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occasional problem starting VM (X server failure) when mismatched VGA #60

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KrisThielemans opened this issue Feb 18, 2018 · 21 comments
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occasional problem starting VM (X server failure) when mismatched VGA #60

KrisThielemans opened this issue Feb 18, 2018 · 21 comments
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@bathomas @paskino
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wontfix
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v2.0

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@KrisThielemans
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occasionally I have that the machine start but gets stuck on the console with a log-in prompt where all the text is flashing. That stops after a minute or so. This seems to be because the X server doesn't start (and there are multiple attempts causing the "flashing").

Most likely culprit is mismatched Guess Additions. (I'm using VBox 5.1.30).

I start to think we have 2 options:

  • highly recommend people to use the same VBox version as what was used at installation time
  • remove VGA and tell them to install it themselves
@KrisThielemans KrisThielemans added this to the v1.0.0 milestone Feb 18, 2018
@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 18, 2018

Yes, that's exactly the issue I found before updating the VGA.

paskino added a commit that referenced this issue Feb 19, 2018
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added info about #60
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@bathomas
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bathomas commented Feb 20, 2018 •
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I just built the VM from scratch (30 mins on my laptop by the way), then uninstalled VGA. Once removed, I could no longer start gdm. So I re-installed via the command line and everything is now fine. It's not hard to do, but I'm reluctant to remove VGA and tell them to install themselves.

@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 21, 2018

This whole business of VGA is kind of mysterios to me.
Could you please tell me how

  • you would remove and
  • reinstall via the command line?

@bathomas
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  • Remove:
sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run uninstall
reboot
  • Install:
sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
reboot

@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 21, 2018

If that's the case, can we not run this at creation time?

@bathomas
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Well the user would have to 'insert' the CD before hand...

@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 21, 2018

When I insert the CD, I see a message in dmesg, but I don't manage to mount anything.

[   11.511549] vboxsf: Successfully loaded version 5.1.18 (interface 0x00010004)
[   12.093361] VBoxService 5.1.18 r114002 (verbosity: 0) linux.amd64 (Mar 15 2017 16:30:21) release log
               00:00:00.000096 main     Log opened 2018-02-21T12:40:34.454222000Z
[   12.093442] 00:00:00.000214 main     OS Product: Linux
[   12.093466] 00:00:00.000244 main     OS Release: 4.4.0-108-generic
[   12.093490] 00:00:00.000268 main     OS Version: #131-Ubuntu SMP Sun Jan 7 14:34:49 UTC 2018
[   12.093522] 00:00:00.000291 main     Executable: /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-5.1.18/sbin/VBoxService
               00:00:00.000292 main     Process ID: 1380
               00:00:00.000292 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC
[   12.094347] 00:00:00.001106 main     5.1.18 r114002 started. Verbose level = 0

@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 21, 2018

image

@KrisThielemans
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KrisThielemans commented Feb 21, 2018 •
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Uninstall procedure shouldn't need the VGA CD

sudo /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-*/uninstall.sh

I've just done that, but still have the "flashing" problem, which is maybe what Ben was referring to when saying the gdm doesn't work.

By the way, shouldn't the mount statement be added to update_VGA.sh (checking first if it is mounted or not), see #59

sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom

@KrisThielemans
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by the way, your version 5.1.18 is really quite old by now. If we do ship with VGA installed, I would use a recent VBox for the creation. I'd even try with 5.2.6.

@KrisThielemans
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Looks like the remove actually doesn't remove everything so a reinstall can fail (and is presumably why gdm still fails). Typical!

I'm relatively sure this kind if thing would have been fixed in more recent VBox though. As opposed to fighting this, I suggest we go for the following:

  • you install VBOX 5.2.6 and create the VM with that
  • we recommend in the README and Download page to use the same version,
  • we say that if they don't, updating the VGA (as per our instructions) might solve any problems.

@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 21, 2018

OK, I've updated my VirtualBox to 5.2.6. Created the new VM and installed the VGA.
Uploaded to the website and added info in the CCPPETMR_VM Readme.

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paskino commented Feb 21, 2018

I guess we could close this, now.

@KrisThielemans KrisThielemans changed the title occasional problem starting VM (X server failure) occasional problem starting VM (X server failure) when mismatched VGA Feb 21, 2018
@KrisThielemans
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thanks. downloading now.

Nobody will see the 5.2.6 in the README though. The wiki refers to the INSTALL.md. I'd put the info on the main download page http://www.ccppetmr.ac.uk/node/120. There it's kind of obvious. It also means that we don't need to update markdown files if you switch VB version.

After that, give this a label wontfix for now and remove from milestone. we can then come back to it when/if we're a bit smarter...

@KrisThielemans
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I downloaded then ew VM and tested it in my VB 5.1.30. I had no problems starting it (somewhat surprisingly). I couldn't simply insert the VGA CD, but had to first force "Remove the disk from the virtual drive" (in the Devices->Optical Drives menu). I wonder if this is because you exported the VM with the CD attached. not sure. Anyone?

reinstalling the VGA (effectively downgrading it) seems to have just worked. that's good!

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ccp-petmr-codebot commented Feb 22, 2018 via email

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ccp-petmr-codebot commented Feb 22, 2018 via email

@KrisThielemans
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aargh. no idea about that error. anyone?

Related is #59 of course. @bathomas will add something to update_VGA.sh to try and cover one more option but it wouldn't fix this. Can you try the update_VGA.sh line from our installation instructions?

The line you quote from instructions is indeed incorrect. I have just rephrased it. Please check (@paskino, note that I refer to the Download page for the VBox version now).

@paskino
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paskino commented Feb 22, 2018

Why do you think that sentence is wrong?
The VM comes with VGA for VB 5.2.6. If the user has a different version of VB (s)he has to download the proper file matching the version of his VB and install it.

@KrisThielemans
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you don't need to download the VGA separately. it comes with your VB. if you insert the CD, it actually provides an iso with the VGA for that VB.

@paskino paskino modified the milestones: v1.0.0, v1.1 Feb 22, 2018
@bathomas bathomas mentioned this issue Feb 22, 2018
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paskino commented May 17, 2018

Possible duplicate of #77? Shall we close this as well?

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