Linux Mint 32-bit Guest will not fully restart on Mac OS X Catalina host after installed Guest Additions

[keffie]

After I installed the Guest Additions on my 32-bit Linux Mint virtual machine, the VM Guest will not restart properly. I can enter my user password, but then the operating system won't finish booting to the desktop, and it appears to hang on a blank screen. I left the Guest machine sitting for ~ 20 minutes on the blank screen before I give up and force it to stop.

Approximate steps

• Create a blank virtual machine: Ubuntu 32-bit, ~3.5GB Memory, 30GB hard drive (VDI, dynamic)
• Start the virtual machine, when prompted insert the Linux ISO
• Complete the operating system installation
• When prompted, remove the ISO from Optical drive and restart VM
• Install operating system updates in Synaptic and restart VM
• Insert the Guest Additions CD and run the installer
• After Guest Additions finishes installation, restart the VM
• Enter the user password & Wait for the machine to finish boot

Observed; the Guest machine just appears to hang on blank black screen. Eventually give up waiting, and click the red dot to close Guest window and force shut down.

In case I made a mistake, I tried deleting & recreating the virtual machine guest again, but same issue occurs again after install Guest Additions.

Additional machine details:

• Host is Mac OS X Catalina 10.15.5
• VirtualBox Version 6.1.10 r138449 (Qt5.6.3)
• Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack v6.1.10r138449 previously installed
• Guest installed with Linux Mint 19.3 Cinnamon 32-bit

[keffie]

Guest Additions Install

[keffie]

Confirm to Restart

[Em444]

i have kind of same issue , are you in full screen mode ?

[keffie]

No I wasn't in full screen mode; on most Guests I think you have to do a successful boot with the Guest Additions installed first to enable it. For me the window was at the default size set by VirtualBox, it appears to be ~ w=800 h=600.

[gombara]

This might be related to a guest additions bug we recently fixed. it could not make to release. please switch to a display adapter other than vmsvga and try again.

[keffie]

Replying to gombara:

This might be related to a guest additions bug we recently fixed. it could not make to release. please switch to a display adapter other than vmsvga and try again.

Hi gombara, thank you for the response. I had originally made sure to select VMSVGA based on the following:

• Recommendation from Linux Mint release notes suggest to select VMSVGA in order to avoid a black screen ​https://linuxmint.com/rel_tricia_cinnamon.php
• VirtualBox interface flags the VBoxVGA and VBoxSVGA graphic controllers as Invalid settings

Per your suggestion, I changed the setting to VBoxSVGA. That allowed me to boot the Guest to the desktop, and resize the window.

However, I wish to enable 3D acceleration on the Guest. When I try to check the box, then the VirtualBox interface flags an alert that 3D accelaration can only be used with VMSVGA, and it will not allow me save the settings with both 3D acceleration checked and VBoxSVGA graphics.

So the workaround does not really help me; please advise.

[keffie]

VBoxSVGA and 3D acceleration flagged as invalid

[gombara]

Hi, You could try the following guest additions installation image which includes the fix for the said breakage.

https://www.virtualbox.org/download/testcase/VBoxGuestAdditions_6.1.11-138868.iso

Please let us know if that solves your problem. Thanks

[keffie]

Guest display did not auto-resize

[keffie]

After manually installing VirtualBox Guest Additions 6.1.11-138868.iso, now I am able to boot the 32-bit Linux guest to the desktop, and it has VMSVGA set with 3D Acceleration enabled. That issue is resolved, thank you for your help gombara.

It looks like there may a separate bug, with this version of Guest Additions the Guest display does not automatically resize the Guest desktop after I resize the window, although it will size the desktop properly after a reboot of the Guest in the new window size. I am happy to file as a new bug if not already tracked.

[jarfe]

I have same problem with a kubuntu host (32 or 64 bit i've tried both)

[gombara]

Replying to jarfe:

I have same problem with a kubuntu host (32 or 64 bit i've tried both)

Host is irrelevant in this case. What is your guest OS version/distro?

[gombara]

Replying to keffie:

After manually installing VirtualBox Guest Additions 6.1.11-138868.iso, now I am able to boot the 32-bit Linux guest to the desktop, and it has VMSVGA set with 3D Acceleration enabled. That issue is resolved, thank you for your help gombara.

It looks like there may a separate bug, with this version of Guest Additions the Guest display does not automatically resize the Guest desktop after I resize the window, although it will size the desktop properly after a reboot of the Guest in the new window size. I am happy to file as a new bug if not already tracked.

This is should not be happening. I will test again.For out of curiosity, why are you using an 32-bit guest? Not that I am suggesting you should be using 64-bit or something.

[gombara]

Replying to keffie:

After manually installing VirtualBox Guest Additions 6.1.11-138868.iso, now I am able to boot the 32-bit Linux guest to the desktop, and it has VMSVGA set with 3D Acceleration enabled. That issue is resolved, thank you for your help gombara.

It looks like there may a separate bug, with this version of Guest Additions the Guest display does not automatically resize the Guest desktop after I resize the window, although it will size the desktop properly after a reboot of the Guest in the new window size. I am happy to file as a new bug if not already tracked.

I confirm that the host initiated guest resize is broken on 32-bit Mint 19.3 (both Mate and Cinnamon desktops). I will have to find some time to debug why this happens.

[keffie]

Replying to gombara:

For out of curiosity, why are you using an 32-bit guest? Not that I am suggesting you should be using 64-bit or something.

It's for running a 32-bit Windows program. For now I am using a VM with Windows XP, but as such an old OS I don't know how long it will continue to work. If it weren't for the cost and hard drive requirements, Windows 10 might be an option. But since Linux is free and hard drive requirement is smaller, hoping I might get it running through Linux + Wine.

Thank you so much for the help to investigate.