virtualbox.org

I upgraded my Ubuntu guest from 13.04 Raring Ringtail to 13.10 Saucy Salamander using this tutorial, and some strange things happened during & after the upgrade. Firstly, it seemed like during the package update, where the system replaces all packages with newer versions from the current Ubuntu version, the updater couldn't find certain Virtualbox packages, like vboxsf (or maybe vboxfs, I forget which). It said it couldn't find any older or newer versions, which I suppose makes sense since they're not part of Ubuntu, although if that's the case I'm wondering why vboxsf, etc. were in those folders. I think it deleted them, so that now there are no "hooks" for Virtualbox to get to the guest with. I also think this may have somehow uninstalled guest additions, just a gut feeling.

After the upgrade & subsequent reboot, the system could not turn on. It got to the part where it turns on services like MySQL & then starts, with [OK] on the right-hand side, no [FAILED], but it did not start after at least 10 minutes with the last line saying "Starting". When I "sent the shutdown signal" with the GUI (I don't know how to shutdown from that screen) & started the system from scratch, it did not even get that far, it just had a blank screen.

Another curious thing is none of the shared folders mounted correctly, even though I put them in fstab & they mounted fine before the upgrade. This gives me more evidence guest additions were uninstalled.

I know I should have taken a snapshot, but I did not have too much on this system & mostly use it for experimentation, so I can easily reinstall, but I would like to try to figure out what is wrong. VBox.log.2 should be the log from when I upgraded the system, VBox.log.1 should be when it rebooted after the upgrade, and VBox.log is the most recent from when I tried to start the system one last time.

P.S. I know it's irrelevant to this post, but what kinds of zipped files should the forum allow, if any? As you can see, I zipped mine as .7z, as that is the most compressed I have found, but I'm not sure how many people have 7zip (even though it is free software), and I haven't seen any meta-type posts advising on this, which is why I am asking. If you can not open these files please tell me.

Host:
Windows 8.1
500GB Hard Drive
6GB RAM
64-bit

Guest:
Ubuntu 13.04-13.10 (see post)
50GB Hard Drive
2GB RAM
64-bit
Guest Additions installed, although see post

After booting into recovery mode & doing some digging, I found I could do "startx -- -ignoreABI" and get to the GUI, as the problem seems to be the XServer ABI version. I was also able to mount shared folders after doing "modprobe vboxsf". However, I still can't boot into the GUI normally and it seems eth0 is not initialized in recovery mode which means I can't use the Internet. Also, I would rather not be root all the time. It makes me feel unsafe (well, more than usual).

The post I went to that worked mentioned VBox is incompatible with the current ABI version. Is it compatible yet, and if so how do I update?

You should not need to add the extra flag in the boot process. I first would update to 4.3.6 and install the new guest additions. If that does not fix your issue then post another log file. (just about anyone that reads these can accept any type so 7z is fine). Also make sure you are running the latest drivers on the host, especially since you are using Intel adapter.

I am on 4.3.4, so that shouldn't be too much of a problem. Will upgrade once I figure all this out.

By "the extra flag in the boot process", I assume you mean the "-ignoreABI"? If you mention a flag, please say which flag to be clearer. If you had read my comment, that was because it does not work with just "startx", and is when I am in recovery mode. I have to actually go into recovery mode to do anything. It pretty literally doesn't work any other way. I also tried "xinit", and even that doesn't work, so there is something very wrong with XServer.

By the way, the error when I try to xinit or startx, after all the initializing & loading, is:

(EE) module ABI major version (13) doesn't match the server's version (14)
(EE) module ABI major version (13) doesn't match the server's version (14)
(EE)
Fatal server error:
(EE) no screens found(EE)
(EE)
Please consult the The X.Org Foundation support
at http://wiki.x.org
for help.
(EE) Please also check the log file at "/var/log/Xorg.0.log for additional info
rmation.
(EE)
(EE) Server terminated with error (1). Closing log file.
xinit: giving up
xinit: unable to connect to X server: Connection refused
xinit: server error

This was why I looked for ABI version stuff, but it's pretty slim pickings.