VBoxSVGA x64 Vista guest 3D accelerated video broken in VirtualBox 6.0.12

[Rutger van Bergen]

On a x64 Windows Vista guest, after the installation of VirtualBox 6.0.12, I followed the recommendation to switch to the VBoxSVGA graphics controller in the context of the upcoming deprecation of VBoxVGA. As part of switching to VBoxSVGA I installed the 6.0.12 guest additions with 3D acceleration enabled.

Following the restart of the guest (eventually multiple times), I consistently get display behavior that effectively makes the VM unusable. What seems to happen is that whatever section of the screen (like an icon, desktop gadget, title bar and occasionally the entire desktop) was updated last is displayed in full screen within the guest.

I will attach a number of screenshots displaying this behavior as I moved my mouse pointer over the guest's screen. Do note that some of those screenshots, being the ones showing the VirtualBox window decorations, were taken in the (Windows 10) host, and some within the guest itself. As you can see, the results are consistent independent of the source of the screenshot.

[Rutger van Bergen]

Screenshot while hoovering over recycle bin desktop icon

[Rutger van Bergen]

Screenshot while hoovering over Google Chrome desktop icon

[Rutger van Bergen]

Screenshot of news feed desktop gadget after its contents were updated

[Rutger van Bergen]

Screenshot of tooltip showing while hoovering over Start button

[Rutger van Bergen]

Screenshot of task bar being drawn

[Rutger van Bergen]

Problem remains in VirtualBox 6.0.14 with VBoxSVGA chosen as the graphics controller. The VM works fine when VBoxVGA is selected.

[Rutger van Bergen]

Problem remains in VirtualBox 6.0.14 with VBoxSVGA chosen as the graphics controller. The VM works fine when VBoxVGA is selected.

[frg]

Happens with 6.1 Beta 2 too. Unfortunately there VBoxVGA no longer has 3D support so essentially broken.

[sunlover]

This has been fixed in the latest VirtualBox 6.0.x revision 134701 See https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Testbuilds

Please make sure that you download and install the guest additions 6.0.x revision 134701, because VirtualBox host packages might include an older GA ISO.

The fix for this particular problem has been made in the guest additions, but please install the latest VirtualBox too, because it contains other important fixes for the VBoxSVGA 3D support.

[Rutger van Bergen]

Thank you for notifying this. Just to clarify: is your recommendation to also install the test build of VirtualBox, or to use the latest GA release of VirtualBox 6.0.x with the test build of the Guest Additions ISO? Personally I would prefer to remain on the GA release of VirtualBox, if possible. Installing the test build of the Guest Additions in the Vista VM does not potentially affect the other VMs I am running, whereas a switch to another version of VirtualBox does.

[frg]

Ttilebar uses blurred text/image from below the window

[frg]

Log 1347401

[frg]

Seems to work but the titlebar has a problem. Seems to show a blurred image from below the window not what is under it. Anyway thanks++

[Rutger van Bergen]

I can confirm the behaviour frg describes with Guest Additions revision 134701 on VirtualBox 6.0.14. Transparency works in the Start menu, but not (correctly) in the title bar of windows or the taskbar, as far as I can tell.

[Rutger van Bergen]

Correction to my last comment, with apologies for the noise: transparency in Start menu also implements a vertical offset concerning the background image it shows. Furthermore, when the screen section "behind" the transparency changes, there are temporary artifacts in the "glass". They do disappear quickly again, which is why I haven't been able to capture them in a screen shot.

[sunlover]

Rutger, the latest test build of VirtualBox is not required. The fix for this problem (when everything is "displayed in full screen within the guest.") is in the guest additions.

However the latest test build includes a few fixes for other 3D issues.

Thank you both for testing. You are right that the blurred image from below the window seems to be upside down.

[sunlover]

The transparency problem has been fixed in 6.0.x revision 134780 It is enough to update the guest additions.

However the host package also has another fix for an unrelated 3D issue.

[frg]

Seems to be fixed. Great.

Not sure if you want to look into this and if it is fallout here or a new bug.

Running Windows assessment causes a blue screen during the Aero phase. Setting Windows to not reboot on a blue screen so that I could capture it does not switch to text mode.

Don't have more time today. Can take a log Friday if needed.

[sunlover]

Yes, please take a log. Could you also get a minidump of the guest crash?

​https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/315263/how-to-read-the-small-memory-dump-file-that-is-created-by-windows-if-a

[Rutger van Bergen]

Apologies for the late reply. It seems I can no longer download revision 134780 of the Guest Additions to confirm the fix of the transparency issue. Could this be related to the BSOD that is mentioned by frg? If said revision is made available to me I could try to reproduce the crash today and provide the minidump that is requested.

[frg]

The fix is in the guest additions 134774 provided with 134780.

The BSOD might be unrelated. Ddidn't do the assessment for a long time. Ivy-brdge XEON V2. For the previous Windows 7 host I needed to install a hotfix for cpus with more that 30 MB cache. Not sure if this applies to the vm too. Probably not available for Vista/2008 then.

Will see that I capture a minidump friday or this weekend.

[Rutger van Bergen]

I can confirm the transparency fix with Guest Additions 134774, as well as the guest crash (spontaneous reboot) when running Windows Assessment. I was not able to collect a minidump; I configured Windows to create them on crash but none was generated, nor was the C:\Windows\minidump directory.

I will attach a VBox.log covering a number of the crashes; in that BugChecks are reported.

[Rutger van Bergen]

VBox.log of Windows Assessment triggered crashes

[frg]

Minidump and Log from latest 6.0.15