Arch Linux

whotemp

Member

Registered: 2011-06-19

Posts: 5

[SOLVED] xmonad on virtualbox guest does not work

I'm trying to install xmonad on an arch guest in virtualbox.

I'm referencing both the Beginner's Guide and the VirtualBox doc. The beginner's guide says to install X a different way and points the virtualbox guide, which doesn't mention X.

So here's what I do:

$ pacman -S xorg-server xorg-xinit xorg-utils xorg-server-utils virtualbox-archlinux-additions mesa
$ modprobe -a vboxguest vboxsf vboxvideo

Looking online, I get the impression that virtualbox-archlinux-additions includes a video driver, so I don't install one (not sure which driver would work anyways).

After installing "xorg-twm xorg-xclock xterm dbus" startx works. However, when I exit, the output says something about pixman: 0.24.0 and complains

(EE) Failed to load module "vesa" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) Failed to load module "fbdev" (module does not exist, 0)
(EE) AIGLX error: vboxvideo does not export required DRI extension
(EE) AIGLX: reverting to software rendering
(EE) VirtualBox USB Tablet: failed to initialize for relative axes
xinit: connection to X server lost

There is no default ~/.xinitrc (it does not exist)

I then install xmonad and xmonad-contrib. There is no default ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs
I then do

$ cp /etc/skel/.xinitrc .

Then I append "xmonad" (I also tried exec xmonad) and run "startx" and I get a black screen that hangs. I can't quit the environment, so I'm forced to close the virtual machine. Adding ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs doesn't help either.

Can someone tell me what's going on? Am I missing a video driver?

Last edited by whotemp (2011-12-09 07:02:46)

Mavirick

Member

Registered: 2011-12-01

Posts: 62

Re: [SOLVED] xmonad on virtualbox guest does not work

Using virtualbox there is no actual driver to install it uses the modules that you loaded in order to provide the video to the system.  If you have the startx working and displaying the xterm then you have configured X and VirtualBox correctly.

whotemp

Member

Registered: 2011-06-19

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] xmonad on virtualbox guest does not work

Hmm, so I now get:

$ xmonad
xmonad-i386-linux: user error (openDisplay)

with

$ cat ~/.xmonad/xmonad.hs
import XMonad
main = xmonad $ defaultConfig

whotemp

Member

Registered: 2011-06-19

Posts: 5

Re: [SOLVED] xmonad on virtualbox guest does not work

Looks like a bug with the virtualbox additions. vboxvideo.so keeps seg faulting