Solaris10 XSession fails with 3.0.0 Guest Additions

[scott_barrett]

After upgrading my Mac OS X host to 3.0.0 (from 2.2.4) and installing the guest additions to my Solaris 10 guest, I found that attempts to log in to the guest using the GUI would fail, bouncing me back to the login screen. Command line logins were fine. (To be completely accurate, my guest additions had not been updated since version 2.2.0, so the problem may have been introduced in 2.2.4.)

After rummaging around, I found the following in ~/.dt/startlog:

Code: Select all

--- Tue Jun 30 22:07:19 EDT 2009
--- /usr/dt/bin/Xsession starting...
--- starting /bin/true
--- Xsession started by dtlogin
--- starting /usr/dt/bin/dtsession_res -load -system
--- sourcing /export/home/scott/.dtprofile...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0010.SUNWut.xdmEnv...
DISPLAY=:0
DTSCREENSAVERLIST='StartDtscreenSwarm StartDtscreenQix     StartDtscreenFlame StartDtscreenHop StartDtscreenImage StartDtscreenLife     StartDtscreenRotor StartDtscreenPyro StartDtscreenWorm StartDtscreenBlank'
DTSOURCEPROFILE=true
DTXSERVERLOCATION=local
EDITOR=/usr/dt/bin/dtpad
HOME=/export/home/scott
LANG=C
LOGNAME=scott
MAIL=/var/mail/scott
OPENWINHOME=/usr/openwin
PATH=/usr/bin:/usr/openwin/bin:/usr/ucb
PWD=/export/home/scott
SDT_ALT_HELLO=/bin/true
SDT_ALT_SESSION=/usr/dt/config/Xsession2.jds
SDT_NO_DTDBCACHE=1
SDT_NO_TOOLTALK=1
SESSIONTYPE=altDt
SESSION_SVR=solaris10
SHELL=/bin/bash
START_SPECKEYSD=no
TERM=dtterm
TZ=US/Eastern
USER=scott
_=dtstart_dtsession_res
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0010.dtpaths...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0015.sun.env...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0020.dtims...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0030.dttmpdir...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0040.xmbind...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/0100.SUNWut...
utxprop: _SUN_SUNRAY_SESSION:  no such atom on any window.
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/1001.swupnot...
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/1099.br...
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession[659]: /var/tmp/brlog: cannot create
--- sourcing /usr/dt/config/Xsession.d/1099.vboxclient...
ld.so.1: VBoxClient: fatal: libX11.so.4: version `SUNW_1.2' not found (required by file /opt/VirtualBoxAdditions/VBoxClient)
ld.so.1: VBoxClient: fatal: libX11.so.4: open failed: No such file or directory
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession[659]: 2172 Killed
ld.so.1: VBoxClient: fatal: libX11.so.4: version `SUNW_1.2' not found (required by file /opt/VirtualBoxAdditions/VBoxClient)
ld.so.1: VBoxClient: fatal: libX11.so.4: open failed: No such file or directory
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession[659]: 2179 Killed
ld.so.1: VBoxClient: fatal: libX11.so.4: version `SUNW_1.2' not found (required by file /opt/VirtualBoxAdditions/VBoxClient)
ld.so.1: VBoxClient: fatal: libX11.so.4: open failed: No such file or directory
/usr/dt/bin/Xsession[659]: 2184 Killed
/usr/openwin/bin/xlsatoms:  unable to open display ":0"
Notification Application cannot run:  User is not running 
 in the GNOME environment.

It appears that the VBoxClient was built against a newer version of libX11.so than is installed in Solaris 10 with the latest Xsun patch (119060-46):

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bash-3.00$ ldd /opt/VirtualBoxAdditions/VBoxClient | grep libX11
        libX11.so.4 =>   /usr/lib/libX11.so.4
bash-3.00$ nm /usr/lib/libX11.so.4 | grep SUNW
00000000 A SUNW_1.1
00000000 A SUNWprivate

After some googling, I added the following line to ~/.dtprofile:

Code: Select all

export LD_NOVERSION=yes

This tells the runtime linker not to verify version dependencies. This works around the problem until either VBoxClient is fixed or an updated libX11.so is provided for Solaris 10.

The problem doesn't occur for my OpenSolaris guest, since libX11.so.4 on OpenSolaris 0906 provides the SUNW_1.2 version.

- Scott

[rasta]

Initial trial of the 3.0.0 Solaris guest additions on a WinXP 32-bit host with a Sol 10 u7 guest yielded the same result. I could not log in using the main GUI login screen. This is not good at all, to say the least. Thank you for the workaround, Scott!!

[rasta]

This problem suggests that the Vbox developers don't even test Solaris guests and additions using official Solaris releases. Quite worrisome. Apparently it is up to us users to stumble into and report all the bugs.

[rasta]

I am in the process of more fully testing guest Solaris 10 u7 guest configurations on a 32-bit WinXP host using Vbox 3.0.0 with guest additions installed.

I was able to log in to the guest in 32-bit mode using the GUI with VT-x disabled and PAE/NX, IO APIC enabled. However, the guest is very slow, with constant low-to-moderate CPU activity with no user processes running.

Login to the 32-bit guest using the GUI failed with VT-x enabled, one processor selected.

32-bit guest was completely unstable if more than one processor was selected with VT-x. I have dual quad-core Xeon E5345 processors.

[scott_barrett]

I've discovered that the workaround is only partial. An attempt to copy to the clipboard from the Solaris guest will cause the VBoxClient --clipboard process to die, as it finds the Xutf8TextPropertyToTextList symbol to be unresolved.

I've created trouble ticket #4344 for the libX11.so mismatch problem.

- Scott

[rasta]

With 32-bit WinXP host, Sol 10 u7 32-bit guest, and Vbox 3.0.0, Solaris guest additions installed, IO APIC and ACPI enabled.

PAE/NX, 1 processor, no VT-x: GUI login normal, very slow guest performance, Xorg constantly running at 12-14% cpu.

PAE/NX, 1 processor, VT-x: GUI login normal, very good guest performance. Everything normal.

I didn't have any problems with the 2.2.4 Solaris guest additions. Everything worked very well with the Sol 10 guest.

After a rough start (including crash of the guest upon logging out after install of new guest additions), I am not seeing any problems with the 3.0.0 Solaris guest additions.