[Solved] Guest Additions 5.x not supporting Win7 DirectX anymore

[DdB]

message from Windows

Bildschirmfoto vom 2018-03-11 11-58-55.png (9.77 KiB) Viewed 2488 times

Hello,

among the many Guests, i am using from my debian-stretch box is one Win7 VM used for gaming (mostly). Until yesterday, i was still on VBox 5.1.34, today, i upgraded to 5.2.8. Unfortunately i did not install guest additions during my preliminary tests. But now, after installing them, i am getting errors (caused by a program in autostart, that is using more graphics). (2 messageboxes showing the error uploaded).
Just for fun i went on to start from a snapshot without the new GA (still on 5.1.34) and there, the only problem is, that vbox is asking for the newer GA's to be installed.

What to do from here?

[mpack]

Please provide a VM log file. With the VM fully shut down, right click it in the GUI. Select "Show Log" and save "VBox.log" (no other file) to a zip file. Attach the zip here.

[DdB]

Hey mpack,

you were so fast! Even on a sunday. I wasn't expecting that and - unfortunately - i do not get notifications from the forum.

I just reverted to the snapshot with the newest GA and let it create a logfile. Do not get confused, that VM is living since many years and contains quite a number of non standard configurations. The latter being unrelated to the new problem, as seen from the test (old GA still working fine). Could possibly be a regression???

[mpack]

I'm sure you understand that DirectX calls in the guest are redirected to the OpenGL API on the host. I'm not entirely sure what's going on here, but I do not see the OpenGL interface being initialized, not even an attempt. Also (and perhaps this is related) I see that the host OpenGL vendor strings are "X.Org, Gallium, 3.0 Mesa", which I believe means a software OpenGL renderer on the host (though I don't claim to be a Linux host expert).

Is there anything unusual about your setup? Perhaps a nested VM?

[socratis]

I see that the host OpenGL vendor strings are "X.Org, Gallium, 3.0 Mesa", which I believe means a software OpenGL renderer on the host (though I don't claim to be a Linux host expert).

Yes, you're absolutely right, this is the software rendering engine in case the host doesn't have hardware 3D acceleration available.

[DdB]

VBoxold.zip

with GA 5.1.34

(34.3 KiB) Downloaded 21 times

Hello mpack,

this is interesting bit of info. I dont know. This is server grade hardware (with all ECC memory) but with cheap graphics, as i rarely need it, BUT...
Previously, there has not been a problem. I am going to attach the log from before updating guest additions for comparison.

And since it used to work just fine, methinks this might be a regression. What do you think?

[DdB]

Hi again,

i finally came to notice my mistake:
After so many years, the ways to make use of VBox are mostly automated (or on autopilot), just as updating the guest additions on a new (minor/major) release was. And while using the automation, i missed a detail:
Installing the DirectX part required safe-mode, which i neglected. After reinstalling in safe-mode, all is fine now.
Sorry for bothering and - please - mark this as solved!

Cheers

[socratis]

Sorry for bothering and - please - mark this as solved!

No harm done, and... done, marking as [Solved].