Black screen on 15.0.0.6.6 and 15.0.0.7.1

Harlem · November 25, 2019, 3:05pm

Wanted to try out 15.0.0.6.6 and 15.0.0.7.1 but there is only black screen loading in VirtualBox. It looks like the Gateway is loading but it doesn’t display anything. It is in memory, it uses resources acording to task manager but VB Windowd display blank screen regardles of mode is on. The last line shown on screen is that with “…32bpp” then balck screen only. Tried ovm files under Windows and linux as host system, same effect. This affect both GW and WS VM’s. I did see other topics with that bug, but no solution was provided.

There was no such problem on 15.0.0.4.9 or any earlier Point Release, which I can still use on same systems and VB configuration.

PS. This is what WS looks like if it’s not black screen (sometimes):

Edit by Patrick:
See Kicksecure ™ in VirtualBox - Troubleshooting - Kicksecure ™ does not Start?

Patrick · November 25, 2019, 3:55pm

What’s your host operating system?

Workstation does not have that issue?

VirtualBox -> Whonix-Gateway VM -> Settings -> Display -> Graphics Controller

Try different settings there.

Does that help? Which one works for you?

Harlem · November 25, 2019, 4:55pm

Ubuntu v18. But I tested under Windows 7 too to check if it’s host related.

WS has same issue, it loaded to whatever that is (image above) once, black screen every other time.

Tried increasing VRAM or turning on/of HW acceleration, without luck. I have Intel HD integrated graphics. Same settings that worked for previous ovm’s, do not work on new ones.

Patrick_mobile · November 25, 2019, 5:11pm

VBoxVGA
VMSVGA
VBoxSVGA

Did you try all of these settings?

Power off the VM.
VirtualBox → click a VM → Settings → Display → Graphics Controller → VMSVGA → OK
VirtualBox → click a VM → Settings → Display → Graphics Controller → increase slider for Video Memory to 128 → OK (This is already the case in newer Whonix ™ versions.)
Restart the VM.
Maximize the VM window after start of the VM as soon as possible.
If necessary, try again one of these workarounds.

Harlem · November 25, 2019, 5:45pm

I needed to google it becouse there is no such options on my VirtualBox. TBH I use v5 of VB and I don’t know if this is a version or hardware releated option.

I skimmed through the log and this is the part when VM go bad:

00:00:36.419029 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 6.0.10 r132055 '6.0.10_Debian'
00:00:36.431640 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Interface = 0x00010004 osType = 0x00053100 (Linux >= 2.6, 64-bit)
00:00:36.433272 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:36.451509 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:00:36.455432 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no
00:00:36.481552 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:36.481641 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:00:36.520905 VMMDev: Guest reported fixed hypervisor window at 000c1400000 LB 0x400000 (rc=VINF_SUCCESS)
00:00:36.540165 VMMDev: vmmDevReqHandler_HeartbeatConfigure: No change (fHeartbeatActive=false).
00:00:36.554566 VMMDev: Heartbeat flatline timer set to trigger after 4 000 000 000 ns
00:00:36.573544 VMMDev: Guest Log: vgdrvHeartbeatInit: Setting up heartbeat to trigger every 2000 milliseconds
00:00:36.754670 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:00:36.759242 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:00:36.770881 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:36.770960 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:00:36.790733 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no
00:00:36.797107 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:36.805652 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:00:36.838341 VMMDev: Guest Log: vboxguest: misc device minor 58, IRQ 20, I/O port d020, MMIO at 00000000f8400000 (size 0x400000)
00:00:54.560727 VMMDev: Guest Log: vboxsf: g_fHostFeatures=0x1 g_fSfFeatures=0x0 g_uSfLastFunction=20
00:00:58.980307 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x4) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
00:00:58.997404 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:00:58.997507 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:00:58.997610 GUI: UIMachineView::sltPerformGuestResize: Sending guest size-hint to screen 0 as 1024x696 if necessary
00:00:58.997690 VMMDev: SetVideoModeHint: Got a video mode hint (1024x696x32)@(0x0),(1;0) at 0
00:00:58.997759 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:58.997821 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:00:59.423326 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x4 -> 0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no
00:00:59.426104 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:00:59.426725 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:00:59.426968 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:59.427321 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:00:59.486253 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.443365 main     VBoxService 6.0.10_Debian r132055 (verbosity: 0) linux.amd64 (Aug 21 2019 16:12:14) release log
00:00:59.486418 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.443646 main     Log opened 2019-11-25T17:25:36.443200000Z
00:00:59.544258 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.501359 main     OS Product: Linux
00:00:59.562657 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.520430 main     OS Release: 4.19.0-6-amd64
00:00:59.583357 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.541157 main     OS Version: #1 SMP Debian 4.19.67-2+deb10u2 (2019-11-11)
00:00:59.584672 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.542540 main     Executable: /usr/sbin/VBoxService
00:00:59.584779 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.542542 main     Process ID: 505
00:00:59.584869 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.542544 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC (OSE)
00:00:59.597844 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.555725 main     6.0.10_Debian r132055 started. Verbose level = 0
00:00:59.747108 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:00:59.747376 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:01:00.041715 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:36.840254 main     vbglR3GuestCtrlDetectPeekGetCancelSupport: Not supported (#3)
00:01:00.044212 Guest Control: GUEST_MSG_REPORT_FEATURES: 0x1, 0x8000000000000000
00:01:00.155362 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:37.113160 timesync Error: vgsvcTimeSyncWorker: VbglR3GetHostTime failed; rc2=VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED
00:01:00.239760 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:01:00.239951 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:01:00.240073 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:01:00.240181 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:01:04.459415 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x4) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
00:01:04.459843 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:01:04.459987 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:01:04.460118 GUI: UIMachineView::sltPerformGuestResize: Sending guest size-hint to screen 0 as 1024x696 if necessary
00:01:04.460241 VMMDev: SetVideoModeHint: Got a video mode hint (1024x696x32)@(0x0),(1;0) at 0
00:01:04.460354 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:01:04.460489 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:01:04.471001 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x4 -> 0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no
00:01:04.471350 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:01:04.471484 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:01:04.471662 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:01:04.471777 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:01:09.510954 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x4) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes
00:01:09.511388 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:01:09.511532 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:01:09.511661 GUI: UIMachineView::sltPerformGuestResize: Sending guest size-hint to screen 0 as 1024x696 if necessary
00:01:09.511785 VMMDev: SetVideoModeHint: Got a video mode hint (1024x696x32)@(0x0),(1;0) at 0
00:01:09.511895 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:01:09.511998 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:01:09.522410 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x4 -> 0x0) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: no
00:01:09.522748 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners.
00:01:09.522873 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary.
00:01:09.522972 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners.
00:01:09.523074 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=0, Machine-state=5
00:01:10.176181 VMMDev: Guest Log: 17:25:47.134070 timesync Error: vgsvcTimeSyncWorker: VbglR3GetHostTime failed; rc2=VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED
00:01:14.559602 VMMDev: Guest Additions capability report: (0x0 -> 0x4) seamless: no, hostWindowMapping: no, graphics: yes

Those last lines are repeating in a loop until I kill machine by Ctrl+H.

Patrick · November 25, 2019, 6:21pm

Please try a more recent VirtualBox version.
6.0.14

mmm · December 1, 2019, 12:52pm

I have tried both the most recent 5.2 and 6.0.14 Vbox releases and ALL graphics drivers to no avail. VT-x is enabled on my pc. I can boot ubuntu VMs just fine. I’m on the latest version of Mac OS by the way… I even tried various CPU/Memory configs. Disabling pretty much everything to see what the issue was. It seems to be getting held up on the CD/DVD rom if I remember correctly, and then just goes black. I’ve tried reinstalling them. Nothing works. I’ve used Whonix for many years and have gotten around most issues, but this one is serious and I’m not sure how it got past verification testing. But regardless, this is a bug.

Patrick_mobile · December 1, 2019, 2:21pm

Nobody with this particular hardware / software configuration tested this. Bug was only reported many days after release.

Someone needs to debug this. Look at VM creation commands of last functional version was first broken version. I can follow up with the commands used.

But help required… Before that…

Can you run vboxmanage from command line?

Can you locate the Whonix vmdk disk image on the hard drive?

Can you run bash scripts?

mmm · December 1, 2019, 2:33pm

I’m a software engineer… so I imagine I could manage that

If you have some scripts you want me to to run or some suggestion on what to look into then I’d be happy to do so.

Patrick_mobile · December 1, 2019, 2:44pm

Great! Going to follow up soon.

Patrick_mobile · December 1, 2019, 2:49pm

VMs are created during build using this script.

https://github.com/Whonix/Whonix/blob/master/build-steps.d/2600_create-vbox-vm

Releases are tagged. So we can easily compare changes between different versions.

But that script runs on Linux. Not trivially run standalone. Hence if required I’ll soon create a standalone for VM creation for the different versions.

In essence we’ll delete the VirtualBox VM but keep the VM disk image. Then recreate the VM with old settings and existing disk image. Try if that works. Expected success.

Then newer setting. Expected fail.

Then keep dropping new settings until curlpit is identified.

Patrick · December 3, 2019, 12:01pm

Dev/VirtualBox - Whonix shows which commands were used to create Whonix VirtualBox 15.0.0.4.9 (reported functional) and 15.0.0.6.6 (reported broken).

Two differences:

Commands at the end run in slightly different order. Probably irrelevant.
15.0.0.6.6 has one additional command:

VBoxManage modifyvm Whonix-Gateway-XFCE --graphicscontroller vmsvga

Before of going through re-creation of the whole VM… Maybe this helps… Please try running the following commands:

VBoxManage modifyvm Whonix-Gateway-XFCE --graphicscontroller vboxvga

And if that does not work, try this one:

VBoxManage modifyvm Whonix-Gateway-XFCE --graphicscontroller vboxsvga

anontor · December 6, 2019, 5:21pm

On Ubuntu 18.04 there are no problems. Systems are up to date.
Virtualbox version 6.0.x works well for Whonix

Patrick · February 24, 2020, 5:11am

https://github.com/Whonix/Whonix/blob/master/build-steps.d/2600_create-vbox-vm#L126-L134

Quote changelog:

Patrick · March 8, 2020, 12:49pm

Did this problem still happen in Whonix VirtualBox 15.0.0.8.7?

There is actually no report here that VBoxVGA works better than VMSVGA. Therefore I am setting back to VMSVGA. (Because I found a solution resize issues there.)

Thanks! Reports of non-brokenness are also very useful to determine the scope of this issue and maybe to get some clues.

Edit by Patrick:
See Kicksecure ™ in VirtualBox - Troubleshooting - Kicksecure ™ does not Start?

anontor · March 12, 2020, 1:27am

VMSVGA worked for Whonix 15.0.0.8.7. The 3d acceleration issue was only recently brought to my attention since I do not use the feature myself. On that particular post, I was using the 6.0.x Virtualbox tree. Recently, I updated the Vbox platform to 6.1.4. And VMSVGA works very well. (The 6.0 tree will not be supported after July 2020)
Regarding the different graphics controllers, there were some hiccups in the 6.0 tree with certain features on vmsvga. No such difficulties noted in the 6.1 tree. Also, VBoxVGA, VBoxSVGA, and VMSVGA are all offered on 6.1.x and appear to work equally well, but if someone wanted to use 3d acceleration, it only works with VMSVGA. All 3 graphics choices work with Whonix with no observed issues.