Linux Mint Forums

I am running LM18,3 Cinnamon 64-bit and decided to update the kernel as recommended in the Linux blog in order to get the security update for Meltdown/Spectre.
The updated kernel is 4,13,0-26,
Everything appeared to be working normally until I tried to open Windows 7 in Virtualbox. This causes the host system to freeze, Windows 7 was working fine before the kernel update.
My previous kernel was in the 4,8 series but no patch seems to be available for this series and Update Manager only shows the 4,13,0,26 kernel.

Which version of VB do you use?

I'm using Vbox 5.0.40

I also had issues with 4.13.0-26. An earlier version of Virtualbox (version 4.x - I removed it) caused Mint Cinnamon 18.3's cursor to freeze if I attempted to start any of my installed virtual machines. Additionally, Cinnamon would fail to start on boot as it would not run with my NVIDIA graphics card. I backed down to kernel 4.10.0-42-generic, installed Virtualbox 5.0.40, and things seem to be back to normal. It's not yet clear whether this disabled the latest security patches for the Intel issues. It most likely did, as upon reboot to 4.10 I'm also prompted to update again to 4.13.0-26 with important security updates. As I'm not terribly worried about the Intel issues as they pertain to my personal laptops I think I'll hold off until some of these graphics and vbox issues are addressed. This system is running on an HP Omen laptop with a I7 6th gen. chipset.

I have been checking this forum and it seems that Vbox 5 doesn't work with the latest kernel and that Vbox 5.1 is required. I don't normally install anything from outside the official repository so I will need to find out how to do it if I want to continue using this software. There is some useful information on this page about installing Vbox 5.1 which I will attempt to follow.

Hello curtvaughan
I just saw your post and I'm definitely not an expert but I doubt that you will have the security patch if you roll back to an earlier kernel. Perhaps someone with more experience could confirm?

Mazda81 wrote:I have been checking this forum and it seems that Vbox 5 doesn't work with the latest kernel and that Vbox 5.1 is required. I don't normally install anything from outside the official repository so I will need to find out how to do it if I want to continue using this software. There is some useful information on this page about installing Vbox 5.1 which I will attempt to follow.

I tried installing virtualbox 5.1 as per instructions on downloading from http://www.virtualbox.org. The installation worked, but I couldn't get it to install any of my virtual machines from iso's that had worked fine with version 4.x. I removed 5.1 and installed 5.0.40 from the software repos and backed down to kernel 4.10.0-42. Now things appear to be normal again, though there may be security issues that only kernel 4.13 addresses in Mint 18.3 Cinnamon. I'm going to wait until the stability issues regarding NVIDIA graphics and Virtualbox are ironed out before doing a kernel upgrade to 4.13.x. Since this is on a personal laptop I'm not as concerned with the Intel chip security issues as I would be for servers or a work environment.

VB 5.0.40 is to old and does not include support for the newer kernel (4.8 and above). So you need to install either the newest version of 5.1 or 5.2. (For stability reasons I prefer 5.1.x.) VB is the great exception about the rule about foreign packages; you should use the packages from virtualbox.org.

Uninstall the current version at first, then reboot before you install the newer version. Your existing VMs get preserved by uninstalling VB.

Thanks cosmo,
I'll take your advise and install Vbox 5.1. I'll post the results here later.
I installed Vbox by copying and pasting the link in Easy Linux Tips which installed Vbox 5.0.

I have successfully updated vbox to version 5.1.30 and my Windows 7 guest is working normally again. I was surprised how easy it was to upgrade, I just downloaded the deb package + the extension pack and installed them. I was prompted to update guest additions to 5.1.30.
If I decide to upgrade to version 5.2 do I need to download the latest package or can it be achieved using check for updates in vbox?

Mazda81 wrote:If I decide to upgrade to version 5.2 do I need to download the latest package or can it be achieved using check for updates in vbox?

Since you downloaded the installer rather than install from within a package manager, you will need to download the latest packages. Updates for vbox won't appear in the package manager.

OK, thanks catweazel.

Mazda81 wrote:If I decide to upgrade to version 5.2 do I need to download the latest package or can it be achieved using check for updates in vbox?

The update check in VB does nothing more than to look up, if a newer version does exist and offers to download it. Afterwards you have to install it like in case of 5.1

Note, that in case of a major update of VB (like in case of 5.1.x to 5.2.x) you need to uninstall the old version at first before you install the new one. In case of minor updates you can install simply on top of the current installation.

Thanks Cosmo,
That's exactly what I needed to know.

I was also having this problem but now solved after upgrading to the latest VB Version 5.2.4 r119785 (Qt5.6.1). Now my system is not freezing anymore. Thanks

arnabm17 wrote:I was also having this problem but now solved after upgrading to the latest VB Version 5.2.4 r119785 (Qt5.6.1). Now my system is not freezing anymore. Thanks

Which kernel are you running?

I also had problems with VB5.0.40 and kernel 4.13 - complete lockup. Installed VB5.2.2 and VB5.2.4. Both worked with 4.13 but win7 wouldn't run in seamless mode. I reverted back to VB5.4.40 and kernel 4.4.109 - this all works fine.

Thinking about it again, the problem with the later VBs may have been that my win7 VM had guest additions for 5.0.40 installed not the later versions. At some point I will try this again.

If the version of VB and guest additions do not match at least in the first and second number, the additions cannot work. (I consider VB 5.4.40 as a typo.)

For information, when I updated Virtualbox to both 5.1 and later 5.2.4 I was prompted to update guest additions as part of the update process. My Windows 7 guest OS is working fine now. There is another update available [5.2.6] but I haven't installed that one yet.

Same problem here. My previous kernel - 4.10.0-42, VB 5.0.40 works fine