Some UI dialogs hang in VirtualBox 4.2.18 on Linux

[David Charlap]

My host platform is RedHat Enterprise Linux 5.9, x86_64, running kernel revision 2.6.18-348, xorg-x11 version 7.1-4.2, and fvwm version 2.6.5 as a window manager. The hardware is a Dell Precision T3400 (Core 2 Duo E6850, 2-core, 3GHz, 2GB RAM)

After installing VirtualBox from the RPM (VirtualBox-4.2-4.2.18_88780_el5-1.x86_64.rpm), I tried to install the extension pack with the following steps:

1. Launch VirtualBox by typing virtualbox & into a shell window
2. Select File -> Preferences... from the menubar
3. Select the Extensions page from the left-side column
4. Click the "add" icon to the right of the list of extensions to bring up a file dialog

At this point, VirtualBox is hung. I can not do anything but kill the process.

If I try to install the extension pack directly from the command line by typing virtualbox /path/to/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.2.18-88780.vbox-extpack, I get the install dialog, but when I click the install button, the VirtualBox License window hangs. There is no way to scroll the window or click any button. Again, the only thing I can do is kill the process.

When I revert back to version 4.2.16 (RPM VirtualBox-4.2-4.2.16_86992_el5-1.x86_64.rpm), there is no problem.

[Frank Mehnert]

Not able to reproduce on CentOS 5.9. When you try to install the extension pack there will be an authentication dialog asking for your root password. Is it possible that you missed this dialog?

[David Charlap]

Replying to frank:

Not able to reproduce on CentOS 5.9. When you try to install the extension pack there will be an authentication dialog asking for your root password. Is it possible that you missed this dialog?

No. I'm aware of that dialog. I never got that far. The UI hangs on the file-open dialog. Are there some debug steps I can take to try and help out with your analysis?

[David Charlap]

Replying to Shamino:

No. I'm aware of that dialog. I never got that far. The UI hangs on the file-open dialog. Are there some debug steps I can take to try and help out with your analysis?

As a quick test, I tried again using different window managers (in case it was a case of something stealing input focus), but there's no change. Using Gnome, fvwm and twm, the problem occurs identically. Furthermore, I noticed that the file-open dialog hangs before I can click on anything - the input cursor doesn't even blink.

[DavidK]

I see the same problem. My host is a RHEL-5.9 x86_64 system, and I display to a CentOS 6.4 x86_64 system with GNOME. Since upgrading to 4.2.18 the UI locks up solid whenever I try to enter a new snapshot name or enter a remote display port on the display settings. As soon as I type the first character in any text field everything freezes. (Those are the only two text fields I've tried, but it happens every time.)

[Frank Mehnert]

Thanks for the reports. Actually we are able to reproduce the problem. We are analyzing the problem.

[Frank Mehnert]

Finally fixed the problem. We've replaced the *el5 packages on the server. The new packages have the revision number 88781 (the old had 88780). Affected are not only the *el5 packages but also the *el4 package and the *.run packages when installed on EL4 or EL5 systems. It was actually a bug in libX11 in these old systems. The new VBox packages contain a workaround.

Please could you confirm that the bug is now fixed?

[DavidK]

It works! There was some oddness during installation (initially vboxdrv was not loaded, but after I ran setup again it was fine), but the GUI works again!

[David Charlap]

Works for me too. I successfully updated via yum, applied the extension pack (the same 88780 one from before) and booted my VMs.

BTW, when my install of 4.2.16 launched this morning, the popup window was still indicating that the latest is 88780, not 88781. It was your message in reply to this bug report that made me go and try a new update.

Thanks very much for the fix.

[Frank Mehnert]

Marking as fixed. The next release will contain the workaround from the beginning.