Ubuntu 20.04 Black screen with Ubuntu Logo after boot

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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wgshef
Posts: 2
Joined: 21. Dec 2010, 05:43
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Windows, Ubuntu

Ubuntu 20.04 Black screen with Ubuntu Logo after boot

Post by wgshef »

I have a Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop VM that I've been using for over a year.
Recently, it started failing to completely start up when launching the VM. It gets to a screen that is mostly black, but it has a Ubuntu logo at the bottom. The mouse and keyboard are unresponsive within the VM.
While the VM is at this state, I can do a Power Off. Additionally, if I wait a bit, the logo will go away. At this point, I can send the shutdown signal, and the VM will shut down.
So, it seems that it is somewhat working... just not in a usable way for me.

Other VMs (Windows based) are working properly.

As per other threads with this issue (specifically viewtopic.php?t=105123), I have verified that the HyperV Windows Feature is disabled (per instructions at https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/troub ... th-hyper-v. I think it's all off: not active in the windows features, and not running Device Guard or Credential Guard). Additionally, the 3D Acceleration is disabled in the VM settings.

VM settings:
Ubuntu 20.04 Desktop (64 bit)/Virtual Box 6.1.40
4GB ram
4 processors
Hardware Virtualization: Nested Paging Enabled
Paravirtualization Interface: Default
128 MB Video Memory
Graphics Controller: VMSVGA
3D Acceleration: Disabled

I had been running with 2GB ram / 1 processor. When having this issue, I bumped it up to see if more resources would fix the issue.
VBoxLog.zip
Zipped log file
(35.79 KiB) Downloaded 2 times
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Ubuntu 20.04 Black screen with Ubuntu Logo after boot

Post by fth0 »

VBox.log wrote:
00:00:21.042393 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=000000000c7e0000 w=640 h=480 bpp=32 cbLine=0xA00 flags=0x0 origin=0,0
00:00:23.490753 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: Booting from Hard Disk...
00:00:23.535331 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=0000000000000000 w=720 h=400 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0 flags=0x0 origin=0,0
00:00:23.700245 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=000000000c7e0000 w=640 h=480 bpp=32 cbLine=0xA00 flags=0x0 origin=0,0
00:00:24.579687 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=0000000000000000 w=720 h=400 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0 flags=0x0 origin=0,0
00:00:28.233805 VMMDev: Guest Log: vboxguest: host-version: 6.1.40r154048 0x8000000f
00:00:28.233805 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 6.0.0 r127566 '6.0.0'
00:00:28.350616 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=000000000c7e0000 w=800 h=600 bpp=32 cbLine=0xC80 flags=0x1 origin=0,0
I see two issues here:

The first (and perhaps not so relevant) issue is that you didn't install the VirtualBox Guest Additions (GA) properly. As part of the GA installation, VirtualBox builds its kernel modules, and the Version 6.0.0 indicates that it couldn't build the vboxguest kernel module. Most of the time, the installing user didn't read the error message provided during the installation and didn't install the Linux kernel sources.

The second (and probably relevant) issue is that the resolution change to 800x600 takes place after the start of the vboxguest kernel module. In a working setup, the order is the other way around. So the question is: Why are those two events triggered in the wrong order by the Linux guest OS?
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