virtualbox.org

Fix to nasty 'Guru Meditation' error - MacOS 10.13.2 - Virtualbox 5.1.30 - Ubuntu 4.13.0-25-generic.

After updating to Ubuntu 4.13.0-25, Virtual box stops working, giving the error 'Guru Meditation' on startup and refusing to go further with the boot.

Research shows that the problem is related to the fix for the Meltdown and Spectre bugs -

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/s ... computers/

The fix is simple.

- Do a normal boot (not headless)
- Press F12
- Select the previous version - 4.13.0-21-generic
- Booting from that works

When the fix is announced - with any luck at 4.13.0-26-generic - upgrade your system so you can then boot from that version.

This wasted a fair bit of my time today, so I thought I'd post the fix in a way that's easy to find - for MacOS High Sierra 10.13.2, running the latest VirtualBox 5.1.30, and the flawed version of Ubuntu 4.13.0-25-generic.

This does not belong to the "OSX Hosts", but to "Linux Guests" to where I'll move it. Maybe that's why you couldn't find the solution, you've been looking at the wrong place...

And the "fix" is not to downgrade your kernel (that's more of a workaround), the fix is to upgrade your VirtualBox installation to the latest test builds.

Thank you - that is probably why I haven't found this particular solution, you're right.

I'll remember this for the future.

I'm reluctant to use a test-build of virtualbox myself, I'd prefer to upgrade when a new tested version comes out, so this fix suits people who are cautious, like me..

The test builds are more than tested, so much tested in fact that you can file a bug report against one. And it will be accepted!

Call them "intermediate" builds and be happy...