Several modern apps do not work in Virtualbox Win8.1 guests

[BuckoA51]

I'm having trouble running some windows store/modern apps in my Windows 8.1 Virtualbox guest. Currently I have encountered the issues with Evernote Touch and VLC player. I am running the VM at 1152x864 which is above the minimum for modern apps. It is set to 256mb of video ram and has 2gb of system RAM. Guest editions are installed and up to date.

The issue is that instead of behaving normally, these modern apps simply display a blue screen and hang. Evernote Touch does so when you try to open any notes, VLC player does so when you try to play a video (though audio can be heard). I even got in touch with Evernote and they say they can reproduce the same bug on their systems.

Is this a known issue and is there a workaround?

Thanks,

Matt

[loukingjr]

As far as VLC, you need to change the video output to Windows GDI video output in the preferences. quit and restart VLC.

[BuckoA51]

As far as VLC, you need to change the video output to Windows GDI video output in the preferences. quit and restart VLC.

I can't even get that far, all I get now is a blue screen.

[loukingjr]

Attach the vbox.log (compressed) for your guest here.

I just installed Evernote in my 8.1 guest and it's working fine.

[BuckoA51]

Did you actually try opening a note in Evernote though?

Edit - log attached.

[loukingjr]

Yes, I opened notes.
I looked at your log but there are lines in it I don't understand. Such as…
dozens of these…

Code: Select all

00:31:29.341301 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#2: CD-ROM read error, 1 sectors at LBA 250892

and many of these…

Code: Select all

00:38:47.452110 OpenGL Warning: connect not expected

I think someone with more knowledge needs to look at your log.

[mpack]

00:31:29.341301 PIIX3 ATA: LUN#2: CD-ROM read error, 1 sectors at LBA 250892

The only explanation for that which springs to my mind is corruption of the filesystem on the host D: drive, and/or physical damage to that drive.

What kind of drive is D? (local, USB, network etc).

[BuckoA51]

E is just a standard DVD-ROM drive, passed through to the hosts SATA DVD drive. I was doing a demonstration of the program MakeMKV but for some reason it didn't run correctly in Virtualbox (gave read errors), yet worked fine when I ran it on the host OS, same disc and same drive. I put it down to some obscure virtualisation error.

D is an encrypted drive from when I was playing with Truecrypt/vieracrypt in this guest. There's no programs installed to it as it's not actually accessible, I can't even remember the password to it tbh.

[mpack]

You are accessing the VBoxGuestadditions.ISO file on drive D, and this is where the virtual CD errors are coming from, so it might be best to remember how to access files on this drive!

[BuckoA51]

current DVD drive is E, dunno why the log says D.

[mpack]

I'm not going to argue with the log. It isn't wrong.

Besides, what has the DVD drive on the host got to do with anything? The VBoxGuestAdditions.iso image currently mounted in the virtual drive is not located on your host DVD drive.

[BuckoA51]

ok well, I thought they had the same drive letter usually.

I do chop and change things around a lot (that's what VMs are for, testing right?) At this very moment the DVD drive (on the guest) is on E.

[mpack]

I can only go by the log you posted. It's up to you to make sure the log is accurate and represents the scenario you want us to examine.

[BuckoA51]

Ok sorry are we getting muddled here are we talking about D: on the host or guest?

D: on the host is a data drive where my virtual hard drive is.
D: on the guest is inaccessible.

Log was posted right after I powered down the VM.

[mpack]

Drive D is a host drive from which you are reading the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso image which you have mounted in the VM according to the log. Since this ISO is typically mounted from "C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxGuestAdditions.iso", I'm left wondering (a) why this file is being loaded from an unusual path, and (b) what is host drive D is anyway?

Drive letters inside the guest OS are a purely arbitrary software convention and not something I can tell from the log. It also makes no difference to anything we are discussing here.

Now that we've established what drive D is, I'll refer you back to my first post in this topic.