Graphics problem in Virtualbox

[Piotr Jurkiewicz]

Ubuntu Mate 14.10 Beta 2 desktop is not displayed properly after the live boot in Virtualbox (see attached screenshot).

After switching back and forth to the tty7 (ctrl+alt+F1 and alt+F7) desktop appears and it seems that everything works fine.

Plain Ubuntu 14.10 Beta 2 works fine right after the boot.

[Christoph (ccb23)]

I see the same behaviour in ubuntu-gnome-14.10-beta1-desktop-i386.iso at a ubuntu 14.04 host system. I was trying virtualbox 4.3.18-96516~Ubuntu

[Louis King Jr (inlieuoflou)]

I assume it's because they removed the x11 virtualbox package from the LiveCD. I see the same problem.

[Piotr Jurkiewicz (piotrjurkiewicz)]

> I assume it's because they removed the x11 virtualbox package from the LiveCD.

I don't think so. Virtualbox guest additions are needed only for advanced features, like seamless desktop integration.

Moreover switching back and forth to tty7 fixes the problem.

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

Status changed to 'Confirmed' because the bug affects multiple users.

[Huck-bernhard (huck-bernhard)]

I see the same behaviour in utopic-desktop-i386.iso 17-Oct-2014 08:39
Virtualbox 4.3.18

[Glenn Brumfield (brumfield-glenn)]

Also affects Lubuntu 14.10 release. Ctrl+Alt+F1 then Alt+F7 does not restore display in VBox.

[Glenn Brumfield (brumfield-glenn)]

Above Lubuntu 14.10 release was 32-bit version. Xubuntu 14.10 release 32-bit and Ubuntu 14.10 64-bit all seem to have this issue. I am using the NVidia 331.38 driver on the host machine, if that makes a difference. Virtualbox version is 4.3.18.

[Glenn Brumfield (brumfield-glenn)]

Right-Ctrl+F1 then Right-Ctrl+F7 straightens out the display garbage, for some reason. This seems to occur when booting a Live image in VBox; I'm not seeing the issue when the image is installed to VBox.

[Ingo Bürk (ingo-buerk)]

I can confirm this as well as that the workaround in #9 seems to work.

[Davide Cristini (davcri)]

#9 worked also for me, thanks !

I confirm this bug for Linux Mint 17.1 64bit using Virtualbox (version: 4.3.20) and Lubuntu (14.10 64bit) as guest system.

[Adrian Tompkins (atompkins)]

Based on a thread on virtualbox.org https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=65347 turning off nested paging appears to resolve this also.
Host: Linux Mint 17.1 MATE 64-bit
Guest: Lubuntu 14.10 64-bit
Virtualbox: 4.3.20

[Davide Cristini (davcri)]

Thanks for the tip ! I'll try it the next time.

[Martin Brook (martin.brook)]

Just confirming this issue for Xubuntu 14.10 running Virtualbox 4.1.18, with the Ubuntu 14.10 64-bit liveCD running in the vbox host. #9 workaround works for me too.

[Oleg Strikov (strikov-deactivatedaccount)]

Just FYI. This bug affects regular Ubuntu 15.04 as well (daily-live 20150224).

[Liam Proven (lproven)]

I have confirmed that this bug also affects Lubuntu 16.04.1 (32-bit) running under VirtualBox 5.1 (the latest version, at the time of writing.)

The workaround also works: switching to a text console.

Others report that it did NOT happen with the original release 16.04.

[Liam Proven (lproven)]

This post describes the problem with a screenshot:

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/13615

[Neill Rutherford (neill-rutherford-j)]

Hello

I can also confirm the wrong screen resolution causes a problem. While I would have no problem with Lubuntu 14.04.5 or Xubuntu 16.04.1 it is Lubuntu 16.04.1 that i wish to run a a VM so as I can record the installation process and create a DVD movie. This then for me is a show-stopper bug.
As 14.04.5 works just fine, then surely it can't be to much trouble to find the problem and fix 16.04.1 for running in/as a VM guest.

[Wilfried (frietpan)]

I also have this issue,
Virtualbox 5.0.24 on Lubuntu 16.04 amd64 when running Lubuntu 16.04.1 i386 LiveCD.

Live CD switches to 640x480 and displays at 1280x480 all garbled up
The installer however works, in 800x600 mode, without issues.

#9 workaround works fine for now

[Be (bver)]

I have the same issue with 16.x. I cannot seem to use the #9 workaround, perhaps because I'm on a Mac and the HOST key isn't functioning the same. The VM seems to respond to HOST+F7, but not F1. Might try changing the HOST key, but for now I fell back to 14.x