Display resolution problem on CentOS 6.2 Guest (#17729)

[Mats62]

Hi socratis, I have attached a VM here. When installing that with CentOS 6.2 as only "Desktop" I get the same error you did, so I added a few packages:
Selected "Desktop" and ticked all boxes in "Development" and in "Base System" I added Perl to what was already ticked. I am then seeing the original issue.

As hinted before, my CentOS 7.2 VM has plenty of resolutions selectable also with the 5.2.8 GAs. The customer for whom I originally set out to create a CentOS 6.2 VM reported today that he's tried his copy and reslutions can be changed as desired. (he also has 5.0.40 GAs) For reference I have added below, the steps I followed to reproduce the issue, including the link I used to download the CentOS .iso from which I installed.

thx + BR + have a good weekend / Mats


Downloaded .iso from:
http://mirror.nsc.liu.se/centos-store/6 ... n-DVD1.iso

Booted VM from .iso, selected "Install or upgrade an existing system".

Selected default US English, selected basic storage.

Set hostname and configured network, edited eth0 to connect automatically.

Left default timezone (US for me)

Created custom layout:
sda1 /boot w 500MB fixed size, ext4
sda2 swap w 2048MB fixed size, (swap)
sda3 / w 500MB dynamic up to size, ext4

Left boot loader settings at default, /dev/sda3

Selected "Desktop" and made additional selections:
Development: Ticked all boxes
Base System: Ticked "Perl" in addition to what was selected already.
Ended up being a total of 1446 packages.
NOTE: Without the selection of the extra packages I had the same
error message you had!

Was asked to reboot: Did so.

Accepted license, did not create a user,
got a message "Insufficient memory to configure Kdump".

Logged in as root.

Inserted 5.2.8 GAs CD and installed them in a shell using
./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run install
GAs installed without protest. At this time the mouse-capturing
has already started working. Ejected GAs CD and entered "reboot"
in the shell. Log in as root again, View -> Auto-resize Guest display
is greyed out. In the guest, System -> Preferences -> Display shows
display named "unknown" with maximum resolution of 1024x768.

Re-inserted GAs CD and issued ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run uninstall.
Ejected the CD and rebooted with "reboot".

Inserted 5.0.40 GAs CD and installed with the same procedure as
with the 5.2.8 GAs CD. After having installed and rebooted, View ->
Auto-resize Guest Display is no longer greyed out and inside the guest
System -> Preferences -> Display shows many resolutions available for
the display named "VBX".

[socratis]

Confirmed!
I followed the instructions (almost) to the "t". My differentiation, which obviously didn't have an impact were:

• I created a simple user. Don't like logging in as 'root'.
• I took a snapshot before even trying to install any GAs, just so that I could revert to the "No-GAs" state. Helpful...

I did the following tests:

1. Start at the "No-GAs" state, insert 5.2.11 GAs. Installed fine, but no more than 1024x768 resolutions available. Tried to enable a custom VESA mode, but no dice:

   • $ VBoxManage setextradata CentOS CustomVideoMode1 1280x1024x32

2. Reverted at the "No-GAs" state. insert 5.0.40 GAs. Installed fine, resolutions available up to 2560x1600. Everyone is happy!
3. Update to the 5.2.11 GAs. Installed fine, but no more than 1024x768 resolutions available. Back to square one.

Installation of 5.2.11 GAs

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.2.11 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Copying additional installer modules
Installing additional modules
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Starting.
You may need to restart the Window System (or just restart the guest system)
to enable the Guest Additions.

Press Return to close this window...

Installation of 5.0.40 GAs

Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.0.40 Guest Additions for Linux............
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules       [  OK  ]
Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module                   [  OK  ]
Building the shared folder support module                  [  OK  ]
Building the graphics driver module                        [  OK  ]
Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions              [  OK  ]
Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions Installing the Window System drivers
Installing X.Org Server 1.10 modules                       [  OK  ]
Setting up the Window System to use the Guest Additions    [  OK  ]
You may need to restart the the Window System (or just restart the guest system}
to enable the Guest Additions.
Installing graphics libraries and desktop services componen[  OK  ]
                                                           [  OK  ]
Press Return to close this window...

Installation of 5.2.12 GAs on top of 5.2.11 GAs

[root@VB-CentOS VBox_GAs_5.2.11]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run 
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.2.11 Guest Additions for Linux........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 5.0.40 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...
Stopping VirtualBox Additions                              [FAILED]
(Cannot unload module vboxguest)
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules       [  OK  ]
Stopping VirtualBox Guest Addition service                 [  OK  ]
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Running kernel modules will not be replaced until the system is restarted
VirtualBox Guest Additions: Starting.
VirtualBox Guest Additions: modprobe vboxsf failed
You may need to restart the Window System (or just restart the guest system)
to enable the Guest Additions.

[root@VB-CentOS VBox_GAs_5.2.11]#

[Mats62]

Hi socratis, thx. Well, one possibility is that there's some (more or less subtle) thing missing/wrong in what I am doing, in terms of CentOS installation or hardware setups. The other possibility I see is that the GAs after 5.0.40 are simply not working with CentOS 6.2. I have seen the same issue on multiple different "hardware configurations", both created by myself and in downloaded VMs.

Again, last week I made a VM and installed it with CentOS 7.2, that one has many resolution settings with 5.2.8 GAs, probably also not with 5.2.11...

Would it make sense to report this as a bug?
thx + BR / Mats

PS: Another work-around that would be interesting would be to "install a commercial graphics card" in the VM and rely on its drivers to do this. I would try this out if I knew how to do it. Such a solution would allow one to stay with the latest VBox GAs which may be beneficial in other areas, like drag 'n drop, shared folders, clipboard sharing etc.
DS

[socratis]

Would it make sense to report this as a bug?

Sure! But let me try a couple of tests more to try and narrow down at which point the GAs broke. Or you can file the bug, report the ticket # here, and either update the finding here, or on the ticket...

"install a commercial graphics card" in the VM and rely on its drivers to do this

Can't do that. You have a virtual GPU. Period.

[Mats62]

Hi socratis, thx. I can confirm that 5.0.40 is the "latest" GAs version I found that does not have the problem. 5.1.0 was the first version I found after that, it has the same issue as far as I can see. (I did a "binary search" to locate it, I think the old VM I had where the problem did not show had something like 5.0.28)

Hm, the "real graphics card" would have been an attractive work-around....

As for filing the bug:
Would it have "more weight behind it" if someone like yourself filed the bug?
If I do it, I presume there are instructions on how to do that somewhere. If not, maybe you can supply some hints.
thx + BR / Mats

[Martin]

Which Xorg version is used in CentOS 6.2?
Maybe somthing changed in the way the Guest Additions detect / support Xorg between 5.0.40 and 5.1.x

[Mats62]

Hi Martin, /var/log/Xorg.0.log suggests 1.10.4. Anything else I should look at and/or attach?

[socratis]

I think I know what I have to do; clones. Get the CentOS installation to the point that I want it, just before installing the GAs. Then clone it, install two GAs versions in each of the clones. Then, mount both cloned virtual HDs to a third Linux installation as read-only and do a "diff -r". I bet it's going to be some configuration file that doesn't get updated. Later...

Would it have "more weight behind it" if someone like yourself filed the bug?

Not really... I could give you a couple of pointers on what should and shouldn't be there. So you'll know for your next one (hopefully not)...

But I can file it the ticket as well. Either, or...

[Mats62]

Hi socratis, I just submitted ticket #17729. I apologize for any and all beginner's mistakes made in that ticket, feel free to correct them as you see fit. thx + BR + have a good weekend / Mats

[socratis]

Nicely done. I've commented in the ticket (I take it you got the e-mail notification ).

As I said, I'll be following on the differences between 5.0.40 and 5.1.22, which are as close as possible to their release date. Let's seen what a "diff" will reveal...

[Mats62]

Hi socratis, an update, which can probably be helpful. Did not see how I could add it to the bug report so I'm adding it here... It turns out that with the presence of an xorg.conf in /etc/X11/ I get useful resolutions also with the current GAs. (just tried with 5.2.12 GAs) I will attach a copy of something I got from someone with whom I discussed the problem. Caution: With the attached xorg.conf in place, a guest with no GAs installed won't be able to start the graphics, it seems. Interestingly enough, the comments in the file suggest it was originally created by VBox. BR / Mats