Terminal Not Opening in Ubuntu 16.04

[DoLees]

Hi ~

I have a Virtualbox running Ubuntu 16.04 installed on Windows10. All of a sudden I can not open the terminal in Ubuntu anymore. I tried ctrl+alt+F3, but there is still nothing happening. In addition, the right click of the mouse does not work either. Therefore I can not copy or delete anything on the disk for the virtual machine. Would someone please help me? Thanks.

DoLees

[scottgus1]

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[DoLees]

Start the VM from full normal shutdown, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM's OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip it, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

Hi scottgus1,

Thanks for answering. I was able to shut down the VM within the VM's OS.

The zipped log file is attached.

DoLees

[scottgus1]

Nothing in the log jumps out to me as a problem, but I might have missed something.

Does the no right click and inability to open the terminal happen from the beginning of the OS logging into its desktop? Or does it happen later? And can you open the terminal by double-clicking its icon?

I'd suggest to try making a new VM with the same Ubuntu 16, and see if it suffers the same problem. If it doesn't, then the first VM's OS has a bit flipped somewhere.

[DoLees]

Nothing in the log jumps out to me as a problem, but I might have missed something.

Does the no right click and inability to open the terminal happen from the beginning of the OS logging into its desktop? Or does it happen later? And can you open the terminal by double-clicking its icon?

I'd suggest to try making a new VM with the same Ubuntu 16, and see if it suffers the same problem. If it doesn't, then the first VM's OS has a bit flipped somewhere.

The no right click and inability to open the terminal happen as soon as the OS logging into its desktop. I can not open the terminal by double-clicking or single-clicking its icon.

Thanks for the advice. I'll try to make a new VM.

[AndyCot]

Sounds like you Ubuntu 16.04 has screwed up the icon properties. Check them and see. VirtualBox cannot change the icon properties or Ubuntu to cause the issue you are having.

My advise when working with old superseded OS's is to make a copy of the VB VM files after the initial install and then after you install the apps and then before you make major changes as it is a pain to setup the OS and configure it again. Be aware that some newer apps will not install on old Ubuntu versions and cause issues with dependencies. I have seen this with Ubuntu 18.04 when I still needed to use it.

[scottgus1]

My advise when working with old superseded OS's is to make a copy of the VB VM files after the initial install and then after you install the apps and then before you make major changes as it is a pain to setup the OS and configure it again.

+1 to this!

Disk space is cheap, and versioned backups are a really beneficial asset when a new app install or update goes south.

[scottgus1]

Please note that this topic: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=106613 says that an attempt to install new Guest Additions in a Linux VM over the top of existing Guest Additions raises a warning to not do that. The OP in that topic ignored the warning and got missing right-click.

Please try uninstalling the existing Guest Additions then reinstall from the bundled Guest Additions ISO in the Devices menu Insert Guest Additions CD Image. Note that official GAs in Linux have prerequisites, same as for Virtualbox on a Linux host, see https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch04. ... ions-linux and https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch02. ... nux-prereq

[DoLees]

Thank you scottgus1 and Andycot for the comments and suggestions.

I removed the old VM and then added a new VM. It worked for a while then the same thing happened again - right-clicking of the mouse was not working and the terminal wouldn't open.

I realized that I might have taken up too much space in the VM and the shared folder between the host and guest, I cleaned up my hard disk and made around 100 GB of space available. I then created a new VM. It has been working so far (fingers crossed). If it crashes again, I'll upload the .log file to this forum.

[DoLees]

Where are the VM files? Are they under 'users/XXX/VirtualBox VMs/'? Do I have to back up the virtual disk image?

[scottgus1]

Where are the VM files? Are they under 'users/XXX/VirtualBox VMs/'?

That's where they usually are, but they could be anywhere on the host disks if you want to put them elsewhere.

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer. Windows will open a folder window showing the VM's files. Go up one folder level, and Windows should have the VM's folder selected. Copy that folder. You will also have to check that you let Virtualbox put the VM's disk file(s) in the folder too. If they aren't you have to go find them and back them up as well.

Do I have to back up the virtual disk image?

That's the disk drive of the virtual machine. A backup pf a PC that doesn't include the contents of the PC's disks isn't going to get very far come restore time.

[DoLees]

Right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show in Explorer. Windows will open a folder window showing the VM's files. Go up one folder level, and Windows should have the VM's folder selected. Copy that folder. You will also have to check that you let Virtualbox put the VM's disk file(s) in the folder too. If they aren't you have to go find them and back them up as well.

Thanks.

[DoLees]

That's the disk drive of the virtual machine. A backup pf a PC that doesn't include the contents of the PC's disks isn't going to get very far come restore time.