VB 4.2.6: cannot get 3D acceleration to work on Ubuntu 12.04

[DocOx]

Hi,

I have a MacBook Pro with an SSD drive, running OS X 10.8.2 (64-bit; 16GB of RAM). I installed VB 4.2.6 (incl. the corresponding extension pack) and then Ubuntu 12.04 as a guest (I have both a 32-bit and a 64-bit guest). I have allocated 1GB of RAM to the VM and 128MB of video memory (with neither 2D nor 3D acceleration enabled). Guest additions are installed in the VM.

Now, my problem is that if I enable 3D acceleration, then my Ubuntu 12.04 VM will just crash during boot up. My 12.10 VM will boot up fine, but then Unity won't show up properly. From there, I can't do anything but shut down the VM.

I have googled quite a bit and seen that others have had problems with 3D acceleration, but none of the 'solutions' I have found have worked for me...

Cheers, Alan.

PS: attached is the log for my 32-bit Ubuntu 12.04 VM.

[noteirak]

Is the issue ONLY when you have 3D acceleration enabled?

[loukingjr]

doesn't Unity recommend 2GB of RAM?

[Perryg]

I would like to see a guest log with 3d enabled. Ubuntu unity relies heavily on Compiz and since 12.04 uses software rendering which make it really slow on some PCs if it can not find the accelerated VBox drivers (provided with the Guest Additions)


As for the amount of ram, 1GB should work but in Linux you probably don't need more than 32MB of vRam.

[loukingjr]

Speaking of compiz and Ubuntu 12.04. I recently installed a remix called Unity Dark 2 which is Ubuntu 12.04 based.. For whatever reason 3D works perfectly, All the compiz effects work, no garbled screens etc. I don't know what the difference is between it and normal Ubuntu 12.04 but it certainly works better.

[DocOx]

@noteirak: all I can say is that if 3D acceleration is not enabled, then my VM works fine. On the other hand, if I enable 3D acceleration, then both my 32-bit and 64-bit Ubuntu 12.04 VMs crash upon booting while my (32-bit) 12.10 VM doesn't crash, but I can't see anything meaningful, so I can just ask (via the Machine | ACPI Shutdown menu) to shutdown my VM and I can't even see the dialog box asking me to confirm so I just press OK since that's the default button for shutting down.

@loukingjr: I don't know, but I have tried my Ubuntu 12.04 VMs with 2GB and it still crashes. Same story with 4GB. Otherwise, I am going to have a look at that Unity Dark 2 (I didn't know about it).

@Perryg: see the attached log (3D acceleration enabled and 4GB of RAM).

[Perryg]

According to the logs VirtualBox is happy, so it has to be Ubuntu that is getting upset with the 3D acceleration. I know as loukingjr will tell you that Ubuntu has a bad record with graphics on a Mac. I would like to contribute that to the host graphics drivers needing updating but with the lack of updated driver support (at least that is what I hear) I don't know what else to advise you.

[DocOx]

@loukingjr: ok, I have had a quick look at Unity Dark 2, but it's a custom distribution, so a no-go for me.

@Perryg: argh, this is not good news to my ears...

[DocOx]

So... that's it, no more suggestions?...

[bulletmark]

Ubuntu unity relies heavily on Compiz and since 12.04 uses software rendering which make it really slow on some PCs if it can not find the accelerated VBox drivers (provided with the Guest Additions)

Perry, this is not correct. Ubuntu Unity 12.04 falls back to 2D graphics (i.e. Unity-2D). It was only with Unity on 12.10 where it was changed to fall back to LLVMpipe (3D rendering in software).

However, as I reported at viewtopic.php?f=8&t=53250, Virtualbox current version 4.2.6 will not run Ubuntu 12.04 or 12.10 with 3D reliably on Mac OSX (current 10.8.2). You get constant guests aborts. Ubuntu 12.10 will not run on previous Virtualbox 4.2.4 version either. However, Ubuntu 12.04 will run reliably in 3D on VB 4.2.4. So OP, if you want to run 12.04 then your only option (from my experience) is to install the previous 4.2.4 version of VB. 3D support for Ubuntu guests in VB is a mess at the moment. I run Ubuntu guests on both OS X and Ubuntu hosts and the problems exist on both host platforms in the last few VB versions. And the problem is not specific to Unity and/or Compiz. I mainly use Gnome Shell in my Ubuntu guests and it has the same problems (note that Gnome Shell does not use Compiz).

[Perryg]

Poor explanation on my part. I should have stated 12.04 and 12.10 rely heavily on compiz and 12.10 uses software rendering.

But saying that I do not have an issue with 12.04, 12.10 or 13.04 with builds from SVN, so the good news is the next maintenance release should take care of the issues, at least for Linux. Can't say about Mac, since I don't have one.

[DocOx]

@bulletmark: thanks for the suggestion. I have downloaded and installed VirtualBox 4.2.4 (incl. VB Extension Pack). From there, I started by Ubuntu 12.04 VM (witout 3D acceleration enabled), installed guest additions. Shut down my VM, enabled 3D acceleration, restarted my VM, and... crash! So, VirtualBox 4.2.4 doesn't work for me...

[bulletmark]

@bulletmark: thanks for the suggestion. I have downloaded and installed VirtualBox 4.2.4 (incl. VB Extension Pack). From there, I started by Ubuntu 12.04 VM (witout 3D acceleration enabled), installed guest additions. Shut down my VM, enabled 3D acceleration, restarted my VM, and... crash! So, VirtualBox 4.2.4 doesn't work for me...

Sorry, all I can say is the proverbial "It works for me".

I should point out some possible differences compared to you. I was using Ubuntu 12.04 32 bit guest at that time, not 64 bit (although I am only using 64 bit hosts and guests nowadays). Also, I use Gnome Shell for my 3D desktop. You are probably using Unity. Unity (on Compiz) has always been more "fragile" on VB in my experience (or on any host/guest platform actually).