Win VB Host offered upgrade to 7; Linux will no longer go into graphical

[schwim]

Hi there everyone!

This morning Virtualbox on my Win 11 host machine offered me a major update to v. 7 (7.0.6 r155176 (QT5.15.2)) which I downloaded and installed. After first startup in new version, I was prompted to update the addon pack, which I did as well.

Upon starting my Ubuntu 22.04 guest install, the terminal portion of the bootup occurs as normal. When it goes to graphical, it stays black, nothing showing on screen. If I choose to move to CTRL-ALT-F1, I get my login string at terminal. If I try to go back to F7, I see a blinking underscore at the top left of the window(which is now boxed and not fullscreen as GA would normally have it.

At this time, I mounted GA through the settings of the VB app, booted the VM and ran the GA update. Upon reboot of it running with the up-to-date GA, it still refuses to go full screen or show a DE.

Could someone tell me how I might get my desktop environment back in my guest?

Thanks for your time!

[schwim]

I've tried all my backups and other distros. It seems any linux guest without GA installed will boot into the DE while everything with it installed will not.

I'm truly stumped and in quite the pickle as it will take me a while to rebuild my guest from scratch if I can't figure this out. Any help would be appreciated.

[scottgus1]

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. In the "Logs" subfolder, zip the VM's "vbox.log", and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions so you can find the "vbox.log", not "vbox.log.1", etc.)

[schwim]

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer/Finder/File Manager. In the "Logs" subfolder, zip the VM's "vbox.log", and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab. (Configure your host OS to show all extensions so you can find the "vbox.log", not "vbox.log.1", etc.)

Hello and thank you for the help!

I've done as instructed. Here is my log file. Let me know if there's anything else I can provide.

[scottgus1]

The posted log is apparently of a VM whose 'hardware' is working properly.

00:00:04.330442 VirtualBox VM 7.0.6 r155176 win.amd64 (Jan 11 2023 16:38:38) release log
00:00:24.477665 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 6.1.36 r152435 '6.1.36'

update the addon pack, which I did as well... When it goes to graphical, it stays black, nothing showing on screen.

A log with 7.0.6 Guest Additions installed might show just a tad more what the problem is. Please try again.

Guest Additions have prerequisites in Linux, same as Virtualbox on the host, see https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04. ... ions-linux and https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02. ... nux-prereq. Also, watch the terminal installation report when running the GAs installer. Error messages will show if the install ran into a problem.

[schwim]

Guest Additions have prerequisites in Linux, same as Virtualbox on the host, see https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04. ... ions-linux and https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02. ... nux-prereq. Also, watch the terminal installation report when running the GAs installer. Error messages will show if the install ran into a problem.

Hi there again,

[EDIT] ok, I installed GA 7.0.6 and now it will boot into the DE but it is the size of the guest screen you get without GA, meaning a small square in the center of the screen.

I've attached a new log file, captured in the same manner as the last one you requested. Do you see anything that would be causing my issue?

[schwim]

As an update:

Starting the VM, the DE shows as small box.

CTRL+F to leave fullscreen, screen becomes the fullsize of the window, conky and wallpaper are at the wrong locations due to the change in VM window size. CTRL+F to return to fullsize.

Killall and restart conky and wallpaper resolves all issues with the DE.

This allows me to use the VM but I'm hoping that I can resolve this issue allowing the VM to work as intended.

[okcrum]

I've tried all my backups and other distros. It seems any linux guest without GA installed will boot into the DE while everything with it installed will not.

I'm truly stumped and in quite the pickle as it will take me a while to rebuild my guest from scratch if I can't figure this out. Any help would be appreciated.

The reason for this is that most Linux will install OpenVMWare drivers by default. No need for GA.

lsmod will show you running the vmwgfx display driver on your VMs that boot OK, is my guess.

[schwim]

lsmod will show you running the vmwgfx display driver on your VMs that boot OK, is my guess.

If this were the case, why would my installed VM work properly and only break when I upgraded VBox from 6 to 7?

[scottgus1]

You do have 7.0.6 Virtualbox and GAs, so you're in optimum config for 7.0 now.

7.0 is still in bug hunt phase, and graphics were re-worked, so bugs are still present.

Please create a ticket in the Bugtracker with the problem description, the manufacturer and model of the host PC's graphics card, the graphics driver version (on the host OS), and a (zipped) VBox.log file.

Also try to see if your VM is using Wayland, and if so try X.

Then feel free to drop back to 6.1 for a working VM.

[okcrum]

lsmod will show you running the vmwgfx display driver on your VMs that boot OK, is my guess.

If this were the case, why would my installed VM work properly and only break when I upgraded VBox from 6 to 7?

Sorry, thought you were using fresh Linux installs. That's when I noticed graphics was working correctly and checked the driver.