VMs won't start after Update to 9.10.1-U1

[rosabox]

The dying VirtualBox support is very bad, at least for me.
With the latest update 9.10.2 VB was broken again. I was able to revive it with the help of this thread: https://forums.freenas.org/index.ph...ning-after-virtualbox-ose-kmod-updated.48619/

I'm running a MeteoHub VM (http://www.meteohub.de/files/Meteohub-v4.7-4GB-VMware.rar ) in VB.
I was trying to migrate to Bhyve / Iohyve but MeteoHub doesn't work, more on it here: https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/fn9-10-bhyve-iohyve-hacking.42297/page-4#post-302601
I was communicating with the developer of Bhyve / Iohyve (Michael Dexter) about the error and the result was, there is a missing instruction 'xchg' and a suggestion to fund the development.
So Bhyve / Iohyve is no alternative for me.

That means, if VB support is definitely dropped, I'm out of luck ...

 

[thro]

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news: https://bugs.freenas.org/issues/15928

As Jordan mentioned iohyve may be an option going forward.

This is a bit of a nasty thing to lose/break with a minor point update.

Sure, drop it from 10.0 with an announcement, but i'm sure people were using it. I was. Not for anything serious, but as above, if features like this are going to be dropped on a minor point release without a big warning that it is going to happen, this is a problem.

I just wasted an hour of my time faffing about wondering what was going on in my home lab.

 

[m0nkey_]

This doesn't come as a surprise. Bhyve has been pushed as the ad-hoc VM option as VirtualBox is out of date and nobody is maintaining the VBox jail.

 

[thro]

As an end user who doesn't read the mailing list or bug tracker religiously (i have plenty of production platforms to keep track of - FreeNAS is test lab use only) it comes as a big surprise.

bHyve is not production ready yet. bHyve is not presented in the UI at all.

VBOX may be out of date. it may be riddled with security problems or whatever. Fact is, people were using it.

Breaking the user's environment intentionally without a warning is just not what you do if you're serious about having a usable platform.

Now don't get me wrong, i love FreeNAS and appreciate what the guys have done. But the handling of this could and should have been a lot better. Want to remove it? Fine. Remove it in 10.0. Not a security update to 9.x.

If Microsoft were to remove say, hyperV from server 2012 via a security patch, people would have a massive cry. And rightly so.

 

[Ericloewe]

This is a bit of a nasty thing to lose/break with a minor point update.

Sure, drop it from 10.0 with an announcement, but i'm sure people were using it. I was. Not for anything serious, but as above, if features like this are going to be dropped on a minor point release without a big warning that it is going to happen, this is a problem.

I just wasted an hour of my time faffing about wondering what was going on in my home lab.

Unfortunately, it wasn't dropped purely by choice. It was never really supported by anyone and was quite hacky. It's fairly miraculous that it worked as long as it did.

 

[Ericloewe]

As an end user who doesn't read the mailing list or bug tracker religiously (i have plenty of production platforms to keep track of - FreeNAS is test lab use only) it comes as a big surprise.

bHyve is not production ready yet. bHyve is not presented in the UI at all.

VBOX may be out of date. it may be riddled with security problems or whatever. Fact is, people were using it.

Breaking the user's environment intentionally without a warning is just not what you do if you're serious about having a usable platform.

Now don't get me wrong, i love FreeNAS and appreciate what the guys have done. But the handling of this could and should have been a lot better. Want to remove it? Fine. Remove it in 10.0. Not a security update to 9.x.

If Microsoft were to remove say, hyperV from server 2012 via a security patch, people would have a massive cry. And rightly so.

Though it's not quite the same thing, they did remove Windows 7's widgets in a recent security update. Sometimes, you just have to fix the important stuff and break the secondary.

 

[m0nkey_]

bHyve is not production ready yet. bHyve is not presented in the UI at all.

Virtualization in 9.10 is purely experimental, the fact that you have any ability to run VMs is purely a bonus. In the upcoming FreeNAS 10, VMs become first class citizens.

 

[thro]

Unfortunately, it wasn't dropped purely by choice. It was never really supported by anyone and was quite hacky. It's fairly miraculous that it worked as long as it did.

looks pretty deliberate to me.

I get it. you don't want to/can't support it. But doing things like that is what you do in a version bump, not a security patch.

closing the bug with "use at your own risk" would have been the better option by far.

 

[m0nkey_]

The VirtualBox template hasn't worked pr

Unfortunately, it wasn't dropped purely by choice. It was never really supported by anyone and was quite hacky. It's fairly miraculous that it worked as long as it did.

Hacky?! Sure was. Remember back in 9.2.x where the kernel module literately had to be shoehorned into the root file system :D

https://forums.freenas.org/index.php?threads/virtualbox-in-a-jail-in-freenas.20185/

This is very experimental and will not be supported officially on the forums at this time.

 

[Osiris]

9.10.2-U2 still has the same issues. rolling back again.

 

[Ericloewe]

It's not going to change. Migration to a new solution is highly advised.