Trouble installing 18.1 in Virtual Box

[Riverglen]

I have a live CD of the new Mint version 18.1 and a newly updated installation of Virtual Box. I would like to install Mint as a VM, but when I try to start it from the CD on a newly created VM, I get an error message to the effect that this version of Mint (ie. the Kernel) requires some unspecified feature that is not supported by the CPU on this machine. I take that to mean the virtual CPU provided by Virtual Box. Mint 18.1 runs fine on the host hardware. Is this a known problem? The host Os is Windows 7 Home (32 bit) and I am attempting to install the 32 bit version of Mint.

[Cosmo.]

Are you quite sure, that this is a 32 bit ISO?
Did you select on the first step, when you created the VM, the proper system? You have to select Ubuntu for Mint.
Did you adjust any settings for this VM? You shouldn't do this.

Besides that: There is no need to put the ISO at first on a DVD; you can directly use the ISO file as drive. This has several advantages: You save the disk and you save time, once the time for burning, and then the time for working with it, because the ISO file is far quicker than any DVD.

Further more: "CD" cannot be right. There is no Mint ISO file, which could be put on a CD.

At the end: VirtualBox emulates nearly the complete hardware for the VM, but not the CPU. Just for completeness.

[Riverglen]

Thanks for the quick reply. Guess I've gotta be a little more careful in stating my problem.

First, yes it is a 32 bit copy. I described it as an .iso, but it is in fact a live DVD. (I'm an old guy, if it's round and shiny, gotta be a CD, right? If it's round and dull, it might be a 5 1/2" floppy with the envelope rotted away.)

In my initial installation attempt, I specified the intended VM as "other LInux", but I do know that Mint is based on Ubuntu, so I went back and changed the intended VM to Ubuntu. Didn't help. The only settings I changed in the VM specification were to expand the emulated memory size from 256 MB to 1 GB, and the size limit for the virtual drive to 20 GB. In both cases the motivation was to meet the system requirements given on the Mint download page on this site.

Having created the VM, I attempted to start Mint from the live CD, which is when I received the error message that the CPU did not meet the requirements of the kernel I was trying to install.

I took a look on the Virtual Box web site, to see what they have to say about supported guests. They claim to support Ubuntu up to version 16.4, and kernel versions up to 4.x.
I believe that Mint is using kernel version 4.something (?), so I'd expect it to install and run just fine.

[Cosmo.]

Did you verify the authenticity of the downloaded ISO file?

Please create a new VM. (Changing the virtual RAM and drive size is OK.) If this happens again, please take a screenshot of the error dialog.

And tell us, which version of VB you use.

[Riverglen]

Problem solved. Think the trick was to take your suggestion and dump the first attempted VM and recreate it from scratch, specifying Ubuntu as the guest OS. Tried to do that before, but if I remember correctly I probably made the mistake of assuming that changing the OS specification in the VM settings without actually stiopping and restarting it.

At any rate, the live DVD runs fine, albeit very sluggishly in the VM. Haven't tried to install from the DVD yet, but don't anticipate any problems.

Thanks for putting me on the right track. I'm going to take your other suggestion and put the live download on a USB stick.

[Johantiti]

If you're not happy with speed of live DVD you probably want to put it on USB Drive. Use USB 3.0 Pendrive and port if you have it in your computer (USB 3.0 is blue inside)

[Cosmo.]

I'm going to take your other suggestion and put the live download on a USB stick.

I did not suggest this and this will not work!
I wrote, that you shall use the ISO file directly for booting the live system and installing from there.

[Riverglen]

Just to clarify, I did install the live image on a DVD and on a USB stick. Both run fine on two different machines I have here (directly on the hardware).

But, on the VM, although the installation running on the VM insists on running in rendering mode. Both the live DVD running in the VM before I start the install, and the installed version throw up a warning dialog stating that rendering mode is being used, and state that "very high CPU load may be observed". I checked to ensure that 3D acceleration is enabled in the VM settings. Don't know what else to check. I did notice that the Mint log-in screen allows me to specify a session mode, and regardless of whether I just use the default or select Cinnamon, I still wind up with the warning, and sure enough, the host CPU load attributable to the VM is very close to 100%.

In answer to your earlier question, I am running the latest available version of Virtual Box (5.1.20), along with the corresponding guest extensions package. Both were updated within the past two days.

[Cosmo.]

If you are in the running VM press host-N. This opens a dialog, where you can read, which version of the guest additions are in use. What does this say?

[Riverglen]

Well, I am very sure that I did update the guest additions pack when I updated V-Box itself, so I did the following in the order described.

Started V-Box but before starting the virtual machine, I opened the "File" menu -> Preferences -> Extensions. I see one active extensions package, "Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack, Version 5.1.20r114628". That is an exact match for the V-Box version that shows up in the program "About" information from the Help menu.

So, started the Mint VM, and after boot up and log in entered <host> - N as you requested. On the Runtime Information tab I see "Guest Additions 5.0.36_Ubuntu r114008". An apparent mismatch for the version of V-Box I'm running.

Now, with the Mint VM still running, I went to the V-Box "Devices" menu and selected "Insert guest additions CD image.." Result was that a virtual CD was apparently mounted for which an icon appeared on the Mint desktop titled "VBOXADDITIONS_5.1.20_114628", which would suggest that image should be installed, although I would have said that it already is.

So...?

[Cosmo.]

You mix the VB extensions with the guest additions; both are different things.

The extensions get installed in the host (as you obviously already did), but the guest additions get installed inside of the VM, fr each VM separately. You did not install the proper guest additions and this explains your problem.

Unluckily Mint comes with older - and not matching - guest additions preinstalled. You need to remove this at first. Important: Inside of the running guest, not the host!.

For doing this run in the guest synaptic and enter in the filter bar at the top the term virtualbox; now find in the left pane the filter for installed packages. You get as a result 3 related packages. Select to remove them completely, now you have to reboot the VM. Now install the proper guest additions from the device menu and reboot again. This should do the trick (if 3D acceleration is still activated in the settings for the VM).

Note: If you later update VB, which needs to update the guest additions afterwards in every VM, you can simply install the new guest additions on top of the existing one. The step of removing it at first is only needed this single time.

[Riverglen]

I followed your instructions for getting the proper version of the guest additions installed, but the VM still insists on running in software rendering mode. I wound up completely removing the old VM and starting over from scratch with a new one. The first time I attempted your instructions, I didn't realize there is a distinction between "remove" and "remove completely" and wound up with an ambiguous situation. But the entire reinstall, and guest additions version update went fine on the reattempt, and looking at <host> - N, confirms that the correct version of the guest additions did in fact get installed. But, I'm still seeing the warning about software rendering on the desktop.

[Cosmo.]

3D acceleration is set for the new VM?

[Riverglen]

Yes, it is. Just double checked to make sure. It shows up as enabled in the V-Box machine summary screen associated with the VM, and from the Settings options when the VM is running.

[Cosmo.]

Instead of digging around in the existing VM - always somehow cumbersome from the distant - create a fresh new VM (this does not affect the existing VMs at least) and install Mint inside.

At first make sure during the creation step, that you select the proper template = Ubuntu.
After having the installation finished and the new system booted remove the 3 virtualbox-packages from this VM, now reboot.
Install the guest additions from the devices menu and reboot.
Apply all offered updates in the update manager with level 1 to 3, and reboot again.
Shut down the VM completely (using the command in Mint's menu) and activate the 3D acceleration.
Boot this VM.
What do you get?

[Habitual]

VBox_install_type.png

works here on every 64 bit Linux OS I choose to install.

[Riverglen]

I thought I'd mentioned that I already had scrapped the initial VM I'd started with. In the process of trying to remove and reinstall the guest additions according to your instructions, I made a couple of missteps, and wound up with a VM whose state I wasn't confident in. So I completely removed that one and after restarting V-Box itself, I redid the entire procedure of creating a new empty VM and installing Mint again. There are no other installations of other Linux VMs in the host machine.

The steps I took exactly match your procedural outline, and I am very confident that I didn't overlook anything. Only difference is that I didn't initially let the update manager bring things up to date until I got your recommendation to do do.

When replacing the guest additions packages, I took note of what was being removed: VirtualBox-guest-utils, VirtualBox-guest-x11, and VirtualBox-guest-dkms. Having completely removed all three (as distinguished from just "removing" them, which is what I did in the original VM), the install of the new versions seems to have gone fine. The dialog produces by <host>-N confirms that I am running the correct version of the additions, and 3D acceleration is definitely enabled.

BUT, it still comes up in Software Rendering mode.

Habitual - I envy your success. For what it's worth, I'm trying to get the 32 bit version of Mint running in a VM that is hosted on a 32 bit version of Windows 7.

[jimallyn]

On one of my VirtualBox guest installs, it wouldn't work until I gave it more RAM for video, so you might check that. But for the most part, my experience has been like Habitual's: all 36 (yes, 36) of the guest OSes I have in VirtualBox work fine. Let's see, what else? On some systems you have to enable virtualization in the BIOS. Have you checked that? (I don't know any more about this than Cosmo, but I know how easy it is to overlook something sometimes. So, I'm just tossing in my two cents worth in the hope that I might stumble upon something that will help.)

Edit: I assume since you are seeing the software rendering message that you are using the Cinnamon desktop? You might try a different desktop. XFCE, for example, will run on just about anything. You might also try installing Mint 17.x and see if that goes any better.

[Cosmo.]

@Riverglen: Following your description 3D accelartion should work.

Reading in the virtualbox forum I see, that VB 5.1.20 and especially the guest additions for 5.1.20 have some issues. I cannot judge, how far this also affects your problem, but it is possible.

You might try to downgrade to 5.1.18 and see, if this helps.

Side note: It does not matter at all, if there exist other VMs, that you have created. As long as a VM is not running it affects your host only so far, as it takes some MB of disk space. So you do not need to remove them if you start a new try with a new VM.

[srq2625]

I think jimallyn hit it on the head with

On one of my VirtualBox guest installs, it wouldn't work until I gave it more RAM for video, so you might check that.

IIRC - VB sets the video memory default to about 4MB and I suspect this is not enough to drive the H/W rendering. I ALWAYS boost the video memory to 128M .... or whatever is the maximum setting - I'm working from memory here.