I saw three questions marks after clicking on “Start" in VirtualBox 6.1.22 with openSUSE selected.

English Virtualization
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Hello. In 64-bit openSUSE Leap 15.3 in VirtualBox 6.1.22, which is an application within my Windows-10, “host” operating system, I used to be able to click on “Start” in VirtualBox with my “openSUSE Linux” “guest” operating system selected in it and eventually see what I think may be called a graphical login screen for Leap 15.3; then after entering my ordinary, Leap-15.3 password on that screen I could eventually see the Lightweight X Windows System, version 11 (X11) Desktop (LXDE) screen. But instead after clicking on “Start” in VirtualBox recently I have seen three black- or dark-green-colored question marks within yellow-green-colored, almost rectangular areas in the window VirtualBox “set up” for Leap 15.3 when “booting” into Leap 15.3 using any of the Linux kernels 5.3.18-59.10-preempt, 5.3.18-59.5-preempt, or 5.3.18-59.5-default. After that I saw a few characters and a prompt after “login:”. So then I could enter my Leap user name and my ordinary, Leap user password. At some time in my experimenting I could enter “sudo systemctl get-default” and afterward perhaps my Leap-15.3 root-user password and then see “graphical.target” as a response to my command on my computer screen, but still not see the graphical login screen for Leap 15.3. But probably sometime after entering my Leap-15.3 user name and ordinary password I could enter the command “startx” and afterward see the LXDE screen. I could resize the window VirtualBox provided for Leap 15.3, but not the LXDE screen within that window. Despite the problems I mentioned in this posting, I could gratefully still obtain and install an update to a software package in my Leap-15.3 installation while it was online. So what should I do to return to seeing the graphical login screen for Leap 15.3 and to be able resize the LXDE screen for Leap 15.3 after clicking on “Start” in VirtualBox 6.1.22 with “openSUSE Linux” selected in it?

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@2009Newbie:

Within the settings for the (openSUSE Leap 15.3) virtual machine, how have you setup the Display?

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Thank you, dcurtisfra, for kindly taking some time to post a question and some information for me! If I remember correctly, in Leap 15.2 I found that I could avoid some questions marks appearing during the startup of Leap 15.2 by using the VBoxVGA (probably VirtualBox Video Graphics Adapater, VirtualBox Video Graphics Array, or VirtualBox Video Graphics Accelerator, based in part on https://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_VGA_stand_for on the Internet) Graphics Controller in probably multiple versions of VirtualBox; otherwise the VBoxVGA and VMSVGA (probably standing for Virtual “Machine” Super Video Graphics Array, based in part on https://www.answers.com/Q/What_does_SVGA_stand_for) Graphics Controllers in some tests worked equally well for me. So in Leap 15.3 I continued to use the VBoxVGA Graphics Controller.

Nevertheless in following your advice in Leap 15.3 I switched from the VBoxVGA Graphics Controller to the VMSVGA Graphics Controller and afterward saw the graphical login screen displayed! (Prior to that event the three question marks still appeared on my computer screen.) But I still could not resize the window for the LXDE [Lightweight X Windows System, version 11 (X11) Desktop Environment] screen. In addition, I could not resize a screen for perhaps “Online Update” or “Software Management” of Yet another Software Tool 2 (YaST2) while it “connected” to the Internet.

Then in a later “boot” into Leap 15.3, following your advice I had a check mark placed in the checkbox beside “Enable 3D Acceleration” in VirtualBox’s “Settings, Display.” This action resulted in some unfortunate results for me in separate “boots” of Leap 15.3, such as

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup-CPU#1 stuck for 134s! [udevadm:399]

My troubles in this respect typically appeared after the yellow-green nearly rectangular area surrounding the third question mark was highlighted. On another similar occasion probably some minutes after the following message appeared,

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup-CPU#1 stuck for 81s! [swapper/1:0]

or

watchdog: BUG: soft lockup-CPU#1 stuck for 81s! [swapper /1:0]

, I saw a single underscore character appear at the upper-left corner of an otherwise black-colored screen. Then I terminated that Leap-15.3 session. So under these circumstances I was better off not using 3D acceleration.

I read via the hyperlink https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html#guestadd-3d you kindly provided me that in order to use 3D acceleration in VirtualBox, VirtualBox Guest Additions (VBGA) must be installed. I had the software packages virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-tools installed in my Leap-15.3 installation. But recently I have unfortunately been experiencing troubles with VBGA.—1) I could not copy and “paste” text between my Windows-10 “host” and my Leap-15.3, Linux “guest” operating systems. 2) Long ago in VirtualBox I set up a folder to be shared between those two operating systems. But recently my folders in that shared folder in Windows could not be seen in that shared folder in Leap 15.3!

So I am suspicious that my VBGA might somehow be corrupt and therefore might be the cause of multiple remaining problems. But I don’t know for certain how to in the year 2021 replace possibly corrupted VBGA with well-working VBGA from openSUSE Leap repositories. Uninstalling and reinstalling virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-tools has not been a solution to this problem for me. A way to replace “broken” VBGA was given on https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/422636-VirtualBox-Guest-additions-in-OpenSUSE-11-2 on September 28, 2009. But the corresponding instructions for year-2021 openSUSE Leap computer software might be different than for year-2009 openSUSE computer software. I haven’t tried to follow or modify those old instructions.

As it turned out on July 6, 2021 I was able to update the VBGA software packages virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-tools and probably have installed virtualbox-kmp-default from Leap-15.3 online software repositories to versions appropriate for VirtualBox 6.1.22; and recently I have been “booting” into Leap 15.3 often using the Linux kernel version 5.3.18-59.10-preempt. But unfortunately these installations did not help me overcome the window-resizing problem I report here. Again I am suspicious that my VBGA in my Leap-15.3 installation might be corrupted in some way that somehow might go beyond just “freshly” installing virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-tools from openSUSE Leap-15.3 repositories.

I also tried my preferred method of replacing the VBGA supplied by and/or for Leap with VBGA produced by a procedure similar to on https://en.opensuse.org/VirtualBox from Oracle Corporation for VirtualBox 6.1.22 computer software. But this procedure failed again for me, I suppose because the necessary backporting of Linux kernel software to make this procedure work with VirtualBox 6.1.22 might not be ready or not have been released via openSUSE repositories yet.

In support of the hypothesis that my installation of the VBGA or my attempt to “build” them might have damaged the window-resizing capability, on August 1, 2015 poster tsu2 was quoted as probably previously writing or saying, “If you think you might be happy with just re-sizing the display, check whether that still works or not. If not, then your attempts to build your own Guest Additions may have broken it and may need to be replaced anyway.” That is what I supposed happened to me. The term “broken” in this context and at this point in time is a term of specific mystery for me, as I suspect it could be for a number of people who are not familiar with the details of the VBGA computer codes.

I think it might be useful if someone could inform me how in Leap 15.3 in the year 2021 to replace possibly corrupted VBGA with good ones. I have understood that VBGA may even be included in Linux kernels in some modern versions of Leap. What would happen if I would remove the software packages virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-tools obtained from online Leap-15.3 software repositories? Would the VBGA which I understood are these days included in the modern versions of the Linux kernel supplied through Leap repositories “take over” and work well in VirtualBox 6.1.22?

I had one option which worked really well for me for awhile. That was after upgrading Leap 15.2 to Leap 15.3 it appears that my Leap-15.3 installation had, in effect, “inherited” the Linux kernel 5.3.18-lp152.75.1.x86_64 in which the VBGA worked well for me. So in Leap 15.3 for awhile I could “boot” into Leap 15.3 using that version of the Linux kernel and have VBGA which worked with with installed version of VirtualBox 6.1.22 in my Windows-10 “host” operating system. I had the VBGA using VirtualBox 6.1.22 and the Linux kernel version 5.3.18-lp152.75.1.x86_64 produced in Leap 15.2 using a procedure similar to my preferred procedure on https://en.opensuse.org/VirtualBox. But in the process of updating the Linux kernel in Leap 15.3 it appears that that well-working version of the Linux kernel may have automatically been purged from the versions of the Linux kernel in my Leap-15.3 installation. (How may one permanently keep a version of the Linux kernel in his Leap-15.3 installation, both its file or files and on the “boot” “menu”?) It might be possible to extract that well-working kernel version from a backup of the data on my computer’s hard-disk drive which I had written shortly before I upgraded Leap 15.2 to Leap 15.3.

There are some other possible short-term options for me while a Linux kernel version which does not include the VBGA “built” with portions of VirtualBox 6.1.22 computer software may not yet be publicly available through Leap-15.3 repositories. One of them could be for me to uninstall the extension pack in VirtualBox 6.1.22, then to downgrade VirtualBox 6.1.22 to VirtualBox 6.1.20, then to install version 6.1.20 of the extension pack for VirtualBox 6.1.20 in or for VirtualBox 6.1.20, and then for me to follow the procedure on https://en.opensuse.org/VirtualBox. That sort of procedure gratefully often worked well for me after installing Linux-kernel updates or a new version of VirtualBox in Leap 15.2, beginning on July 23, 2020 with VirtualBox 6.1.12.

A more time-consuming option could be for me to return to my Leap-15.2 installation from a hard-disk drive backup, to upgrade it to Leap 15.3 again, to have Leap 15.3 updated, and after that to not try to execute the procedure on https://en.opensuse.org/VirtualBox until the necessary backporting has been completed in a Linux kernel version to work with VirtualBox 6.1.22 or one of its successors. How may I know when that backporting process has been completed suitable for working with VirtualBox 6.1.22 in a new version of the Linux kernel released through an openSUSE, Leap, online repository? Obtaining an answer to this question could be important because just trying the procedure https://en.opensuse.org/VirtualBox to have new VBGA “built” in order to see when and if that procedure would work with the available computer software might corrupt or “break” the window-resizing capability, as discussed by the poster tsu2 on https://forums.opensuse.org/showthread.php/508902-Issues-installing-guest-additions-(Virtualbox)/page2, a process which I guess would begin with a corruption or “breaking” of the operation of well-working VBGA.

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@2009Newbie:

How have you installed the Oracle VirtualBox on the Windows host?

  • Where did you obtain the Oracle VirtualBox for the Windows host?

[INDENT=2]AFAICS, for a Windows host, you should use the following source – <https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads>.[/INDENT]
Did you follow the Oracle VirtualBox instructions for installing it on Windows hosts?
<https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/UserManual.html#installation>

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For openSUSE 15.3 guest you only need one package from the openSUSE libraries - just virtualbox-kmp-default.

If you added the guest additions from Oracle - you need to uninstall them - that script is in /opt/VBox (cannot remember the full path)

VM1:~ # zypper se -si virtual
Loading repository data…
Reading installed packages…

S | Name | Type | Version | Arch | Repository
–±-----------------------±--------±--------------------------------±-------±-------------------------
i | virtualbox-kmp-default | package | 6.1.22_k5.3.18_59.5-lp153.2.3.2 | x86_64 | openSUSE-Leap-15.3-Update
VM1:~ #

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Thank you, dcurtisfra and larryr, for kindly taking some time to post some information for me in this “thread” of postings. In response I generally have been obtaining updated versions of VirtualBox from VirtualBox. In the past I set up an arrangement so that I would kindly be notified by VirtualBox in an electronic-mail account of mine after a new version of VirtualBox had been released. And I generally also have installed VirtualBox’s extension pack for the new version of VirtualBox as well.

Following larryr’s advice in Leap 15.3 I uninstalled virtualbox-guest-x11 and virtualbox-guest-tools, but left virtualbox-kmp-default installed. And in my Leap-15.3 installation I found /opt/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.22/uninstall.sh and executed that file via the command ./uninstall.sh . I assume that the purpose of this execution was to uninstall portions of VirtualBox obtained from Oracle Corporation. The result for me was that the directory /opt became empty of files and subfolders.

But the final result was not good.–That is my following three problems remained.—1) I was still unable to resize the “desktop” window within the window VirtualBox provided for openSUSE Leap 15.3. 2) For the folder I set up in VirtualBox to be shared between my Windows-10 “host” and openSUSE, Leap “guest” operating systems, in Leap 15.3 I could not see that shared folder’s folders I had in my Windows-10 operating system. And 3) I could not copy and “paste” text between those two operating systems via the computer “clipboard.” So in the present state I think I am relying on the VirtualBox Guest Additions “built” into the Linux kernel I have been using, which lately has been the preempt version 5.3.18-59.10.1.x86_64 of it. If all of VirtualBox from Oracle Corporation has been uninstalled from my Leap-15.3 installation by the execution of /opt/VirtualBoxGuestAdditions-6.1.22/uninstall.sh, sorry, I may have been in error in some earlier, thinking.–That is perhaps some other computer software dealing with resizing the “desktop” window in my Leap-15.3 installation has been negatively affected.

There was a previous state in Leap 15.3 when I did not have any of the above three problems. Therefore the simplest logical, yet very time-consuming way for me to have all three of the above problems solved is for me to return to that well-working state in Leap 15.3 by a) restoring my Leap-15.2 computer software from a backup of the Leap-15.2 operating system on my computer’s hard-disk drive, b) upgrading from Leap 15.2 to Leap 15.3, and c) at least partially updating Leap-15.3 computer software. I may even be able to install all of the Leap-15.3 updates I would need, so long as I do not try to have VirtualBox Guest Additions “built” by executing VirtualBox 6.1.22’s file VBoxLinuxAdditions.run before the necessary backporting work has been completed to make that execution work well in VirtualBox 6.1.22. Then, assuming I will then have a well-working Leap-15.3 installation, I should have another backup of the data on my hard-disk drive written. At that point in time I would have a way to recover my Leap-15.3 installation, if I would cause any problems for myself by, for example, failing a test of the execution of VBoxLinuxAdditions.run from Oracle Corporation’s VirtualBox 6.1.22 or a later version of its VirtualBox. So this is an outline of the procedure I am now seriously considering to follow to eliminate my three problems in my Leap-15.3 installation.