virtualbox will not start; logs me out as I try to launch it

[saikat]

Hi,

I have been running Virtualbox 12.04 on a RHEL host (Ubuntu 12.04 guest) for a year without any issues. However, today, we had a power outage and as a result the desktop got shut down (it is not on any backup power system, so it had a hard shutdown).

However, after the power came back up, VirtualBox will not start any more. When I try to launch it, the screen goes blank for a few seconds and then the system logs me out. I have attached the log file (which has an error to this effect: Andromeda_12_04_2.vdi cannot be closed because it is still attached to 1 virtual machines}, preserve=false).

Any help to resolve this will be greatly appreciated. I do all of my work on this machine - so I am kind of desperate at this point.

Thanks.

[ASoo]

It looks like problem is caused by VM not shutting down properly. Is there any temp file in the VM folder that needs to be deleted? Did you take a snapshot previously that you can restore it to?

[saikat]

Thanks for your reply. However, I am not sure of the nature of the temp file that I should look for - can you please give me a pointer?

Also, unfortunately I have not (knowingly) taken a snapshot.

[loukingjr]

is RHEL working correctly? Are you saying you can't launch VirtualBox or the guest?

[saikat]

RHEL seems to be working correctly (at least I haven't yet noticed any discrepancies).

When, I try to start VBox, I run into the problem. The screen goes blank for a few seconds and I land up getting logged out of the host RHEL.

[loukingjr]

RHEL seems to be working correctly (at least I haven't yet noticed any discrepancies).

When, I try to start VBox, I run into the problem. The screen goes blank for a few seconds and I land up getting logged out of the host RHEL.

well the first thing I would try is to reinstall virtualbox.

[Perryg]

Before you start or try to start VirtualBox, look in /tmp for a folder .vbox....... (/tmp/.vbox-<username>-ipc) Does it exist?
If so what is inside it?

[loukingjr]

Before you start or try to start VirtualBox, look in /tmp for a folder .vbox....... (/tmp/.vbox-<username>-ipc) Does it exist?
If so what is inside it?

uh oh, might be too late. I thought because VirtualBox was logging him completely out of his host VB may be damaged.

[saikat]

Before you start or try to start VirtualBox, look in /tmp for a folder .vbox....... (/tmp/.vbox-<username>-ipc) Does it exist?
If so what is inside it?

In the /tmp folder there is in fact a .vbox-<username>-ipc. Inside, there are two files - ipcd and lock. ipcd is empty while lock has the number, 4918.
I do not know how to interpret this and will greatly appreciate any further help.

Thanks

[Perryg]

Delete the pid ipcd & lock.
Then see if it works. If not then there might be other corruption and would require a delete and re-install of VBox.

[saikat]

Thanks for the help. I'll give this a try tomorrow and will let you know how it went.

BTW, just to confirm, I should just delete the two files ipcd and lock in /tmp/.vbox-<username>-ipc, right?

Thanks again.

[Perryg]

Yes. They are what is causing the guest to first not boot because the old PID is still there.

[saikat]

Unfortunately I am still having the same problem.

Now on another mailing list I saw a discussion (somewhat related) and the person was having the same problem - as he was trying to start VBox, he was getting logged out. The solution for his problem was to update the NVIDIA graphic drivers. The indication to this solution came from the fact - that he faced the "exact" same problem of getting logged out by trying to run "glxgears".

To check, I tried to run glxgears and ran into the same issue - of getting logged out. So, as a next step, I am planning to update the NVIDIA graphic drivers in my computer. I do not know if this will fix the problem, but will give this a try. I am a little skeptical, since everything was running fine and I did not update Vbox/or the host which might have lead to the driver issue.

Again, any thoughts or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

[Perryg]

Look in your syslog. If the nvidia kernel drivers are doing this you should see a segfault

But now that you mention it I do seem to remember seeing this before and an update fixed the issue.

[saikat]

To update, it seems that the problem WAS with the graphic drivers. Looks like after the power disruption, many of the computers on the network were having issues and they were due to "broken" drivers.
Anyway, the problem therefore seemed to have happened with the host RHEL. After the host was fixed, things are up and running fine now.

Thanks to all who have chimed in with help.