Problem starting virtual machine as non-administrator

B

BSartist

Member
I have created a Windows XP virtual machine and migrated two data disks (using transporter). The data disk hdd files are on two separate hard drive on my mac. They were both originally created with the hostname of the windows source machine but I did a file rename so they were more descriptive. I modified the virtual machine to map the two data drives and booted it up and all looked good.

I set about installing windows apps within the virtual machine - starting with Quicken (which uses data on one of the drives). So far so good!

All of this was done under my Mac Admin account. Before proceeding any further, I want to be sure that my wife or I can boot the VM when we are logged into our non-privileged Mac login.

After setting the permissions on the .hhd files (and containing directories) so we have read and write access, I am having trouble bringing up the VM. It keeps telling me that someone else has the .hdd file in use (for the data file not the XP hdd file). I've tried rebooting the Mac to no avail and I don't know how to find out who has the hdd file open. I have looked at the process table and did some spotchecks but nothing is jumping out.

Anyone have any thoughts on this? I do not want to have to log in as admin to run this VM. I want to be logged in as me and be able to switch back (kinda the point of I could have just used boot camp).

Bill

P.S. I realize that we should not both bring up the VM at the same tim.
 
OK. It turns out that even if I log in as administrator now, it says the file us in use. I can't figure out what happened.

The only thing that happened, I think, in the meantime is that I dragged the .vps file to the desktop and then to the trash by mistake. I got an error and then I moved it from the trash back to its original location. in the /users/shared/Parallels... directory.
 
I am now thinking that trying to access the virtual data disk's hdd from another user other than administrator might be corrupting the hdd file.

I re-migrated one of the disks. Opened it with Parallels mounter. Unmounted it and then set the permissions to read/write for my non-admin account. I logged out and logged into the non-admin account and tried to access it using parallel mounter. I got the error saying it was in use or corrupt. I logged out and logged back into administrator and am now unable to mount it like I did before.

Does anyone know what I might be doing wrong? I'm sure that I MUST be able to set this up so I can access these virtual hdd files from accounts other than Administrator.
 
Ok This is getting REAL old.

Whenever I try to start this VM as non administrator, I get this file in use problem and the lck file gets left in the .hdd package. I look at it before I start the VM. Then I try and start the VM, get the error and the lck file is in there. I cannot figure out how to keep this thing from tripping over itself. I believe I have set all the permissions I am supposed to - and then some.

I've been at this for hours and have nothing to show for it.

Is anyone from support listening?
 
I am wondering if this switch to Mac from Windows as really the right move. It was predicated on the fact that I could run Windows on the Mac with Parallels. But after spending two days and not being able to get it working, I feel trapped.

Overnight, I re-migrated both disks from my windows machine using Parallels Transporter just in case something had gotten corrupted. I migrated them in two sessions because I want the two filesystems to be on different disks on the Mac. I did not rename the two resulting hdd images but left them as they were named - with machine name.

I added them to the virtual machine and booted the virtual machine (logged onto my Mac as administrator). Everything worked. I set a bunch of windows permissions, ran Quicken a few times - all OK.

I shut down the VM, logged out and logged into my non admin Mac account and when I try to access those hdd files via either booting the VM or the Parallels Mounter, it tells me they are corrupt. If I log out and back in as admin, it works.

Can someone please (please?!?) tell me what permission I am missing? I have tried what is documented. Namely:

"everyone" gets read+write on the hdd files. Inside the package, those files inherited everyone=read+write.

"everyone" has read+write on all the files in the Parallels directory holding the VM files as well as on all those files within (including the winxp.hdd file).

I think I've played by the rules. This should not really be all that complicated should it?
 
I'm not so sure it's permissons. I granted my non-admin accounts admin rights and am having the same problem.

Please also note that I tried this excercise with a small disk that I created natively with parallels desktop (i.e. not migrated over using transporter) and I did not have this problem.

I noticed something else. I don't know if this is related because this DOES work when logged in as admin but...

Both hdd files migrated from my windows machine are the same name (scobee.hdd) although they reside on different physical volumes. Inside the package contents of both .hds files are the same exact name with same exact guid (not sure what the "u" means then in this case since they are obviously not unique).
 
It would appear as though I have really solved it this time because I successfully brought up the VM completely under a couple of non-admin logins.

The problem (drum roll please) is that when the hdd file is created on another volume (not the Macintosh HD), it sticks an additional permission in there for a "staff" group which is read only. That was apparently getting in the way (my login must have been added to that group when created). I removed the permissions for staff on anything related to these data volumes and the problem went away.

If anyone from Nova is indeed watching this, a documentation improvement may be in order.
 
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