[Fixed] Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Discussions about using Linux guests in VirtualBox.
jlukic
Posts: 3
Joined: 20. Oct 2017, 22:28

[Fixed] Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by jlukic »


[ModEdit, related ticket #17190]
I'm running into same issue as discussed in thread "[Solved] Ubuntu 14.04LTS stuck on login screen after Guest Addition upgrade (vbox 5.2)"

When I startup Ubuntu Guest it locks up with a black screen.

This is with Ubuntu 17.10 (linux headers 4.13.0.16-generic), and latest VBox 5.2.

I've tried both Guest Addition ISOs linked to from the special message on virtualbox website - VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.1-118447, and 5.2.1-118452

Both builds install without error but then on restart deliver me to a black screen. This is same with 3D acceleration disabled or enabled.

I've attached a zipped vbox.log (The log is with 3d acceleration disabled)

This log was taken after following the procedure socratis requested:
cold boot -> black screen on startup -> Shutdown
Attachments
Vbox.zip
(26.43 KiB) Downloaded 590 times
Last edited by socratis on 20. Dec 2017, 08:56, edited 3 times in total.
Reason: Marked as [Fixed].
twchan
Posts: 5
Joined: 26. Nov 2014, 19:18

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by twchan »

Hi,

Same issue here: Virtualbox 5.2, GA 5.2.1 r118447, Ubuntu 17.10
twchan@ub17-zotz-endo:~$ modinfo vboxvideo | grep "^version"
version: 5.2.1 r118447
twchan@ub17-zotz-endo:~$ modinfo vboxguest | grep "^version"
version: 5.2.1 r118447
twchan@ub17-zotz-endo:~$ modinfo vboxsf | grep "^version"
version: 5.2.1 r118447
In my case, disabling 3D-acceleration allowed the system to boot normally.
With 3D-acceleration enabled, the system gets stuck at the "Ubuntu" screen before the user login page is displayed.

In its stuck state, I was able to ssh into the box and grab the syslog. It is included together with the VBox.log for the session.
Attachments
VBox.log+syslog.zip
(57.09 KiB) Downloaded 463 times
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: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by socratis »

@jlukic
Please don't open both a ticket (#17190) *and* a thread, it makes things more complicated and potentially duplicates the comments and the effort. A thread is the proper way to start a discussion, and if that leads nowhere, then you could be directed to open a ticket.
00:00:01.566925 File system of 'C:\Users\Jack\Downloads\VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.1-118447.iso' (DVD) is ntfs
00:00:01.567581 File system of 'C:\Users\Jack\Downloads\VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.1-118452.iso' (DVD) is ntfs
The usual advice is to eject the GAs CD once you're done with the installation. You took it to another level, you have two (2) different GAs CDs in the VM! Please eject them.
00:00:01.604537 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:01.604539   Path      <string>  = "C:\Users\Jack\Downloads\VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.1-118447.iso" (cb=60)

00:00:01.604546 [/Devices/piix3ide/0/LUN#1/Config/] (level 5)
00:00:01.604548   Path      <string>  = "C:\Users\Jack\Downloads\VBoxGuestAdditions_5.2.1-118452.iso" (cb=60)
And don't add a CD drive if you simply want to add a CD to a VM. Eject one, insert the other. Like on a real computer. Don't click the "Add controller" on the left hand side of the Storage preferences. Click on the CD icon on the left, then click on the CD icon on the right.
Image


00:00:01.604361 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
00:00:01.953841 CPUM: Logical host processors: 8 present, 8 max, 8 online, online mask: 00000000000000ff
00:00:01.953843 CPUM: Physical host cores: 4
You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about physical processors, not logical ones. See: CPU Cores versus threads.
00:00:01.604365 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000200000000 (8 589 934 592, 8 192 MB, 8.0 GB)
That seems a little too much. Do you actually need that much memory on the guest? Can you drop it down to 2 GB as a test?
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.
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: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by socratis »

twchan wrote:In my case, disabling 3D-acceleration allowed the system to boot normally.
You will have to wait for an updated version of the GAs for the moment. The Linux GAs have had some issues with the release of 5.2.0. I expect most of them to be resolved with 5.2.2.
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.
jlukic
Posts: 3
Joined: 20. Oct 2017, 22:28

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by jlukic »

I understand the needs of an OS maintainer, apologies for any false steps in bug reporting. Virtualbox rules I've been using it for my linux dev for many years.

I'm still having the same issues with your suggested changes to my VM. I'll be travelling for work, so unfortunately can't make any more adjustment but would love to hear if you have any other ideas on ways to get it to boot.

Thanks for your help
jlukic
Posts: 3
Joined: 20. Oct 2017, 22:28

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by jlukic »

For people with a similar issue, i found a similar bug in Ubuntu's tracker with a solution that worked for me
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+sour ... ug/1705369

Edit /etc/gdm/custom.conf and uncomment:
#WaylandEnable=false

and
sudo apt-get purge gdm3
Underground78
Posts: 23
Joined: 5. Nov 2017, 17:16

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by Underground78 »

Hello,

I have the same issue but so far I was not able to work it around.

I tried disabling Wayland in gdm configuration file, removing gdm3 completely and also setting the "nomodeset" kernel option in grub as suggested in the linked Ubuntu bug report without any success.

Is this issue supposed to be fixed with the VirtualBox Guest Addition dated from November 3rd, 2017?

Best regards,
Underground78
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by Perryg »

Run the following in the guests terminal and post the results here:

Code: Select all

find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -type f -name "*.ko" | grep vbox
Underground78
Posts: 23
Joined: 5. Nov 2017, 17:16

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by Underground78 »

Sorry for the late reply, I thought I had subscribed to this topic but I apparently forgot to do so.

Here is the output of the command above (I logged in using Ctrl+Alt+F6 because of the black screen so no easy copy-paste sorry...):
Attachments
output.png
output.png (5.03 KiB) Viewed 67593 times
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by Perryg »

I suspect your issue is due to conflicts between the Ubuntu proprietary VBox KO modules and the ones you installed from VirtualBox.

I suggest you rename the /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/vbox folder to prevent them from loading. See below:

Code: Select all

ubuntu@ubuntu-17:~$ find /lib/modules/`uname -r` -type f -name "*.ko" | grep vbox
/lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/vbox.old/vboxvideo/vboxvideo.ko
/lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/vbox.old/vboxguest/vboxguest.ko
/lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/vbox.old/vboxsf/vboxsf.ko
/lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc/vboxguest.ko
/lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc/vboxsf.ko
/lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/misc/vboxvideo.ko
I would also run the following:

Code: Select all

ubuntu@ubuntu-17:~$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
If it says ubuntu and not ubuntu-xorg, then I would log off and select to use Xorg instead of wayland.
Underground78
Posts: 23
Joined: 5. Nov 2017, 17:16

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by Underground78 »

Perryg wrote:I suspect your issue is due to conflicts between the Ubuntu proprietary VBox KO modules and the ones you installed from VirtualBox.

I suggest you rename the /lib/modules/4.13.0-16-generic/kernel/ubuntu/vbox folder to prevent them from loading.
It does not seem to fix the problem, I'm still getting a black screen after renaming the folder.
Perryg wrote:I would also run the following:

Code: Select all

ubuntu@ubuntu-17:~$ echo $DESKTOP_SESSION
If it says ubuntu and not ubuntu-xorg, then I would log off and select to use Xorg instead of wayland.
This environment variable does not seem to be defined but I think it makes sense since I am not able to load my desktop environment.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by Perryg »

If you look at the login screen you should see a small gear icon below your user name ( once you select the user name ). Click on that and select Xorg. Alternatively you can edit a gnome file and disable wayland but you need to ask them how to do this.
michael
Oracle Corporation
Posts: 682
Joined: 10. May 2007, 09:46
Contact:

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by michael »

I am trying to reproduce the black screen problem and have so far failed dismally. I would greatly appreciate detailed instructions, starting with installing a fresh guest (and exact details of what was selected or changed from the defaults during installation).
piggyz
Posts: 70
Joined: 13. Feb 2013, 12:28

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by piggyz »

Hi, the point is we, surely I, do not run fresh copy of OS. Mine is updated from long time, then this is not a problem usually. This problem is IMHO pretty clear: VB modules and probably userland fight with Linux guest 3D accelleration. In fact, in my experience using a 2D login manager or a 2D window manager (like for example LXDE) avoid the problem.

Now, I do not have the time to install a fresh Ubuntu to test if - like Michael said - he can't reproduce the problem with a fresh copy of Ubuntu 17.10.

I also don't had the time to try new guest additions with other Linux OS, then I will do that when I have some spare time, becouse I think the problem could be more generally than limited to Ubuntu 17.10.

As I said in another thread, I do have partially running Ubuntu 17.10 with 3D accelleration using built in virtualbox modules (virtualbox .ko kernel defaults) and 5.1.x Ubuntu 17.10 userland client packages.

Like this, just KDE 5 still crash. The new Gnome 3 based Ubuntu 17.10 seems to work, no more black screen on boot (with Lightdm).

That's all for now.
michael
Oracle Corporation
Posts: 682
Joined: 10. May 2007, 09:46
Contact:

Re: Vbox 5.2 Black Screen on Startup Ubuntu 17.10 (#17190)

Post by michael »

That sounds like it is a problem with 3D acceleration. 3D acceleration is only expected to work with X11 applications anyway, specifically not with Wayland compositors. Does disabling 3D solve the problem? For more background, 3D is handled in a user-space library, not in the kernel modules. As a test, you could install VirtualBox Additions and either disable 3D or delete /usr/bin/VBoxClient on the guest. I am afraid that you are probably not loosing very much that way.
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