After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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slowtrain
Posts: 18
Joined: 29. Aug 2011, 21:23
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Linux Mint / MATE desktop

After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Post by slowtrain »

I'm wondering if anyone else is encountering the problem I am or has suggestions on how to fix it? I'm on Ubuntu 22.04 / Jammy (host system). I updated my software a couple days ago, mostly an update of the Jammy kernel, and rebooted. I run browsers and message services on Linux OS's on VirtualBox to keep my system safer. After the reboot, all the software I use (Firefox, Chrome, Signal) on both of my Linux host OS's (Bodhi and Ubuntu Mate) started crashing very frequently--making my guest OS's unusable. For example Firefox either suddenly disappears or tabs with active content on Firefox say there was an error and stop showing the web page involved. I've tried reinstalling all of Virtualbox, Virtualbox Guest Additions, Firefox. None of this has solved the problem. The guest OS's worked just fine before the kernel update.

Here's what I see when Firefox crashes:
jack@jackD:~$ firefox &
[1] 1915
jack@jackD:~$ Missing chrome or resource URL: resource://gre/modules/UpdateListener.sys.mjs
ExceptionHandler::GenerateDump cloned child 2156ExceptionHandler::WaitForContinueSignal waiting for continue signal...

ExceptionHandler::SendContinueSignalToChild sent continue signal to child
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.
Exiting due to channel error.

scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Post by scottgus1 »

If you're using Virtualbox 6.1.34 or earlier, your kernel might be too new. Try upgrading to 6.1.38.
slowtrain
Posts: 18
Joined: 29. Aug 2011, 21:23
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Linux Mint / MATE desktop

Re: After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Post by slowtrain »

Thanks, that sounds like a good idea.

I tried to implement it, but initially had extensive problems getting 6.1.38 installed and then, once installed, 6.1.38 will not open a guest OS.

The installation problems seem to revolve around Jammy not using apt-key for key installations. Using the instructions at https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads puts the gpg key in the wrong directory. It needs to go into /etc/apt/trusted.gpg.d and the line added to sources.list should at most contain [arch=amd64], not a specification of where the gpg key is.

Anyway, that does put 6.1.38 in my package manager. But it appears only as virtualbox-6.1 and no ext-pack, dkms, guest-utils, or guest-x11 appear for 6.1.38. I installed 6.1.38 and left the other packages from 6.1.34. When I try to start a guest OS in 6.1.38, I get a 'Failed to load R0 module' (Unable to locate imported symbol 'SUPR0FpuBegin' for module 'VMMR0.r0' (VERR_SYMBOL_NOT_FOUND).).

At some point the Virtualbox management interface says that a new version of ext-pack is available and offers to install it. When I try to do that, I get: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) .
slowtrain
Posts: 18
Joined: 29. Aug 2011, 21:23
Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE Debian
Guest OSses: Linux Mint / MATE desktop

Re: After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Post by slowtrain »

PROBLEM SOLVED!

So, evidently the solution is to not to try to use the Ubuntu package system. I installed the plain linux (.run) package from https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.38/, installed it from command line. That ran into a problem opening my guest OS because the extension pack wasn't installed. I downloaded the ext-pack and tried installing that from File > Preferences > Extensions in VirtualBox. That ran into a problem that I suspect was due to firejail blocking access. I restarted VirtualBox without Firejail and was able to install the Extension pack.

I'm currently running multiple media-intensive browser windows in my guest OS without problems. So, evidently, the VBox update did the trick. Thank you scottgus1! One thing I wish Oracle would do is make the installation more straightforward.
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: After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Post by fth0 »

slowtrain wrote:Anyway, that does put 6.1.38 in my package manager. But it appears only as virtualbox-6.1 and no ext-pack, dkms, guest-utils, or guest-x11 appear for 6.1.38. I installed 6.1.38 and left the other packages from 6.1.34.
It should be obvious that this strategy is doomed to fail: Not only are you mixing different VirtualBox versions, but you're also mixing packages from Oracle and from Ubuntu, which are not compatible to each other. The Oracle-provided virtualbox-6.1 package contains everything but the Extension Pack, and you must uninstall all Ubuntu-provided virtualbox* packages before installing the Oracle-provided one. You should also reboot your host to get rid of old files being held open.

PS: I wrote this post before reading your last one. ;)
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: After Host OS updates software in Guest OS's started crashing

Post by scottgus1 »

slowtrain wrote:One thing I wish Oracle would do is make the installation more straightforward.
The process would be a lot easier if the Linux distros didn't take it upon themselves to fork and preinstall Virtualbox, too. :wink: :D

Glad you're up and running!
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