Problems using either VMSVGA or VBoxSVGA drivers

[str8edgedave]

Hi,
I upgraded to VirtualBox 6.0, and my VMs do not run if I change the drivers from VBoxVGA to either VMSVGA or VBoxSVGA. When I start the virtual machines, the window opens, but the VM never makes it past posting. If I change back to VBoxVGA the VM boots. Guests are Fedora 29, Centos 7.6, Windows 7 (fully patched), and Windows 10 (fully patched). I have also tried using VBoxSVGA on a new Fedora installation.

The host machine is a MacBook Pro Retina, Late 2013, with 15" display. Core i7 processor with 16GB RAM, running MacOS Mojave 10.14.2.

Kext seem to be loaded:

Code: Select all

$ kextstat | grep -i vbox
  205    3 0xffffff7f8643d000 0xef000    0xef000    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (6.0.0) 90C5538D-EAA4-3EE0-AFF7-C60B469DCC90 <8 6 5 3 1>
  206    0 0xffffff7f8652c000 0x8000     0x8000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (6.0.0) 05696B73-790D-3AEA-A761-D596A8594380 <205 167 54 8 6 5 3 1>
  208    0 0xffffff7f86536000 0x5000     0x5000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (6.0.0) B6345263-C6EB-3365-BC16-7594E4B9870A <205 8 6 5 3 1>
  209    0 0xffffff7f865ac000 0x6000     0x6000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (6.0.0) C12A4634-55F8-39C2-848D-7E358A29E174 <205 6 5 1>

I have tried various combinations of video memory, scale factor and graphics adapter. The only one that works properly seems to be the VBoxVGA driver.

Any suggestions on how to get the updated drivers to work?

David

[socratis]

Any suggestions on how to get the updated drivers to work?

Wait for the bugs from the 1st release to be fixed. If you had searched the forums and the bug tracker, you'd have seen that there are several (if not more) issues. You're not doing anything wrong...

The VBoxSVGA will be used for Windows Guests (mostly) and the VMSVGA for Linux Guests (mostly). Right now the foundation has been laid out, but at the moment they have some... growing pains.

As far as CentOS 7.6, it has its own case of bugs. See: "[Invalid] Mouse only usable within single application after mouse click on RHEL 7.6 (#18124)" and "[Fixed] Error building the graphics driver module in RHEL 7.6 (#18093)".

[str8edgedave]

Thanks for the information, socratis. I searched the forums, not the bug tracker. I'm more than happy to use the VBoxVGA until the VBoxSVGA & VMSVGA drivers are a bit more robust.

The joys of being an early adopter!

David

[skoehler]

The VBoxSVGA will be used for Windows Guests (mostly) and the VMSVGA for Linux Guests (mostly).

Are you sure? The user manual states that VBoxSVGA will be used for Windows 7 and up as well as Linux. But the Changelog seems to disagree.
https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03. ... gs-display
https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog-6.0#v0

Is anything knows about the advantages that this new VBoxSVGA is supposed to deliver in the near future?
The Changelog seems to suggest is has something to do with 3D acceleration.

[socratis]

Are you sure?

Yes. Just create a new test VM for each kind of guest and check the vGPU.

the advantages that this new VBoxSVGA is supposed to deliver in the near future?

1) How "near" of a future are you thinking?
2) A better foundation on which better emulation can be built.

[skoehler]

Just create a new test VM for each kind of guest and check the vGPU.

Indeed. Linux guests are created with VMSVGA as a default.
What's the advantage? Are the Linux drivers for the VMware card open source now?

1) How "near" of a future are you thinking?
2) A better foundation on which better emulation can be built.

Let me phrase it this way: what are the first one or two benefits for end users that might be emerge from the items on the roadmap, if there was any. Speculation is welcome.

Perhaps, this VBoxSVGA is a new start in order to support recent Windows guests, which really perform poorly (visually, reponsiveness-wise) without 3D acceleration?

[socratis]

from the items on the roadmap, if there was any

There is a roadmap, but unless you're a VirtualBox developer, you can only guess...

As for the rest of your questions, I have no clue. Ask the developers on the [url=irc://irc.freenode.net/vbox]#vbox[/url] or [url=irc://irc.freenode.net/vbox-dev]#vbox-dev[/url] channel on IRC.

[WhatHaveYou]

I too just switched two VMs to the 'VBoxSVGA' that the latest version of VirtualBox recommends. Both VMs worked well before. One is a Windows VM on a Linux computer. The other is a Linux VM on a Windows computer. And now neither works properly, even after restarting both. Well done, VirtualBox. The VM running (emulating) Windows does nasty resizing at startup, has a slighly visual glitch when it runs the file explorer, and borks itself utterly when running Word.The VM running (emulating) Linux didn't boot properly - it booted to grub - and when I told it to run the desktop it complains of there being no hardware acceleration.

One, utterly obvious problem here is that Virtual Box is now recommending an option that has a name rather similar to the now depreciated option and indeed a name similar to a third option. The other problem is that the bloomin thing doesn't work.

EDIT: OK, the VM emulating Linux now works, if I choose, in Vbox's Settings -> Display, VMSVGA (sic). Not that the depreciation warning tells me where that settings is. Also, did it tell me to choose that option? I don't know. I think there's a potential award for bad UI here. Using the exact same setting on the machine emulating Windows seems to have produced a rather fetching and utterly unusable black-and-white miniaturised display.

[andyp73]

The VBoxSVGA and VMSVGA vGPU have a few issues that the devs are working out. The more feedback and tickets they get the sooner the issues will be resolved for all. As for your rant about the UI and not knowing which vGPU to select then you should have consulted the user manual where it says:

VBoxSVGA: The default graphics controller for new VMs that use Windows 7 or later. This graphics controller improves performance and 3D support when compared to the legacy VBoxVGA option.

VBoxVGA: Use this graphics controller for legacy guest OSes. This is the default graphics controller for Windows versions before Windows 7 and for Oracle Solaris.

VMSVGA: Use this graphics controller to emulate a VMware SVGA graphics device. This is the default graphics controller for Linux guests.

-Andy.

[WhatHaveYou]

Perhaps my tone was off. However: 'read the manual' seems an insufficient response here. For, the complaint was this: an update advises, on pain of breakage, changing a rather gnomic setting in a hard to find place. At the least, the aforementioned advice should refer to the manual. You will acknowledge the hard-to-pronounce, terse, similar-to-each-other acronyms are not ideal. Still, I would not have got worked up had things worked when I had made the change. Don't shoot the messenger. For my own part I shall not touch the relevant setting again unless and until I have to.

I would file a bug report had my previous experience with the oracle bug tracker better. (I don't recall whether there was any action on my bug report but I seen to recall that I had a terrible time logging in.)

If you're a developer, it's nice to see one actually on the forum.