Cinnamon in VirtualBox: No Video Acceleration [Solved]

[pbear]

Before I start, I’d like to be clear. This is simply a matter curiosity and learning how the tools work. Not urgent or even important.

As an exercise, I’ve been setting up alternate versions of Mint in VirtualBox, partly to learn how VBox works and partly so I have the ability to replicate issues reported on the Forum. XFCE went in no problem. I’ve also easily replicated my MATE installation. Cinnamon, though, boots up with the following caution (in a text balloon on the desktop):

Running in software rendering mode

Cinnamon is currently running without video hardware acceleration and, as a result, you may observe much higher than normal CPU usage.

There could be a problem with your drivers or some other issue. For the best experience, it is recommended that you only use this mode for troubleshooting purposes.

I get this caution whether booting 18.1 or 18.2, whether live or installed, and on two versions of VBox, 5.0.40 in Linux and 5.1.26 in Windows. Both Cinnamon versions work fine booting directly from DVD or USB into both computers on which I’m testing this, one an old Win7 box and the other a Win8 upgraded to 10. So the ISOs and host hardware are fine. It’s something in the virtualization that’s going sideways and only with Cinnamon.

For reference, here’s the inxi output for a live 18.1 session. The others are similar.

Code: Select all

mint@mint ~ $ inxi -Fxz
System:    Host: mint Kernel: 4.4.0-53-generic x86_64 (64 bit gcc: 5.4.0)
           Desktop: Cinnamon 3.2.6 (Gtk 3.18.9-1ubuntu3.1)
           Distro: Linux Mint 18.1 Serena
Machine:   System: innotek (portable) product: VirtualBox v: 1.2
           Mobo: Oracle model: VirtualBox v: 1.2
           Bios: innotek v: VirtualBox date: 12/01/2006
CPU:       Single core AMD A8-6410 APU with AMD Radeon R5 Graphics (-UP-) cache: 2048 KB
           flags: (lm nx sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 sse4a ssse3) bmips: 3992 speed: 1996 MHz (max)
Graphics:  Card: InnoTek Systemberatung VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
           bus-ID: 00:02.0
           Display Server: X.Org 1.18.4 drivers: vboxvideo (unloaded: fbdev,vesa)
           Resolution: 1360x663@59.79hz
           GLX Renderer: Gallium 0.4 on llvmpipe (LLVM 3.8, 128 bits)
           GLX Version: 3.0 Mesa 11.2.0 Direct Rendering: Yes
Audio:     Card Intel 82801AA AC'97 Audio Controller
           driver: snd_intel8x0 ports: d100 d200 bus-ID: 00:05.0
           Sound: Advanced Linux Sound Architecture v: k4.4.0-53-generic
Network:   Card: Intel 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller
           driver: e1000 v: 7.3.21-k8-NAPI port: d010 bus-ID: 00:03.0
           IF: enp0s3 state: up speed: 1000 Mbps duplex: full mac: <filter>
Partition: ID-1: / size: 859M used: 30M (4%) fs: overlay dev: N/A
RAID:      No RAID devices: /proc/mdstat, md_mod kernel module present
Sensors:   None detected - is lm-sensors installed and configured?
Info:      Processes: 145 Uptime: 20 min Memory: 398.6/1717.4MB
           Init: systemd runlevel: 5 Gcc sys: 5.4.0
           Client: Shell (bash 4.3.461) inxi: 2.2.35 

Is this something which can be fixed? Or am I limited to the VirtualBox Graphics Adapter because that’s the nature of the beast? Will say, by the way, I’m seriously impressed with VBox. Considering the complexity of the problem, it runs damn well.

[mr_raider]

Yup. Every Cinnamon install in Vbox I have done goes sideways at some point. KDE does not. Which one of the reasons I never use Cinammon Mint since I can't guarantee it will be stable.

My suggestions:

1. Run virtualbox 5.1 from oracles site, not 5.04 from the repos

2. Make sure your host system is fully updated, including kernel, mesa, and xorg

3. DO not install the guest drivers in the guest OS using the Mint driver installer. Vbox graphcis acceleration should just work now as is.

[pbear]

Okie-dokie, thanks.

[jimallyn]

Yup. Every Cinnamon install in Vbox I have done goes sideways at some point.

Interesting. I have Mint Cinnamon in VirtualBox, both 17.x and 18.x, and they have always worked just fine. Seems like one of them might have been a problem at first, and I gave it more video RAM. Or something.

[pbear]

Decided to try increasing Display RAM. Made no difference, but meanwhile I notice settings for two kinds of acceleration I hadn't seen until now. From the manual, not obvious those will solve my issue, but to find out will require me to figure out guest additions, which is on the "to do" list but not next. From a little quick research, I learn I'm not the first to notice the issue. See, e.g., this VBox forum thread. Having similar problems with guest additions, i.e., when try to install inside VBox my system complains it's already present and should be fixed there.

Alas, don't have time to troubleshoot this at the moment, though I'm sure it's solvable one way or another.

[pbear]

The mystery got the better of me, so I spent a couple hours figuring out how to get it running. Eventually succeeded. Turns out to be a common problem, reported on this forum and elsewhere. Long story short, the fix described here and here turned the trick. One wrinkle is that I found myself disregarding a warning not mentioned in either article (sorry, unable to copy as shared clipboard is itself a post guest addition tool),* but I figured the worst that could happen was that I'd crater a virtual machine (of which I'd already taken a snapshot). All the purging and reinstalling happens inside the guest system. In the event, it worked.

* From further research, found someone else reporting the same warning: "You appear to have a version of the VBoxGuestAdditions software on your system which was installed from a different source or using a different type of installer. ... Do you wish to continue anyway? [yes or no]" I said yes.

BTW, it's 3D acceleration Cinnamon needs and which is only available after installing guest additions.