Unable to create session (very tough!)

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
Post Reply
lme
Posts: 5
Joined: 6. May 2022, 21:30

Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by lme »

Hi everyone.

I'm using VB for quite a while now on Linux and Windows as well but now I ran into an issue that I am not able to solve.
Host OS: Ubuntu 20
Guest OS: several Linux & WIndows
VB Version: 6.1 .32 and .34

In that VB I virtualized several machines that all worked pretty fine until now.
Yesterday I shut down a Ubuntu 22 VM and closed Virtualbox.
Today VB started fine, but when I tried to start the U22 VM I got the error "Unable to create session" (0x80004005 error)
Usually this can be fixed by discarding the changes of that machine.
But that entry is insensitive. I shut down the VM the normal way the day before.
Even more: None of the other 5 or 6 VMs can be started anymore. Always "Unable to create session"

In the logs I found a hint about user not being privileged to access USB. The user should be member of the group "virtualbox" to fix that.
But that's not so easy, since my machine is an LDAP client and the user and groups are not local.
To get around the permission problem I ran Virtualbox as root.
Since root never ran VB before there are no VMs.
So I created one: Guest=Linux, flavour= Ubuntu64. Everything else default.
Turned it on - Booom! Unable to start session.
No complains in the logs about USB this time. Just the "VM terminated unexpected" error.
Rebooted the host system - no change.
Checked the settings: Extension pack is marked red. Tried to remove it - no way. Could not be removed.
Uninstalled Virtualbox completely (including all additional packages)
Reinstalled the Version 6.1.32
No change.
Again unistalled it and installed newest version 6.1.34
No improvement. Still "unable to create session" error.

Last thing I did yesterday on the host machine was experimenting with OpenVPN servers. Maybe a network issue?
So I deactivated all openvpn services.
Virtualbox is still not working.
Again purged all the virtualbox packages. Restarted the host. Reinstalled Virtualbox (downloaded version and
also the version .32 via Ubuntu software manager)
No change.

Now I ran out of ideas. The only thing I did not try yet is to move the entire config of VB out of the way.
But I already did this somehow by starting it as root, which did not help.

Anyone got a hint for me?
Thank you!

Lothar
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by mpack »

Please provide a VM log file. Make sure the VM is fully shut down, then right click it in the manager UI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.
lme
Posts: 5
Joined: 6. May 2022, 21:30

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by lme »

Of course!
Find attached the zipped log file.

Lothar
Attachments
vm-log.zip
(32.55 KiB) Downloaded 12 times
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by mpack »

00:00:01.270901 VirtualBox VM 6.1.26_Ubuntu r145957 linux.amd64 (Sep 24 2021 11:11:24) release log
This site exists to support VirtualBox users, which you'll probably be surprised to learn that you are not. VirtualBox is an open source project, meaning that anyone can take the source code, compile it and start distributing their own version. What you have there is a version compiled by the Ubuntu project, and we have no knowledge of how it differs from the official release.

You are however using the official extension pack, which is strange. You must have been aware that there are multiple download sites. Still, this means a mismatched version, compounded by also having the third party VNC extension pack installed.

If you want support here then you need to install the official version of VirtualBox, which you get from the same place as the extension pack.

However, some tips. CPU cores should be 2. Increase graphics RAM to 128MB. You currently have ancient (6.0.0 era) Guest Additions installed. Update these to 6.1.34 (the GAs ISO is bundled with the official VirtualBox install).

Your VM seems to have a bad problem with lagging. Perhaps it will do better with a second CPU core.
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: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by fth0 »

mpack wrote:You are however using the official extension pack, which is strange.
Why do you think this is strange?

AFAIU, the "standard" VirtualBox Extension Pack is only provided by Oracle, and its source code isn't made available. Therefore, the corresponding packages of the Linux distributions only download and install the VirtualBox Extension Pack from Oracle (and the VNC extension pack, which is open source again).
mpack
Site Moderator
Posts: 39156
Joined: 4. Sep 2008, 17:09
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Mostly XP

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by mpack »

fth0 wrote: Why do you think this is strange?
Does the context, e.g. the very next sentence, not make that obvious?
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: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by fth0 »

mpack wrote:Does the context, e.g. the very next sentence, not make that obvious?
No, I still don't understand it. Can you please enlighten me?

I don't know multiple download sites for the Oracle VirtualBox Extension Pack. Its files are even identical for all Linux distributions. For example, if you install the Ubuntu packages virtualbox and virtualbox-ext-pack and run any VM, you'll end up with exactly the log messages as provided by the OP.
lme
Posts: 5
Joined: 6. May 2022, 21:30

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by lme »

Dear mpack,

thank you for your respond.

I tried BOTH versions.

The newest version downloadable from Oracle and also the Ubuntu version via the OS software manager.
Both of the show the exactly same behaviour.
If it helps I'll purge the Ubuntu packages once more, install the Oracle version and upload a new error log.

Lothar
lme
Posts: 5
Joined: 6. May 2022, 21:30

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by lme »

Having a closer look at the situation in order to generate a log file with the "Oracle" version of Virtualbox,
I noticed the logfile I posted was completely outdated!
The version of Virtualbox in the logfile is much older than the installed software.
Also the timestamp of the log is pretty old.
So I tried to reproduce the error in order to get a fresh logfile.
The error showed up, but the logfile did not change.
Then I removed the logfiles and tried again.
No machine specific logfile is created as the error appears.

So I started from scratch.
- removed (purged) any installed virtualbox packages.
- as user 'root' (to prevent any issues with permissinons etc) I deleted ALL config files and virtual machines of user 'root'.
- downloaded Virtualbox 6.1.34 and matching extension pack from the Oracle webpage
- installed the package virtualbox-6.1_6.1.34-150636.1_Ubuntu_eoan_amd64.deb via dpkg
- checked via dpkg -l
ii virtualbox-6.1 6.1.34-150636.1~Ubuntu~eoan amd64 Oracle VM VirtualBox
- started virtualbox as user root (again to prevent permission issues)
- VB came up in initial state (no virtual machines)
The version information in the software matches the installed package
Did not install the extension pack for now to keep things simple.
- created a new VM 'foobar' with 4 Gig RAM and 10 Gig Disk
- clicked "Start" -> Error "Session could not be created"
- Checked logfiles for that machine -> "No logfiles"

So the virtual machine does not even start so far it is able to write a log.

But there is however a VBoxSVC.log and it contains errors.
I append it zipped up to this posting.

After that I tried to install the Extension pack - just for kicks.
Selected the file and agreed the license conditions I got the error:

-------
"Failed to install the Extension Pack /tmp/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-6.1.34.vbox-extpack.

The installer failed with exit code 1: VBoxExtPackHelperApp: error: The owner is not root: '/usr'.

Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ExtPackManagerWrap
Interface: IExtPackManager {70401eef-c8e9-466b-9660-45cb3e9979e4}
-------
- ? -


It would be REALLY NICE to get Virtualbox up and running again!

Thank you!
Lothar
Attachments
VBoxSVC.log.zip
(1.68 KiB) Downloaded 6 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: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by fth0 »

lme wrote:The owner is not root: '/usr'.
This indicates your key problem: Please make sure that '/usr', '/usr/lib' and '/usr/lib/virtualbox' are all owned by root. This is checked by VirtualBox for security reasons.
lme
Posts: 5
Joined: 6. May 2022, 21:30

Re: Unable to create session (very tough!)

Post by lme »

Woohooo!
That did it.
THANK YOU!

During my experiments with OpenVPN servers (see above) I also installed a script set into /usr resulting
in a change of the ownership of that dir.
Changed it bach to root:root and Virtulabox runs as a charm.

Thank you so much!

Lothar
Post Reply