80004005) aIID={8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6} aComponent={Console} aText={Failed to load unit 'pgm' (VERR_INVALID_PARAMETER)}, preserve=false

See my ​VBox.log. I'll try without large pages soon.

[Klaus Espenlaub]

Disabling large pages should help: VBoxManage modifyvm "vmname" --largepages off

Most likely this happens only on host OSes where VirtualBox enables large page support by default, which is more or less Windows only.

[Maakuth]

Same problem with largepages off, there's another VBox.log in Gist.

[Maakuth]

I confirmed that this issued doesn't happen if I reset balloon to 0. That serves as a workaround, one just has to remember to zero it before saving state.

[csb]

Still happens with 5.2.12. Maybe put a hint into the documentation that memory ballons must not be "state saved"?