[Solved] LMDE3 with 3D acceleration enabled boots into software rendering mode

[Jeremy Smith]

Have GA 5.2.22 installed with 3D acceleration enabled but when I boot it up it says it is in software rendering mode at the top right of the screen and I am not sure why. Looked at a lot of posts on here and Google but have not found a solution. Cannot see anything stand out in the logs. If there is any other information I can provide let me know. It has worked previously without any issues. I am using onboard graphics but it's still capable of doing 3D acceleration in my VM.

[mpack]

00:00:02.819691 Shared OpenGL service loaded -- 3D enabled
00:00:02.838445 Guest Control service loaded

Well, VirtualBox seems to have enabled the OpenGL API, so I assume your problem is with the guest, e.g. not supporting OpenGL 2.1.

[Jeremy Smith]

I am not sure how to determine that. I updated my graphics drivers in my guest machine and the kernel etc. and ran the following command:

Code: Select all

glxinfo | grep "OpenGL version"

This produced the following output:

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OpenGL version string: 3.1 Mesa 18.1.9

This makes me think it should be supported? I am not sure. It was working with my VM not long ago. I did recently updated the GAs but I wouldn't think that would affect it.

[mpack]

Code: Select all

OpenGL version string: 3.1 Mesa 18.1.9

This makes me think it should be supported?

No, the VirtualBox hardware accelerated OpenGL API is 2.1 compliant. AFAIK Mesa is a Linux software renderer loaded by the guest OS.

I updated my graphics drivers in my guest machine

Well that doesn't sound good. The "graphics drivers in the guest" should be the VirtualBox GAs. It sounds like you possibly overwrote them with drivers for something else. I would expect that you needed a configuration change of some kind.

[Jeremy Smith]

Oops. Thought it might help. Anyway is there anything you would recommend checking in the guest to try and fix the software rendering mode issue?

[mpack]

Sorry, I'm not a Linux user, I can't tell you what needs to be configured. I come at this from understanding what VirtualBox does, or what a VM is. It's a simulation of the hardware of a PC. If there was something wrong with the hardware then we would see problems with all or most guests. If the problem is restricted to one guest OS it implies that the problem is that guest somehow, and not in the simulation.

[Jeremy Smith]

Too easy. The weird thing is it was working with LMDE2 and it was working for a bit in LMDE3 after I upgraded and then stopped working after a windows update. So I am not exactly sure what broke it. If I didn't care about my files I would just blow it away and start again with a fresh VM. Thanks for your help Anyway. At least I can focus my efforts in the guest machine.

[Dave B]

Hi Jeremy,

While don't use LMDE 3, I do use Linux Mint 19 Cinnamon (both host and guest). After upgrading to 5.2.22 (and its guest additions) I observed the same 'Running in software rendering mode' while 'Enable 3D Acceleration' is enabled, this was remedied by downloading and installing the Guest Additions 5.2.23 Testbuild ISO

Due to new account, not yet able to post URLs, please navigate to...
Community -> Test builds -> Guest Additions 5.2.x revision 126769

Should mention, a display 'bloom' effect issue can occur with Cinnamon DE while using 3D acceleration, for this reason I normally run with 3D acceleration disabled, even though this incurs a performance hit.

Hope the above is in some way helpful.

[socratis]

Dave B,
I fixed your URLs. I just wanted to tell you that I didn't link to a specific build, but to the Testbuilds area. The reason is that all test builds have a lifetime of 3 weeks (at most) and if I linked to the specific GAs, the link would be invalid somewhere between 00:00 (you never know when they are going to update) and 3 weeks.

[Dave B]

Thank you kindly socratis, also for the valuable information.

If able, I'd edit my post to add the following
... -> Guest Additions 5.2.x revision (currently) 126769 ...

[Jeremy Smith]

Cheers, Dave B, worked a treat. There was a weird bloom effect when I first booted up but it went away almost instantly. Appreciate the help.

[socratis]

Cheers, Dave B, worked a treat.

Great, I can mark this as [Solved] then.