Since May/June 2025: VirtualBox - cannot create new VMs and add existing VMs

Support Virtualization
1

Til now I have tried to get a solution for this problem by discussing it in the German Manjaro-Forum, in the Oracle-VBox-Forum and at administrator.de-Forum. But no solution was found within 18 days. So please don’t see this posting / request as “unwanted crossposting”!

My former main Computer died by a lightning stroke. I built up a new one and we have a completely fresh install of Manjaro-Linux and of VirtualBox and nothing is corrupted by experiments. This is my computer:

Mainboard: ASrock B850M Pro-A
CPU: Ryzen 5 7600X (with iGPU)
RAM: DDR5 32 GB
no overclocking
AMI-BIOS, latest
Virtualization in BIOS: active and locked

Host OS: Linux 6.12.39-1-MANJARO (x86_64) on BTRFS
BTRFS parameters: defaults,noatime,space_cache=v2,compress=zstd:6 0 0

VBox Version: VirtualBox XPCOM Server 7.1.12 r169651 linux.amd64 (Jul 15 2025 20:14:26)
installed components from Arch / Manjaro Repo:
VirtualBox 7.1.12-1
virtualbox-ext-oracle ExtensionPack 7.1.12-1
virtualbox-guest-iso 7.1.12-1
linux612-virtualbox-host-modules

Virtualization is checked in Manjaro and is active.
The group vboxusers does exist and I am member of it.

Each time, when I try to generate an empty VM so that I would have to install the Guest OS later, the VBox-Manager (GUI) will freeze. The same happens, when I try to add an existing VM, which was running on another computer without any problems.

VirtualBox stores infos about the VMs and the last actions in:
/home/user/.config/VirtualBox There is no other place for these infos. If I make another try with VBox and it fails, I simply need to delete anything, which is in this folder and then I have a VirtualBox installation as if it would be fresh installed.

I have tried:

sudo vboxreload   
Unloading modules: vboxnetadp vboxnetflt vboxdrv 
Loading modules: vboxnetadp vboxnetflt vboxdrv

and it shows, that all modules are loaded correctly.

I have tried sudo dmesg and there were no errors in it.

When I try to create an empty VM so that I would have to install the Guest OS later, the VBox-Manager (GUI) freezes. And after I have killed it, the VBoxSVC.log shows up two lines with error remarks. I show the relevant last lines of this here:

00:04:47.066873 DCon15   Platform architecture set to 'x86'
00:04:47.067625 DCon14   Saving settings file "/home/clemens/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml" with version "1.12-linux"
00:04:47.078573 DCon14   Finished saving settings file "/home/clemens/.config/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml"
00:04:47.079107 DCon14   Saving settings file "/home/clemens/VirtualBox VMs/Win-7-Pro/Win-7-Pro.vbox" with version "1.19-linux"
00:04:47.090378 DCon14   Finished saving settings file "/home/clemens/VirtualBox VMs/Win-7-Pro/Win-7-Pro.vbox"
00:07:35.955075 main     VirtualBox: object deletion starts
00:07:35.955124 main     ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_OBJECT_IN_USE (0x80bb000c) aIID={7d510820-a678-4730-a862-818dcd3fbed0} aComponent={MediumWrap} aText={Medium '/home/clemens/VirtualBox VMs/Win-7-Pro/Win-7-Pro.vdi' cannot be closed because it is still attached to 1 virtual machines}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0
00:07:35.955395 main     HostDnsMonitor: shutting down ...
00:07:35.967708 main     HostDnsMonitor: shut down
00:07:35.991444 Watcher  ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_ACCESSDENIED (0x80070005) aIID={d644ad1e-c501-4fc7-9ab6-aa6d763bc540} aComponent={VirtualBoxWrap} aText={The object is not ready}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0
00:07:35.991504 main     VirtualBox: object deleted

Maybe that the machine registry UUID, which is listed in the VirtualBox.xml is relevant:

    <MachineRegistry>
      <MachineEntry uuid="{e771531a-3f2b-4f39-9766-3a245f5e19ca}" src="/home/clemens/VirtualBox VMs/Win-7-Pro/Win-7-Pro.vbox"/>
    </MachineRegistry>

Someone asked my, why I would not use KVM/Qemu instead of VBox. Yes I have tried this already: After I had converted my most valuable Win-7.vdi to *.qcow2-format and then started this VM the first time, automatically many drivers were installed in my Windows VM, in order to get access to the new hardware of my computer. As a result of these big changes in Windows, I lost the licence for three very important programs. Two of these I cannot get back again, because it is old software and the licence servers were deactivated in the meantime.
Because of this, I want to keep using VirtualBox.

Any kind of help is welcome!!!

2

I want to add:
It seems, that the problems I described above, were starting around March 2025 since one of the Manjaro Updates in this time, because I experience the same issue on two other laptops, which also run VBox and have some VMs installed.

When I want to create a new VM or when I want to add an existing VM, VBox-Manager will freeze and the error messages are the same as described above.

Even more crazy: When I remove a formerly smoothly running VM from VBox-Manager and then want to add it again, the same problems prevent to add the VM again.

All my VMs in VBox are in use since about 5 years or more and I had no problems.

Maybe, that there is a big bug in the integration of VirtualBox into the Manjaro Kernel?

3

I don’t think so.

If your virtual disks are stored on a btrfs filesystem you are begging for trouble.

Move the disks to a volume formatted with ext4.

I cannot reproduce the issue

VirtualBox

 $ vboxmanage --version
7.1.12r169651

System

 $ inxi -SCMm
System:
  Host: tiger Kernel: 6.16.0-5-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 6.4.4 Distro: Manjaro Linux
Machine:
  Type: Desktop System: LENOVO product: 30E000GMMT v: ThinkStation P620
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: LENOVO model: 1046 v: SDK0K17763 WIN 5051002217900
    serial: <superuser required> UEFI: LENOVO v: S07KT67A date: 06/20/2025
Memory:
  System RAM: total: 64 GiB available: 62.64 GiB used: 12.17 GiB (19.4%)
CPU:
  Info: 12-core model: AMD Ryzen Threadripper PRO 5945WX s bits: 64
    type: MT MCP cache: L2: 6 MiB

I also imported a 3-year old Windows 7 appliance and started it without issues.

I don’t know - it may be your new hardware - perhaps your virtual disks are damaged - perhaps the configuration files are damaged.

4

This. :point_up:

btrfs uses copy-on-write and inline compression. virtualbox images cannot deal with that.

There are two possible solutions, but you (@Jaqueline) will have to recreate the disk images.

The first solution would be to set the C and m file attributes on the newly created (and thus empty) disk image files to prevent compression and copy-on-write. :point_down:

sudo chattr +Cm <name-of-image-file>

The second solution would be to create your image files on an ext4 or other traditional filesystem — e.g. xfs, jfs, et al.

5

Ohhh, that’s new for me, that btrfs advantages are not compatible with VBox. Thank you for your quick and engaged reply!

Before I am going to invest too much time in a non functioning experiment, I want to ask:

If I keep VBox software on my BTRFS based Manjaro and then add an additional harddisk which is ext4 formatted and will contain all my *.vdi images, do you think, that VBox can work with these VMs?

Or is it strictly necessary, that not only the VMx but also VirtualBox Software must run on another FS than BTRFS?

6

Yes, that is correct. The problem is only with having the virtual disks on btrfs. But even that can be circumvented, by recreating the virtual disks as empty files and immediately setting the C and m attributes on them.

No, the virtualbox software itself is just another component of your operating system, so it can remain where it is.

7

WOW!!! Thank you so much for your clarity, your funded knowledge and your quick reply!

8

You can also copy the VirtualBox VMs folder to the new drive then open the folder of the system you want to run and click the yourbox.vbox or whatever it’s name is and it will start that system and save the path of the virtualbox file to the virtualbox settings.