I've updated ghettoVCB-restore.sh to resolve the two issues you mentioned to support ESXi 5.1 host as well as use a differente mechenism to check for the root user. I've been able to backup/restore a VM, so give this a try and hopefully you'll be able to get the logs this time in case you hit some issues.
You can download the update version which is still being worked on in a test branch https://github.com/lamw/ghettoVCB/tree/merge-test and just click on the "ZIP" at the top which will give you a download of all the files and just replace the ghettoVCB-restore.sh script
Happy Holidays