[Resolved] Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
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drzdrz
Posts: 6
Joined: 21. Jun 2018, 15:33

[Resolved] Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by drzdrz »

Been using the same VirtualBox Linux image for months, never had any issues.

Since a few days I can't get the image to boot any further than a black screen with a blinking white underscore.

Only thing I can think of that might have caused this, is the recently released "April Update" for Windows 10. Currently on version: Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.17134.112]

Spent countless of hours Google'ing and trying to fix this, but I can't seem to get it done. Anyone here capable of helping me dig a bit deeper?

I'm running VirtualBox v5.2.13 r122773 (Qt5.6.2) on Windows 10 Pro x64 with Ubuntu Server 16.04 LTS as guest system.

Screenshots: (remove the space)

- i.imgur. com/lp2knjR.png

- i.imgur. com/lp2knjR.png

Thanks in advance!
Last edited by socratis on 28. Jun 2018, 23:49, edited 6 times in total.
Reason: Marked as [Resolved].
drzdrz
Posts: 6
Joined: 21. Jun 2018, 15:33

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by drzdrz »

My bad, here's the VirtualBox logfile.
Attachments
VBox.log
(124.71 KiB) Downloaded 257 times
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by socratis »

00:00:01.943955 File system of 'C:\Users\ldrissen\Downloads\VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.12.iso' (DVD) is ntfs
Why are you downloading your Guest Additions separately? They come bundled with VirtualBox!
00:00:02.164668 [/Devices/ich9pci/0/Config/] (level 4)
Why are you using an experimental feature which is there solely to support OSX guests? Have you hovered over that control and read the tooltip? Change it to the default PIIX3.

Please attach the image locally in your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form). Not a lot of people will go to 3rd party sites. And for future reference you should ZIP your logs. It helps save a (virtual) tree or two... ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
drzdrz
Posts: 6
Joined: 21. Jun 2018, 15:33

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by drzdrz »

Thanks for the quick response!

1) Honestly, I don't know why I downloaded it seperately. Probably because I read it somewhere in a forum post hoping it could solve my problem. But no luck there.. Could this be the reason for my issues? What do you suggest?

2) I changed it back to PIIX3. Result remains the same, so no luck there either.

I changed my language settings to English, might make a bit easier for you to read. :P Attached the (English) settings and a new logfile.
Attachments
vb_settings.png
vb_settings.png (26.23 KiB) Viewed 16480 times
VBox.zip
(23.41 KiB) Downloaded 24 times
Last edited by socratis on 22. Jun 2018, 09:48, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unnecessary verbatim quote of the whole previous message.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by socratis »

00:00:01.902068 Host RAM: 8092MB (7.9GB) total, 1858MB available
00:00:02.275321 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000040000000 (1 073 741 824, 1 024 MB)
Your 1024 MB given to the guest seems a little bit on the low side. I have my 16.04 Ubuntu with a 1536 MB (1.5 GB) and it's not even the server edition. Could you increase the RAM given to the guest? But be careful about the amount of available RAM on your host, you might want to close an application or two.

The second question that I had for you was: was the ICH9 chip setting there from the beginning? I don't know if it has/had an effect on the whole installation, you are making a "heart transplant". If you continue to have issues, try a new guest installation, but stick with the defaults, except the RAM (1.5 GB), #CPUs (2), and VRAM (max it out).
drzdrz wrote:I changed my language settings to English, might make a bit easier for you to read.
I don't read the settings from the picture, I read them from the logs, so there's actually no real need for pictures... ;)
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
drzdrz
Posts: 6
Joined: 21. Jun 2018, 15:33

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by drzdrz »

I could increase the RAM, but it used to work just fine with the exact same settings before the issues started. Might be worth noting: We even tried to run this image on different Windows-host and MacOSX-host machines, gave the exact same blinking underscore result.

The ICH9 chip setting was not there from the begining, it was on PIIX3 by default. But I fiddled with the settings, forgot to change it back.

Unfortunately, doing a re-installation is not that easy as there's a database on the virtual machine that I really can't lose. If there's some way to browse the Linux image and simply dumping/copying the SQL, that would be fine as well.

As it seems, I'm afraid this doesn't bode well, any other things I could try? :(

EDIT #1:
I always properly shutdown the image, never had any crashes or whatsoever. So I'm seriously flabbergasted how, all of a sudden, a problem like this arises.

EDIT #2:
I used to have the 'famous' VERR_VMX_NO_VMX error, but removing/uninstalling Hyper-V got rid of the error. Instead, I now have a blinking underscore.
socratis
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Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by socratis »

drzdrz wrote:I could increase the RAM, but it used to work just fine with the exact same settings before the issues started.
So did the lamp in my bathroom until yesterday ;) . If you told me that this VM was in the same state as when you first installed it, I'd agree with you, but since you keep updating the VM, including the latest kernel/patches, you can't be comparing something from Apr/2016 to today...
drzdrz wrote:Unfortunately, doing a re-installation is not that easy
I didn't talk about a re-installation, I talked about a new VM, just to make sure that it runs, and that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with your guest. A wrong configuration file can cause a guest to misbehave, and it has absolutely nothing to do with VirtualBox.
drzdrz wrote:If there's some way to browse the Linux image and simply dumping/copying the SQL, that would be fine as well.
You could use that new VM (see above) and mount the "bad" VM's VDI as a secondary HD.
drzdrz wrote:So I'm seriously flabbergasted how, all of a sudden, a problem like this arises.
Look at the updates for your guest. You had them enabled, didn't you? So, don't be surprised when an update might fail. Again, nothing to do with VirtualBox, it could happen to a real computer as well.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
drzdrz
Posts: 6
Joined: 21. Jun 2018, 15:33

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by drzdrz »

socratis wrote:So did the lamp in my bathroom until yesterday ;) . If you told me that this VM was in the same state as when you first installed it, I'd agree with you, but since you keep updating the VM, including the latest kernel/patches, you can't be comparing something from Apr/2016 to today...
1) Okay, fair enough. ;) However, I did try older versions of VBox without any effect.
socratis wrote:I didn't talk about a re-installation, I talked about a new VM, just to make sure that it runs, and that there's nothing fundamentally wrong with your guest. A wrong configuration file can cause a guest to misbehave, and it has absolutely nothing to do with VirtualBox.
2) Sorry, misunderstood. So, I created a new Ubuntu 32-bit guest using the existing disk image. Same problem persists, see the attached logs.
socratis wrote:You could use that new VM (see above) and mount the "bad" VM's VDI as a secondary HD.
3) In other words: I install a brand new Ubuntu 32-bit server, when that finishes and boots succesfully, I mount the "bad" VDI as secondary HD and try to browse it?
socratis wrote:Look at the updates for your guest. You had them enabled, didn't you? So, don't be surprised when an update might fail. Again, nothing to do with VirtualBox, it could happen to a real computer as well.
4) Got it.

Guess I'll have to try 3) and see what the outcome will be, fingers crossed..

Included the "VBox.log" in case you want to check it.

EDIT:
Not sure if it matters, but how to determine whether the OS on the VDI is 32-bit or 64-bit? Don't remember which one I chose upon installation back then.
Attachments
VBox.zip
(21.08 KiB) Downloaded 31 times
socratis
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Posts: 27330
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Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by socratis »

drzdrz wrote:However, I did try older versions of VBox without any effect.
You keep thinking that something is wrong with VirtualBox. I'm saying that something is wrong with your guest. Your actual guest!
drzdrz wrote:So, I created a new Ubuntu 32-bit guest using the existing disk image. Same problem persists, see the attached logs.
I don't have to see anything. I told you to create a new VM. That includes the hard disk, I didn't say to reuse the existing one. If there's a problem with your guest, you made what we call "a hole in the water". ;)
drzdrz wrote:I mount the "bad" VDI as secondary HD and try to browse it?
Right, absolutely correct.
drzdrz wrote:Not sure if it matters, but how to determine whether the OS on the VDI is 32-bit or 64-bit?
If it doesn't boot? Kind of tough. And speaking of... what happens when you get stuck and press HostKey+F1, do you get a terminal? Give it some time before you try it. If it does, then "uname -a" should have your answer...
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
drzdrz
Posts: 6
Joined: 21. Jun 2018, 15:33

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by drzdrz »

It somehow, miraculously, started working again. Only thing I really did was TRYING to get it mounted in a brand new Linux installation. Guess it did something right, glad it's solved now.

Thanks for the quick response and help!
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Suddenly got black screen + blinking underscore on start

Post by socratis »

Marking as [Resolved]. It's unfortunate that we don't know what you did to fix it, but at least it worked for you.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
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