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VirtualBox Display Problem Black Screen

Posted: 11. May 2008, 16:20
by thecorleonefamily
I am using the latest version of VirtualBox on a Ubuntu 8.04 as host and trying to run Windows XP as guest.

The problem is there is no display in the virtualization screen when I start a VM (installation of guest OS) except black screen. However, when I try to close the virtual machine (and when it presents the option to SAVE, POWER OFF, SHUTDOWN SIGNAL), the display is shown as like the virtual machine is paused. The screenshots illustrate the point:

Image (Paused state)

Image
> BLACK SCREEN, normal state.

I read on another forum that this is due to VT option being enabled. However all such options are disabled.

This means the virtual machine is running, but the display is not being shown. Can anyone please help?

Posted: 27. May 2008, 20:23
by T-Fen
Did you ever find a solution to this?

I have a similar problem where I have an Win2003 virtual machine (in 'Paused' state) created with VMWare that I'm attempting to use with Virtual Box 1.6 on Linux. When I start the VM, I get a black screen. Trying to close the window gives the impression that it's running, but I see nothing but a black screen.

Posted: 30. May 2008, 19:06
by thecorleonefamily
You can try disabling VT-x/AMD-V under the settings options, it is known to help however didn't work for me. I had to format it and now I am using Fedora where it works..

Posted: 4. Jun 2008, 07:11
by Paul de Lange
If you are using a windows guest make sure "IO APIC" is enabled.
Settings->General->Advanced->Extended Features

Posted: 11. Jun 2008, 07:10
by wiredsoul
I'm seeing this exact behavior on Virtualbox OSE 1.5.6 running on:

Ubuntu 8.04, Linux 2.6.24-17 i686, nv graphics driver

The behavior started on Ubuntu 7.10 however.

I've tried deleting and recreating the VMs, deleting and creating the VDIs, deleting all my user settings, re-installing the software package, and playing with all the settings including those mentioned here.

Does anyone have any other ideas?

Is this possibly a bug only in the Ubuntu package? I'll try building from source if there are no other ideas, but can anyone confirm that this works for them with the same Ubuntu package?

Posted: 22. Jun 2008, 11:28
by spang
I'm still having this problem on Ubuntu.

Even with the 1.6.2 version from Sun.

Running Ubuntu 8.04 AMD64 on a Q6600 and an nVidia graphics card.
Not sure, but the nVidia driver could be responsible.

Posted: 18. Jul 2008, 06:37
by wiredsoul
I didn't have any luck compiling from source or trying the non OSE version. I'm also using an nVidia, Quadro NVS 140M with the proprietary driver. From the other posts it sounds like something changed in the nvidia driver that is causing this. I'll try to find out more if I can.

Posted: 24. Jul 2008, 21:33
by spang
@The time of writing 1.6.2 was the non OSE .deb package from Sun.

I tried with the packages from the Ubuntu repo as well, they both gave the same result.

I didn't take the time yet to compile from source or try with different drivers.

Posted: 5. Sep 2008, 08:52
by netoor
the same is with me on Ubuntu 8.04 and any version of VirtualBox. no idea how to fix

Posted: 26. Sep 2008, 11:33
by netoor
thanks to frank, my problem is solved. for more details see at http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/2245

Re: VirtualBox Display Problem Black Screen

Posted: 3. Mar 2009, 07:57
by virtualbox90001
I am having the same problem, are they going to address this problem with a solution?

Anyone got this to work ?

Re: VirtualBox Display Problem Black Screen

Posted: 29. Nov 2012, 13:28
by Steef
I have seen this happening several times and it always occurs after some changes to the network configuration like adding or removing adapters. I'm running Virtual Box 4.2.0.r80737 and I tried to install chrome inside a Windows 2003 client, I'm using Windows 7 x64 as the host. Installing chrome failed due to a bad network connection and I powered down the machine while the Chrome installer was trying to download chrome from the network. After that, the virtual machine refused to boot and stuck after the line '00:00:03.627944 Guest Log: BIOS: Booting from Hard Disk...' in the logfile. I tried to mount a dvd and boot from it to see if Virtual box was able to read the disk, but it didn't even boot from dvd. I started a different client and tried to add the failing .vdi to the existing IDE-controller. This machine also refused to boot. I removed the .vdi but now added it using a SCSI-adapter and now the machine booted, and I could see the failing disk inside my client, and could read data from it. Everything looked fine. I then added a new Virtual Machine with the failing .vdi as hard disk, and now it booted !

cheers, Steef

Re: VirtualBox Display Problem Black Screen

Posted: 29. Nov 2012, 15:10
by mpack
It is generally not a good idea to add to threads which are 3-4 years old. Things have usually moved on in the meantime.