Kali guest aborts after a few seconds

[tchad]

Hi everyone,

First time VB user here, trying to install a Kali guest on a Windows 7 host (both 64-bit).

I've configured the VB according to the recommendations from Kali's website. The image starts OK to the Kali installation prompt, but regardless of what I do (even if I'm idling, or starting with the installation) the Guest window just closes after about 10 seconds with no error message, with the status of the VB changing to 'Aborted'. I've assigned 20 GB of disk space to the VB.

I've tried playing around with the VB setup to no avail. Things I've tried that do not resolve the situation:
- Tried assigning different amounts of memory, between 2 to 6 GB of memory of the 11 GB that is usually available
- Tried disabling sound/USB/Network Adapter
- Tried shutting off my antivirus (ESET Internet Security), I've also looked through antivirus logs and don't see it blocking anything around the time of the VB activation
- Tried different graphics controllers (VMSVGA, VBoxVGA)
- Made sure that virtualization is enabled in BIOS
- Looked through the VB log (attached), but did not see a smoking gun (with my noob eyes).

Any help troubleshooting this is greatly appreciated!

Cheers!

[scottgus1]

I don't see anything wrong with the log either. It just cuts off, typical of an abort.

FWIW I would start with a brand new VM, to undo all the changing that was done. Use the hardware Virtualbox uses for the Debian VM. RAM increase and 2 processors should be OK.

A forum guru will have to see if the log shows telltale signs.

Also check that the Kali ISO hash is correct with their website.

[tchad]

Thanks for the suggestions, scottgus1.

The hash for the downloaded .iso matches the website.

I deleted the original setup and re-created again, following the Kali website recommendations to the letter: Linux/Debian 64-bit, 2048 MB memory, 2/8 processor cores, 80 GB (on a TB disk) VDI dynamically allocated virtual hard drive, 128 MB video memory, PAE/NX enabled, VMSVGA driver. No change in behavior.

Interestingly, I tried starting the VB without pointing to the .iso in the optical drive. The dialog came up to ask what image to use. While I was pointing to the iso about 10 seconds passed, so as soon as I selected it, the VB shut down with an error (for the first time):

The VM session was aborted.
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:
SessionMachine
Interface:
ISession {c0447716-ff5a-4795-b57a-ecd5fffa18a4}

Does that shed any more light?

[scottgus1]

Hmmm, this one is a puzzle.

Could you please try downloading an Ubuntu ISO and make an Ubuntu VM, see if anything behaves differently?

[fth0]

I also didn't notice anything interesting in the VB_Kali.log file. After its unexpected end, the next expected messages would be about the drivers from the VirtualBox Guest Additions.

Please repeat the re-creation of the VM, and when prompted for the ISO file, wait at least 15 seconds before selecting it. Post a zip file containing the VBox.log file and the VBoxHardening.log file. Additionally, you could search the Windows Event Viewer for information about a potential crash of the VirtualBoxVM process.

[tchad]

Thank you everyone for the tips. I had a Debian ISO on hand, so I tried creating a VB with it, and it worked fine. I then decided to just try the previously made Kali VB... and it worked. So no idea what was going on previously, but at least it solved itself

Thank you very much everyone, hope you have a great new 2021!