Starting any VM locks my system up

[borg101]

I have ran into a problem with a Windows 7 VM that had worked under Ubuntu 17.04/17.10, Mint 18.2, 18.1, elementaryOS 0.4, and others but locked up my system under Mint 18.3 (both cinnamon and gnome DE's). At first I chalked it up to changes in 18.3. So I tried creating a brand new Windows 10 VM....same thing, locked my system up. I can't seem to find a debug log for virtualbox. Is the system dropping one somewhere besides the home directory?

[thx-1138]

...logs are under .config/VirtualBox & also in a folder named 'Logs' located there where your VM images are stored (eg. /home/borg101/mywindows10testvm/Logs)...

[Cosmo.]

Which version of VB do you use in Mint? I do a guess: 5.0.x?
Next question (just for completeness): Which kernel do you use in Mint?

[borg101]

...logs are under .config/VirtualBox & also in a folder named 'Logs' located there where your VM images are stored (eg. /home/borg101/mywindows10testvm/Logs)...

nothing in either location.

Which version of VB do you use in Mint? I do a guess: 5.0.x?
Next question (just for completeness): Which kernel do you use in Mint?

4.13.0-32-generic GNU/Linux and VB 5.0.4

[smurphos]

4.13.0-32-generic GNU/Linux and VB 5.0.4

Known not to play nice together....

Either remove VB 5.0.40 and manually install 5.1 or 5.2 from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads or install the latest 4.4 series kernel and remove any 4.8, 4.10 and 4.13 kernels having booted into 4.4 and confirmed that works OK with your system.

[borg101]

4.13.0-32-generic GNU/Linux and VB 5.0.4

Known not to play nice together....

Either remove VB 5.0.40 and manually install 5.1 or 5.2 from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads or install the latest 4.4 series kernel and remove any 4.8, 4.10 and 4.13 kernels having booted into 4.4 and confirmed that works OK with your system.

Hazaaaa! It worked! Thanks. I do have a new problem, and if you can't answer it I completely understand. This is on my HTPC and I'm about 13 feet away from the screen. For some reason this version of VB is not scaling the text. Any ideas?

[smurphos]

Hazaaaa! It worked! Thanks. I do have a new problem, and if you can't answer it I completely understand. This is on my HTPC and I'm about 13 feet away from the screen. For some reason this version of VB is not scaling the text. Any ideas?

Sorry I can't answer that. I think there may be some differences in seamless mode. Maybe a question for the Virtualbox forums....? https://forums.virtualbox.org/index.php

[Royi]

4.13.0-32-generic GNU/Linux and VB 5.0.4

Known not to play nice together....

Either remove VB 5.0.40 and manually install 5.1 or 5.2 from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads or install the latest 4.4 series kernel and remove any 4.8, 4.10 and 4.13 kernels having booted into 4.4 and confirmed that works OK with your system.

Why don't they just update the repositories of Linux Min to include proper version of VirtualBox?

[Cosmo.]

No user can answer this question. There exist some stereotypical remarks regarding stability, but they are simply not true for VB. Especially since kernel 4.13 many users felt into the trap and many more will follow. What this shall have to do with "stability" is over my head. Fact is, that at least users of LM 18.2 and 18.3 will by default get a HWE kernel, currently 14.3 and so those freezes are built into the repositories.

On the other hand: This package is in the responsibility of Ubuntu, so Mint cannot do very much about it.

[Royi]

No user can answer this question. There exist some stereotypical remarks regarding stability, but they are simply not true for VB. Especially since kernel 4.13 many users felt into the trap and many more will follow. What this shall have to do with "stability" is over my head. Fact is, that at least users of LM 18.2 and 18.3 will by default get a HWE kernel, currently 14.3 and so those freezes are built into the repositories.

On the other hand: This package is in the responsibility of Ubuntu, so Mint cannot do very much about it.

I see.
So you say Linux Mint chose Kernel which isn't compatible with the Ubuntu Repository it uses?

[smurphos]

No Ubuntu provide the kernels and maintain that software repository. Everyone else picks up the pieces when software in the repos conflict with a kernel (a very rare issue).

The particular repo virtualbox is in is 'Multiverse' - which Ubuntu claim no responsibility to ensure the contents work or are updated during the supported life of the release...https://help.ubuntu.com/community/Repositories

[Cosmo.]

So you say Linux Mint chose Kernel which isn't compatible with the Ubuntu Repository it uses?

Where did I say that?

Mint 18.2 and 18.3 come with a short living HWE kernel, not with a LTS kernel. This makes it necessary to upgrade the kernel to the next HWE kernel, if the installed HWE kernel looses support. In Ubuntu this does not look differently. With kernel 4.13 this leads now to the problem, that the VB version, which gets offered in the official repos, is no longer usable. VB 5.0.x has known issues with the latest kernels, which have since long been fixed in VB 5.1.x and 5.2.x. But if the official repos stay with the old VB 5.0.x , the VB fixes will never arrive there. So the real mistake is to keep with VB 5.0 and this is a Ubuntu mistake.