Can't boot any of my VMs

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Teresa
Posts: 3
Joined: 31. Aug 2020, 17:55

Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by Teresa »

Hi, I have several Linux VMs on a Windows 10 host machine. As of a few days ago, I've been unable to boot any of my Linux VMs. I've checked to make sure that Hyper-V and Windows Hypervisor Platform are disabled. I've also updated, uninstalled, and reinstalled Virtualbox and restarted my computer several times. In addition, I've also downloaded and installed VMware and set up a Debian VM. The VMware VM seems to have the same issue, so I assume that the issue must be related to my host machine.

Virtualbox version: 6.1.12 r 139181
Windows build (host): Windows 10 Education; 64-bit; Version 10.0.17763; OS build 17763.1397; 16 GB RAM
Guest OS: Debian 10 guest; guest additions installed; 2 GB RAM assigned

I have also attached a screenshot of Windows Features, the VM log file, and the VBoxHardening.log file for one of my VMs.

Thank you for your help and patience,
Teresa
Attachments
Virtualbox-logs.zip
(79.96 KiB) Downloaded 97 times
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by scottgus1 »

Hardening log has a exit code 0, so no hardening trouble.

Hyper-V is off:
00:00:03.933162 HM: HMR3Init: VT-x w/ nested paging and unrestricted guest execution hw support
You have Windows Subsystem for Linux enabled, but WSL isn't supposed to use Hyper-V, and WSL2 (which does use Hyper-V) is not shown.

Guest Additions are rather long in the tooth:
00:00:03.559913 VirtualBox VM 6.1.12 r139181 win.amd64 (Jul 10 2020 22:02:01) release log
00:01:52.656670 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 5.2.0 r68940 '5.2.0'
but you're not using the new video card, so the guest video shouldn't be affected.

There is this:
00:04:06.142970 ASSERT_GUEST_LOGREL F:\tinderbox\win-6.1\src\VBox\HostServices\GuestControl\VBoxGuestControlSvc.cpp(1132) int __cdecl GstCtrlService::clientMakeMeMaster(struct ClientState *,struct VBOXHGCMCALLHANDLE_TYPEDEF *,unsigned int): fRequestor != VMMDEV_REQUESTOR_LEGACY
00:04:06.142986 Outdated VBoxGuest w/o requestor support. Please update!
it appears to be a Virtualbox feature that the Guest Additions doesn't know about. Whatever caused it, an Guest Additions update should clear it up.

The guest environment seems to start and runs ten minutes:
00:00:07.411102 VMMDev: Guest Log: BIOS: Booting from Hard Disk...
.....
00:09:59.126891 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'SUSPENDING'
So far I can't see anything showing a Virtualbox problem or a guest that is not booting.

Are you seeing an error from Virtualbox or inside the guest window?
Teresa
Posts: 3
Joined: 31. Aug 2020, 17:55

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by Teresa »

Thank you so much for your quick reply!

I probably should have elaborated more on what I'm seeing. I'm not getting an error from Virtualbox, but none of my VMs (all Linux VMs) won't boot and throw several errors during the boot process. I've attached screenshots of the boot process. The VMs just hang after the "Started GNOME Display Manager" message. I've even waited for several hours, and it still hangs on that last screenshot.

In addition, to clarify, the Debian log that I attached earlier was only running for 10 minutes because I shut the VM down after seeing the same issue after waiting for about 10 minutes.

I'm also not too sure how I can update guest additions if I can't boot the VM?

Please let me know if there is any other information you would need from me.

Thank you!
Attachments
Virtualbox-Debian-boot.png
Virtualbox-Debian-boot.png (106.97 KiB) Viewed 12905 times
fth0
Volunteer
Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by fth0 »

Teresa wrote:I'm also not too sure how I can update guest additions if I can't boot the VM?
Some ideas to try:

In the VirtualBox Manager, configure Settings > Display > Screen > Video Memory to 128 MB. See if the problem persists.

Start the VM headless and watch the preview in the VirtualBox Manager. If the problem doesn't also arise in the preview, choose Show from the VM's context menu in the VirtualBox Manager.

In the VirtualBox Manager, configure Settings > Display > Remote Display > Enable Server and change the Server Port to e.g. 3390. Start the VM headless, and connect via RDP client to 127.0.0.1:3390. Uninstall the GA then.

Add a Linux ISO file to the VM and boot from that. Mount the hard disk and modify any files necessary to prevent the GA from running.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by scottgus1 »

I might also add that in addition to:
fth0 wrote:Start the VM headless and watch the preview in the VirtualBox Manager. If the problem doesn't also arise in the preview, choose Show
you can start the guest "Detachable", which does the "Show" part while causing the affected change.

Starting 'headless' or 'detachable' causes any 3D acceleration that might be interfering due to bunged Guest Additions to not start, leaving only software-graphics in the guest, which might allow booting to the guest's desktop and uninstalling Guest Additions. (The posted log has 3D acceleration disabled, though.)

You might try also seeing if there is a "Windows-Safe-Mode"-style start for the Linux guests, which only loads critical services, of which Guest Additions is not one and would not load.

However:
Teresa wrote:I have several Linux VMs on a Windows 10 host machine. As of a few days ago, I've been unable to boot any of my Linux VMs.
Bad Guest Additions might be a red herring. If the guests all went bad at once, then it's a host change that caused it, not bad GAs. What happened "a few days ago"? Host OS update, host graphics update, Virtualbox update, etc? Did you turn on WSL?
fth0
Volunteer
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Location: Germany

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by fth0 »

scottgus1 wrote:you can start the guest "Detachable", which does the "Show" part while causing the affected change.
Thanks, good to know. ;)

When I start my Windows 10 VM on my macOS host in detachable mode, the VM window is shown right from the beginning, but there are two separate processes named VBoxHeadless and VirtualBox VM. I just wouldn't be sure how those two processes cooperate in this case, so I'd rather prefer the headless mode to fully eliminate graphical output (even if that doesn't play a role).
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by scottgus1 »

Socratis and I looked into the headless/detachable thing once. Virtualbox 'headless' start is really more like 'monitorless'. The guest GUI operation environment is still there, albeit without 3D acceleration (temporarily ignoring its being enabled for that run).

A guest OS that normally has a GUI will still calculate it when started 'headless'. This can be seen by using Virtualbox's VRDP, or even more by in-the-guest 3rd-party remote software, like VNC. Soon as you remote in the GUI is there ready to go.

Starting headless is a good diagnostic step for some hardening issues, or to see if 3D acceleration is causing or highlighting trouble.

Though I have not tried it yet, there is Display's 'None' option, which would theoretically get true "headless", running without a Virtualbox video card.
Teresa
Posts: 3
Joined: 31. Aug 2020, 17:55

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by Teresa »

A quick update:
I tried the solutions that were suggested but got nowhere and kind of just gave up.

Two days ago, my hard drive finally reached the end of its lifespan and failed. I received my new hard drive today and restored everything from my backup. I'm happy to report that my VMs are working again (as well as a host of other problems with my computer that I now realize were related to the hard drive slowly dying).

Thank you, scottgus1 and fth0, so much for your help!!! :D
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by scottgus1 »

Glad you're up and running, and big kudos for having a restorable backup!
EirikO
Posts: 1
Joined: 20. Apr 2021, 04:08

Re: Can't boot any of my VMs

Post by EirikO »

I had a lot of problems after resetting my HP laptop. Was struggling with multiple things and I think I had managed to reset all settings in Virtualbox causing mainly two showstoppers:
1. The Display driver had lost the checkbox for 3d acceleration. This caused Ubuntu to not be able to start the XWindows session and just blocked with a black screen.
2. I had managed to reset the network setup so that Ubuntu was not able to connect to the internet. I had to set it up as a bridge to the local network interface (Realtek in my case)
I was very close to giving up, but after a large amount of retries I managed to get it working again. Dont give up! :)
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