virtualbox VM segfaults while starting

[Phil Wolff]

Following upgrade from Trusty to Utopic, tried to start an existing (and working under Trusty) VM. VM window appears but after a few seconds silently disappears, and virtualbox UI shows VM status as "aborted". dmesg reports

[ 1320.804118] capability: warning: `VirtualBox' uses 32-bit capabilities (legacy support in use)
[ 1364.148785] EMT[4955]: segfault at 618 ip 00007ff41a8b9261 sp 00007ff443c29c60 error 4 in
VBoxDD.so[7ff41a80c000+178000]

Tried to start a different existing (and working under Trusty) VM. Similar visual result, dmesg reports

[ 1593.971944] EMT[5243]: segfault at 618 ip 00007f82a480f261 sp 00007f82ac763c40 error 4 in VBoxDD.so[7f82a4762000+178000]

Tried to create a new VM. Again, similar visual result, dmesg reports

[ 1729.754063] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3
[ 1729.775026] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
[ 1729.781830] init: ureadahead-other main process (5455) terminated with status 2
[ 1764.884704] EMT[5469]: segfault at 618 ip 00007f8746ab9261 sp 00007f8785960c40 error 4 in VBoxDD.so[7f8746a0c000+178000]

Using apt-get, removed and reinstalled all virtualbox modules. No change in results.

user@node:/home/user# lsb_release -rd
Description: Ubuntu 14.10
Release: 14.10

user@node:/home/user# apt-cache policy virtualbox virtualbox-dkms virtualbox-qt
virtualbox-guest-additions-iso virtualbox-guest-dkms virtualbox-guest-utils virtualbox-guest-x11
virtualbox:
  Installed: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
virtualbox-dkms:
  Installed: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
virtualbox-qt:
  Installed: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
virtualbox-guest-additions-iso:
  Installed: 4.3.18-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
virtualbox-guest-dkms:
  Installed: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
virtualbox-guest-utils:
  Installed: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status
virtualbox-guest-x11:
  Installed: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Candidate: 4.3.18-dfsg-1
  Version table:
 *** 4.3.18-dfsg-1 0
        500 http://us.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu/ utopic/multiverse amd64 Packages
        100 /var/lib/dpkg/status

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

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

[Sascha Lüdecke (sascha-w)]

Fun fact: virtualbox starts fine with a winXP guest, but aborts with a win7 guest (even in safe mode)

[Sascha Lüdecke (sascha-w)]

I have found a solution here: https://bugs.archlinux.org/task/41951

Updating the virtualbox extensions to 4.3.18 solved the problem and my win7 guest works again.

Old version of the extensions was 4.3.6
New version now matches the virtualbox version: 4.3.18 (get yours here: https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads)

[Phil Wolff (adiabat)]

Good catch - I had completely forgotten about having installed the extension pack in order to get USB 2.0 support.

[Phil Wolff (adiabat)]

Turns out this is not a bug -- see comments below.

[VPablo (villumar)]

Installing VirtualBox extensions solve the problem but the program "Out of the box" doesn't work because these extensions are not in the repositories and must be downloaded from VirtualBox web.

http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/4.3.18/Oracle_VM_VirtualBox_Extension_Pack-4.3.18-96516.vbox-extpack