Video 2D acceleration gets disabled upon pause

[jeroenes]

Dear all,

First, I wanted to say Virtualbox is a great piece of software or me that I use regularly.

The problem that keeps on returning, is that the 2D acceleration gets disabled upon a pause or switch to the host via cntrl-M.

I can shut down the guest, set the acceleration again, and get it back working so it is nothing permanent. But still it degrades the functionality because I use it so much.

I have searched google, the site and the FAQs but encountered only posts around installing and 2d woes. You can read from the log however that the NVidia driver loads and that my system has more specs than needed. Moreover, I get the same issues on another system (also Ubuntu host). Probably more people are experiencing this issue without realizing that is what causing the slow GUI interaction.

Is there something I am doing wrong that causes this?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Best regards,
Jeroen

[socratis]

VirtualBox VM 5.0.36_Ubuntu r114008 linux.amd64 (Mar 22 2017 12:37:31) release log

It looks like you're using the distro's fork version of VirtualBox. You can either ask in their forums for help, or completely remove/uninstall/delete/purge their version and install the official version from the Downloads section of VirtualBox (https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads).

But, just out of curiosity, what does "2D acceleration gets disabled" mean?

[jeroenes]

It looks like you're using the distro's fork version of VirtualBox. You can either ask in their forums for help, or completely remove/uninstall/delete/purge their version and install the official version from the Downloads section of VirtualBox.

Excuse me, I was not aware of the distinction. I am happy to try and install the official version of Virtualbox. I need to manally update it anyway.

But, just out of curiosity, what does "2D acceleration gets disabled" mean?

Please see attachment, screen shot taken while running the machine. The option to enable the acceleration is available but disabled. When I started the machine it was enabled, but once I switched back from the host it got disabled. After that of course the GUI gets a bit sluggish.

Thanks for replying, I hope this can be solved.

I will purge and install the official version and see if that helps. It will take some time....

Best regards,
Jeroen

[socratis]

OK, I understand better now. Even if you update to the official distribution (which you should), that won't solve your "perceived" problem, because it's not a problem. It's by design.

You're using a Linux guest. 2D acceleration is only available for Windows guests. Do you see that warning icon at the bottom which says "Invalid settings detected"? If you have 2D acceleration enabled for a non-Windows guest, and you hover over the icon, you'll see the message (my notes in blue):

The virtual machine is set up to use Video Stream Acceleration (aka 2D acceleration). As this feature only works with Windows guest systems it will be disabled. (as soon as you hit OK in the settings dialog)

If you have that icon there, first of all, that should make you suspicious and you should always check what it's trying to tell you. Because my feeling is that you have more than one invalid settings.

[jeroenes]

You're using a Linux guest. 2D acceleration is only available for Windows guests.

Oh. That explains. Stupid of me that I did not realize earlier when reading the docs.

Thanks for helping me with this!!

Best,
Jeroen