Guest cannot boot from SATA port 4 => use VBoxManage

[Zach]

It appears that in both my Linux Host as well as my Windows host using Virtualbox 1.6.2 I am unable to boot when the primary disk is set to SATA port 4 (non IDE emulated SATA AHCI).

The error that appears:

FATAL: Could not read from the boot medium! System halted.

Hitting F12 shows no hard disk detected. However if I change the port to SATA port 0 (IDE Emulated) then the machine boots fine.

Also note that I created a Virtual Machine along with a new image with the same result.

Attached is the log file for reference/review from my Linux host. I can supply the Windows Vista host log file as well if required.

[Zach]

Log file from failed start using SATA port 4 as primary boot disk

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Known problem. Our BIOS doesn't understand SATA and requires IDE emulation.

[Zach]

Replying to sandervl73:

Known problem. Our BIOS doesn't understand SATA and requires IDE emulation.

Understood. However for the record it worked fine under VirtualBox 1.6.0. Is this something that will be fixed in a future release?

Thanks for the fast reply.

Zach

[aeichner]

There is a VBoxManage command to change which port is emulated as an IDE device:

VBoxManage modifyvm <name> -sataideemulation<1-4> <1-30>

where 1-4 is the position of the emulated IDE port and 1-30 is the number of the sata port which should be emulated. For example to emulate port 4 as an IDE device as primary master do the following:

VBoxManage modifyvm <name> -sataideemulation1 5

Counting starts from 1 on the command line so port 4 in the gui is port 5 on the command line.

[Frank Mehnert]

That's no longer true. VBox can also boot from SATA ports beyond 4. Tested with VBox 4.3.0.