Cannot start X server with CentOS 6.4 guest- stops on GLX

[basskleff]

Hi,

I've searched for a bit on google and figured I would come back here and ask.
I was seeing hints, tips or otherwise flashes of the elusive solution, but nothing conclusive.
I have installed CentOS on VirtualBox 4.3.2 r90405. I am going to be running a Bacula backup server on it.
I have this installed on my WIndows 7 64bit SP1 Home premium HP Pavilion DV6 laptop running 8GB and Intel i7, Ivy-bridge.

It's some sort of driver problem. startx will fail in the section where it tries loading extension GLX.
I'll try mailing Xorg.0.log from the vm to myself so I can paste here. (Alas, how aggravating to paste anything when you don't have X window emulation of any kind!!)
If I set /etc/inittab to come up default on runlevel 5 ( i.e.- the level where x and other network dependent services kick in), it will hang and not boot all the way.
Makes, sense, as that emulates the startx behavior.

Vmware player doesn't work either and hangs in exactly the same way, if X is configured to start at boot as described.
BTW, vmware player is ! Only moved to it temporarily in hopes of USB 3.0 support. What a piece. I hate EMC with every gene in my body. I digress.

Is this just a matter of specifying the vboxvideo driver correctly in xorg.conf and then loading its kernel module with something like modprobe?
Not sure here.

I had chased a CentOS thread's solution that spoke about downloading an nvidia-detect tool from elpro.org and upon review, downloading the appropriate driver and updating Xconfig, etc.
Then I realized, wait, he's running a physical machine, and virtual box must use some kind of virtual device.

I then changed the xorg.conf file in /etc/X11 to update the video device section to "vboxvideo".

Here's Xog.0.log passage:

Code: Select all

[  3263.245] Initializing built-in extension DRI2
[  3263.245] (II) LoadModule: "glx"
[  3263.245] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia/libglx.so
[  3263.256] (II) Module glx: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
[  3263.256] 	compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
[  3263.256] 	Module class: X.Org Server Extension
[  3263.256] (II) NVIDIA GLX Module  325.15  Wed Jul 31 18:12:00 PDT 2013
[  3263.257] Loading extension GLX
[  3263.257] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[  3263.260] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module vboxvideo
[  3263.260] (II) UnloadModule: "vboxvideo"
[  3263.260] (II) Unloading vboxvideo
[  3263.260] (EE) Failed to load module "vboxvideo" (module does not exist, 0)
[  3263.260] (EE) No drivers available.
[  3263.261] 
Fatal server error:
[  3263.261] no screens found
[  3263.262] (EE) 
Please consult the CentOS support 
	 at https://www.redhat.com/apps/support/
 for help. 
[  3263.266] (EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
[  3263.267] (EE) 

Current Xorg.conf:


# nvidia-xconfig: X configuration file generated by nvidia-xconfig
# nvidia-xconfig:  version 325.15  (buildmeister@swio-display-x64-rhel04-03)  Wed Jul 31 19:04:27 PDT 2013

Section "ServerLayout"
	Identifier     "Layout0"
	Screen      0  "Screen0" 0 0
	InputDevice    "Keyboard0" "CoreKeyboard"
	InputDevice    "Mouse0" "CorePointer"
EndSection

Section "Files"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules/extensions/nvidia"
	ModulePath   "/usr/lib64/xorg/modules"
	FontPath     "/usr/share/fonts/default/Type1"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from default
	Identifier  "Mouse0"
	Driver      "mouse"
	Option	    "Protocol" "auto"
	Option	    "Device" "/dev/input/mice"
	Option	    "Emulate3Buttons" "no"
	Option	    "ZAxisMapping" "4 5"
EndSection

Section "InputDevice"

    # generated from data in "/etc/sysconfig/keyboard"
	Identifier  "Keyboard0"
	Driver      "kbd"
	Option	    "XkbLayout" "us"
	Option	    "XkbModel" "pc105"
EndSection

Section "Monitor"
	Identifier   "Monitor0"
	VendorName   "Unknown"
	ModelName    "Unknown"
	HorizSync    28.0 - 33.0
	VertRefresh  43.0 - 72.0
	Option	    "DPMS"
EndSection

Section "Device"
	Identifier  "Fake Card"
	Driver      "vboxvideo"
	VendorName  "Oracle Corporation"
EndSection

Section "Screen"
	Identifier "Screen0"
	Device     "Device0"
	Monitor    "Monitor0"
	DefaultDepth     24
	SubSection "Display"
		Depth     24
	EndSubSection
EndSection

Thanks for any direction! Brian

[Perryg]

Post the guests log file (as an attachment)
See Online Users Manual for the location of the file.

As well as

From the hosts terminal/command window type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use " " if the name has a space in it.

Note if the host is Windows you need to be in the directory that has VBoxManage.exe for the command to work.

[basskleff]

Thanks for the reply!
Files are attached.

Brian

[Perryg]

First thing, did you install this yourself or is it a transplant from someone/place.

Note: You are over commiting your processor count. You have 4 cores and are giving 8 to the guest. This is going to cause you a lot of problems.

[basskleff]

I built the vm and installed CentOs from scratch.
Thanks for the note on the processors. I have another Ubuntu vm that I had allocated 6 CPUs,
I guess I was thinking in that case, that the "CPUs" you would see in Windows task mgr performance tab- 8 in my case with I7- would be equivalent to the comparable parameter virtual box is making customizable,
So on that machine, I had spared 6 out of my 8. But, I admit, I don't really know how that all works in virtualbox.

In any case, if what I had done for the ubuntu machine was anywhere near valid, I should have specified less than 8 on the Bacula/CentOS machine.
So will try taking it down to 4 and see what happens.

[basskleff]

Taking the setting down to 4 cpus on the vm made no difference.
I know X server starts perfectly on the Ubuntu machine, and no intervention whatsoever was required.
I know there is something with this version of CentOs running in virtual machines and getting X server running.
Just don't know what the missing link is.

[Perryg]

Yes but did you install this on the PC that is having the issues?
Difference in GPU and the like will effect the settings.

[basskleff]

I've attached the stderr from running startx at the command line.
Probably good to keep things simple and start at the source error.

Code: Select all

# startx 2>junk
# mv junk /mnt  (a cifs share to my laptop)

Actually that wouldn't let me attach so pasting it here.

hostname: Host name lookup failure


X.Org X Server 1.13.0
Release Date: 2012-09-05
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System: c6b8 2.6.32-220.el6.x86_64 
Current Operating System: Linux Bacula 2.6.32-358.el6.x86_64 #1 SMP Fri Feb 22 00:31:26 UTC 2013 x86_64
Kernel command line: ro root=/dev/mapper/vg_bacula-lv_root rd_NO_LUKS rd_LVM_LV=vg_bacula/lv_root LANG=en_US.UTF-8 rd_LVM_LV=vg_bacula/lv_swap rd_NO_MD SYSFONT=latarcyrheb-sun16 crashkernel=128M  KEYBOARDTYPE=pc KEYTABLE=us rd_NO_DM rhgb quiet nouveau.modeset=0 rdblacklist=nouveau
Build Date: 15 October 2013  06:54:00PM
Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.13.0-11.1.el6.centos.2 
Current version of pixman: 0.26.2
	Before reporting problems, check https://www.redhat.com/apps/support/
	to make sure that you have the latest version.
Markers: (--) probed, (**) from config file, (==) default setting,
	(++) from command line, (!!) notice, (II) informational,
	(WW) warning, (EE) error, (NI) not implemented, (??) unknown.
(==) Log file: "/var/log/Xorg.0.log", Time: Tue Nov  5 21:18:26 2013
(==) Using config file: "/etc/X11/xorg.conf"
Initializing built-in extension Generic Event Extension
Initializing built-in extension SHAPE
Initializing built-in extension MIT-SHM
Initializing built-in extension XInputExtension
Initializing built-in extension XTEST
Initializing built-in extension BIG-REQUESTS
Initializing built-in extension SYNC
Initializing built-in extension XKEYBOARD
Initializing built-in extension XC-MISC
Initializing built-in extension XINERAMA
Initializing built-in extension XFIXES
Initializing built-in extension RENDER
Initializing built-in extension RANDR
Initializing built-in extension COMPOSITE
Initializing built-in extension DAMAGE
Initializing built-in extension MIT-SCREEN-SAVER
Initializing built-in extension DOUBLE-BUFFER
Initializing built-in extension RECORD
Initializing built-in extension DPMS
Initializing built-in extension X-Resource
Initializing built-in extension XVideo
Initializing built-in extension XVideo-MotionCompensation
Initializing built-in extension SELinux
Initializing built-in extension XFree86-VidModeExtension
Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DGA
Initializing built-in extension XFree86-DRI
Initializing built-in extension DRI2
Loading extension GLX

Fatal server error:
no screens found
(EE) 
Please consult the CentOS support 
	 at https://www.redhat.com/apps/support/
 for help. 
(EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log" for additional information.
(EE) 
Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
giving up.
xinit:  Connection refused (errno 111):  unable to connect to X server
xinit:  No such process (errno 3):  Server error.

[basskleff]

Yes, if you're asking did I install the Ubuntu machine where X server works?
Yes, I installed that in a separate virtual box machine created on the same Windows 7 home premium host- my laptop.

[Perryg]

Laptop. That might have something to do with it.
GLX has to do with video and accelerated video.

First I don't know why you even have an /etc/X11/xorg.conf. The xorg.conf was depricated a long time ago for standard use.
I also don't see anything in the logs about your graphics (GPU) which is suspect. What is the GPU?

[basskleff]

Thanks. Not sure about GPU.
Here's output on the physical laptop NVIDIA graphics card as rendedered by Speccy:
I guess it's NVIDIA GF108, based on the output below.

Graphics
Monitor
Name Generic PnP Monitor on Intel HD Graphics 4000
Current Resolution 1920x1080 pixels
Work Resolution 1920x1032 pixels
State Enabled, Primary
Monitor Width 1920
Monitor Height 1080
Monitor BPP 32 bits per pixel
Monitor Frequency 60 Hz
Device \\.\DISPLAY1\Monitor0
Intel HD Graphics 4000
Manufacturer Intel
Model HD Graphics 4000
Device ID 8086-0166
Revision A
Subvendor HP (103C)
Current Performance Level Level 0
Driver version 9.17.10.2843
Count of performance levels : 1
Level 1
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M
Manufacturer NVIDIA
Model GeForce GT 630M
GPU GF108
Device ID 10DE-0DE9
Revision A2
Subvendor HP (103C)
Die Size 116 mm²
Transistors 585 M
Release Date May 2012
DirectX Support 11.0
Bus Interface PCI Express x8
Temperature 48 °C
Driver version 9.18.13.614
BIOS Version 70.08.cb.00.03
ROPs 4
Shaders 96 unified
Memory Type DDR3
Physical Memory 1023 MB
Virtual Memory 736 MB
Bus Width 128 bit

[Perryg]

Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 630M

It's a dual graphics GPU. Common to laptops these days. Problem is the Intel Graphics (low graphics mode) doesn't work that well with Virtual environments. Probably why it failed with VMware as well. Now if I understand you properly you did create the guest in Ubuntu and copied that to the laptop. I asked this earlier because of some of the things I was seeing and you were saying. It might be best to actually do a complete install on the laptop to see if that helps but in any case you will need to find a way to set the GPU to high (level 1) graphics mode.

[basskleff]

Thanks. Yes, to confirm, I had created earlier, a vm in virtual box running on my laptop, running Ubuntu (Backtrack 5- doing some testing).
That has been able to start x server.

An interesting idea- that I do a complete installation of CentOs 6.4 in a physical drive of the laptop's that I may boot into, and it's running on an all physical machine?
I could create a partition to do that. And then check x's functionality.

Thanks for the lead, I'll try to see what can be done about setting the GPU.
I presume that would be something done in the host (my Win laptop?) with like a graphics vendor utility?

[basskleff]

Getting a lot closer.
I had not installed the vbox guest additions.
That probably was a major factor.
Getting guest additions installed was a bear.
It required adding a new repository ( from CentOS forum wiki) and installing DKMS and to match the kernel headers and development versions with:
yum install kernel-devel-$(uname -r)
yum install kernel-headers-$(uname-r)

Now, startx almost comes online, but then X server shuts down ("successfully").
Getting there.
I found a patch on the CentOS page for openGL driver not building for vbox 4.2.1.8 on Centos 6.2 thru 6.4.
Trying that procedure.

[basskleff]

Wow.

As much as I loathe EMC, I have just downloaded the latest vmware player and it starts X server in CentOS 6.4 right off the bat.
Did not even intend it to fix this problem; I was downloading it for the USB 3.0 functionality so I could copy a thumbrive to another using dd, and have it be fast.
And there it was.
Getting CentOS 6.4 to run X on Virtual Box is an absolute nightmare.

Think I'll have to ditch Vbox for my backup server.

Cheers.