virtualbox.org

Hello

I'm running a ubuntu 13.10 64b guest on a osx10.9.2 host. Since 4.3.8 I have to deactivate 3D accelleration. If I keep it on, the ubuntu desktop gets completely empty (only the background image is displayed), no icons or menu bar, popups do not display, I have to force halt the machine.

Did not happen with 4.3.6

Yes, 4.3.8 makes it worst. For me 3D problems started with 4.3.0 with a Win8 client, but, just like you, in 4.3.8 the Linux guests are affected as well. Check out https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/12193

Thanks, this is pretty annoying since things were working well before.

I have exactly the same problem since I upgraded to 4.3.8. I run VB on Windows 7 and I have a Ubuntu 12.04 guest. All icons, taskbar and menu bar elements of the Unity window manager remain invisible but they are there because when you click on them they react accordingly (e.g. you can launch applications by fumbling around the area where the taskbar is supposed to appear). If you disable 3D graphics on the VB settings, the bug disappears, but then of course your graphics display is much slower and you have no 3D features.

I tested all my Ubuntu guests from 12.04 to 13.10. Some had the problem of not showing the dash and menu. Installing the 4.3.8 guest additions made them appear again but when I rebooted the screen size wouldn't change until I updated the Ubuntu guest. I had no problems with Windows 7 or any other Linux guests I have installed.

edit: installed Ubuntu 14.04 Beta 1 no issues other than an occasional brief flash of the screen when launching an application. It seems faster dragging windows etc than the previous versions that have 3D enabled.

As a temporary fix to allow 3D to work with 4.3.8 guest additions follow this procedure: YMMV

Close down all Virtualbox related programs.

Edit the Ubuntu.vbox (or whatever your VM .vbox file is called).

Change this line to this Start your VM by clicking on the .vbox file name or from Virtualbox itself. Avoid using Virtualbox to edit the settings of the VM. If you do you will have to follow this procedure again.

HTH

Lets hope they get this fixed soon. I believe it is just a matter of allowing the selectable maximum video memory size to increase to 256MB. How they broke that again one can only wonder.

larryvc wrote:
Lets hope they get this fixed soon. I believe it is just a matter of allowing the selectable maximum video memory size to increase to 256MB. How they broke that again one can only wonder.

I'm not sure this addresses whatever problem some are having with Ubuntu and 3D. All my Ubuntu guests from 12.04 LTS through 14.04 Beta 1 run fine with 3D enabled and 128 MB of VRam.

loukingjr wrote:I'm not sure this addresses whatever problem some are having with Ubuntu and 3D. All my Ubuntu guests from 12.04 LTS through 14.04 Beta 1 run fine with 3D enabled and 128 MB of VRam.

I agree with your assessment. My suggestion above only worked on one of my VMs and that was an upgrade from 12.10 to 13.10. It had no effect in the other VMs that had been previously upgraded from an earlier version of Ubuntu.

What I have noticed is that fresh installs of Ubuntu 13.10 in a VM do not have any problem with the 4.3.8 guest additions and 3D enabled.

there was something odd about older installs. I don't remember exactly which but one said it had a broken pipe when I went to install the GAs. After updating it, I hadn't for awhile, it was fixed. Another opened to small screen so I thought the GAs weren't working but turned out I could still resize the screen. 14.04 was the only Ubuntu guest I created post 4.3.8. That worked fine. And of course none of my other Linux guests or my Windows 7 guest had problems. Windows 8.1 (an upgrade of a Windows 7 guest) done after 4.3.8 was installed, also works fine.

seems to be only older Ubuntu/Unity installs that are an issue.

This issue has been resolved with the release of Virtualbox 4.3.10.