The Path to Zen

Vmware to Virtualbox Migration Issues

In my Kubuntu, I have a Windows XP Professional virtual machine running in Vmware that I use from time to time. Recently I decided to migrate it to VirtualBox. Eventually I got it working, after going through a number of issues. Here goes a recount of them:

The Agp440.sys Hang
Since VirtualBox supports the VMDK file format, it’s fairly simple to get started: just create a new VirtualBox vm, make it as close to the Vmware one as possible configuration wise, attach the same VMDK files to the vm as harddrives, and that’s it.

Although the first time when you try to boot it up in VirtualBox, Windows is very likely going to hang right away. Trying to boot it into safe mode reveals that the sequence hangs at agp440.sys.

It is easily resolved by following this VirtualBox wiki article. Basically boot into the Recovery Console, and disable the agp440 service.

The Mup.sys Hang
Next Windows hangs at Mup.sys. The same trick from above doesn’t help. After disabling Mup.sys, Windows hangs at the driver before it. So it’s not Mup.sys itself, but something afterwards. Google finds me this virtualbox ticket. Following the tips, I switch to the PIIX4 setting for the IDE controller, experiment various combinations of APIC and IO ACPI, and am able to get past Mup.sys with both enabled.

Reactivate Windows
Finally I’m able to boot into Windows, but with various new hardware found, the Reactivate Windows screen shows up. I called Microsoft to reactivate, but looking back, I would advise waiting until after you have successfully reconfigured windows, especially the network connection (see below).

Hardware Configuration
Once booting into the desktop, Windows happily reports “new hardware” found and offer to install drivers for them. Always choosing the easiest option (i.e. the one with “automatic” in it) gets me through. If it does not for you, try selecting “Install Guest Addons” from the virtual machine menu first.

Naturally I decide to reboot at this point. Big surprise! Windows hangs up again as soon as the splash screen shows up. Booting into safe mode works, but not the normal mode. After a few tries and some futile digging around, I decide to call it a day.

Well, the next day when I try it again, it just magically works! I still don’t know how exactly, except maybe a soft reset in VirtualBox is not such a “clean” restart compared to completely quit VirtualBox and restart from scratch.

Network Configuration
The networking doesn’t work after booting into Windows at this point. Try to manually add a network connection manually does not go anywhere. Look through the Device Manager and find that the Vmware network card is still in there, with a big question mark. Uninstall that. Force the Device Manager to detect new hardware. Sure enough the VirtualBox one comes up and the driver gets installed smoothly.

Everything works great now. I’m for sure making a baseline copy of the virtual machine though.