Virtual machine screen flickers

[SamH]

Virtual machine is constantly flickering and when I log in grey base coloured squares appear until I press in the higher left corner where dash is.

I am using Virtualbox 4.3.26. My host is Ubuntu 15.04 with custom NVIDIA driver for Geforce GTX 960M. My guest is Ubuntu 14.04.02 LTS.

Also, virtual machine in 90% of the time aborts when attempting unpausing it after it was paused. I am using ASUS g501JW with PCIE x 4 512G disk.

What can I do to remove flickering and avoid machine aborting? Thanks.

[Perryg]

Minimal information needed to be able to help

[SamH]

Please find below more details:
- Virtualbox version: 4.3.26 r98988
- host OS: Ubuntu 15.04 64 bit , 16 GB RAM
- hardware: ASUS g501JW with PCIE x 4 512G disk, NVIDIA Geforce GTX 960M (custom driver NVIDIA installed on host), 16GB RAM
- guest OS: Ubuntu 14.04.02 LTS 64 bit, 11,1 GB RAM available

Code: Select all

myusername@myusername-G501JW:~$ VBoxManage showvminfo myusername_dev --details
Name:            myusername_dev
Groups:          /
Guest OS:        Ubuntu (64 bit)
UUID:            746b8bbf-436c-4694-a4a0-7f1a8c3dad66
Config file:     /home/myusername/VirtualBox VMs/myusername_dev/myusername_dev.vbox
Snapshot folder: /home/myusername/VirtualBox VMs/myusername_dev/Snapshots
Log folder:      /home/myusername/VirtualBox VMs/myusername_dev/Logs
Hardware UUID:   746b8bbf-436c-4694-a4a0-7f1a8c3dad66
Memory size:     11100MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       128MB
CPU exec cap:    100%
HPET:            off
Chipset:         ich9
Firmware:        BIOS
Number of CPUs:  4
PAE:             on
Long Mode:       on
Synthetic CPU:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
Time offset:     0ms
RTC:             UTC
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Nested Paging:   on
Large Pages:     off
VT-x VPID:       on
VT-x unr. exec.: on
State:           running (since 2015-05-13T11:48:31.776000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: on
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address: 
Teleporter Password: 
Tracing Enabled: off
Allow Tracing to Access VM: off
Tracing Configuration: 
Autostart Enabled: off
Autostart Delay: 0
Default Frontend: 
Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (0):            PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      2
Storage Controller Bootable (0):        on
Storage Controller Name (1):            SATA Controller
Storage Controller Type (1):            IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  30
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      1
Storage Controller Bootable (1):        on
IDE Controller (1, 0): Empty
SATA Controller (0, 0): /home/myusername/VirtualBox VMs/myusername_dev/myusername_dev.vdi (UUID: adfbc6b1-0918-466e-afdc-a22c859dfb5f)
NIC 1:           MAC: 0800278D29C7, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
NIC 9:           disabled
NIC 10:           disabled
NIC 11:           disabled
NIC 12:           disabled
NIC 13:           disabled
NIC 14:           disabled
NIC 15:           disabled
NIC 16:           disabled
NIC 17:           disabled
NIC 18:           disabled
NIC 19:           disabled
NIC 20:           disabled
NIC 21:           disabled
NIC 22:           disabled
NIC 23:           disabled
NIC 24:           disabled
NIC 25:           disabled
NIC 26:           disabled
NIC 27:           disabled
NIC 28:           disabled
NIC 29:           disabled
NIC 30:           disabled
NIC 31:           disabled
NIC 32:           disabled
NIC 33:           disabled
NIC 34:           disabled
NIC 35:           disabled
NIC 36:           disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
LPT 1:           disabled
LPT 2:           disabled
Audio:           enabled (Driver: PulseAudio, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
Drag'n'drop Mode: Bidirectional
Session type:    GUI/Qt
Video mode:      1920x1034x32 at 0,0
VRDE:            disabled
USB:             enabled
EHCI:            enabled

USB Device Filters:

Index:            0
Active:           yes
Name:             Patriot Memory [0100]
VendorId:         13fe
ProductId:        3800
Revision:         0100
Manufacturer:             
Product:          Patriot Memory
Remote:           0
Serial Number:    07B311011963B081

Index:            1
Active:           yes
Name:             USB Flash Drive [0100]
VendorId:         1e3d
ProductId:        2093
Revision:         0100
Manufacturer:             
Product:          USB Flash Drive 
Remote:           0
Serial Number:    25124300572F7508

Index:            2
Active:           yes
Name:             Western Digital My Passport 0740 [1003]
VendorId:         1058
ProductId:        0740
Revision:         1003
Manufacturer:     Western Digital
Product:          My Passport 0740
Remote:           0
Serial Number:    57584D314137313030343931

Index:            3
Active:           yes
Name:             Western Digital Elements 10B8 [1007]
VendorId:         1058
ProductId:        10b8
Revision:         1007
Manufacturer:     Western Digital
Product:          Elements 10B8
Remote:           0
Serial Number:    575848314533335753584635

Index:            4
Active:           yes
Name:             HTC Android Phone [0228]
VendorId:         0bb4
ProductId:        0f25
Revision:         0228
Manufacturer:     HTC
Product:          Android Phone
Remote:           0
Serial Number:    FA35DW906104

Index:            5
Active:           yes
Name:             Apple Inc. iPad [0220]
VendorId:         05ac
ProductId:        12a2
Revision:         0220
Manufacturer:     Apple Inc.
Product:          iPad
Remote:           0
Serial Number:    f55bd4d7ffafd8b28bf317e8333129b751abbdf7

Index:            6
Active:           yes
Name:             New Filter 1
VendorId:         
ProductId:        
Revision:         
Manufacturer:     
Product:          
Remote:           
Serial Number:    

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Bandwidth groups:  <none>

Shared folders:  

Name: 'tmp', Host path: '/home/myusername/tmp' (machine mapping), writable

VRDE Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     0

Video capturing:    not active
Capture screens:    0
Capture file:       /home/myusername/VirtualBox VMs/myusername_dev/myusername_dev.webm
Capture dimensions: 1024x768
Capture rate:       512 kbps
Capture FPS:        25

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB

OS type: Linux26_64
Additions run level: 2
Additions version: 4.3.26 r98988


Guest Facilities:

Facility "VirtualBox Base Driver": active/running (last update: 2015/05/13 11:48:40 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox System Service": active/running (last update: 2015/05/13 11:48:42 UTC)
Facility "Seamless Mode": active/running (last update: 2015/05/13 11:51:10 UTC)
Facility "Graphics Mode": active/running (last update: 2015/05/13 11:48:40 UTC)


myusername@myusername-G501JW:~$

[Perryg]

Nothing just jumps out as being the reason for the flickering. I see you have committed all of your cores to the guest and under a load that would effect the guest as well as the host. You have 4 cores total. VBox does not count threads.


can you also provide the following information from the guests terminal:

Code: Select all

glxinfo | grep OpenGL

Also are you using the default Ubuntu DE or something custom like KDE, Etc..

[loukingjr]

@Perryg, when I run the command for my Ubuntu 15.04 guest…

Code: Select all

VBoxManage showvminfo vmname --details

I get none of the lines after

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size: 0 MB

is there a reason the OP has "OS type: Linux26_64" plus the remaining lines? Certainly Ubuntu 15.04 and 14.04 are not using a Linux 2.6 Kernel.

Or is my difference because I'm on an OSX host at the moment?

edit: I get the same results on my Ubuntu 15.04 box. Maybe because I'm on VB 5.0b3 on both hosts.

[Perryg]

@lou,
I suspect they were added by the OP. Not sure at this point.

[loukingjr]

ok thanks.

[SamH]

Thanks for looking into this.

Here is the additional info requested:
$ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
OpenGL vendor string: NVIDIA Corporation
OpenGL renderer string: GeForce GTX 960M/PCIe/SSE2
OpenGL core profile version string: 4.4.0 NVIDIA 346.59
OpenGL core profile shading language version string: 4.40 NVIDIA via Cg compiler
OpenGL core profile context flags: (none)
OpenGL core profile profile mask: core profile
OpenGL core profile extensions:
OpenGL version string: 4.5.0 NVIDIA 346.59
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.50 NVIDIA
OpenGL context flags: (none)
OpenGL profile mask: (none)
OpenGL extensions:
OpenGL ES profile version string: OpenGL ES 3.1 NVIDIA 346.59
OpenGL ES profile shading language version string: OpenGL ES GLSL ES 3.10
OpenGL ES profile extensions:

I had issues on Ubuntu 14.04.02 LTS on my host with NVIDIA. I needed to upgrade (painfully since upgrade does not work) Ubuntu to 15.04 and then at least Ubuntu worked on my host. So I assume this flickering is related to somehow to this. I can run the same virtual machine on my old ASUS laptop and no flickering... Also, the heaviest flickering goes on when I press dash or when I use terminal (or I have many terminals open at once) and there are lines of text (commands being executed and log printed to terminal) being printed to terminal. And almost with every line of print in terminal the sidebar flickers (and the whole frame around desktop). When I hide the terminal(s) and look at for example Eclipse, the screen flickers maybe once every 20 seconds...

[Perryg]

Actually i needed as specified that this come from the guest.

[SamH]

From guest:
glxinfo | grep OpenGL
libGL error: pci id for fd 4: 80ee:beef, driver (null)
OpenGL Warning: glFlushVertexArrayRangeNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glVertexArrayRangeNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glCombinerInputNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glCombinerOutputNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glCombinerParameterfNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glCombinerParameterfvNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glCombinerParameteriNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glCombinerParameterivNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glFinalCombinerInputNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetCombinerInputParameterfvNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetCombinerInputParameterivNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetCombinerOutputParameterfvNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetCombinerOutputParameterivNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetFinalCombinerInputParameterfvNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetFinalCombinerInputParameterivNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glDeleteFencesNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glFinishFenceNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGenFencesNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glGetFenceivNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glIsFenceNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glSetFenceNV not found in mesa table
OpenGL Warning: glTestFenceNV not found in mesa table
libGL error: core dri or dri2 extension not found
libGL error: failed to load driver: vboxvideo
OpenGL vendor string: Humper
OpenGL renderer string: Chromium
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Chromium 1.9
OpenGL shading language version string: 4.50 NVIDIA
OpenGL extensions:

[Perryg]

This looks good enough. Have you reduced the number of cores allocated to the guest yet? Also you failed to answer my question of what DE you are using.

[SamH]

I don't know what DE means. I guess type of desktop. I use plain Ubuntu as can be downloaded here: http://www.ubuntu.com/download/desktop .

Sure I can reduce number of cores but I don't get it why this has anything to do with flickering. I was using both cores of my Lenovo Thinkpad T420 i-5 and there was no flickering. I am using all 4 cores of my old Asus and virtual machine does not flicker... But I understand. In order to move this of the table I will do it immediately and report results...

[SamH]

I have 3 processor cores dedicated to this VM now and my perception is it flickers even more...

[Perryg]

So now we look at the host.

Tell me to your best recollection what happened when you tried to upgrade from 10.04 to 15.04?
Why do you say it is not possible? I know it works but you can't jump releases. You would have to go to 14.10 first then 15.04.

[SamH]

I just bought new laptop. Deleted Windows 8 immediately. I wanted to use 14.04 LTS but due to NVIDIA drivers several things did not work - like suspend. This was the most frustrating. So I upgraded. First to 14.10 and then to 15.04. Almost at the end of upgrade process upgrade hanged. Waited for hours and did not finished. I tried to upgrade guest vm also from 14.04 to 15.04 (via 14.10) but it did not work. The same thing, upgrade hanged. Here, in vm guest I can not make a clean install since I have to many things set up and just do the backup and restore of /home folder would not do the trick... So, here I am, Ubuntu 15.04 host and 14.04 guest due to broken upgrade process...