Xorg doesn't start after update on VMs - vboxvideo_drv.so missing

[David Locke]

I'm running a 16.04 KUbuntu guest on a Windows 10 host. Today I updated the virtualbox guest packages and now KDE doesn't display (only a black screen).

If I SSH into the machine using Putty and Xming I can run xcalc but trying to run kate generates the message: "failed to get the current screen resources". There is also an error related to loading virtualbox in /var/log/Xorg.0.log

[David Locke (redwallknight)]

Here's the relevant section from the Xorg log:

[ 47.649] (==) AIGLX enabled
[ 47.649] (==) Matched vboxvideo as autoconfigured driver 0
[ 47.649] (==) Matched vboxvideo as autoconfigured driver 1
[ 47.649] (==) Matched modesetting as autoconfigured driver 2
[ 47.649] (==) Matched fbdev as autoconfigured driver 3
[ 47.649] (==) Matched vesa as autoconfigured driver 4
[ 47.649] (==) Assigned the driver to the xf86ConfigLayout
[ 47.649] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[ 47.650] (WW) Warning, couldn't open module vboxvideo
[ 47.651] (II) UnloadModule: "vboxvideo"
[ 47.651] (II) Unloading vboxvideo
[ 47.651] (EE) Failed to load module "vboxvideo" (module does not exist, 0)

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Dan Hopper (nimblefooted)]

I've experienced the same issue with the same combination of host/guest. I've tried multiple versions of Virtualbox for Windows. Blank screen after after starting X after taking the latest Ubuntu 16.04 updates on Tuesday, 3/28/2018.

This update replaced virtualbox-guest* 5.0.40 with 5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2:
Unpacking virtualbox-guest-x11 (5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2) over (5.0.40-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2) ...

host: Windows 10 Enterprise
      Virtualbox 5.1.28, 5.1.34, and 5.2.8 (tried each version)

guest: Kubuntu 16.04
       virtualbox-guest-x11 5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2
       sddm 0.13.0-1ubuntu5

I've already reproduced the same blank screen behavior with a fresh Kubuntu 16.04 install into a fresh virtual machine.

I've found the following things produce improved behavior:

1) uninstalling virtualbox-guest-x11. Not desirable from a functionality perspective, but it does produce working video for both the X display manager and KDE.

2) using xdm instead of sddm as /etc/X11/default-display-manager. Now, with the guest-x11 pkg installed, there's working video in the login screen from xdm, although kde plasma still produces a blank screen.

3) uninstalling virtualbox-guest-x11, installing VBoxLinuxAdditions.run 5.2.8 included in the Virtualbox 5.2.8 installation. Works great with the three vbox modules installed.

4) exporting/importing to VMware Player.

So it would appear it's an issue with the virtualbox-guest-x11 5.1.34-dfsg-0ubuntu1.16.04.2 package that was made available recently in the Ubuntu 16.04 updates repo.

Regards,
Dan

[Daniel Rocher (daniel-rocher)]

I confirm this bug with Ubuntu 16.04 (host) and all my VMs (ubuntu 16.04). Impossible to start "x11".

I reinstall / rebuild (with dkms) all on my host (purge/clean/install) -> no change.

On VMs, reverted to version 5.0.18-dfsg-2build fixed problem.

We have added the following to /etc/apt/preferences to block this version of the package : virtualbox-guest-dkms, virtualbox-guest-utils and virtualbox-guest-x11

[Daniel Rocher (daniel-rocher)]

A workaround is possible : enable 3D support in settings/display/enable 3D acceleration (VirtualBox interface)

In this case, the vboxvideo_dri.so driver is used instead of the vboxvideo_drv.so driver (which is missing).

For me, it works on all my VMs

Compare file list for packages (vboxvideo_drv.so missing in xenial-updates):
 https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial/amd64/virtualbox-guest-x11/filelist
 https://packages.ubuntu.com/xenial-updates/amd64/virtualbox-guest-x11/filelist

In the update, vboxvideo_drv.so is missing. Why ???

In debian/rules for update, there is a comment :
# debian/$(uxname)/usr/lib/xorg/modules/drivers/vboxvideo_drv.so

Why this change has been introduced?

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

Let me readd!

[Peter Meiser (meiser79)]

I can run a VM with only 2D perfectly fine (using X). Do you use Wayland or X? Can you uncomment 'WaylandEnable = false' in /etc/gdm3/custom.conf and check if it works for you.

[Peter Meiser (meiser79)]

Sorry, I thought you run Ubuntu 18.04, but it's Ubuntu 16.04. Please ignore my comment.

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

That file doesn't exist anymore since now we have a kernel module and the *GL stuff for this 3d.
apt-get install virtualbox-guest-dkms should bring that vboxvideo for you

[Gianfranco Costamagna (costamagnagianfranco)]

also modprobe vboxvideo should work

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox - 5.2.10-dfsg-1

---------------
virtualbox (5.2.10-dfsg-1) unstable; urgency=medium

  * New upstream version 5.2.10-dfsg
    - drop notify-send patch: upstream
  * Correct VCS field
  * commit new patch for GL fixes
  * Update watch file and std-version to 4.1.4
  * Patch refresh

 -- Gianfranco Costamagna <email address hidden> Wed, 18 Apr 2018 00:57:55 +0200

[technic (alexeytech)]

How do I update to this version on ubuntu 16.04?

[technic (alexeytech)]

I solved the issue by downgrading virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-utils downto 5.0.18-dfsg-2build1

[Wolf (drechsel)]

This problem (still or again) occurs with ubu 18.04 (host), 18.10 (guest) and virtualbox 5.2.18.
After installing the guest additions at the host, the guest system will boot, but x server will crash and state
"Warning, couldn't open module vboxvideo".

Modprobe vboxvideo will load the module, nevertheless X server will crash with the same message.