CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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object404
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Joined: 23. Jan 2021, 12:05

CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by object404 »

I'm trying to install CentOS 8 Stream guest on VirtualBox 6.1.18 with a Windows 10 host.

After I select "Install CentOS Stream 80-stream" from the installation screen instructions, I'm left stuck with a blank screen with a blinking cursor. That's it.

I can't Boot into my CentOS 8.2 either after on VirtualBox 6.1.18 either after I upgraded the kernel, same with Fedora 31 after I upgraded it to Fedora 33 - all become stuck with the blinking cursor on black screen.
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Installation Screenshot
Installation Screenshot
problem_vb_centos8_stream_install_screen.png (14.4 KiB) Viewed 7230 times
Last edited by object404 on 23. Jan 2021, 12:32, edited 3 times in total.
object404
Posts: 5
Joined: 23. Jan 2021, 12:05

Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by object404 »

Here's the screenshot of the blank screen. There's a blinking cursor on the upper left, I just can't time my reflexes to capture it.
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Blank screen
Blank screen
problem_vb_centos8_stream_blank_screen.png (11.63 KiB) Viewed 7229 times
object404
Posts: 5
Joined: 23. Jan 2021, 12:05

Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by object404 »

Looks like I can't install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3 either as a guest - I can't get past the same blank screen with blinking cursor after I select "Install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.3" from the live DVD menu.
scottgus1
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Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by scottgus1 »

object404 wrote:Windows 10 host.
You have the green turtle. Hyper-V is enabled. See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).
object404
Posts: 5
Joined: 23. Jan 2021, 12:05

Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by object404 »

scottgus1 wrote:
object404 wrote:Windows 10 host.
You have the green turtle. Hyper-V is enabled. See HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM (Hyper-V is active).
That's weird. Virtualbox runs fine with older kernels for me, like with Fedora 31 and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.2. The turtle icon is there, but they run okay and I can boot into them fine for me. When I upgraded CentOS 8.2 to the latest kernel in order to install the VirtualBox guest additions as per an article on tecmint. com / install-virtualbox-guest-additions-on-centos-8/, the boot menu entry for the newer kernel entry on the CentOS 8.2 boot menu doesn't work (stuck at blinking cursor screen), but selecting older kernel boot entry runs.
scottgus1
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Primary OS: MS Windows 10
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Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by scottgus1 »

The devs continue to try to pin Hyper-V down enough to allow it to stay active, but the target keeps moving. Some OS's can work, others can't yet.

Typical forum advice is to kill off Hyper-V, unless you're certain you need it.
object404
Posts: 5
Joined: 23. Jan 2021, 12:05

Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by object404 »

Okay, turning off Hyper-V worked!

The Linux guests are now working properly. Downside is I can't use Windows Subsystem for Linux 2 (WSL2) it seems as it looks like it requires Hyper-V to be enabled. So it's looking like either I use VirtualBox or WSL2, but not both at the same time...

Hopefully this can be remedied in the future...

Thanks!
scottgus1
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Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by scottgus1 »

object404 wrote:WSL2) it seems as it looks like it requires Hyper-V
Yes, that's true.
object404 wrote:Hopefully this can be remedied in the future...
We can always hope, but not accurately predict.
object404 wrote: it's looking like either I use VirtualBox or WSL2, but not both at the same time...
For the time being, yes. However, we do well not to lose sight of the forest for the trees. If the intent is just to be able to run Linux commands, maybe Cygwin will do. Running Linux programs in a Virtualbox VM, while not as apparently seamless as WSL2 supposedly is (I haven't tried WSL2 so I'm depending on web-searches) it would be like running Windows and Linux in a network, so maybe workarounds can be tried. Then of course there's the nuclear option: run VM's in Hyper-V instead of Virtualbox.
CarlosQ
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Joined: 6. Apr 2021, 15:56

Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by CarlosQ »

Notice that there are three "Hyper-V" related features on "Turn on/off Windows features" of modern versions of Windows 10:

- "Hyper-V" and children: the level-1 hypervisor (for virtual machines, not required for WSL2)
- "Virtual Machine Platform": to use WSL2 (Hyper-V not required, only this feature)
- "Windows Hypervisor Platform": for 3rd party level-2 (software-based) hypervisors such as VMWare, VirtualBox, etc. to coexist with level-1 hypervisor (Hyper-V)

Turning off only "Hyper-V" and keeping on "Virtual Machine Platform and "Windows Hypervisor Platform" doesn't solve the problem of CentOS 8 hanging on Virtual Box on boot. I have turned off the three features and the problem was solved.

I have not tested the permutations yet, but hopefully turning on just "Virtual Machine Platform" you can use VirtualBox and WSL2.
scottgus1
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Re: CentOS 8 Stream is stuck with blinking cursor during installation on VB 6.1.18

Post by scottgus1 »

CarlosQ wrote:Notice that there are three "Hyper-V" related features on "Turn on/off Windows features"
There's actually lots of features in that list that enable Hyper-V.
I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests, posts 2 and 3.
CarlosQ wrote:hopefully turning on just "Virtual Machine Platform" you can use VirtualBox and WSL2.
If it does work for you, please make a new topic relating how you did it. But based on results from the past, I would not hold hope. More development is needed to enable this as of today, if it is possible at all.

If enabling any Windows Features causes the green turtle in the VM window's status bar, then the Virtualbox-upending Hyper-V is enabled, look out for squalls.
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