(Still Unsolved)While taking off. The power went off. Now Whonix is always off

Hi gents

When I started Whonix from VirtualBox and before it to start completely
The power went out and my PC turned off suddenly
Now
My VMs (same disk, same folder) including Whonix Gateway and Workstation show as “inaccessible”
Full scene:
"Runtime error opening (directory of the vm) for reading:-38 (Access denied).
/build/virtualbox-DqUp1P/virtualbox-6.1.26-dfsg/src/VBox/Main/src-server/MachineImpl.cpp[754] (nsresult Machine::i_registeredinit())
Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}

Nothing can be done except refresh

Is it possible to get anything from them? I have some bookmarks in the browser

Thanks In Advance

Thank you but it doesn’t work

I don’t have the ability to edit settings of the VM

Which version of Vbox you are using? And whats your operating system?

But mostly likely you are in a game over situation.

6.1.32
Just updated to it after the systems broke
Host is Mint 20.1

Isn’t there a way to analyze the files?
Thanks if there is nothing to do
Bad things happen

Try General VirtualBox Troubleshooting Steps.

Whonix (downstream) isn’t producing VirtualBox. Oracle (upstream) When there are issues with the VirtualBox host software, in many cases very limited help can be provided downstream. Upstream might have better ideas.

Linux user permissions issue? Try Permission Fix. For non-Kicksecure:

Do not run this when logged in as root. Just echo to show the command it would run. If it makes sense, remove the echo. But before, make sure to have a backup for the whole disk to avoid doing further damage.

echo sudo chown --recursive $(whoami):$(whoami) /home/$(whoami)

Something file might have been corrupted on the host operating system.

(Whonix is based on Kicksecure.)


For data recovery… Even if the VM no longer starts, there’s a good chance the virtual hard drive file can be detached from that VM and that data can be recovered from the virtual hard disk file.

prerequisite knowledge is this chapter:
VirtualBox VMs Folder versus VirtualBox Settings Folder

You could try to move (or delete) the VirtualBox settings Folder. The VirtualBox VMs folder would still exist and contain the virtual hard drives. The VirtualBox hard drive could then be attached to a newly imported Whonix-Workstation.

The question is more about VirtualBox than Whonix. Do not rely on this forum to tell every step. It’s not required and it’s not efficient. By learning how to do it with any other VM = knowing how to do it for a Whonix VM.


What has a good chance - but data loss:

Upgrade your virtualbox version to 6.1.34 and try again. (use for e.g virtualbox official repository to do that)

Thank you both.
I’ll try and if it failed it is normal
These things happen

2 Likes

You welcome, If it fails then use KVM instead of Vbox since you are using mint linux.