Windows NT4 WKS video no longer working

[andyp73]

Can you boot the guest and set the resolution and colour depth that you want - clicking OK to close all the dialogs. Before rebooting the guest, can you open the Registry Editor (regedit.exe) and navigate down the tree to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\GraphicsDrivers. If the NewDisplay entry hasn't been deleted can you manually do so. Reboot the guest and see what happens next...

-Andy.

[salan]

No change

[salan]

Ok So I have done a few tests.
I removed the guest additions and exported the VM. I imported it on my desktop. Totally dif processor/display/mem/everything. Both are running Linux Mint 19 cinnamon.
The results were exactly the same.
So I tried the NT4 Wks VM I already had on there (not used in well over a year). That had the same problem!
2000/2003/vista/7/8/10/etc all no problem.
I might try rolling back virtualbox to an earlier version and see if that works.

[mpack]

Here at work I found I had an old "NT4 Workstation" VM that I've not fired up in ages (it was still using Sun era GAs).

So, I cloned it and tested it with "latest" GAs, by which I mean VirtualBox 6.0.97 with the 6.0.97 GAs. This was a test build which fixed a display resizing problem in 6.0.4.

It seems to work fine for me, so you don't seem to have found a systemic problem in VirtualBox 6.x. However just to be sure you may you want to try upgrading to the same version.

[salan]

Beginning to think that it's not the drivers but something else. At the moment it eludes me what. The install is literally a default everything except it's the high encryption version.

[socratis]

Beginning to think that it's not the drivers but something else. At the moment it eludes me what.

From the moment I started reading that sentence, I started thinking "How do you spell it's you? Your distro/CD." but then the next sentence was...

The install is literally a default everything except it's the high encryption version.

Whoa... what's that? What does that mean?

As I mentioned, one of my NT4 VMs is my P2V old computer. And the one, the single most important VM that I have, if nothing else for sentimental reasons. And its' the single, the only VM that matters when I do an update (and I do several). I've been testing this NT4 VM since VirtualBox 3.x.x, and I've never seen any problems like that.

I don't think it's your host, I don't think it's VirtualBox. I think it's the NT4 that you're using. I'm literally willing to share my NT4 VM with you, although at my upload speeds it's going to take me for ever...

[mpack]

@salan: I'm currently going through your log vs mine to see what's different. Of course yours is a Linux host and mine is Windows, which is a bit distracting in my DIY "blink comparator" but I'll try to ignore.

Result: I see lots of minor differences, but no relevant ones. No graphics related errors for example.

One thought did occur: what do you have in the manager GUI for File|Preferences|Display|Max Guest Screen Size?

[salan]

One thought did occur: what do you have in the manager GUI for File|Preferences|Display|Max Guest Screen Size?

Set to automatic.

[mpack]

Of course there is another obvious difference which we're ignoring: that UHD display. Could there be something in VirtualBox that breaks in the "old graphics driver" + "UHD host display" scenario? No way for me to test that.

What exactly is the host resolution anyway? E.g. my own host has a 2560x1440 IPC display, and that seems to work fine.

[mpack]

One thought did occur: what do you have in the manager GUI for File|Preferences|Display|Max Guest Screen Size?

Set to automatic.

Try setting it to "None", which is what I have.

[salan]

ok with theVB 5.2.18 on the machine the vm (with relevant GA) works! But when I upgrade to 6 nada.

[salan]

Right I am very puzzled now!
With the same Vm (so same iso build, same service pack (6a high encryption etc), on 5.2.18 it works fine.
Uninstalled 5.2.18 and installed latest . Fired up vm WITHOUT changing anything (including the GA), it works!!
Upgraded the GA and it still works!???
Yet when I use this mv just with the latest GA ie. uninstall old GA it fails.
ERRRR

[socratis]

Yet when I use this mv just with the latest GA ie. uninstall old GA it fails.

Uninstall? Why do an uninstall? When you update the drivers for your AMD/Intel/Nvidia GPU, do you first uninstall the ones that you already have? Of course not!

Testing your theory of first uninstalling the old GAs and then installing the new ones...

[salan]

I uninstalled because it had failed.!
If it ws a good system then I would not just upgrade. but a failed install. Who knows what state it is in?

[socratis]

I can't reproduce it. I uninstalled the GAs, rebooted the guest, came up with 640x480x8 (256 colors, ugly), but then I installed the current GAs, rebooted and it came up with 640x480x32. Logged in, was immediately presented with the Display Settings control panel, took it to 1280x1024x32 no problem...