Arch Linux VM fails to boot on Oracle VirtualBox

tripoway · February 25, 2024, 7:45pm

I find myself unable to start the Arch Linux ISO on a virtual machine (archlinux-2024.02.01-x86_64.iso). The way VirtualBox behaves leads me to believe it’s some problem either with my system or the package.

Output of inxi -v1 --filter:

System:
  Kernel: 6.7.6-arch1-1 arch: x86_64 bits: 64
  Desktop: KDE Plasma v: 5.27.10 Distro: Arch Linux
CPU:
  Info: dual core Intel Core i3-7020U [MT MCP] speed (MHz): avg: 558
    min/max: 400/2300
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel HD Graphics 620 driver: i915 v: kernel
  Device-2: Realtek Integrated_Webcam_HD driver: N/A type: USB
  Display: wayland server: X.org v: 1.21.1.11 with: Xwayland v: 23.2.4
    compositor: kwin_wayland driver: X: loaded: modesetting dri: iris gpu: i915
    resolution: 1366x768
  API: OpenGL v: 4.6 compat-v: 4.5 vendor: intel mesa v: 24.0.1-arch1.1
    renderer: Mesa Intel HD Graphics 620 (KBL GT2F)
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 81.84 GiB (8.8%)
Info:
  Memory: total: 8 GiB available: 7.66 GiB used: 3.16 GiB (41.3%)
  Processes: 201 Uptime: 36m Shell: Bash inxi: 3.3.33

I currently have these packages installed, but I tried using virtualbox-host-dkms before, to no avail:

linux 6.7.6.arch1-1
linux-firmware 20240220.97b693d2-1
linux-headers 6.7.6.arch1-1

virtualbox 7.0.14-2
virtualbox-guest-iso 7.0.14-1
virtualbox-host-modules-arch 7.0.14-9

I thought the problem could be with kernel params. But no result. This is what I’m working with:

# GRUB boot loader configuration

LANG=C
GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_TIMEOUT=5
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR='RebornOS'
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet apparmor=1 lsm=landlock,lockdown,yama,integrity,apparmor init_on_alloc=1 page_alloc.shuffle=1 vsyscall=emulate randomize_kstack_offset=1"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

Btw, lockdown is disabled.

As far as I’m concerned, the service is also active:

UNIT FILE                           STATE   PRESET  
apparmor.service                    enabled disabled
auditd.service                      enabled disabled
drkonqi-coredump-processor@.service enabled disabled
getty@.service                      enabled enabled 
NetworkManager-dispatcher.service   enabled disabled
NetworkManager-wait-online.service  enabled disabled
NetworkManager.service              enabled disabled
sddm.service                        enabled disabled
ufw.service                         enabled disabled
vmtoolsd.service                    enabled disabled
vmware-vmblock-fuse.service         enabled disabled
wpa_supplicant.service              enabled disabled
cups.socket                         enabled disabled
remote-fs.target                    enabled enabled 

14 unit files listed.

I also thought it could have something to do with apparmor. But I see nothing that could mess with VB, plus I don’t have a profile for VB:

apparmor module is loaded.
77 profiles are loaded.
75 profiles are in enforce mode.
...
   /usr/lib/apache2/mpm-prefork/apache2
   /usr/lib/apache2/mpm-prefork/apache2//DEFAULT_URI
   /usr/lib/apache2/mpm-prefork/apache2//HANDLING_UNTRUSTED_INPUT
   /usr/lib/apache2/mpm-prefork/apache2//phpsysinfo
   apache2
   apache2//DEFAULT_URI
   apache2//HANDLING_UNTRUSTED_INPUT
   apache2//phpsysinfo
   avahi-daemon
   dnsmasq
   dnsmasq//libvirt_leaseshelper
   dovecot
   dovecot-anvil
   dovecot-auth
   dovecot-config
   dovecot-deliver
   dovecot-dict
   dovecot-director
   dovecot-doveadm-server
   dovecot-dovecot-auth
   dovecot-dovecot-lda
   dovecot-dovecot-lda//sendmail
   dovecot-imap
   dovecot-imap-login
   dovecot-lmtp
   dovecot-log
   dovecot-managesieve
   dovecot-managesieve-login
   dovecot-pop3
   dovecot-pop3-login
   dovecot-replicator
   dovecot-script-login
   dovecot-ssl-params
   dovecot-stats
   identd
   klogd
   lsb_release
   mariadbd_akonadi
   mdnsd
   mysqld_akonadi
   nmbd
   nscd
   ntpd
   nvidia_modprobe
   nvidia_modprobe//kmod
   php-fpm
   ping
   postgresql_akonadi
   samba-bgqd
   samba-dcerpcd
   samba-rpcd
   samba-rpcd-classic
   samba-rpcd-spoolss
   smbd
   smbldap-useradd
   smbldap-useradd///etc/init.d/nscd
   syslog-ng
   syslogd
   traceroute
   winbindd
   zgrep
   zgrep//helper
   zgrep//sed
...

As for the VM config, I don’t see why it shouldn’t work:

1024 MB RAM
Enable EFI
PAE/NX disabled
64 MB Video Memory
Graphics Controller: VMSVGA
3D Acceleration

VM starts but the screen goes black and shows nothing more after the following:

Here goes some ERRORs I found on VBox.log. I haven’t tried to interpret it

00:00:02.078601 ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005) aIID={6ac83d89-6ee7-4e33-8ae6-b257b2e81be8} aComponent={ConsoleWrap} aText={The VBoxGuestPropSvc service call failed with the error VERR_HGCM_SERVICE_NOT_FOUND}, preserve=false aResultDetail=-2900

00:00:02.457769 HM:   VM-entry Xcpt error-code optional = false

I haven’t tried running other distros tho.

Can anybody give me instructions or ideas as to what might be the problem?

shivanandvp · February 25, 2024, 8:23pm

Hi @tripoway

Could you run a sha256sum or md5sum on the downloaded ISO file and compare with the sums shown on the download page?

Also, there is no RebornOS ISO release on 2024.02.01 . There should be one on 2024.02.16

shivanandvp · February 25, 2024, 8:30pm

I apologize. I was mistaken about which ISO you are trying to boot up. You can still run a sha256sum on the downloaded ISO and compare it with the sum they provide on the download page. You seem to have the right packages. Have you tried rebooting and trying again?

paul · February 25, 2024, 9:05pm

may be it’s to small
I always take 4096MB for arch and arch-based distros

btw - just tried the install of arch (archlinux-2024.02.01-x86_64.iso) and got no problems

tripoway · February 25, 2024, 9:24pm

Hello. It’s okay. I just checked the sha sums. Seems ok

gpg: Signature made qui 01 fev 2024 09:10:46 -03
gpg:                using EDDSA key 3E80CA1A8B89F69CBA57D98A76A5EF9054449A5C
gpg:                issuer "pierre@archlinux.org"
gpg: Good signature from "Pierre Schmitz <pierre@archlinux.org>" [unknown]
gpg: WARNING: The key's User ID is not certified with a trusted signature!
gpg:          There is no indication that the signature belongs to the owner.
Primary key fingerprint: 3E80 CA1A 8B89 F69C BA57  D98A 76A5 EF90 5444 9A5C

tripoway · February 25, 2024, 9:34pm

Just tried with 2048, not working
Same thing happens. Nothing on logfiles either.

I already rebooted so I’ll check if there’s something off on the UEFI.

shivanandvp · February 25, 2024, 10:24pm

Hey @tripoway do you want to check booting the RebornOS ISO on the same VirtualBox VM? This is just to check that everything else is fine

tripoway · February 25, 2024, 11:13pm

Good idea. I just tried with RebornOS and Linux Mint ISOs on new VMs, same config. Same thing happens.
Although I changed from virtualbox-host-modules-arch to virtualbox-host-dkms after checking the UEFI config.
I’ll try switching back to modules-arch

shivanandvp · February 25, 2024, 11:29pm

Is your system fully updated? It seems like others are not facing these issues.

Could you also share a screenshot of the Virtualbox settings, especially the CPU, Bootloader related settings

tripoway · February 25, 2024, 11:57pm

Yeah, fully up to date.

Here goes the config…

Processor config
Storage config

All the ISO I tried booting did start. But for some reason it stalls soon after I select to install.

I got some interesting output running sudo systemctl status vmtoolsd.service… not sure what it means.

○ vmtoolsd.service - Open Virtual Machine Tools (VMware Tools)
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vmtoolsd.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
  Condition: start condition unmet at Sun 2024-02-25 20:34:42 -03; 2min 14s ago
             └─ ConditionVirtualization=vmware was not met

shivanandvp · February 26, 2024, 12:06am

When you boot into the RebornOS ISO Grub menu, there are 8 different options. Please try them all one by one and see if any of them boot

tripoway · February 26, 2024, 12:28am

They all work except for the 2 Arch Linux install medium.
Which start, but then wind up on a black screen. AFAIK systemd doesn’t even start.

Right now I’m looking into the ConditionVirtualization I mentioned.

tripoway · February 26, 2024, 1:26am

Long story short, I didn’t actually have the VirtualBox service enabled. Somehow systemctl recognized it and now it’s fine:

vboxservice.service                 enabled disabled
vmtoolsd.service                    enabled disabled
vmware-vmblock-fuse.service         enabled disabled

But now it throws the same ConditionVirtualization error:

○ vboxservice.service - VirtualBox Guest Service
     Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vboxservice.service; enabled; preset: disabled)
     Active: inactive (dead)
  Condition: start condition unmet at Sun 2024-02-25 22:01:06 -03; 21min ago
             └─ ConditionVirtualization=oracle was not met

fev 25 22:01:06 ****-pc systemd[1]: VirtualBox Guest Service was skipped because of an unmet condition check (ConditionVirtualization=oracle).

I also found out my systemd-detect-virt doesn’t recognize a single virtualized environment.

I start to think I might have broken my system a long time ago and didn’t notice

tripoway · February 26, 2024, 4:45pm

Ok… I figured out what ConditionVirtualization=oracle was not met means.
The genius here had virtualbox-guest-utils installed. But that’s not needed for the host.

So vboxservice.service couldn’t see the system as virtualized. Also the reason why systemd-detect-virt returned none. My system is the host.

So I:

uninstalled virtualbox-guest-utils
re-installed virtualbox-host-dkms and virtualbox to be safe
Replace xf86-video-vmware (don’t ask why I had it) for xf86-video-intel (still not sure I need)

I noticed after the VM initial hooks, when I click the VirtualBoxVM window, the screen inside goes black. And then nothing more… Which made me think maybe I lack some kind of graphic driver to interact with VB.

Then after clicking or changing on its own

paul · February 26, 2024, 5:40pm

it’s been a long time since I installed VBox (now use qemu)
I remember the following and hope it may help you

it is recommend to install the packages:

virtualbox
virtualbox-host-modules-arch (cause you run the linux kernel)
virtualbox-guest-iso

before running a virtual machine there is to be loaded the module

vboxdrv

tripoway · February 26, 2024, 10:27pm

It finally worked!

This time I pretty much just removed everything and manually removed .config/VirtualBox

yay -Rsn virtualbox-bin

Yes, here I removed virtualbox-bin, but I had already removed the usual virtualbox.

Then I reinstalled the packages you mentioned

I did also install vulkan-intel, although from what I can tell, it isn’t being used.

video                  77824  3 dell_wmi,dell_laptop,i915
wmi                    45056  5 video,dell_wmi,wmi_bmof,dell_smbios,dell_wmi_descriptor

But know that works for both RebornOS and ArchLinux

Thanks @paul and @shivanandvp : )

paul · February 27, 2024, 6:42am

congrats and a lot of fun

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Arch Linux VM fails to boot on Oracle VirtualBox

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