"Could not find a registered machine named" error when trying to run commands in Command Prompt for a MacOS VM

Question

I'm fairly new to virtual machines and was attempting to set up a MacOS using Catalina on my native Windows 10 machine by following this guide:https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/macos-windows-10-virtual-machine/

The name assigned to the machine was "macoscat"

After entering the first line of code, I entered:

VBoxManage.exe modifyvm "macoscat" --cpuidset 00000001 000106e5 00100800 0098e3fd bfebfbff
VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" 
"VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac11,3"
VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" 
"VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"
VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" 
"VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Iloveapple"
VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" 
"VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" 
"ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"
VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" 
"VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC" 1

and was met by the following prompt:

VBoxManage.exe: error: Could not find a registered machine named 'macoscat'
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBoxWrap, interface IVirtualBox, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "FindMachine(Bstr(a->argv[0]).raw(), machine.asOutParam())" at line 547 of file VBoxManageModifyVM.cpp

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemProduct" "iMac11,3"
VBoxManage.exe: error: Could not find a registered machine named 'macoscat'
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBoxWrap, interface IVirtualBox, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "FindMachine(Bstr(a->argv[0]).raw(), machine.asOutParam())" at line 935 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiSystemVersion" "1.0"
VBoxManage.exe: error: Could not find a registered machine named 'macoscat'
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBoxWrap, interface IVirtualBox, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "FindMachine(Bstr(a->argv[0]).raw(), machine.asOutParam())" at line 935 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" "VBoxInternal/Devices/efi/0/Config/DmiBoardProduct" "Iloveapple"
VBoxManage.exe: error: Could not find a registered machine named 'macoscat'
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBoxWrap, interface IVirtualBox, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "FindMachine(Bstr(a->argv[0]).raw(), machine.asOutParam())" at line 935 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/DeviceKey" "ourhardworkbythesewordsguardedpleasedontsteal(c)AppleComputerInc"
VBoxManage.exe: error: Could not find a registered machine named 'macoscat'
VBoxManage.exe: error: Details: code VBOX_E_OBJECT_NOT_FOUND (0x80bb0001), component VirtualBoxWrap, interface IVirtualBox, callee IUnknown
VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "FindMachine(Bstr(a->argv[0]).raw(), machine.asOutParam())" at line 935 of file VBoxManageMisc.cpp

C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage setextradata "macoscat" "VBoxInternal/Devices/smc/0/Config/GetKeyFromRealSMC" 1

To reiterate, these inputs and responses all occurred in the command prompt.

I was able to get it to work once, but when I started the virtual machine it got stuck at "14 minutes left" to load for about an hour. After I exited the machine, I was unable to re-open it, as I was only greeted by similar error messages, this time from the machine itself.

Any idea what I might've done wrong? Could it be that there was a significant change in Virtual Box between April 2020 and October 2020?

Edit: The only thing I could imagine was that I have an Ubuntu Linux VM that takes up about 6 GB of RAM and the MacOS VM (the one I'm discussing in this post) that takes up 4 GB of RAM. As my original computer only has 12 GB of RAM, I was wondering if this might be an issue, even though the Linux VM and MacOS don't run at the same time.

Edit 2: Everything I did followed the instructions here (https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/macos-windows-10-virtual-machine/ ) to the detail. The one difference I'll note is that, on the USB selection section, I didn't have an option for USB 3 and instead went with USB 1.1, however I doubt that it would have any impact on the issues I'm seeing.

UPDATE It seems as if not running Command Prompt as an admin helped that issue. However, once I start the machine I receive this error. What might I have done wrong?

enter image description here

Answer 1

将“”之间的名称替换为您的虚拟机命名方式对我有用

Answer 2

i was having the same issue. Just now i was able to run these codes. Try this piece of code on cmd and on powershell. " VMBoxManage.exe list -l vms " for me it wasn't showing my vm in the list. But on powershell i was able to see it.

try use the same codes u were trying on cmd on the powershell if it shows ur vm there

EDIT: On powershell use .\\VMBoxManage.exe insted of just VMBoxManage

I hope i have helped ^^

Answer 3

I was having this error while enabling nested virtualisation feature VT-x from command line. And the below fixed the issue for me:

${VIRTUALBOX_BIN_PATH} modifyvm <YOUR-MACHINE-NAME> --hwvirtex on --nested-hw-virt on

We don't need to use CLI parameter --name before the actual machine name. Which I was doing it wrong.