Black screen on EFI VM

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Lou M
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Jul 2018, 17:49

Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Lou M »

I recently installed VirtualBox 6.1 on a brand HP new laptop. I'm getting just a black screen when trying to boot an EFI VM. To isolate the problem, I created a blank VM with no OS installed. I was expecting to get a "no OS" error and be dumped into the EFI shell; instead, I just got a black screen and nothing more. Switching the VM to BIOS, works with no problem. I've tried both, ICH9 and PIIX3, as well as VboxSVGA and VboxVGA with no success.

Attached is the log from my last try.
Attachments
Test-2020-12-03-21-04-32.log.gz
(25.74 KiB) Downloaded 30 times
Lou M
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Jul 2018, 17:49

Re: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Lou M »

Update: Here's a copy of the log at the point where the system freezes. It stops after logging the following:

Code: Select all

00:00:01.734901 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::resendSizeHint: Restoring guest size-hint for screen 0 to 800x600
00:00:01.735660 GUI: 2D video acceleration is disabled
00:00:01.735686 GUI: HID LEDs sync is not supported on this platform
00:00:01.739310 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
At that point, the CPU goes to 100% and nothing else happens until I power it off. Nothing is displayed on the VM, just a black screen.
Attachments
Test-2020-12-05-20-02-54.log
(87.08 KiB) Downloaded 18 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: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by fth0 »

Please create a new blank VM, without a virtual hard disk drive, and test if the problem persists. If this is the case, strip the VM of other unnecessary components (audio, network, ...) and test again. Post a zip file containing the whole contents of the VM folder, so we can test if the problem also occurs on other hosts.
Lou M
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Jul 2018, 17:49

Re: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Lou M »

Here's my zip of the Test VM. I disabled storage, network, USB, and audio. I also attached the Top while the VM is frozen showing 100% CPU utilization and a copy of my host machine dmesg, if it's helpful.

Thanks!
Attachments
dmesg.txt
(67.95 KiB) Downloaded 14 times
top.txt
(11.96 KiB) Downloaded 12 times
Test_VM.zip
(66.44 KiB) Downloaded 12 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: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by fth0 »

First of all, your Test VM runs without any problems on two different hosts of mine (Linux, macOS), so I think we're searching for something that's different on your host.

You combined VirtualBox 6.1.14 with the VirtualBox Extension Pack 6.1.16 (EP). This can lead to problems of all sort when using functionality of the EP. But since you used the correct combination in your first log file (Test-2020-12-03-21-04-32.log), this won't be the cause of your problem.
dmesg.txt file wrote:
[    0.016228] x86/hpet: Will disable the HPET for this platform because it's not reliable
In the dmesg.txt file, I didn't notice anything special except for this message. In Test-2020-12-05-20-02-54.log, you enabled the HPET for the VM. But since ... (see above ;)).

I don't know, what we'll find out with the following strategy, and if other readers have better ideas, I'm all ears. If you like, you can do another experiment:

Please use the VirtualBox version 6.1.16 from Oracle again, and not the version from OpenSUSE. Run the VM twice, for approximately 100 seconds and 1000 seconds, then close it, so that the VBox.log file contains the statistics (like in your first log file). Additionally, press 'H' in top to show the threads of the VirtualBoxVM process.

Yet another thing to try: Configure the Graphics Controller to None, run the VM for approximately 100 seconds, then close it. You won't see any output (except for a black window), but the VBox.log file will tell.
Lou M
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Jul 2018, 17:49

Re: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Lou M »

Thanks for your reply. Attached is the VM with the three runs:
vbox.log.2 - Current configuration 100 seconds
vbox.log.1 - Current configuration 1000 seconds
vbox.log - Graphics controller set to "None"

I'm also attaching the top and the top with H pressed. An "EMT" thread seems to be the one hogging the CPU. Hope it helps!
Attachments
top+H.txt
(10.05 KiB) Downloaded 14 times
top.txt
(9.98 KiB) Downloaded 12 times
Test.zip
(66.37 KiB) Downloaded 12 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: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by fth0 »

VBox.log.1 file wrote:
00:16:41.216168 /TM/CPU/00/cNsExecuting           991167464070 ns
00:16:41.216172 /TM/CPU/00/cNsHalted                         0 ns
00:16:41.216175 /TM/CPU/00/cNsOther                 8935605652 ns
00:16:41.216179 /TM/CPU/00/cNsTotal              1000103069722 ns
00:16:41.216182 /TM/CPU/00/cPeriodsExecuting       721966 count
00:16:41.216185 /TM/CPU/00/cPeriodsHalted               0 count
The VBox.log files show that the vCPU (EMT) was running nearly continuously, possibly inside the (U)EFI BIOS.
VBox.log.1 file wrote:
00:00:01.108459 Structured Extended Feature Flags Enumeration (leaf 7):
00:00:01.108459   Mnemonic - Description                                  = guest (host)
00:00:01.108473   17 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108477   21 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108483   30 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108484   31 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108486    1 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108490    6 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108491    8 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108492    9 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108493   10 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108494   11 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108495   12 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108496   14 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
00:00:01.108500    4 - Reserved                                           = 0 (1)
[...]
00:00:01.108623 Full Name:                       "Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-1035G1 CPU @ 1.00GHz"
The CPUID of the host CPU seems to have a lot of flags unknown to VirtualBox. I wonder if there is an incompatibility between this CPU and the VirtualBox (U)EFI BIOS. I'd suggest to create a ticket in the Bugtracker.
Lou M
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Jul 2018, 17:49

Re: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Lou M »

I just filed a ticket in BugTracker. Thanks for your help.
Ondkloss
Posts: 1
Joined: 22. Jun 2021, 12:32

Re: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Ondkloss »

In the ticket the following suggestion was made:
Please reboot your Linux host, providing the kernel parameter split_lock_detect=off. Does the issue still occur?
It resolved the issue in my case, and hopefully helps someone else.
(Being a new user I am unable to link to the ticket)
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: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by fth0 »

Here's the link to the ticket: 20090.
Lou M
Posts: 10
Joined: 23. Jul 2018, 17:49

Re: Black screen on EFI VM

Post by Lou M »

I can confirm that "split_lock_detect=off" solves the issue.
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