vmwgfx failure with Ubuntu kernel upgrade (6.5.0-14)

[bertje]

Thanks for the log. According to the VirtualBox changelog 7.0.12: Linux Guest Additions: Added initial support for kernels 6.5 and 6.6 it looks like you've installed VirtualBox 7.0.8 on the host. (Assuming you've mounted the GA ISO via the Devices menu) Minimum VirtualBox version is 7.0.12 for 6.5 kernels, but introduces graphics issues.

As you can boot the guest, a suggestion is to enable the Grub menu by editing /etc/default/grub and and start a previously installed kernel via the advanced menu.

[appyface]

I have to stay on 7.0.8 because of Win7 host I believe? Maybe newer VBox would run, I don't know. I hesitate to try and mess up my host and other VMs.

However. I still have no explanation why two of three VMs (which should all essentially be identical to each other, VBox config and OS wise) are fine following the Lubuntu update. I updated all three VMs back to back within minutes of each other. How to find out why two are working fine but this one has the errors...

[appyface]

If nothing else this has been a good exercise in learning more about linux for me...

The kernel updated to 6.5 in the erroring VM, but did NOT update in the two that are working. So there it is and makes sense now based on what is known about issues with the linux kernel.

I have no idea why the one VM's kernel automatically updated while the other two did not. But no matter, that is not relevant to this thread so I'm done here now.

Thank you for helping me sleuth this far.

[scottgus1]

That is interesting! It is known that new kernels require new Virtualbox or new Guest Additions. If 6.5 or 6.6 came out after 7.0.12 then 7.0.14 is required, and maybe the test build 7.0.13 may have the fixes.

Now that if 6.6 just came out 7.0.14 may not have the fixes and you may have to wait for 7.0.15 test builds & 7.0.16.

[appyface]

Can I use those newer VBox releases on my host though? I thought I could not, I thought I had to stay on 7.0.8?

[scottgus1]

Windows 7 hosts haven't been supported since early 6.1, but it has still worked, and the devs have tweaked things to try to get 7.0 still running on Windows 7. 7.0.10 had some trouble on Windows 7 hosts, but I think the devs looked into it after some forum gurus' help and got things working again.

So after a full reliable & restorable host backup image, you could try upgrading. Curiously, the same report just came in today: viewtopic.php?p=545344#p545344

[PabloRR]

Hi,

I'm a fairly novice user but I got the same error message last night after doing an install of my own, so this might help. I solved it by going into recovery mode, went to the root and manually deleted the files from my download. Then I rebooted it and it worked.

I believe it may be associated to the disk space becoming full, could this be the case for you? (I know that's not the error message we got, but it was my case). I hope it helps

[appyface]

Thank you for the link and info.

[bradford.wetmore]

OP here, looks like 7.0.14 released over the weekend, so I'll try to upgrade next week and see if that makes a difference.

[diegonc]

https : //github . com/torvalds/linux/blob/master/drivers/gpu/drm/vmwgfx/vmwgfx_drv.c

This is the commit that introduced the error messages

https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commi ... d06b483d37

It probably won't work again unless VirtualBox fixes what they claim it didn't implement

[fth0]

It probably won't work again unless VirtualBox fixes what they claim it didn't implement

AFAIU the patches in the vmwgfx driver, they shouldn't create any problems within VirtualBox VMs.

With the exception that now we have to explain to the VirtualBox users that they can ignore 3 instead of 2 lines of error messages that are effectively only warnings.

[diegonc]

Well it can't be called only warnings if there are UI glitches all over the place

[bradford.wetmore]

I can handle ignoring warnings, but the UI glitches are the part that make it hard to work, and what led me down this path in the first place.

FWIW, I did upgrade to 7.0.14, and it kind of help, but the original GUI glitchyness is still there.

Now when I start up (dual monitor, full screen), there is no arrow cursor, just a purple box that overwrites whatever is underneath it. I was able to click on the login box to get logged in, then I right-clicked on the background and brought up a terminal. When I clicked into the terminal, everything then seemed to be working ok.

But I'm not keen on waiting for the next error, so I moved back to:

Linux congas 6.2.0-39-generic #40~22.04.1-Ubuntu SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Thu Nov 16 10:53:04 UTC 2 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

For booting to an older kernel, the best solution for me was to set (in /etc/default/grub):

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

With this settings the last selected value is kept for the next boot. If you have a new kernel you don't have to edit your config.
Don't forget to re-run sudo update-grub. Then boot into grub and select the a downrev'd kernel.

[fth0]

Well, I'm just saying that from my POV the GUI glitches have nothing to do with the messages from the vmwgfx driver or the corresponding patch.

I'm neither saying that the whole vmwgfx driver nor the host's graphics drivers nor the different VirtualBox graphics implementations don't play a role. There are plenty of things to investigate ...

[Kinder Paul]

Hi all.
As you might expect - now having exact same issues with the boot error messages and glitching graphics in the Ubuntu VM.
Have tried the various suggestions about increasing the video RAM to 128 and 3D wasn't enabled here anyway.
Also tried the gcc-12 install (looked to be already installed, but went ahead anyway, it built kernel and rebooted)
Finally went with the GA 7.0.14 (re-)install from the ISO.
All to no avail.

Anyone any further insights, or must we await someone (ORACLE or Ubuntu?) providing suitable fix for this, as it's driving me utterly bonkers, what with the switching from usual mouse pointer to black box and frequent graphics glitches

Regards
Paul