VirtualBox openSUSE Leap 15.0 VM login loop problem.

[Russell1]

Host Operating System: Microsoft Windows 10 ( Home ) Edition.
Host architecture: 64-bit; x64-based.
Host memory: 6.00 GB ( 5.75 usable ).
Guest Operating Systems: OPenSuse-Leap 15.0 Linux virtual machine ( via VirtualBox Version Version 7.0.8 r156879 (Qt5.15.2) ).
Guest architecture: OPenSuse 64-bit.
Guest memory: 1024 MB.

For the past three days, my VirtualBox openSUSE Leap 15.0 Linux virtual machine has not been booting into the Graphical User Interface ( GUI, that is Dolphin ), as it has been doing previously. Instead, I get a login loop. At that login prompt, if I enter "root" as the username, and my root password, I am unable to log in. However, if I shut down the virtual machine, restart it, and select the "Advanced Options For openSUSE Leap 15.0" login option, and then select the first option on the next list of items, then I am able to log in to the virtual machine. Three attachments have been included with this post for your consideration. The first attachment shows the message of the day ( i.e., MOTD ), including a message about no space being available on the device. The second attachment shows the output of the "df" command. Notice that "/dev/sda2" has no space available, but "/dev/sda3" has space available. So it appears to me that there *is* space available on my openSUSE virtual machine. After searching the Internet, I located some information regarding the possibility of a deleted process causing the login loop problem, hence the third attachment. What do I need to do to stop the login loop and once again have my virtual machine boot into the GUI? Also, is there a *safe* way to increase the disk space on my virtual machine without crashing it or losing data? Thank you for your help.

[scottgus1]

Dev/sda2 appears to be where the OS is, and does appear to be out of space. Ubuntu is known to go blackscreen if there is not enough free disk space to start the desktop environment. Maybe Suse and OpenSuse suffer from the same problem.

The solution is to log on text-only and delete stuff until the desktop environment can start. Web-search how to fix this in an Ubuntu PC and apply the steps to the VM.

How to Resize a Drive can show you how to increase the Virtualbox drive file, and offer suggestions on resizing the partitions inside the VM.

[Russell1]

Scotttgus1, at about 01:00 a.m. this morning, I had deleted about 100 ".html" files, and all of the "/dev/sda2" items associated with the output of the "df" command increased from zero to 16 Gib. Now, at about 10:09 a.m. later this morning, after having deleted a number of header ( i.e., ".h" ) files, the "df" command output shows zero again for all of the "/dev/sda2" items. There is something strange going on with my openSUSE virtual machine. Any suggestions? Please see the attachment.

[towo2099]

You should ask in a Suse forum, your problem has zero relation to vbox.

[scottgus1]

I'm not certain of the fix to the 0-left problem, towo2099's suggestion is the way to go there.

But do look at the Resize tutorial, it may have a way to get around the 0-left problem.

[fth0]

FWIW, if you look closely at the output of the df command, you'll notice that /dev/sda2 never gets really full. The ~800 MB are probably a safety margin of the Linux OS to keep the system runnable, so that the root user can clean up the file system from within the shell. Perhaps you can use the lsof command to find out which process is creating the new files.

[Russell1]

After reading the tutorial for resizing a disk in a VirtualBox virtual machine, posted by scottgus1, the following attachment is included for your consideration. I need to know what the next step is, so as not to damage anything. Thank you for your help.

[scottgus1]

so as not to damage anything.

A backup of the VM in its pre-Gparted'd state, is the sure-fire fix for if something is done wrong. Backups should be ubiquitous in modern computing. (Best backup is a FC-verified copy of the shut-down VM folder and any disks residing outside the VM folder, not anything involving a snapshot.)

I need to know what the next step is

That would be a Gparted question, best asked on the Gparted forums. We don't officially provide other-than-Virtualbox support on this forum. Though it's likely that many folks here know how to use Gparted, you may need to rely on those backups just in case.

[fth0]

Though it's likely that many folks here know how to use Gparted

I know how to use GParted, but ...

One possible basic idea is to move the partitions /dev/sda4 (linux-swap) and /dev/sda3 (xfs) to the end of the virtual disk and then to enlarge the /dev/sda2 (btrfs) partition. BUT: I don't know what you have to do in GRUB and/or the Linux installation afterwards to make it really work ...

Additionally, there may be a totally different strategy if the btrfs file system provides some kind of logical volumes consisting of multiple partitions ...

[Russell1]

As of this evening, there was no way for me to increase the size of "/dev/sda2," for example, in GParted, so I decided to use all of the unallocated disk space to create a new disk device ( i.e., "/dev/sda5" ). How do I uninstall Gparted on my VirtualBox OpenSUSE Leap 15.0 Linux virtual machine, so that I can log in and decide how to use the new disk device? When I just tried to uninstall GParted, I received a warning that if it was uninstalled, then I would no longer be able to install VirtualBoxGuestAdditions, for example. Thank you for your help.

[scottgus1]

I don't understand how Gparted and Guest Additions could be connected.

When I just tried to uninstall GParted, I received a warning that if it was uninstalled, then I would no longer be able to install VirtualBoxGuestAdditions, for example.

What was the exact message, and what was its source? (Sounds a bit like you may have tried to delete the VM's whole CD drive.)

How do I uninstall Gparted on my VirtualBox OpenSUSE Leap 15.0 Linux virtual machine

Uninstalling Gparted from the OpenSUSE OS is not necessary. Do you mean, how do I get the VM to stop booting into Gparted? If so, remove the Gparted ISO from the VM's CD drive.