Guest Additions 6.0 and later *broken* on Vista? (#18308)

[Lapis_Lazuli]

I have the exact same problem with a Vista Home Premium x64 guest on a Windows 10 Home x64 host.

[MuldeR]

To whom it may interest: VirtualBox Guest Additions v6.1 still broken on Windows Vista! As a new great "bonus" feature, Windows Vista will now reproducibly crash after UAC dialog.

Had to disable "3D acceleration" in VirtualBox settings, then turn-off UAC in the Windows Vista guest, then re-enable "3D acceleration" in VirtualBox settings.

Anyhow, using the above workaround way we can avoid the UAC-related crash, but the Direct3D bug ("VboxDispD3D.dll" error), that has existed ever since VirtualBox 6.0, still is the same as before:

(posted here for documentary purposes)

VirtualBox v6.1 Bug in Windows Vista

vbox_v6-1-still_broken.jpg (71.24 KiB) Viewed 3001 times

[rytomi]

Updated to 6.1.2 today, Guest Extensions for Vista's graphics drivers are still broken, no aero.

I think it's becoming clear Oracle has no intention of fixing this.

[Xx_Nikki_xX]

At least your guys' guests load into the OS. Mine immediately crashes and blue, well, actually red screens when booting. Cept the red screen is squashed and corrupted looking. These Direct3D guest additions really don't play nice with my Vista guest.

[scottgus1]

Crossing over to 6.1.x will definitely get failed 3D acceleration on Vista. From the 6.1.0 manual:

– VBoxSVGA: The default graphics controller for new VMs that use Windows 7 or later.
This graphics controller improves performance and 3D support when compared to the
legacy VBoxVGA option.
– VBoxVGA: Use this graphics controller for legacy guest OSes. This is the default
graphics controller for Windows versions before Windows 7 and for Oracle Solaris.
3D acceleration is not supported for this graphics controller

Anyone wanting Vista to be 3D-accelerated so as to get Aero should at most use 6.0.x Guest Additions, or maybe even try going back to 5.2.x GAs. It is perfectly all right to let the Guest Additions version fall behind if necessary.

[rytomi]

Crossing over to 6.1.x will definitely get failed 3D acceleration on Vista. From the 6.1.0 manual:

– VBoxSVGA: The default graphics controller for new VMs that use Windows 7 or later.
This graphics controller improves performance and 3D support when compared to the
legacy VBoxVGA option.
– VBoxVGA: Use this graphics controller for legacy guest OSes. This is the default
graphics controller for Windows versions before Windows 7 and for Oracle Solaris.
3D acceleration is not supported for this graphics controller

Anyone wanting Vista to be 3D-accelerated so as to get Aero should at most use 6.0.x Guest Additions, or maybe even try going back to 5.2.x GAs. It is perfectly all right to let the Guest Additions version fall behind if necessary.

The guest additions for Vista (64-bit) haven't worked in ANY 6.x version at all. And I can't seem to find old downloads. VirtualBox happily deletes the files for the additions as soon as you install them.

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox.org has an ftp-like site where each file related to a particular release can be found, including the Guest Additions ISO for that version. Blast me if I can't remember where it is...

However, if you can tolerate a 100-ish-MB download, on https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds you can get the whole old version, open it with a zip-file-archive program like 7-zip (Windows & free, Linux has to have an equivalent) and extract the GAs ISO directly.

[rytomi]

Virtualbox.org has an ftp-like site where each file related to a particular release can be found, including the Guest Additions ISO for that version. Blast me if I can't remember where it is... :oops:

However, if you can tolerate a 100-ish-MB download, on https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds you can get the whole old version, open it with a zip-file-archive program like 7-zip (Windows & free, Linux has to have an equivalent) and extract the GAs ISO directly.

I'm not worried about download size, that should work. But then there's the remaining question... What kind of graphics adapter should be set to use a 5.x guest addition Direct3D support on a 6.1.2 host? If I remember correctly, think I remember the host options changed at 6.0 causing the graphics to stop functioning entirely in Vista, which is why I tried the 6.0 additions to begin with.

[scottgus1]

I think you need to stay on 6.0.x on the host and use 5.2.x in the Vista guest. I surmise that 6.1.x on the host won't have anything listening to any 3D requests from the guest. Also, only VboxVGA existed during 5.2.x.

So I'd try VboxVGA card & 5.2.x GAs on 6.0.x host.

[MuldeR]

VirtualBox Guest Additions v6.1.6 *still* broken on Windows Vista (x64) guest:

vista_broken.png (33.91 KiB) Viewed 2740 times