Updating guest additions on ubuntu/focal64 hits timeout

[Giacomo Tommaso Petrucci]

On my host I have a more recent version of the VirtualBox guest additions, so while provisioning the VM Vagrant tries to update them. But the installation hangs and finally hits a timeout. Here you can find the full output: https://pastebin.com/uKVCczX0.

The content of /var/log/vboxadd-setup.log is:

$ cat /var/log/vboxadd-setup.log
Building the main Guest Additions 7.0.8 module for kernel 5.4.0-150-generic.
Building the shared folder support module.
Building the graphics driver module.
Could not find the X.Org or XFree86 Window System, skipping.

Content of /etc/cloud/build.info:
$ cat /etc/cloud/build.info
build_name: server
serial: 20230612

Edit:
You can reproduce this using the following minimal Vagrantfile on an host with a recent version of the guest additions:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/focal64"
end

[Giacomo Tommaso Petrucci (gt95)]

A similar, but slightly different thing, also happens with ubuntu/jammy64. There the installation hangs without hitting the timeout, and I manually interrupted it after more than an hour (close to an hour and a half). Here is the full output: https://pastebin.com/xLYRHnf1.
The Vagrantfile that I used is as follows:

Vagrant.configure("2") do |config|
  config.vm.box = "ubuntu/jammy64"
end

[John Chittum (jchittum)]

Could you also provide all the following so I can see about setting up a reproducer:

Host OS and Host OS Version
Virtualbox Version

Canonical produced vagrant images already come with a version of VBox Guest Additions that matches the kernel. There is no functional need in the guest to install a new version. Could you confirm if the vagrant images work without attempting to use the vbox guest additions plugin to install the latest drivers?

For the Jammy issue, you may be running into a different issue, which is a mismatch in key algorithms. the default vagrant key may be incompatible. For the Jammy version, could you try replacing the default ssh key with your own via a setup script? If you're not already using ansible or puppet, you can do shell provisioner: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/30075461/how-do-i-add-my-own-public-key-to-vagrant-vm

[Giacomo Tommaso Petrucci (gt95)]

I'm running an up-to-date installation of Arch Linux, the kernel version is

$ uname -a
Linux lenovo 6.3.7-arch1-1 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Sat, 10 Jun 2023 00:35:35 +0000 x86_64 GNU/Linux

VirtualBox version is Oracle VM VirtualBox VM Selector v7.0.8

How can I prevent the vbox guest additions plugin from installing the latest drivers?

[John Chittum (jchittum)]

the easiest is, of course, to uninstall the plugin. If that's not an option, you can utilize configuration

https://github.com/dotless-de/vagrant-vbguest

there's a `no_install` option that looks like it should do the trick.

There is a high likelihood of mismatch between virtualbox, vbox guest, and the guest kernels. We can only provide basic help on non-Ubuntu based hosts. Especially given the big different in Arch w/ a 6.3.7 kernel and a guest with a 5.4 kernel.

The other option is to use a different version of Virtualbox. the version in Ubuntu 22.04 is 6.1.38.

I can try on a lunar system, which is running 7.0.6 Virtualbox.

[Giacomo Tommaso Petrucci (gt95)]

I can confirm that uninstalling the plugin lets the provisioning complete successfully for both images, here is the output for Focal: https://pastebin.com/9ZwguuBp
And here is the output for Jammy: https://pastebin.com/3kEPrWGL

[Patrick Karjala (pkarjala)]

Adding some additional context to this: Virtual Box 6.1.x will only be supported until December 2023 as per https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads

Because of the general transition to Virtual Box 7.0.x on various host OSes, it may be time to consider a transition to the guest additions in the base Ubuntu 22.04 image to the 7.x version of guest additions?

[John Chittum (jchittum)]

I cannot speak to Ubuntu and Debian maintainer's stances on what upstream does with support. Generally speaking, without an SRU Exception[0], a package will remain on the same version as is released on the LTS version, with patches being applied. On Jammy, that is based on 6.1.38.

Currently Virtualbox is in `universe`, which means it receives community support. I can add Virtualbox to this bug for any maintainers to respond to plans.

[0] https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Why

[John Chittum (jchittum)]

Virtualbox in focal and jammy (20.04 and 22.04) has migrated to 6.1.50-dfsg-1~ubuntu1.20.04.1

reminder that virtualbox is a multiverse package, meaning it relies on community support at this time. Since we ar eon 6.1.x in 22.04 and 20.04, users can expect bugfixes and security fixes from the community through the lifetime of standard support. with extended support via Ubuntu Pro, universe (and multiverse) may also be covered in security updates.

Based on previous discussion, it looks like using the Ubuntu supplied GuestAdditions works. this is shipped as part of the image, and works in a matchup with Ubuntu hosts.

Vagrant images have community level support, where we do our best to help debug issues. Since it looks like reverting to the Ubuntu version of guest additions works, I'll be closing this ticket.

We are also working on having more public docs for the community available here: https://documentation.ubuntu.com/public-images/en/latest/public-images-how-to/

you can see examples of building and running vagrant, as well as more information about what we can best support. We welcome community contributions to the documentation