title: Vagrant Error, The box failed to unpackage properly
body: <p>I have a question for help that I could not find on any of these topics already. </p>
  
  <p>I am trying to implement vagrant against my pre-existing virtual box. Most of the topics online right now are referring to using a box from vagrant cloud, or building one from scratch etc. My issue is I have an already built virtual box using Virtualbox as the provider specifically 1.4.3 as the version. The box is 124GB so remaking it is not exactly ideal. I have the vagrant config file set to locate the virtual box at path /users/desktop/foldername/filename.vbox. Every time it tries to add the box I get the error </p>
  
  <pre><code>"The box failed to unpackage properly. Please verify that the box file you're trying to add is not corrupted and try again. The output from attemtping to unpackage (if any): 
  
  Bsdtar: Error opening archive: Unrecognized archive format."
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>My knowledge is that this is because Vagrant is looking to add a .tar file and the file is not a tar extension. </p>
  
  <p>Your supposed to be able to configure vagrant file to recognize the provider which I have done as well. Mine is set to </p>
  
  <pre><code>config.vm.provider "virtualbox" do |vb|
    vb.gui = true
  end
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>But no matter what I try I'm always getting the error above. 
  One thing to note is I'm not sure how to go about providing the metadata.json file, or how I can find that to edit it. Perhaps that is my problem? I have the latest version of vagrant so that is not the issue. </p>
  
  <h2>Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.</h2>
  
  <p>I have tried the vagrant package and below is my error I'm getting Please see if you may be able to provide further assistance. </p>
  
  <p>I tried what you have suggested and here is the error message that I'm getting. I greatly appreciate your help. </p>
  
  <pre><code>nokeys$  vagrant package --base Dev_Clonea --output /users/nokeys/desktop/Dev_Clone/Dev_Clone.vbox
  
  /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/machine.rb:306:in `id=': undefined method `children' for nil:NilClass (NoMethodError)
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/machine.rb:438:in `state'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/plugins/providers/virtualbox/action/created.rb:11:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/warden.rb:34:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/builder.rb:116:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/runner.rb:66:in `block in run'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/util/busy.rb:19:in `busy'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/runner.rb:66:in `run'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/builtin/call.rb:43:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/warden.rb:34:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/plugins/providers/virtualbox/action/check_virtualbox.rb:17:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/warden.rb:34:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/builder.rb:116:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/runner.rb:66:in `block in run'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/util/busy.rb:19:in `busy'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/action/runner.rb:66:in `run'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/machine.rb:196:in `action_raw'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/machine.rb:173:in `block in action'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/environment.rb:434:in `lock'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/machine.rb:161:in `call'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/machine.rb:161:in `action'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/plugins/commands/package/command.rb:83:in `package_vm'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/plugins/commands/package/command.rb:66:in `package_base'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/plugins/commands/package/command.rb:42:in `execute'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/cli.rb:42:in `execute'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/lib/vagrant/environment.rb:252:in `cli'
  
  from /Applications/Vagrant/bin/../embedded/gems/gems/vagrant-1.6.3/bin/vagrant:166:in `&lt;main&gt;'
  </code></pre>