Virtualbox not working after updating

General Help
1

Hey folks;

I'm using Zorin 17 (default with wayland) running a VM (Virtualbox v6.1.50) for Windows 10, but lately I can't boot up my VM anymore, it already stops instead after launch with a critical error. And i don't understand why, it worked before, i don't change any vbox seetings, the vm is located on the same disk (which is mounted - using fixed spaces). And when i dualboot into Manjaro i can launch the VM. What can be the reason and how can i fix it, the only differences from working to not working are just updating). What packages from VM you use - more than virtualbox, virtualbox-dkms and virtualbox-qt - which are required (what's with the virtualbox-guest* or the *-hwe versions?)

Thanks for your help!

2

A few questions:

  1. What does the error say?
  2. Does it happen with any other VM?
  3. What kernel are you on right now? On a terminal, type uname -r to find that out.

Those provide additional functionality and/or support for things like file sharing, clipboard sharing, hardware passthrough, graphics, etc.

1 Like
3

I'm not home right now for a few day, so i cant verify it, but i update my System recently and it should be something like 6.8.0-50 for kernel. The error only says a critical error occurred and don't give any hints and only point to a log-file that's huge and don't give me any hints. I only have one VM installed.

What i did right now:

  1. reinstall
  2. purge and than fresh install
  3. reducing vbox config to minimal setup (no cd, no usb 3.0, fewer cores etc.)
  4. verify same vbox config with other OS (what worked)

What i'm interested in is if anyone else facing similar errors recently with Zorin 17, default kernel with recent updates. The only thing i can think about is something like dropped driver support in recent versions cause my gpu is old (radeon hd 7770 from 2012) and my manjaro version was outdated as well. I'll test it again when home.

4

Personally I would ditch Virtual Box and use virt-manager instead. Virt-manager identifies what is preventing you from booting. Last night I had an issue with networking. I tried two alternatives that did not work and went back to virtio and managed to boot it. Virthmanager also offers better support for USB 3.0. Also when using Virtual Box I would never use .vdi, only .vhd images which you can import to virt-manager.

5

There seems to be a compatibility issue with Virtual Box 6.x and a recent kernel update. This is supposedly fixed in Virtual Box 7.x, though. Please check this thread on how to install it: