Linux black screen when booting fullscreen workaround

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virtualgus
Posts: 9
Joined: 16. Dec 2014, 17:40

Linux black screen when booting fullscreen workaround

Post by virtualgus »

I have a trouble that is old and persistent, as I google it trying to solve it. The black screen hang after showing the following error message:
[drm:vmw_host_log [vmwgfx]] *ERROR* Failed do send log message.
Depending on the configuration (as lower Graphics Controller as VboxVGA), it will show some messages in a box or it won't show anything else, just the black screen.

As I research about it, it is related to video emulation, and occurs when the resolution will switch to fit the screen. There is some workarounds but all I found is related to downgrade configuration or downgrade VirtualBox itself - but that seems horrible workaround to me! I want to workaround but end in a good point, with 3D acceleration and an updated host!

My own quick workaround is simple: just startup always in windowed mode, switch resolution later. Maybe I should make a script for it...
And I will suggest a workaround for developers: to put an option in the video settings tab to not switch resolution during startup - deactivate this automation. I know is not a solution, but a black screen like this is horrible when you need your system working, not everybody is skilled in to pick logs, go to text mode and write solution by hand. This option will prevent hang because any GPU request during boot is risky, depends on everything being ok.

If you google for this kind of trouble, you will see a lot of users trying to solve it for many years, they do a lot of things as reinstall Linux, some of them eventually "solve" and some just give up. With that option, will be easier to make it work before trying solutions that takes long time. Also, I don't think it's related to the host OS, it will happens in Windows and macOS.

Finally, keep working on this awesome, honestly I didn't find much of difference between VirtualBox and payed solutions as VMware, this project worth the efforts!
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Linux black screen when booting fullscreen workaround

Post by scottgus1 »

virtualgus wrote:I have a trouble that is old and persistent, as I google it trying to solve it. The black screen hang after showing the following error message:
How old?

This error message does appear in Linux VMs, and if the host PC is on the proper condition the VM continues to boot. My Linux VMs show this message and continue to boot.

There is a host condition on Windows PCs that can cause Virtualbox to vvvveeeerrrrryyyyy ssssslllloooowwwwlllllyyyyy execute VMs, or seize up, or Guru Meditate. It's not the cause of or caused by your posted error.

There was one forum poster who found that the new Linux VMSVGA video card simulated by Virtualbox might have a difference with the driver that the Linux OS expects to use for that video card, and it may be the driver's glitch. (I don't remember the link to post, though.)

The Virtualbox VM window is essentially a "monitor". If you could get a physical monitor to tell the OS that it will not switch to the common screen-size that the OS wants to switch to, then Virtualbox's "monitor could be set to not switch too. Are there any modern monitors that will reject going to 800x600 or 1024x768 from the default 640x480?

So that we can pin this down and see if your "error then seize up" behavior might not be a host problem or a VM configuration problem, please start a new topic in the correct host OS subforum, and post which host OS you're using and a vbox.log from the VM having the error.
fth0
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Posts: 5668
Joined: 14. Feb 2019, 03:06
Primary OS: Mac OS X other
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Linux, Windows 10, ...
Location: Germany

Re: Linux black screen when booting fullscreen workaround

Post by fth0 »

virtualgus wrote:My own quick workaround is simple: just startup always in windowed mode, switch resolution later.
There is another similar workaround used by others who reported the problem: Start the VM in fullscreen mode and switch the mode forth and back by pressing Host+F twice. ;)
scottgus1 wrote:How old?
It depends on how and what you count: There have been regular reports of Linux guests booting with a blank screen in the last two years at least. Many of them were attributed to Hyper-V on the Windows host, some of them to low video memory and other reasons, and some of them were not resolved at all (dark figure?). In a few of them, the OP mentioned using fullscreen mode, and one of them I could easily replicate some months ago. Because of the easy workaround mentioned above and the few number of cases, I didn't bother to investigate further.

You can simply try the following: Start a Linux guest, switch to fullscreen, shut it down properly, and start it anew.
virtualgus wrote:As I research about it, [...]
After having read my breakdown above, what did you find out in your research differently or additionally?
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