Re: Restoring VirtualBox VM

Hi,

please keep the discussion on the mailing list (and don't address me 
directly), you never know who might be able to help, or who might need 
the solution.

On 23/02/2025 13:07, Eric Beversluis wrote:
> Hi Eric,
> 
> When I tried to reproduce the original VM by clicking on the .vbox file, 
> I got this error message:
> 
> Failed to open virtual machines located in .../VirtualBox VMs/Windows10 
> VM/Windows 10 VM.vbox. Callee RC: NX_ERROR_INVALID_ARG (0X80070057)

You are probably better off asking in a VirtualBox forum. Reading 
through https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=110774 I get the 
impression that the issue is some expectations on the devices (there the 
ISO) being available on the host, which are most probably not part of 
the backup.
See especially the comment 
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=544847&sid=1dd533b8b7d03facbea8b6d9e371a3c3#p544847

> Nearly as I can tell from searching, that's a kind of generic error 
> message that doesn't help much.

You are possibly right, I wouldn't know, I haven't used VirtualBox for 
decades.

> I think I should also be able to create a new VM by importing the 
> old .vdi image. But when I try that approach, VirtualBox can't find 
> the .vdi image, even though it's in the 'VirtualBox VMs' directory.
> 
> Somewhere in my vague memory, from years ago when I was more active with 
> this stuff, there's the idea that copying an image as image is different 
> from copying the files in an image. Could that be relevant here? I 
> definitely would have run rdiff-backup with the VM shut down.

Well, you can do backup from within the VM, at the OS level, or from 
outside at the VM image level, but apparently here you've done it from 
outside.

Sorry I can't help more but it sounds more like a VirtualBox than an 
rdiff-backup issue.

KR, Eric

> Thanks.
> 
> Eric Beversluis
> www.ericbeversluis.com
> 2x Honorable Mention--Writer's Digest Contest
> 
> 
> On 2/23/25 2:46 AM, EricZolf wrote:
>> Hi,
>> I have no clue of virtual box but which error message do you get?
>> Did you backup the image while the VM was switched off? Else it could 
>> get inconsistent...
>> KR, Eric
>>
>> On February 23, 2025 4:48:18 AM UTC, Eric Beversluis via Any 
>> discussion of rdiff-backup <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> I've been backing up my VirtualBox VM as part of my rdiff-backiup of 
>>> my Home directory (Fedora 40).
>>>
>>> My Window 10 VM got destroyed, and I'm trying to recreate it, but 
>>> VirtualBox does not seem to be able to recognize or deal with my 
>>> restored rdiff-backup files of the VM. Everything seems to be there, 
>>> but VB doesn't seem to recognize the .vdi file at all and I get an 
>>> error when I click on the .vbox file, which is supposedly what 
>>> retriggers the new VM.
>>>
>>> Does anyone know why I can't restore from my rdiff-backup of the 
>>> virtual machine? I thought I was being very prudent with backing up 
>>> the VM.
>