The problem is that my Ubuntu guest logs me out every five minutes or so and I can't get any work done. The cause appears to be that Gnome shell is crashing and I suspect it may be a graphics problem, but I need help with the troubleshooting and this will probably help someone else.
I've been using an Ubuntu 22.04 guest on an Ubuntu 22.04 host with Virtualbox 6.1.34 r150636. Previously I also was running Guest Additions (same version) and a bidirectional shared clipboard, although I uninstalled Guest Additions and disabled the shared clipboard and the problem persists. This is a new computer. I was able to use the VM just fine for a week, and then this started. I have tried the following:
1.
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sudo systemctl stop systemd-ask-password-wall.service
2. Restore a snapshot from a time when the logging out wasn't happening. No luck. So I inferred the problem was starting from outside the guest.
3. Read lots of forum posts. These problems tend to have to do with graphics issues. I'm using
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VGA compatible controller: NVIDIA Corporation GA106M [GeForce RTX 3060 Mobile / Max-Q] (rev a1)
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00:00:28.842022 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=0000000000000000 w=800 h=600 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0 flags=0x2 origin=0,0
00:00:28.842875 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=00007f5324b97000 w=1920 h=1080 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1E00 flags=0x1 origin=0,0
00:00:28.847634 GUI: UIMachineLogic: Guest-screen count changed
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00:00:54.499190 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=0000000000000000 w=1920 h=1080 bpp=0 cbLine=0x0 flags=0x2 origin=0,0
00:00:54.500947 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=00007f5324000000 w=800 h=600 bpp=32 cbLine=0xC80 flags=0x1 origin=0,0
00:00:54.502661 GUI: UIMachineLogic: Guest-screen count changed
6. I was using the VMSVGA display and tried other options. No effect.
7. I increased video memory. No effect.
8. I uninstalled Guest Additions and disabled the bidirectional clipboard. No effect.
9. Thinking this may be a mouse issue, I removed the Extension Pack and set my USB controller to USB 1.1 (OHCI) controller. No effect.
10. I read through the .vbox VirtualBox configuration file for my VM and recognized that uninstalling Guest Additions didn't get rid of the configuration file settings stating that I was using Guest Additions and bidirectional clipping. So I backed up the configuration file, created a new Ubuntu VM, compared the two configuration files and deleted the references to the bidirectional clipping and Guest Additions from the configuration file for my VM. That didn't fix the problem.
11. To rule out Guest Additions having an effect completely, I created a new 64-bit Ubuntu VM and booted it from CD with an Ubuntu install .iso with "Try Ubuntu" instead of installing. I repeated the 30-second wiggle and also generated a crash. This time there was no logout since there's no user account apparently. I viewed the /var/log/syslog and the journalctl and saw that Gnome shell is segfaulting. There's an earlier message that may be relevant:
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snapd-desktop-i cannot open display: :0
12. Did more forum searching with my new information and still couldn't get an answer.
13. Posted here.
Here are the .vbox and log files for the clean Ubuntu VM experiencing the seg faulting. I gave the .vbox file a .txt extension so I could upload it. I'll also reply to this post from inside my VM in a moment and attach the journalctl and /var/log/syslog contents.
Thank you very much for your help! I don't want to go to a Windows host.