Ubuntu 20.04 guest hangs in the (new) "kernel modules and user services reloading" step of the Guest Additions installation => fixed in svn

[tersmitten]

In my packer build I'm installing the Guest Additions. But during this procedure the Ubuntu 20.04 guest hangs (freezes) in the (new) "kernel modules and user services reloading" step of the installation:

Linux Guest Additions: Added experimental support for kernel modules and user services reloading in the end of installation process, thus guest system reboot after Guest Additions (7.0.8 and newer) upgrade is no longer required in general case.

When I use the 7.0.6 iso it does not freeze.

My guest is Ubuntu 20.04.6, kernel is 5.15.0-75.

[galitsyn]

Hi tersmitten,

The issue you are referring to should be fixed on the development branch. Could you please try one of the "Latest 7.0.x test builds" from Test Builds page?

[tersmitten]

I already tried https://www.virtualbox.org/download/testcase/VBoxGuestAdditions_7.0.97-157801.iso, but that did not fix the problem.

[tersmitten]

Same for https://www.virtualbox.org/download/testcase/VBoxGuestAdditions_7.0.97-157801.iso.

[galitsyn]

Hi tersmitten,

There was a similar report recently. By "guest hangs (freezes)" do you mean that guest does not respond to mouse clicks, keyboard input and/or screen resize?

If so, I suspect, there might be a kernel panic during reloading (which I never seen myself here). Could you please try to get guest dmesg during installation (see https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Serial_redirect)?

Also, please attach VBox.log.

[tersmitten]

Yes, the guest does not respond to anything anymore. I was also thinking about a kernel panic.

I'll give the debugging a try. Where can I find VBox.log?

[galitsyn]

Usually at $HOME/VirtualBox VMs/VM-name/Logs. You can also right-click on VM name in VM Manager and chose "Show log..." option.

[galitsyn]

Thank you for the log. I see that the VM has only 4 MB of Video RAM. This is quite low and I would recommend to increase it, say, to maximum. In addition, what might have impact if to change graphics adapter to VMSVGA in VM config.

[tersmitten]

But it's a server VM, why does it need video RAM? I only use the terminal.

[tersmitten]

It's created with packer and apparently these are the defaults there.

[tersmitten]

I tailed /var/log/dmesg, but I don't see anything in the log during the crash.

[tersmitten]

diff --git a/template.json b/template.json
index 071bb57..ba9ab04 100644
--- a/template.json
+++ b/template.json
@@ -20,6 +20,8 @@
       ],
       "boot_wait": "5s",
       "disk_size": "{{ user `disk_size` }}",
+      "gfx_controller": "vmsvga",
+      "gfx_vram_size": "64",
       "guest_additions_path": "VBoxGuestAdditions_{{ .Version }}.iso",
       "guest_os_type": "Ubuntu_64",
       "hard_drive_interface": "sata",

Trying that out now

[tersmitten]

The changes above seem to fix the freeze :-)

Changed the settings to match: ​https://github.com/chef/bento/blob/main/packer_templates/pkr-sources.pkr.hcl#L51. This is enough.

[galitsyn]

Hi tersmitten,

I reproduced the problem with Ubuntu Server 22.04. It seem it is a bad idea to un/re-load vboxvideo module. Somehow, when freshly installed system boots, nobody is taking a reference to vboxvideo (the one which comes with the distro, our GAs not yet installed) despite it is in use. And attempt to unload it results in guest kernel panic.

We will not attempt to reload it in the next releases and current workaround is to switch the VM into VMSVGA graphics.

Thank you for reporting.

[galitsyn]

Hello,

We just released VirtualBox 7.0.10. This issue should be fixed in this release. Culd you please give it a try? Packages are available on our downloads page.