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:
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Yes, that's exactly the issue I found before updating the VGA.
I just built the VM from scratch, 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.
This whole business of VGA is kind of mysterios to me.
Could you please tell me how
sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run uninstall
reboot
sudo mount /dev/sr0 /media/cdrom
cd /media/cdrom
sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
reboot
If that's the case, can we not run this at creation time?
Well the user would have to 'insert' the CD before hand...
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
Uninstall procedure shouldn't need the CGA 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
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.
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:
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.
I guess we could close this, now.
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...
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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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).
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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.
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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.
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Possible duplicate of #77? Shall we close this as well?
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