Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

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Huxley
Posts: 2
Joined: 28. Jun 2016, 17:25

Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by Huxley »

Hi everyone,

I've got VirtualBox (version 5.0.22) on my Mac Mini Server (Mid-2010 model w/ Intel Core2Duo @ 2.66GHz & 8GB RAM running latest OS X), and I've installed Ubuntu 16.0.4 w/ all updates. I also have the Guest Additions installed. However, performance when VirtualBox's settings are set to 2D-only is miserably slow, but when I enable 3D to speed things up, everything rapidly becomes garbled onscreen in the VM. Here are some screenshots (well, photos of my VM screen) when this happens:
1 - cBVcPPs.jpg
1 - cBVcPPs.jpg (34.6 KiB) Viewed 3762 times
2 - xlIf1xO.jpg
2 - xlIf1xO.jpg (37.71 KiB) Viewed 3762 times
3 - SnYT7Fh.jpg
3 - SnYT7Fh.jpg (38.56 KiB) Viewed 3762 times
Since taking those pics I've switched from Unity to Xfce, hoping that perhaps a lighter-weight UI would help, but to no avail - nothing I do seems to resolve these broken / garbled windows within the VM. Other that switching from Unity to Xfce, I've also installed various UI tweaking tools to reduce / disable UI animations, etc. I've also played around with the VM settings, including increasing/reducing the amount of VRAM assigned to the VM when 3D is enabled, but nothing works. When a window goes all garbled within the VM, the virtualized OS keeps running, but the UI is janky and it's impossible to control things, boxes of garbage float on top of whatever I'm doing, etc. etc.

I'm relatively new to Linux environments, but this definitely doesn't look right, and nothing I've tried has resolved the issue at all. Any suggestions or tips are really welcome!
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by socratis »

Huxley wrote:However, performance when VirtualBox's settings are set to 2D-only is miserably slow
What exactly are you referring to?

Ubuntu as a VM on my Mac has had "graphics" issues when 3D is enabled. The newer version of Ubuntu, the worst. That's why I still prefer 12.04.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
Huxley
Posts: 2
Joined: 28. Jun 2016, 17:25

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by Huxley »

socratis wrote:
Huxley wrote:However, performance when VirtualBox's settings are set to 2D-only is miserably slow
What exactly are you referring to?

Ubuntu as a VM on my Mac has had "graphics" issues when 3D is enabled. The newer version of Ubuntu, the worst. That's why I still prefer 12.04.
I don't have hard benchmark stats to point to, but the difference in general system and UI performance when 3D is on or off is stark. Example: with 3D disabled, I can type nearly an entire paragraph before a single character shows up onscreen. Menus are sluggish, scrolling is virtually impossible, etc. - without 3D enabled in the VM settings, it's effectively unusably slow. However, when 3D is flipped on, the UI is snappy and everything is great... except for the distorted and broken windows, graphical garbage cluttering the screen, etc. that you see in my pics. It's gotta be a VirtualBox bug somewhere (Ubuntu is running fine without any tweaks in VMware Fusion), but I don't know how to resolve it.
socratis
Site Moderator
Posts: 27330
Joined: 22. Oct 2010, 11:03
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Win(*>98), Linux*, OSX>10.5
Location: Greece

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by socratis »

Something doesn't sound right. But, to figure it out (or help to figure out something), here's what you do:
  1. Start the VM. Not from a saved or suspended state. Clean start.
  2. Shut down the VM. Not suspended, not paused. Shut down.
  3. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager.
  4. Select "Show Log..."
  5. Save it (just the first log, VBox.log), ZIP it and attach it in your response (see the "Upload attachment" at the bottom of the form).
My gut feeling is that your VRAM settings are too low. If you could do the above procedure twice, one with 3D enabled and one without, it would definitely be more helpful.
Do NOT send me Personal Messages (PMs) for troubleshooting, they are simply deleted.
Do NOT reply with the "QUOTE" button, please use the "POST REPLY", at the bottom of the form.
If you obfuscate any information requested, I will obfuscate my response. These are virtual UUIDs, not real ones.
iegorman
Posts: 4
Joined: 19. Feb 2012, 04:05

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by iegorman »

Trying to install to fresh machine from ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso on CD-ROM SATA device 3
ubuntu-16.04-desktop-amd64.iso doesn't work either
Previously installed Ubuntu Versions 14.04 and 15.04 still work OK
VirtualBox Version 5.1.2 r108956
Video memory 32 MB
Monitor count 1
Scale Factor 100%
HIDPI support - unscaled (makes no difference)
No acceleration - 2D or 3D
Original failure occurred after default VM config, most recent after PAE/NX turned on (makes no difference)
OSX Version 10.11.6 El Capitan
Macbook Pro Mid 2009 Model MacBookPro5,5
VM goes to garbled screen just before Ubuntu would show a login screen,
right after "ACPI PCC probe failed" or "SMBase base address uninitialized" message
The problem might be in Ubuntu, rather than in Virtual Box
iegorman
Posts: 4
Joined: 19. Feb 2012, 04:05

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by iegorman »

Starting from outdated Ubuntu 14.04 with dkms and Guest Additions 5.0.14 installed
VirtualBox Version 5.1.2 r108956
Video memory 32 MB
Monitor count 1
Scale Factor 100%
HIDPI support - scaled
No acceleration - 2D or 3D
OSX Version 10.11.6 El Capitan
Macbook Pro Mid 2009 Model MacBookPro5,5
Ubuntu starts and runs OK
Update (apt-get dist-upgrade) to current (2016-07-31) Ubuntu 14.04 LTS
Ubuntu restarts and runs OK
Update VirtualBox guest Additions to 5.1.2
Ubuntu restarts and runs OK
iegorman
Posts: 4
Joined: 19. Feb 2012, 04:05

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by iegorman »

Starting from up-to-date Ubuntu 14.04 with dkms and Guest Additions 5.1.2 installed
VirtualBox Version 5.1.2 r108956
Video memory 32 MB
Monitor count 1
Scale Factor 100%
HIDPI support - scaled
No acceleration - 2D or 3D
OSX Version 10.11.6 El Capitan
Macbook Pro Mid 2009 Model MacBookPro5,5
Ubuntu 14.04 starts and runs OK
issued 'sudo do-release-updgrade', failed for lack of space
purged r-base and cleared cache with 'sudo clean'
run 'sudo do-release-updgrade' again
Upgrade to Ubuntu 16.04 succeeds, VM restarts as Ubuntu 16.04
Shutdown and restart succeeds
run 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' to update
Shutdown and restart succeeds
run 'sudo apt-get dist-upgrade' again: no change
re-install r-base
Shutdown and restart succeeds
Conclusion: Ubuntu 16.04 can be installed as a release upgrade from 14.04
iegorman
Posts: 4
Joined: 19. Feb 2012, 04:05

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by iegorman »

Summary of previous postings:
Attempt to install Ubuntu 16.04 to fresh VM from CD image ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso fails with a garbled video
Ubuntu 14.04 LTS upgraded to 2016-07-31 runs OK
Ubuntu 15.04 upgraded to 2016-07-31 runs OK
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS upgraded from 14.04 LTS (upgraded to 2016-07-31) runs OK

Additional:
Attempt to install Ubuntu 16.04 from CD image ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso to clone of updated Ubuntu 15.04 also fails with a garbled video
I have not tried to install ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso in VirtualBox 5.1.2 that does not have any version of VirtualBox Additions

Speculation:
Problem might be in the Ubuntu 16.04 CD image or, maybe, in VirtualBox Additions 5.1.2
Attached VBOX log: Attempt to install Ubuntu 16.04 to fresh VM from CD image ubuntu-16.04.1-desktop-amd64.iso
Attachments
VBox.log
Log from attempt to install from Ubuntu 16.04.1 CD image to a new VM
(115.14 KiB) Downloaded 73 times
notarobot
Posts: 1
Joined: 22. Sep 2016, 12:37

Re: Enabling 3D with Ubuntu (any recent version) results in garbled video and crashes

Post by notarobot »

Chiming in to say I'm having the same issue with garbled graphics with 3D enabled. I'm using clean VM install of Ubuntu 16.04 on Mac OS X 10.11.6 with VirtualBox 5.1.6 r110634 (and the corresponding Guest Additions installed in the VM). Disabling 3D "fixes" the problem, but it's so slow as to be unusable.

FWIW, the worst problems I'm seeing are with Chrome (which just shows a black rectangle when opened) and Emacs (text isn't redrawn correctly in some cases).
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