Guest additions - Oracle LInux guest, Ubuntu host

[edstevens]

I have installed scores of Oracle Linux guests on Windows hosts, but am trying my first Oracle Linux guest on an Ubuntu host and having a bit of a time with it.

First, by comparison, when I install the guest additions on a Windows host, I get this:

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[root@vblnx6-01 cdrom]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.0.28 Guest Additions for Linux............
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
Removing existing VirtualBox non-DKMS kernel modules[  OK  ]

Building the VirtualBox Guest Additions kernel modules
Building the main Guest Additions module[  OK  ]

Building the shared folder support module[  OK  ]

Building the graphics driver module[  OK  ]

Doing non-kernel setup of the Guest Additions[  OK  ]

Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions Installing the Window System drivers
Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.
[  OK  ]

[root@vblnx6-01 cdrom]# 

The exact same process on the same guest OS but on an Ubuntu host gives this:

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[root@vblnx6-01 cdrom]# ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 5.1.8 Guest Additions for Linux...........
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Copying additional installer modules ...
Installing additional modules ...
vboxadd.sh: Building Guest Additions kernel modules.
vboxadd.sh: Starting the VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.
[root@vblnx6-01 cdrom]#

In both cases I am able to continue to create and mount some host-shared directories. No problem yet.
But then I fire up Oracle Universal Installer to install Oracle database 12.1.
On the Windows host, everything is fine:


But running on Ubuntu host it does not display the full content: (ok, pasting in the two screen shots, they didn't go where I wanted, and are in reverse order. But the difference should be obvious. The one with full content is from the Windows host.

[socratis]

...when I install the guest additions on a Windows host, I get this:...
...but on an Ubuntu host gives this:...

You don't get a different outcome depending on the host(*). Especially for missing features such as the X.org or XFree86 window system. You simply mustn't have selected it during the setup. Please check it again.

(*) You could get different options if there is hardware features present in the one and not in the other, like VT-x. This is not the case with the X window server which is a software feature that can be installed (or not).

[edstevens]

I apologize for the delayed response. Competing priorities and all that . . .

I can assure you I didn’t do ‘something different’. I don’t know that my problem is actually a Vbox issue at all, but since the first “difference” occurs in Vbox, it seems that’s the place to start.

So, last night I sat down with the two computers side-by-side and made sure I did everything exactly the same. Every command, every mouse click, every filled field .. I did the same operation on each machine at the same time to make sure I didn’t overlook anything. Most of the time I was even pressing both ‘enter’ keys or clicking both mice at the same time.

For reference I’ll call the Windows machine winhst, and the Ubuntu machine lnxhst.

So, what do we start with?
WINHST – Windows 7 Home Premium, 64 bit, 8gb ram, 500gb disk, Intel i3-3227U 1.90GHz cpu

LNXHST – Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, 64 bit, 8gb ram, 500gb disk, Intel i3-6100h 2.70Ghz x2, Intel Skylake Integrated Graphics

First step, insure both machines have the latest version of Vbox. After checking, downloading, and installing both, I notice that WINHST has 5.0.30, while LNXHST has 5.1.10.

Next step, create a new VM.
On both machines, select Linux, Oracle Linux 64-bit.
On WINHST, default memory was 768mb. I changed it to 2048mb
On LNXHST, default memory was 1024mb, I changed it to 2048mb.

On WINHST, offered disk types were vdi, vmdk, vhd, hdd, qed, qcow. Took default vdi
On LNXHST, offered disk types were di, vhk, vmdk; took default vdi

On both machines, default disk size was 12gb. I changed to 64gb.

On both machines, took the default NAT network adapter, and added a second adapter for hostonly.
On WINHST, default name of hostonly adapter is “VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter”. Accepted.
On LNXHST, default name of hostonly adapter is “vboxnet0”. Accepted.

Boot both VMs with the same ISO file – v77197-01.iso.
Took exactly same options on both machines during installation of OS.
When OS installation was complete, “inserted” the Guest Additions cd, connected to the VM from the host desktop using putty, created a directory /media/cdrom, mounted /dev/cdrom to /media/cdrom, cd to media/cdrom then ran VboxLinuxAddtions.run. Ran succesfully on both machines, BUT WITH DIFFERENT OUTPUT! More messages on WINHST. See relevant code posted in my OP.

Created a couple of host shared drives on each machine, one of which has the installation files for Oracle database. Added appropriate entries to /etc/fstab and rebooted. No issues. Host share drives mounted and contents accessible. Confirmed that the Oracle installation files on both hosts are the same.

On WINHST, started xming to handle x-windows output of Oracle Universal Installer (OUI). Not necessary on LNXHST.

Results as previously posted.

[Perryg]

Post the guests log file of the one on the Linux host ( as an attachment ). Right click on the guest in the Main Manager then click show log. Save and post as an attachment. Compress if it is too large to post.

I would also like to see the /var/log/vboxadd-install.log of this guest.

[edstevens]

Perry - thank you for your response. Always appreciated.
I'm attaching zips of both log files.

[Perryg]

Make sure the guest is in power down, enable 3D acceleration, and increase the vRAM to 32MB. Then see if it makes a difference. If not then post a new log file.

[edstevens]

Requested changes made. No change in behavior. Log file attached.

[Perryg]

I need to see the guests /var/log/xorg.0.log and the results of running "glxinfo | grep OpenGL" from the guests terminal. Also how are you accessing this guest? in a local window or over rdp/vnc, Etc.

[edstevens]

/var/log/xorg.0.log does not exist:

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[root@vblnx6-01 log]# pwd
/var/log
[root@vblnx6-01 log]# ls -l
total 1392
-rw-------. 1 root root    10474 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.ifcfg.log
-rw-------. 1 root root    31180 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.log
-rw-------. 1 root root    41596 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.program.log
-rw-------. 1 root root   112684 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.storage.log
-rw-------. 1 root root    50066 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.syslog
-rw-------. 1 root root    58324 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.xlog
-rw-------. 1 root root    73261 Dec  2 18:49 anaconda.yum.log
drwxr-x---. 2 root root     4096 Dec  2 18:56 audit
-rw-r--r--  2 root root     2882 Dec  5 17:10 boot.log
-rw-------. 1 root utmp     1536 Dec  4 12:28 btmp
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root     4096 Dec  2 19:35 ConsoleKit
-rw-------. 1 root root     5481 Dec  5 17:10 cron
drwxr-xr-x. 2 lp   sys      4096 Jul 23  2015 cups
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    20362 Dec  5 17:10 dmesg
-rw-r--r--  1 root root    20307 Dec  4 12:26 dmesg.old
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root   387806 Dec  2 18:49 dracut.log
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root 15862024 Dec  5 17:14 lastlog
-rw-------. 1 root root     2352 Dec  5 17:10 maillog
-rw-r--r--. 1 root root        0 Dec  2 18:56 mcelog
-rw-------. 1 root root   211091 Dec  5 17:10 messages
drwxr-xr-x. 2 ntp  ntp      4096 Jul 22  2015 ntpstats
drwxr-xr-x. 4 root root     4096 Dec  2 18:46 oracle-rdbms-server-12cR1-preinstall
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root     4096 Dec  3 14:14 prelink
drwxr-xr-x. 2 root root     4096 Dec  5 17:10 sa
drwx------. 3 root root     4096 Dec  2 18:45 samba
-rw-------. 1 root root     6388 Dec  5 17:14 secure
-rw-------. 1 root root        0 Dec  2 18:45 spooler
drwxr-x---. 2 root root     4096 Jul 23  2015 sssd
-rw-------. 1 root root        0 Dec  2 18:44 tallylog
-rw-r--r--  1 root root   211451 Dec  2 19:23 vboxadd-install.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root root       73 Dec  5 17:10 vboxadd-install-x11.log
-rw-r--r--  1 root root       99 Dec  2 19:23 VBoxGuestAdditions.log
-rw-rw-r--. 1 root utmp    48000 Dec  5 17:14 wtmp
-rw-------. 1 root root      500 Dec  2 19:10 yum.log
[root@vblnx6-01 log]# 

glxinfo not found:

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[root@vblnx6-01 log]# glxinfo | grep OpenGL
bash: glxinfo: command not found
[root@vblnx6-01 log]# 

Accessing the guest from the host desktop via either putty (with x11 port forwarding) or ssh with the -X option.

[Perryg]

Strange. How does one get graphics to work if there is no graphics software installed in the guest? Below is what I show in OEL 7.*

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[oracle@localhost log]$ ls
anaconda       cron-20160721  grubby            messages-20160721  secure-20160721      vboxadd-install-x11.log           Xorg.0.log.old
audit          cups           lastlog           pluto              speech-dispatcher    VBoxGuestAdditions.log            Xorg.1.log
boot.log       dmesg          libvirt           ppp                spooler              VBoxGuestAdditions-uninstall.log  Xorg.1.log.old
btmp           dmesg.old      lightdm           qemu-ga            spooler-20160721     vbox-install.log                  yum.log
btmp-20160721  firewalld      maillog           sa                 tallylog             wpa_supplicant.log
chrony         gdm            maillog-20160721  samba              tuned                wtmp
cron           glusterfs      messages          secure             vboxadd-install.log  Xorg.0.log

Perhaps you need to explain a bit more how you are achieving what you desire. Be specific as you can please because I must not be understanding something.

[edstevens]

I don't know what more detail I can provide. When I create the guest OS, I start the vm from the OS .iso file. The only non-default options I take are to configure the second (hostonly) network adapter, and select the 'oracle-rdbms-server-12cR1-preinstall-10.0.14.el6x86_64' package in addition to the default package selection. That's all I did with this machine. That's all I've ever done with any of the scores of vm's I've created on Windows hosts.

I do find it interesting that on both the Windows host and the Linux host, installing the guest additions returns this message:

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Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.

And as you can see from my previous screen shots, both are able to present the GUI. It's just that on the linux host, that gui is missing a lot (but not all) of the text.

[Perryg]

Interesting. You are using the host for all graphics with the X forwarding and bypassing the install of X on the guest. In that case I would look at the host and see what is amiss. The absence of text and decorations is usually due to QT or GTK issues. It could be that the host is trying to use a different window system like wayland or it could be a setting in the hosts client program you are using, Etc. but since I am not familiar with the way you are using this I don't really have much more to add except good luck.

[edstevens]

I'm not knowingly/conciously/deliberately "bypassing" the install of X on the guest. I do know that Oracle Linux 6, by default, does not come with things like xclock, xeyes, etc. but that has never prevented me from being able to do this before. I can try with a Linux 5 guest (which does have those things by default) and see what happens.

What are "QT or GTK issues"? I'm not familiar with those terms.

[Perryg]

https://www.google.com/search?q=Linux+QT
https://www.google.com/search?q=Linux+gtk

Either of them has to come into play and I would think especially if you are trying to run the window from a terminal. I do know that older version of OL has/have had issue with the rendering when run remotely. You could try posting the questions at bugtracker and see if the DEVs have an answer.

[edstevens]

Ok, FWIW, I created a vm with OL5 (up to now its all been OL6), to observe any difference. Unlike with OL6, the installation of guest additions did not produce the "Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.". Xclock worked fine. But the OUI had the same issue. At this point I really don't think vbox or guest additions is the problem, though I am curious about the difference in messages reported by the GA installation when the host is Windows vs. Linux. And I came here becuase I thought those differences might be a clue. I'll try to approach this on some generic Unix forums, taking Vbox out of the equation.

Thanks for your assistance and patience.