[arch-general] Virtualbox - 1. How to solve a strange error? - 2. Another VM to replace VBox?

[Ralf Mardorf]

Hi,

when I tried to set up an Arch Linux guest on an external USB
HDD, something strange happened.

VM memory size is: 512 MB
VDIs are:          /mnt/archvm/archvm_sda.vdi
                   /mnt/archvm/archvm_sdb.vdi
Snapshot folder:   /mnt/archvm/archvm_snap

After creating this I made a snapshot named "Empty partitions".

I inserted a Grml 2014.11 Linux DVD for partitioning and started the VM.
It booted from the DVD, but after a while there was a black screen. I
powerd off the machine, got a non-fatal error, ignored the error's
details, because I anyway wanted to restore the snapshot, instead of
fixing the current state.

If I try to restore the snapshot, I get the below error. I can't find
information about it in the Internet.


Failed to restore the snapshot Empty partitions of the virtual machine
archVM.

Could not create the differencing medium storage unit
'/mnt/archvm/archvm_snap/{834e9194-84b5-443a-a5e1-8bf9bb28855d}.vdi'.

VDI: cannot create image
'/mnt/archvm/archvm_snap/{834e9194-84b5-443a-a5e1-8bf9bb28855d}.vdi' (VERR_DEV_IO_ERROR).

Result Code: VBOX_E_FILE_ERROR (0x80BB0004)
Component: Medium
Interface: IMedium {05f2bbb6-a3a6-4fb9-9b49-6d0dda7142ac}


[rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$ pacman -Q virtualbox
virtualbox 4.3.12-1
[rocketmouse at archlinux ~]$ uname -r
3.10.61-rt65-1-rt-lts

Yes, all vbox packages are in the IgnorePkg list, since no
version > 4.3.12 can be used with a XP guest and an iPad2 connected by
USB, when updating iOS. DKMS doesn't build the old modules for the
current kernel, so I need to run older kernels.

1. Does anybody know what's going wrong, when I try to restore the
snapshot? And how can I solve this?

2. Is there another virtual machine easy to use, without a huge
learning curve? Any recommendations?

I want to simulate my real Arch Linux install, copied from a backup of
the host, to the guest, to test steps, to fix a few issues with my real
(host) install, but I don't need to stay with vbox for that purpose.

Regards,
Ralf