Can't add 2nd or 3rd share in VM, gets stuck when updating


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So I am experiencing a weird issue with vm configuration. Whenever I try to add a second share to any VM the changes I made will not get saved and the webinterface just gets stuck at "updating" whilst doing nothing.

 

It hasn't got anything to do with the specific share I wanted to add, I am able to add it as the first share, but not second.

 

Has someone also got this issue and was able to solve it?

 

See diagnostics for everything else... Removed for privace reasons after my problem was solved

 

Edited by unifiedmamba
Removed diagnostics
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And I've got an additional Problem now. I tried copying the VM by copying the XML configuration and using the disk to create a new VM.

 

Now on every boot the VM boots into a so called uefi interactive shell. I need to boot my debian system by the Boot by file option on every startup. I haven't changed anything and can't find a solution online to make it automatically boot to debian again.

Adding the grub efi file as a boot option is not possible in the interactive shell, it just ignores my inputs.
Additionally the boot order defined in the VM XML is not respected by the VM. If I use a debian ISO as boot priority 2 it will still boot into the ISO and not my Debian on the virtual hard drive.

Edited by unifiedmamba
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The forum is mostly just support by the community of users to fellow users, and no replies typically means nobody that saw the posts had a good answer for you.

 

Personally I've never used the 9p kvm share method to access server resources in a VM, as I find it slower and more difficult to manage than accessing the shares using SMB, just like you would with a physical machine elsewhere on the network. All the SMB traffic stays internal to the box, so it's much faster than a physical machine on the LAN. 9p may be better performing now, but I'd never know it since SMB still works well for me.

 

As for copying the XML, I've found that generating a fresh XML and making the needed changes like pointing to a specific vdisk works much better.

 

If you wish to speak directly to someone who received your payment, the "Contact Us" link at the bottom of the page is the best way to do that.

 

I'll ping @jonp as well, he is an employee of Limetech, and has a lot of experience with virtual machines.

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7 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

As for copying the XML, I've found that generating a fresh XML and making the needed changes like pointing to a specific vdisk works much better.

You just solved my problem. I was in fear that important settings could get lost if I don't copy the existing XML. I just tried setting the VM up as a new VM and it works. Apparently something in my config was wrong (though I haven't touched it before trying to mount the 2nd share).

Thank you very much for your input!

 

On 11/28/2021 at 9:45 PM, unifiedmamba said:

Now on every boot the VM boots into a so called uefi interactive shell. I need to boot my debian system by the Boot by file option on every startup. I haven't changed anything and can't find a solution online to make it automatically boot to debian again.

This was a problem I was able to solve for myself. I searched for my grub file in the EFI folder and created a new boot option which I put first in boot order, it now works as before.

I am happy this has come to a good end.

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10 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

I'll ping @jonp as well, he is an employee of Limetech, and has a lot of experience with virtual machines.

 

Thanks for bringing this to my attention.  With respect to the first issue with adding multiple 9p mount points, are you saying that the UI is preventing you from adding more than 1?  If so, this is a bug and we'll need to add this to the Bug Report board for tracking the issue.

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Just now, jonp said:

 are you saying that the UI is preventing you from adding more than 1?

Yes this is what happened. There seem to be multiple users experiencing this issue:

Renaming the folder and checking the correct name in the XML view didn't help for me. I had to recreate the VM and configure it manually as it was configured before since apparently the XML was kinda broken.

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2 minutes ago, unifiedmamba said:

I was in fear that important settings could get lost if I don't copy the existing XML.

This is a valid concern, some OS's use information specified or referred to in the XML for licensing (MS / Apple) so it is a good thing to be aware of the content of the XML so you can transfer the important bits if needed.

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Just now, jonp said:

Ok, I will attempt to recreate the bug and if its easily reproduceable, it will be easily fixable.

It's kind of a universal thing, some edits in the wizard end up with a "stuck at updating" condition. It's not just the share config, I've had it happen when messing with video and network as well.

 

Unfortunately it's not easy to reproduce, at least for me. Some things work, some don't.

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@jonp Thank you. I'll attach diagnostics again so you are able to see what my config was and if it somehow my fault. If this helps..

  

3 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

It's kind of a universal thing, some edits in the wizard end up with a "stuck at updating" condition. It's not just the share config, I've had it happen when messing with video and network as well.

 

Unfortunately it's not easy to reproduce, at least for me. Some things work, some don't.

Yeah but if it works to just recreate the VM it is at least usable, even if it produces some extra work... But I hope it get's fixed nonetheless.

 

tower-diagnostics-20211128-2045.zip

Edited by unifiedmamba
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5 minutes ago, JonathanM said:

It's kind of a universal thing, some edits in the wizard end up with a "stuck at updating" condition. It's not just the share config, I've had it happen when messing with video and network as well.

 

Unfortunately it's not easy to reproduce, at least for me. Some things work, some don't.

 

That's unfortunate.  If anyone can screen capture the event occurring and show the browser debug info, that would be really helpful.  I don't think this is an issue with Unraid OS itself as much as it is with the GUI (javascript, html, css).

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55 minutes ago, unifiedmamba said:

Yeah but if it works to just recreate the VM it is at least usable, even if it produces some extra work... But I hope it get's fixed nonetheless.

Unfortunately there are a good number of things that the GUI just can't handle correctly when it comes to VM XML editing, so you end up stuck in raw XML mode for advanced stuff. All the little nitpicks I'm aware of have been pointed out and listed as bugs, but they seem to have fallen by the wayside.

 

One glaring example is boot order. I've never been able to get the GUI to produce the results I need to change the boot order, I always end up manually swapping the 0 and 1 for boot sequence and then editing it back when I'm done.

 

Be aware, if you make edits in XML mode, they will get blown away if you save a setting in GUI mode. Always been that way, the rationale is that everything you normally need to edit should be handled by the GUI, and if you are advanced enough to edit the raw XML then you should just stick to that mode.

 

I don't like it, complained about it, didn't get anywhere because a solution that keeps custom XML while manipulating the parts specified in the GUI is too hard to code properly.

 

The solution for now is to either keep your VM's simple enough that you don't need the raw XML view, or learn how to parse VM XML to produce working results without involving the GUI.

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