diff --git a/checkin_notes b/checkin_notes
index 4b24e7a616..471609d6cf 100644
--- a/checkin_notes
+++ b/checkin_notes
@@ -5936,3 +5936,11 @@ David  13 Sept 2011
 
     samples/wrapper/
         wrapper.cpp
+
+Rom    13 Sept 2011
+    - VBOX: Properly trap stderr output from vboxmanage by redirecting it to
+        stdout.  Error messages should now be properly detected on Linux and
+        Mac.
+        
+    samples/vboxwrapper/
+        vbox.cpp
diff --git a/samples/vboxwrapper/vbox.cpp b/samples/vboxwrapper/vbox.cpp
index 5b838ed49e..c8252d0708 100644
--- a/samples/vboxwrapper/vbox.cpp
+++ b/samples/vboxwrapper/vbox.cpp
@@ -106,6 +106,7 @@ int VBOX_VM::vbm_popen(string& arguments, string& output) {
     command = "VBoxManage -q " + arguments;
 
 #ifdef _WIN32
+
     STARTUPINFO si;
     PROCESS_INFORMATION pi;
     SECURITY_ATTRIBUTES sa;
@@ -205,10 +206,14 @@ CLEANUP:
     return retval;
 
 #else
+
     FILE* fp;
 
+    // redirect stderr to stdout for the child process so we can trap it with popen.
+    string modified_command = command + " 2>&1";
+
     // Execute command
-    fp = popen(command.c_str(), "r");
+    fp = popen(modified_command.c_str(), "r");
     if (fp == NULL){
         fprintf(
             stderr,