Linux Mint running in software rendering mode windows host

[Geraint]

Hi Everyone,

I have just started using Linux mint 17 Cinnamon (64bit) on Virtual Box however it always runs in software rendering mode with the error message appearing at startup. A google search brings up pages and pages of people with the same issue but I can't seem to get their fixes to work.

I followed the instructions on the tomshardware website (I can't post urls as a new user however the article is How do I install VirtualBox Guest Additions on Linux Mint) which didn't help but I wonder if the guest additions I am trying to install are too old. A number of people suggest using a different guest additions version with numerous tickets raised but if that is the issue I don't know how I choose a different version. When I "Insert Guest Additions CD image" I get the following version: VBOXADDITIONS_4.3.12_93733.

If I do need to go for a newer one how do I do that? And if that isn't the problem do you know what else I can try?

Thanks,

Geraint

[Perryg]

4.3.12 should be new enough for Mint 17

First verify that the guest additions actually installed ( in the guest )
You can do this by looking at the log "/var/log/vboxadd-install.log".
Also make sure that the 3D acceleration is enabled in the display section of the guest settings.

Any further help request will need to be accomplished with the guests log file ( as an attachment )

[Geraint]

Thanks for the reply Perryg. Looking at "/var/log/vboxadd-install.log"It seems like the guest additions were installed.

How can I get the guest log file? Is there a guide anywhere? I take it these are not the 4 logs available in Machine > Show Log in the Manager window?

[Geraint]

I have located the log file in the .VirtualBox folder on the host (Windows 8.1).

[Perryg]

I take it these are not the 4 logs available in Machine > Show Log in the Manager window?

Actually is is one of those logs. Just the one that says vbox.log without a number.

Also post the results of the following from the guests terminal

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glxinfo | grep OpenGL.

[Geraint]

Thanks for your help with this Perryg. Here is the results of the command on the guest:

geraint@VB ~ $ glxinfo | grep OpenGL
libGL error: failed to authenticate magic 3
libGL error: failed to load driver: vboxvideo
OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 128 bits)
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Mesa 10.1.3
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.30
OpenGL extensions:

[Perryg]

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OpenGL vendor string: VMware, Inc.
OpenGL renderer string: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.4, 128 bits)

The above is telling you that while the guest additions are in fact installed the acceleration of the Xserver is not working. You would see chromium/humper instead of Gallium if the VBox drivers were working in the guest.

I know that usually Mint has a form of the VirtualBox guest additions pre-installed and these should have been removed before you install the ones from VirtualBox. Actually this would have been stated when you tried to install them and been given an option to stop and remove them first.

So think hard and if that was the case you will need to purge the guest additions that are installed now reboot and then install the right one again. If not then I need to actually see the vboxadd-install.log

[Geraint]

I ran the following

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sudo apt-get purge virtualbox*

before I installed the ones from the CD image option in the Devices Menu.

I just tried again to remove using

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sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-guest-utils

which I have just read is the way to remove the guest additions but that didn't do anything:

geraint@VB ~ $ sudo apt-get remove virtualbox-guest-utils
[sudo] password for geraint:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Package 'virtualbox-guest-utils' is not installed, so not removed
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 36 not to upgrade.

The content of vboxadd-install.log is

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geraint@VB ~ $ cat /var/log/vboxadd-install.log
Uninstalling modules from DKMS
Attempting to install using DKMS

Creating symlink /var/lib/dkms/vboxguest/4.3.12/source ->
                 /usr/src/vboxguest-4.3.12

DKMS: add completed.

Kernel preparation unnecessary for this kernel.  Skipping...

Building module:
cleaning build area.....
make KERNELRELEASE=3.13.0-37-generic -C /lib/modules/3.13.0-37-generic/build M=/var/lib/dkms/vboxguest/4.3.12/build..............................................................................................
cleaning build area....

DKMS: build completed.

vboxguest:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.13.0-37-generic/kernel/misc/

vboxsf.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.13.0-37-generic/kernel/misc/

vboxvideo.ko:
Running module version sanity check.
 - Original module
   - No original module exists within this kernel
 - Installation
   - Installing to /lib/modules/3.13.0-37-generic/kernel/misc/

depmod.....

DKMS: install completed.
Creating user for the Guest Additions.
Creating udev rule for the Guest Additions kernel module.

[Perryg]

Without actually touching it I don't know what else to tell you. You could run the install again in a terminal and post the exact response. Maybe that will show what is going on.

Moving to Linux guest by the way since this is not related to the host.

[Geraint]

I tried to do the install again. First I removed the other versions like before:

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geraint@VB ~ $ sudo apt-get purge virtualbox*
[sudo] password for geraint:
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree       
Reading state information... Done
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-3.0' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-3.1' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-3.2' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'unity-scope-virtualbox' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-2.0' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-2.1' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-2.2' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-guest-source' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-guest-dkms' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-dbg' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-nonfree' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-dkms' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-guest-x11' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-ose' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-guest-additions-iso' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-qt' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-guest-additions' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-4.0' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-4.1' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-4.2' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-4.3' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-source' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Note, selecting 'virtualbox-guest-utils' for regex 'virtualbox*'
Package 'virtualbox-ose' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-2.0' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-2.1' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-2.2' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-3.0' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-4.2' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-3.1' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-3.2' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-4.0' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-4.1' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-guest-additions' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-nonfree' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-dbg' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-dkms' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-guest-additions-iso' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-guest-dkms' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-guest-source' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-guest-utils' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-guest-x11' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-qt' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-source' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'virtualbox-4.3' is not installed, so not removed
Package 'unity-scope-virtualbox' is not installed, so not removed
0 to upgrade, 0 to newly install, 0 to remove and 36 not to upgrade.
geraint@VB ~ $

And

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geraint@VB /media/geraint/VBOXADDITIONS_4.3.12_93733 $ sudo sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run uninstall
[sudo] password for geraint:
Verifying archive integrity... All good.
Uncompressing VirtualBox 4.3.12 Guest Additions for Linux............
VirtualBox Guest Additions installer
Removing installed version 4.3.12 of VirtualBox Guest Additions...

Then I restarted and tried again. It opened in a much smaller screen and doesn't let men copy and paste between the guest and the host. I double clicked the cd icon. Opened it in the terminal and typed

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sudo bash ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

. I got the error message about another version - "You appear to have a version of the VBoxGuestAdditions software on your system which was installed from a different source or using a different type of installer". So it looks like the way I am uninstalling isn't removing everything.

How would you make sure everything is gone before installing the guest additions again?

Thanks,

Ger

[Perryg]

sudo apt-get purge VBox* then sudo apt-get purge vbox*

see if either of them produce the desired effect.

If not then look in synaptic and see if you find anything virtualbox.

[Geraint]

Neither of the purge options found anything and I can't see anything in Synptic relating to VirtualBox. Is it possile to see what or where VBoxLinuxAdditions.run is looking to find the older version?

[Perryg]

Mint re-purposes the VirtualBox code to meet their requirements. This means they are the only ones that truly knows where all of their packages are and how to remove them.

I don't remember what I did the last time other than what I showed you but it worked for me.

I know of one other way to try to locate this and it is the package aptitude which is a GUI for apt-. It tracks associations but can be a bear to figure out if you are not used to it.

[loukingjr]

There are only three packages pre-installed in Mint as far as I know…
virtualbox-guest-utils
virtualbox-guest-x11
virtualbox-guest-dkms

If you remove those three and reboot the guest you should be good to install the official GAs.

[Geraint]

I just reinstalled Virtualbox on the host, reinstalled the guest additions on the guest and it seems to be working!

Thanks very much for all your patience today, I learned a lot so next time I have problems I shouldn't be starting out quite so clueless!