Latest virtualbox crashes X server on ubuntu 10.10

[hoppa123]

I have installed a fresh install of ubuntu 10.10 and i enabled the closed source nvidia drivers. when i start the virtualbox application with no guests installed the X server reboots.

I have tried to find a log entry of this one. but it isnt there, however when i disable the nvidia drivers the virtualbox application does start. i need the nvidia driver to be installed. cause i use a dual screen setup

[Sasquatch]

So you enable the driver, you reboot the PC and then start VB and it crashes X? That can't be good, do you have any other application that crashes like that? I have an nVidia card too on XUbuntu 10.10 and have no problems whatsoever with it, in dual screen (twinview) mode.
What happens when you start the application from the terminal?

[dmfrey]

I am also running into this issue well on a fresh install of 10.10 running nvidia-current (version 260.19.06-0ubuntu1).

If I execute VirtualBox from a command line I see a message about Xandr being missing. And it only seems to crash X when I physically place the mouse in the Terms of Service box. Also the buttons in the Terms of Service box are disabled, so there doesn't seem to be a way to get beyond that screen.

[lowey71]

Same issue here. Just upgraded to 10.10.

Having to run in headless mode with rdesktop to work around the issue.

Running nvidia, 2 Quadro NVS 295 GFX cards and 3 monitors.

[dmfrey]

I got my issue resolved. I started to notice other things crashing x.

Do you have dual monitors setup? I do.

In my xorg.conf, I had Xinerama setup with separate X Servers setup per screen. I switched to Twinview for my dual screen setup and it worked after that. No more RANDR exceptions.

VirtualBox works now.

[silvermage]

Unfortunately for me, twin view is not an option. I have 2 dual head nvidia cards in my machine with 4 monitors total. Same issue, any mouse over the VirtualBox window, down goes X.

[OFluri]

Solution that worked for me

My system:
- Dell Latitude D830 with Nvidia graphics Quadro NVS 135M;
- Docking station;
- 2 DELL 2407WFP LCD screens.



What I did is:
1. Rename the xorg.conf file in the /etc/X11 directory.(or delete it)
2. Run "nvidia-xconfig" as superuser(root). This generates a new xorg.xonf in the /etc/X11 directory;
3. I restarted X and using the "NVIDIA X Server settings" configuration I reconfigured my screens. I'm using a laptop with two screens connected through a docking station.
4. Start VirtualBox (in my case 3.2.10)

Time: 6 minutes

Hopefully this works for you...

All works well for me. It also fixed my "Composite" error.

[zheltov]

Dell Latitude E6410 Nvidia 310M, virtualBox 3.2.10. two screens

confirming X crash with xinerama enabled. Just launch virtualBOx and X crashes without mouse moving. without xinerama virtualBox works

Disabling xinerama is not an option as twinview doesn't support one screen rotation (either both, or none).

Tried without Nvidia drivers (260.19.12) - virtualBox works on both screens (one rotated)

nothing in /var/log/messgaes

outcome: impossible to use virtualBox in dual screen setup with one screen rotated (and with nvidia drivers)

[scimmiettarossa]

my X server is crashing too when virtual box starts (as soon i move the pointer inside the VB window)

the difference, w.r.t. previous posts, is that i have an ATI graphic card (Radeon HD 4350)

everything is working fine when Xinerama is disabled, but as soon as i enable it, the problem occurs

what is strange is that i run ubuntu 10.10 32 bit until yesterday, and VB and xinerama worked perfectly together

this morning i installed ubuntu 10.10 64 bit (in in hte previous - 32bit - installation i forgot that my new pc had the 64 bit extensions!!!), and now i can use VB ONLY if i disable xinerama

anyone can help me in solving this?

tnx
rosanna

[zackboll]

I am having the same issue described above with VB 3.2.10 crashing my X-Server. I am currently using Ubuntu 10.10 and Nvidia closed drivers. The crash does not appear to be limited to VB, I have also noticed that Quanta Web IDE crashes X-Server also on startup.

[ChrisZ]

Solution that worked for me
What I did is:
1. Rename the xorg.conf file in the /etc/X11 directory.(or delete it)
2. Run "nvidia-xconfig" as superuser(root). This generates a new xorg.xonf in the /etc/X11 directory;
3. I restarted X and using the "NVIDIA X Server settings" configuration I reconfigured my screens. I'm using a laptop with two screens connected through a docking station.
4. Start VirtualBox (in my case 3.2.10)

Hopefully this works for you...
All works well for me. It also fixed my "Composite" error.

Thanks a lot!
This cured my system too.

Background:
Newly installed Ubuntu 10.10 host, VB 4.0 working without a hitch. Tried to change the display driver from proprietary nVidia to whatever is default in Ubuntu. Then changed back to nVidia again. Nothing more. After that at each attempt to start VB it was crashing X and returning me to the login prompt. However your solution cured the system.

[Sasquatch]

The reason it errors out is because X is trying to load one of it's own drivers, nouveau or nv. Since you have the nVidia driver installed, it changed X a bit and that is enough to cause the nouveau and nv driver to fail to load properly. Only when you generate an xorg.conf and specify the nvidia driver in it, will you get X. This has nothing to do with VB in the end.

[ChrisZ]

@Sasquatch
This pretty much explains the weirdness. Thanks a lot!

[Sasquatch]

Removing the nVidia driver also solves that problem, as the changes are reverted so the nv and nouveau driver will work again.

[kernelOfTruth]

I just also stumbled over this issue

for me it's on an ~amd64 Gentoo with 2.6.37+ kernel and virtualbox 4.0.2

only starting up VirtualBox (running the command) and then wanting to check my volumes leads to a crash in X and restart of gdm (I'm running gnome + compiz-fusion)

the graphics-driver is xf86-video-ati with xorg-server 1.9.3.901 and live-builds from libdrm, mesa and libX11 and xf86-video-ati

edit:

this post is just FYI - I don't know what's causing problems virtualbox or the xf86-video-ati driver since I get a non-working graphical output / system when trying to use virtualbox 3.1.2* - an error message being displayed

magic sysrq key still works ...

I also have just recently migrated to the OSS driver (before with fglrx it worked fine)