3D acceleration Virtualbox no longer working

[andrewpayne1912]

@micksulley - correct - I installed an Ubuntu 21.04 VM on my Win10 host. Installed all updates, and everything fine with Gnome Desktop. I then installed the Cinnamon Desktop (sudo apt install cinnamon-desktop-environment) and when I rebooted and logged back in selecting the Cinnamon desktop - the white screen was there the exact same as Mint 20.2. I can log into Gnome Desktop with 3D enabled no problem. Just Cinnamon appears to be affected by this MESA driver bug.

[Bewicks]

Agree with all previous posts regarding not installing mesa update.

Mesa Driver - "Mesa VDPAU video acceleration drivers"

I'm new to Linux Mint, installed and updated as recommended.

Graphic/Video warning on start up.

Found this linux forum and the answers to this problem were spot on.

It took no time to build another Mint OS without updating the " Mesa VDPAU video acceleration drivers".

Everything is working as expected with no warnings etc., when 3D Acceleration is switched on.

Appreciate other people may have loads of files etc.,. Timeshift is a superb application when used.

I would like to thank all the knowledgeable posters who pointed me in the right direction. Thank you.

[rattkjelke]

So it seems it is a problem for Cinnamon but not for Mate.

Same here.
I haven't tried Xfce in a VM becaue that's what is installed.

[agtiger]

If you run your updates from the command line using apt and apt-get, you may want to run the commands I ran to temporarily block the "Mesa VDPAU acceleration drivers" update from going to version 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.2~20.04.1:

Code: Select all

apt-mark hold libegl-mesa0
apt-mark hold libegl1-mesa
apt-mark hold libgbm1
apt-mark hold libgl1-mesa-dri
apt-mark hold libgl1-mesa-glx
apt-mark hold libglapi-mesa
apt-mark hold libgles2-mesa
apt-mark hold libglx-mesa0
apt-mark hold libwayland-egl1-mesa
apt-mark hold libxatracker2
apt-mark hold mesa-vdpau-drivers
apt-mark hold mesa-vulkan-drivers
apt-mark hold mesa-va-drivers

If you wish to make the update available again for testing purposes, here are the commands. I strongly recommend making a VirtualBox snapshot prior to test-applying the Mesa update again.

Code: Select all

apt-mark unhold libegl-mesa0
apt-mark unhold libegl1-mesa
apt-mark unhold libgbm1
apt-mark unhold libgl1-mesa-dri
apt-mark unhold libgl1-mesa-glx
apt-mark unhold libglapi-mesa
apt-mark unhold libgles2-mesa
apt-mark unhold libglx-mesa0
apt-mark unhold libwayland-egl1-mesa
apt-mark unhold libxatracker2
apt-mark unhold mesa-vdpau-drivers
apt-mark unhold mesa-vulkan-drivers
apt-mark unhold mesa-va-drivers

[LieNux]

I know that this solution didn't work for people and nor for me at first, however it did eventually work. For me it went like this:

1st try: 3d acceleration in VB enabled ; logged in to LinuxMint with software rendering mode ; reinstalled guest editions ; rebooted and logged in normal mode ; same problem with corruputed screen
2nd try: 3d acceleration in VB enabled ; logged in to LinuxMint with software rendering mode but didn't reinstall guest editions. Instead ran Update Manager and it popped up with a linux kernel (and one other application) to update. Installed both updates ; rebooted Guest and logged in normal mode. All works!

Perhaps the Update Manager Kernel Update wasn't related to the 1st try. Anyhow, LinuxMint is good for me now.

Just had this exact issue when running updates on mint.

Before you login, change your session to software rendering.

Once you're logged in, attach the guest utils cd, and run the installer to reinstall them.

For some reason on this latest kernel update, the guest utils don't get applied to the latest kernel..

sudo /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all

Reboot, and you should be golden.

[rockadile]

I know that this solution didn't work for people and nor for me at first, however it did eventually work. For me it went like this:

1st try: 3d acceleration in VB enabled ; logged in to LinuxMint with software rendering mode ; reinstalled guest editions ; rebooted and logged in normal mode ; same problem with corruputed screen
2nd try: 3d acceleration in VB enabled ; logged in to LinuxMint with software rendering mode but didn't reinstall guest editions. Instead ran Update Manager and it popped up with a linux kernel (and one other application) to update. Installed both updates ; rebooted Guest and logged in normal mode. All works!

Perhaps the Update Manager Kernel Update wasn't related to the 1st try. Anyhow, LinuxMint is good for me now.

Just had this exact issue when running updates on mint.

Before you login, change your session to software rendering.

Once you're logged in, attach the guest utils cd, and run the installer to reinstall them.

For some reason on this latest kernel update, the guest utils don't get applied to the latest kernel..

sudo /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all

Reboot, and you should be golden.

What kernel are you using that is working? Is this the kernel that you just installed? Also, what version of Virtualbox are you running?

[greyseal96]

I know that this solution didn't work for people and nor for me at first, however it did eventually work. For me it went like this:

1st try: 3d acceleration in VB enabled ; logged in to LinuxMint with software rendering mode ; reinstalled guest editions ; rebooted and logged in normal mode ; same problem with corruputed screen
2nd try: 3d acceleration in VB enabled ; logged in to LinuxMint with software rendering mode but didn't reinstall guest editions. Instead ran Update Manager and it popped up with a linux kernel (and one other application) to update. Installed both updates ; rebooted Guest and logged in normal mode. All works!

Perhaps the Update Manager Kernel Update wasn't related to the 1st try. Anyhow, LinuxMint is good for me now.

Just had this exact issue when running updates on mint.

Before you login, change your session to software rendering.

Once you're logged in, attach the guest utils cd, and run the installer to reinstall them.

For some reason on this latest kernel update, the guest utils don't get applied to the latest kernel..

sudo /sbin/rcvboxadd quicksetup all

Reboot, and you should be golden.

What kernel are you using that is working? Is this the kernel that you just installed? Also, what version of Virtualbox are you running?

Agreed. I tried the solution listed (first reinstalling guest additions, reboot, then install kernel update, reboot) but it did not resolve the problem. I am using VirtualBox 6.1.14 and I updated to kernel 5.4.0.81. It would be really helpful if OP could tell us which kernel was upgraded to.

[rockadile]

I got excited when I saw there were mesa updates today but after installing them, the results were the same...still need to run without 3D acceleration enabled.

[GrahamLMC]

Just noticed the same, the previous problematic version was Mesa VDPAU 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.2~20.04.1 and the update released today is 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.1
It still has the same problem, but I had a Timeshift restore point to back it out, and then block the update fortunately.

[delanef]

I got excited when I saw there were mesa updates today but after installing them, the results were the same...still need to run without 3D acceleration enabled.

Confirmed.

[andrewpayne1912]

I got excited when I saw there were mesa updates today but after installing them, the results were the same...still need to run without 3D acceleration enabled.

I can confirm too. No fix.

[JG4242]

Same here. Switching off video hardware acceleration for the vm is a workaround.

Downgrading the mesa package should work too.

[rattkjelke]

Is this only happening on host systems with AMD hardware?

[rockadile]

Is this only happening on host systems with AMD hardware?

Nope. My host is Intel.

[yohann]

Same here. Switching off video hardware acceleration for the vm is a workaround.

Downgrading the mesa package should work too.

Confirm, both work. To downgrade, you can restore a pevious state : Ctrl Alt F1 will open the timeshift menu, select the last one (highest number). Do not restore the grub.
Once the reboot done, select all updates but the MESA update.

[rattkjelke]

Is this only happening on host systems with AMD hardware?

Nope. My host is Intel.

OK. I have AMD and wasn't sure.


There was a linux-firmware update today but that didn't fix it either.

[agtiger]

Just noticed the same, the previous problematic version was Mesa VDPAU 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.2~20.04.1 and the update released today is 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3~20.04.1
It still has the same problem, but I had a Timeshift restore point to back it out, and then block the update fortunately.

Also confirming continued failure with the newest mesa driver (21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3-20.04.1)

Windows host. Intel , Intel i7-3770K
VirtualBox 6.1.26 r145956 (Qt5.6.2)
Linux Mint 20.2 Cinnamon Guest, Cinnamon 5.0.5, Kernel 5.4.0-80-generic

Applied all pending updates except Mesa video acceleration driver.
Shut down virtual machine.
Created VirtualBox snapshot.
Started Linux Mint image in VirtualBox.
Unheld Mesa video acceleration driver packages (ran apt-mark unhold on): libegl-mesa0, libegl1-mesa, libgbm1, libgl1-mesa-dri, libgl1-mesa-glx, libglapi-mesa, libgles2-mesa, libglx-mesa0, libwayland-egl1-mesa, libxatracker2, mesa-vdpau-drivers, mesa-vulkan-drivers, mesa-va-drivers
Started Update Manager, witnessed it presenting an update for Mesa 21.0.3-0ubuntu0.3-20.04.1
Applied that update through Update Manager

After update, the desktop looks fine, but logging out and logging back into Cinnamon again causes the problem to
manifest (as before): white screen, white icons, illegible menu entries problem re-occurs.

Shut down, reverted to snapshot taken just before with Mesa packages marked as "hold".

[JG4242]

I'm using Intel hw too. The issue only became apparent after last mesa update.

Although I had to switch off hardware acceleration for every browser. Otherwise the vm would crash at random times.

Btw, is this to be considered a bug in Virtualbox or Mint ?

[rockadile]

I'm using Intel hw too. The issue only became apparent after last mesa update.

Although I had to switch off hardware acceleration for every browser. Otherwise the vm would crash at random times.

Btw, is this to be considered a bug in Virtualbox or Mint ?

Looks like it is a Cinnamon bug as it doesn't happen in Mate.

[smellydog]

I'm using Intel hw too. The issue only became apparent after last mesa update.

Although I had to switch off hardware acceleration for every browser. Otherwise the vm would crash at random times.

Btw, is this to be considered a bug in Virtualbox or Mint ?

Looks like it is a Cinnamon bug as it doesn't happen in Mate.

I don't think any of us in this thread know the answer to that yet. All it really means is that Cinnamon is using a function that Mate doesn't. This started after the mesa update, and could be a bug in either it or Cinnamon.

---edit--- I guess it's possible that it could be a bug in VirtuBox too.