Debian 9 background issues

[bryanmc]

I'm running a fresh install of Debian 9 (Stretch) - Cinnamon in a VBox guest on a Linux Mint host. I changed the desktop background to one of my liking and all was well. When I restarted the Stretch guest later, my selected background appeared to be enlarged (x4) and what would be the upper left quarter filled the entire screen. Going into the desktop background settings and changing the setting from whatever it was (zoomed - spanned - stretched etc) to another choice corrects the issue and the background appears as it should until the guest is shutdown and restarted later. Before I installed Stretch, I ran Debian 8 (Jessie) as a VBox guest with no issues.

One thing I noticed when taking screen shots (which I can post if necessary), is that the screen shot I took of the new background when oversize (which is basically a black background with the word Debian in red) came out as the stock Stretch background tiled and not what was actually displayed on the screen. I've searched the forums, tried google, even read tea leaves and threw some bones, but I can't find anything to go on. I've also tried some of the distro supplied .jpg backgrounds with the same result. I'm really unsure if this is a Debian issue, a Cinnamon issue or a VirtualBox issue, though the only thing different is Stretch instead of Jessie.

Thanks

[bryanmc]

A little more info. I installed Debian 9 with the MATE desktop environment in another VM and it works as it should. Deleted and reinstalled the Debian 9 Cinnamon VM and the problem persists.

[Perryg]

I would like to see the guests log file ( cinnamon one ) as an attachment. I have 9 with cinnamon and it works as it should for me. I would also like to see a screen shot of the desktop but not just yet. Let's see the log first.

Edit: also post the guests *.vbox file ( compressed ) as an attachment.

[bryanmc]

Could you be a little more specific on which files you want? I've been using vbox for a while but have never needed to get "under the hood" before. Thanks

[socratis]

1. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, Show Log. Save the first one only, ZIP it and attach it.
2. Screenshot, not yet.
3. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, Show in Finder/Explorer/Whatever. That's a "<VM>.vbox" file. ZIP it and attach it as well.

[bryanmc]

Got it Socratis, thanks!

[Perryg]

I see no real issue with either of the files. I guess I need to see the screen shot now as well as the guests /var/log/Xorg.0.log ( as an attachment )

I do see you are using a special install media that has additional firmware and wonder why you need this. Not that it should matter but I have never had to use one to get the additional firmware drivers and don't know if it might have something to do with this issue.

[bryanmc]

I think I'm bumping into an attachment size limit. I'm having trouble attaching the four files I need to attach (2 actual screen shot files and two images of what was actually on the monitor when the screen shots were taken).

[Perryg]

I normally don't suggest this but with this post just upload to one of the posting sites and give me the link here.

[bryanmc]

Hopefully this works...
The two stock backgrounds (light blue) are the actual screen shots before and after I changed the desktop setting to "correct" the background. The "Debian" background (red/black) is what was actually on the monitor when the screen shots were taken.

[Perryg]

the guests /var/log/Xorg.0.log ( as an attachment )?

[bryanmc]

If you no longer need the photo link I'll delete it.



(Sorry, should have just zipped it)

[Perryg]

You can delete the link now as I don't need it any more.

I want to test something with you. Edit the guests /etc/modules file and add vboxvideo to it and reboot.

Then if that fails remove the entry and reboot.

Next turn off 3D acceleration in the guest settings and boot the guest. Does it behave any differently?

[bryanmc]

Adding vboxvideo to the etc/modules file did not change anything. What I did discover, however, was that the video issue did not occur on a reboot, only on a fresh boot. Rebooting (after a cold boot) even without correcting the background by going into settings resulted in the image being displayed correctly when it booted.

Turning off 3d acceleration resulted in the background image displaying correctly from a cold boot but had cinnamon running in software rendering mode...

[Perryg]

OK I think I have enough information. First I can not replicate this issue on any machine I have so that was the reason for so many hoops you had to jump through. There have been a handful of users ( very few actually ) that have seen this issue on various versions of VirtualBox and various OSes. To date no one has found a reason, fix, or work-around. You probably should raise a ticket at bugtracker providing as much information as you can and see if the DEVs can replicate it. If not then it will probably go as is. I see your host is using version NVIDIA 340.102 and my version is 375.66. You might try to update that and see if it helps.