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Linux Mint 18 Host, following advise on a thread in here I downloaded VB 5.0 from the Oracle site and installed it plus the extension pack and created a Linux Mint 18 guest.
I can open it, log in and do stuff for a while, but then it freezes, not just the guest but the host as well. The mouse pointer still moves but nothing else works, even the clock stops. I have left it for a while (15 minutes or so) but it is still frozen, the only thing I can do is to power cycle the host.
Any suggestions? Is there any info I can provide to help solve this?

Thanks
Mick

Post the guests log file ( as an attachment ). Right click on the guest in the Main Manager then click show log. Save and post as an attachment. Compress if it is too large to post.

Log attached

VirtualBox VM 5.0.28 r111378 linux.amd64 (Oct 18 2016 19:07:54) release log
00:00:13.943651 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 5.1.8 r111374 '5.1.8'

While you can run the guest with older Guest Additions it is never a good idea to run them with newer than the base. Either upgrade the base or remove the newer GAs and install the proper ones and see how it goes.

Here is another log, this time with a Debian guest, VB and extension both 5.0.28. This froze almost immediately

What happens if you disable 3D acceleration?

With 3D disabled I get a message 'Running in software rendering mode' and it is slow and jerky, but it didn't crash or freeze when I tried. That said, it can sometimes work for a while before freeze or crash.
Is there any other way to fix the software rendering issue?

Usually it's the host graphics drivers which crash: all VirtualBox does is provide a conduit to the host drivers (if graphics acceleration is enabled). The fact that you get the same problem with multiple VMs lends weight to this idea IMHO.

So the solution: check for host driver updates.

The reason I wanted to know if it worked without 3D was because of the noveau GPU driver you are using for the host. I wondered if the default drivers were the issue. I have not run with the default drivers for years because of compatibility issue. It probably will work better for you if you use the nvidia specific drivers version 354 or greater instead of the noveau ones.

OK I have changed from xserver-xorg-video-nouveau to nvidea-367. I have 3D acceleration on and it is running OK at the moment, so fingers crossed that it continues.

Thank you for your help with this
Mick