virtualbox.org

Hi,
I just upgraded you Ubuntu 16.04 to 18.08. But unfortunately Virtual Box (5.2.16 - 64bit) won't start anymore:
Help needed !

Where did you get VirtualBox from? If you got it from the Ubuntu store, that's the Ubuntu fork. You can either ask in their forums for help, or completely remove/uninstall/delete/purge their version and install the official version from the Downloads section of VirtualBox.

If that doesn't work you should try the latest Test builds (NOT the Developer snapshots), especially with all the Spectre/Meltdown patches coming in from all sides.

You can even add VirtualBox as a repository, so you could use your traditional install/upgrade/uninstall tools.

Well I got the official dpkg for the virtual-box homepage.
I did some further diggin' and found out it's a problem of freetype2 ! Not libharfbuzz as I first suspected. Google revealed that FT_Get_Var_Blend_Coordinate is a Freetype function.

ldd show that libharfbuzz.so is linked against /usr/local/lib/libfreetype.so.6 which is a symbolic link to libfreetype.so.6.12.0
This version seems to bee too old to support the current libharfbuzz.so

I don't know which is the minimal version that's mandatory, so I downloaded and compiled the latest -> libfreetype.so.6.16
Replacing the libs in /usr/local/lib solved the issue

may33 wrote:Replacing the libs in /usr/local/lib solved the issue

The question is why you were seeing this. I don't remember seeing a similar report for a fresh Ubuntu 18.04 installation, so there must be something strange going on in your specific setup.

Glad you got it going, and thanks for the feedback. Marking as [Solved].