3D-acceleration in Wheezy since xorg-server 1.12 broken

[Perryg]

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/etc/gdm3/Xsession: Beginning session setup...
localuser:ingo being added to access control list
gnome-session-is-accelerated: No hardware 3D support.
gnome-session-check-accelerated: Helper exited with code 256
gnome-session[2664]: WARNING: Session 'gnome' runnable check failed: Abbruch mit Code 1
gnome-session[2664]: WARNING: Could not parse desktop file /home/ingo/.config/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop: Die Schlüsselwertedatei enthält nicht den Schlüssel »Name«
gnome-session[2664]: WARNING: could not read /home/ingo/.config/autostart/xfce4-settings-helper-autostart.desktop
gnome-session[2664]: WARNING: Failed to start app: Unable to start application: Kindprozess »wicd-gtk« konnte nicht ausgeführt werden (Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden)
gnome-session[2664]: WARNING: Failed to start app: Unable to start application: Kindprozess »kerneloops-applet« konnte nicht ausgeführt werden (Datei oder Verzeichnis nicht gefunden)

Says that you have issues with missing child process and that it can not find you acceleration drivers.


The best I can tell is this really is an issue with Debian and more than likely due to an unbalance of some kind. Seems to only show in virtual. Probably why I had to install a new guest and update it to see it. The update mechanism seems to be broken and either removes file and fails to put them back with newer versions or fails to detect and replace them properly.

I don't do a lot with Gnome3 (I don't like it) so there may be something I am missing. I only test that it works and switch to something else.
You can create a ticket at bugtracker to see if there is anything the DEVs can do, but they usually don't do a lot with OSes that are still in testing. Actually makes sense or they would be changing things all the time with various tweaks that are added in building.

[ingo2]

I don't do a lot with Gnome3 (I don't like it) so there may be something I am missing. I only test that it works and switch to something else.
You can create a ticket at bugtracker to see if there is anything the DEVs can do, but ...

Thanks for your help Perryg, so as I suspected it seems to be an issue with Debian-Wheezy. So I won't file a bug for VBox of course. I as well am trying to make friend with Gnome-shell, that's why I have XFCE installed as an alternative. Maybe Gnome-Classic is an option, but I do miss most of the configuration options as they exist in Gnome2. Unity isn't an option as well - it's even worse then Gnome3, additionally lacking stability because it is based on compiz.

Best regards from Germany,
Ingo

[ingo2]

Additional information:

I now logged into a XFCE-session (Wheezy guest) and tried to start 'glxgears'. Got this message:

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Error: couldn't get an RGB, Double-buffered visual

On Mint-Lisa (guest based on Ubuntu 11.10) with Cinnamon desktop and "X.Org X Server 1.10.4" glxgears starts fine without any complainsts.

Ingo

[Perryg]

@ingo2,

I have never had a good experience mixing different desktops. They do (for the most part) work but have a tendency to have missing parts that keep it from being totally active IMHO. Some packages that are required don't play well with other packages and unless you are willing to find and fix each of these one-by-one your experience would be diminished.

If you have the space and time, I would install with gnome as the primary desktop and see if that helps to resolve your issue. It probably explains the missing child processes as well.

If I find the time I will see what happens adding GDM to XFCE but it be a few days.

[ingo2]

@ Perryg

you are right that mixing desktops is not a good idea. I just did it in a VM while Wheezy is still in development to find the future desktop once my Squeeze with Gnome2 "expires".

BTW: I have added my observations to this http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=673437 Debian bug, which is meanwhile getting confirmations and attention - I'm not alone with the problem.

[Perryg]

I did another dist-upgrade today as a test and lost G3 again to fallback.
Same issue as before.
As sudo

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apt-get remove gnome-shell gnome-panel && apt-get install gnome-shell gnome-panel

restores it to functionality.

Definitely an issue with SID and the way the packages are upgraded since the only thing that needs to be done is to remove and install the same packages with the same versions.

Note1: reinstall does not seem to work, and kind of makes sense when I think about it as the pointers are exactly the same unless the package is removed.
Note2: I also purged the apt cache to make sure that the cache was not the issue and it did not change the results.

Anyway I think we have established this is not an issue with VirtualBox (at least the one from VirtualBox.org).

[ingo2]

I did try exactly what you proposed with Wheezy here - without success.

I even tried the "old" Additions 4.1.12: dowbnloaded the ISO ...
un-installed and installed all Gnome stuff, tried also the new 4.1.16 Additions - nothing changes, no 3D. I now updated VBox to 4.1.16 completely here, all went smooth.

So, my guess ist that the root cause is the new X-server 1.12 which migrated to Wheezy at the same time when new VBox-Additions came in.

For your information: meanwhile the Debian-bug #673437 I mentioned above has been forwarded to Oracle/VBox, see here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10584. Probably we add a link to this thread or at least a comment what you discovered?

[ingo2]

Perryg,

please allow me one more question (despite it's a bit off topic) with regard to 3D-acceleration:
I observed that 3D-accelleration in a Linux-guest (can't check with Win) tends to get unreliable as soon as I assign 2 CPU's to the guest. When booting up the guest it happens that 3D-support is lost every one and then. With one single CPU this doesn't happen. Host is Squeeze-amd64 and graphics card is Geforce 210. Is this normal?

[Perryg]

No that shouldn't happen. I have 3D on all Linux guests with SMP.

It might be something in your Debian host though I am not sure. With all of this multiarch work they are doing it is a freakin' nightmare. (which is probably causing your Gnome3 issue as well) I Just got notified that the package libgl1-mesa-dri < 8.0.2 has this error with the new Xorg and I guess since I manually test these probably why it worked for me. I never thought that they would subject a package to wheezy that was not right. Oh well, live and learn. They should have wheezy patched soon.

[ingo2]

Thanks,
Ingo

[Perryg]

You could post a log file (as an attachment) of each. One with 1 processor and on with two.
Also look close at the guests dmesg and VBox related logs in /var/log. xorg.0.log might help as well. Here again one with and one without.

Which driver are you using on the host?

[ingo2]

Which driver are you using on the host?

NVIDIA 195.36.31 , assigned 128MB Video-RAM to the guest.

Guest at the moment is Mint13 = Maya-amd64 with Cinnamon.
I am currently trying to reproduce the SMP failure, but withot success. Will post more information when I catch something in the logs.

Found this enties in /var/log/Xorg.0.log of the guest (I observed the SMP issue with this VM twice today):

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maya ingo # cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i warn
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    25.140] (II) VBoxVideo(0): DDCModeFromDetailedTiming: 1280x960 Warning: We only handle separate sync.
[    40.629] (II) VBoxVideo(0): DDCModeFromDetailedTiming: 1280x960 Warning: We only handle separate sync.
[    49.239] (II) VBoxVideo(0): DDCModeFromDetailedTiming: 1280x960 Warning: We only handle separate sync.
[    68.498] (II) VBoxVideo(0): DDCModeFromDetailedTiming: 1280x960 Warning: We only handle separate sync.
maya ingo # cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i fail
[    25.169] drmOpenByBusid: Interface 1.4 failed, trying 1.1
maya ingo # cat /var/log/Xorg.0.log | grep -i error
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
[    25.186] (EE) AIGLX error: vboxvideo does not export required DRI extension

[Perryg]

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(EE) AIGLX error: vboxvideo does not export required DRI extension

I see this on all Linux guests that have 3D enabled. VBox actually uses swrast so the error is kind of a false positive.

Below is the section from my SID xorg.0.log

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[   115.884] (EE) AIGLX error: vboxvideo does not export required DRI extension
[   115.885] (EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
[   115.912] (II) AIGLX: Loaded and initialized swrast
[   115.912] (II) GLX: Initialized DRISWRAST GL provider for screen 0