[Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

madcyclist19 · 2014-10-11 10:45:20

Hi All,

I'm a new Arch user, been enjoying my first couple of weeks, steep learning curve compared to the Ubuntu based distros !!

I've managed to configure all my regular programmes with just one remaining issue as follows:

Having trawled Google and the Arch forums I have eventually succeeded in getting Virtual Box to run, but only by using 'sudo virtualbox' from the command line. I believe this is due to having libpng1.6 installed and possible because the Virtualbox*.png are all showing as owned by the Root account. Is there a way to either add my user name to a group or change permissions of the files so that I can run Virtualbox without resorting to 'sudo'.

On the plus side, after a few hrs of research, I have managed to get VNC running through a SSH tunnel via a dynamic dns service. Time to test some of the newbie friendly distros for a friend who is emigrating shortly !!!

Thanks in advance for any help !!

Tony.

Last edited by madcyclist19 (2014-10-12 15:24:30)

gim · 2014-10-11 11:00:09

Have you added your User to the vboxusers group as described in the ArchWiki?

Having trawled Google and the Arch forums I have eventually succeeded in getting Virtual Box to run

You should have read the ArchWiki page about VirtualBox. Information in forums might be outdated because Arch is rolling-release and a lot can change during a small period of time.

Last edited by gim (2014-10-11 11:00:33)

madcyclist19 · 2014-10-11 11:14:17

Thank you for the quick reply !!!

Yes I started from the Arch wiki to install, added to vboxusers, just retried as below:

Adding user madcyclist to group vboxusers
[madcyclist@ArchLaptop ~]$ virtualbox
Qt WARNING: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile
Qt WARNING: libpng warning: iCCP: known incorrect sRGB profile

If i start using sudo, the warnings still show in the terminal, when i start without sudo I can not get past the pop up warning screen.

The fact that Arch is a rolling release is the main attraction to giving it a go !!!

gim · 2014-10-11 11:20:58

when i start without sudo I can not get past the pop up warning screen

What does it say?

madcyclist19 · 2014-10-11 12:32:58

The error message is:

Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object.

The application will now terminate.

Callee RC: NS_BASE_STREAM_WOULD_BLOCK (0x80470007)

Google search suggests it's related to the virtual*.png files, followed some links in the Wiki that suggest editing the image files through Gimp or ImageMagik?,
tried both too no avail, tried to chmod them so that user and group both have x permissions but no joy... Tried sudo virtual box, then starts ok.

gim · 2014-10-11 12:52:11

madcyclist19 wrote:

The error message is:
Failed to create the VirtualBox COM object.
The application will now terminate.

Callee RC: NS_BASE_STREAM_WOULD_BLOCK (0x80470007)

Try to remove ~/.config/VirtualBox directory and start it again.

madcyclist19 wrote:

Wiki that suggest editing the image files through Gimp or ImageMagik?,
tried both

And I would suggest you to completely reinstall virtualbox (you may need to add yourself to vboxusers group again) to get everything back to normal.

madcyclist19 wrote:

tried to chmod them so that user and group both have x permissions but no joy

I don't think there is a point in doing that, just reinstall to get all permissions back to normal.

ooo · 2014-10-11 13:09:30

VirtualBox works fine for me with regular user without any special tweaking.
I've simply installed virualbox and host modules from [commynity] and haven't encountered any issues.

I haven't even added my user to 'vboxusers' group, as it should only be necessary in order to use USB

madcyclist19 wrote:

I believe this is due to having libpng1.6 installed

this can't be it. There was an old thread about people getting this same error if they had installed libpng-1.6 from [testing] and not updating virtualbox from [coomunity-testing]. Currently there are no other libpng versions available from arch repos.

and possible because the Virtualbox*.png are all showing as owned by the Root account.

Everything you install should be owned by root, and you really shouldn't start messing with system file permissions unless you absolutely know what you're doing.
You definitely shouldn't add executable permission (+x) to any png files ever.

I have no ideas what could cause your issue though. I'd go with gim's suggestion of clearing all virtualbox configuration for your user, or creating a new user altogether.

madcyclist19 · 2014-10-11 13:20:57

Thank you for your help... appreciate your time.

Removed the directory as suggested, reinstalled as per the wiki page, still same position...

will open using sudo, but not as user ...

mauritiusdadd · 2014-10-11 16:18:32

Hi madcyclist19, can you try to run virtualbox as normal user and then post here the content of the file ~/.config/.VirtualBox/VBoxSVC.log ?

Virtualvox can also store its configuration and log files under ~/.VirtualBox, therefore you should try to remove also this directory, if exists, as it takes precedence over ~/.config/VirtualBox.

madcyclist19 · 2014-10-11 19:50:12

Thank you Maurtiusdadd,

Contents of ~/.config/VirtualBox, there is no ~/.VirtualBox folder.

[root@ArchLaptop VirtualBox]# ls
compreg.dat VBoxSVC.log VBoxSVC.log.3 VirtualBox.xml
selectorwindow.log VBoxSVC.log.1 VBoxSVC.log.4 VirtualBox.xml-prev
selectorwindow.log.1 VBoxSVC.log.2 VBoxSVC.log.5 xpti.dat
[root@ArchLaptop VirtualBox]#

All the VBoxSCV log files are empty when opening them with Leafpad,

The slectorwindow.log file do have contents sample as below, appear to be a log of just open/close of virtual machines when opened as Root.

VirtualBox GUI VM Selector Window 4.3.16_OSE r95972 linux.amd64 (Sep 10 2014 20:13:24) release log
00:00:00.974261 Log opened 2014-10-11T17:43:03.162559000Z
00:00:00.974266 Build Type: release
00:00:00.974275 OS Product: Linux
00:00:00.974277 OS Release: 3.14.20-1-lts
00:00:00.974280 OS Version: #1 SMP Mon Oct 6 05:29:23 UTC 2014
00:00:00.974332 DMI Product Name: HP Pavilion 15 Notebook PC
00:00:00.974351 DMI Product Version: 0976100000405F00000620180
00:00:00.974656 Host RAM: 6917MB total, 6393MB available
00:00:00.974668 Executable: /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBox
00:00:00.974670 Process ID: 6252
00:00:00.974671 Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC (OSE)
00:00:00.992171 UIMediumEnumerator: Medium-enumeration started...
00:00:01.216425 UIMediumEnumerator: Medium-enumeration finished!
00:00:11.840745 UIMediumEnumerator: Medium-enumeration started...
00:00:11.875057 UIMediumEnumerator: Medium-enumeration finished!
00:00:55.998819 UIMediumEnumerator: Medium with key={ea090b25-ad15-4507-96e1-2e5544f9e321} created.
00:00:56.589143 UIMediumEnumerator: Machine registration event received, ID = 5e791bce-1bab-4b6d-8af7-9d0d0231889d
00:00:56.593589 UIMediumEnumerator: New usage: ea090b25-ad15-4507-96e1-2e5544f9e321
00:00:56.593787 UIMediumEnumerator: Machine registration event processed, ID = 5e791bce-1bab-4b6d-8af7-9d0d0231889d
00:00:56.603635 UIMediumEnumerator: Machine (or snapshot) event received, ID = 5e791bce-1bab-4b6d-8af7-9d0d0231889d
00:00:56.603706 UIMediumEnumerator: Old usage: <empty>
00:00:56.604911 UIMediumEnumerator: New usage: ea090b25-ad15-4507-96e1-2e5544f9e321
00:00:56.604932 UIMediumEnumerator: Items included into usage: ea090b25-ad15-4507-96e1-2e5544f9e321

Looks like it's time I learnt to post code in the correct format !!!

Last edited by madcyclist19 (2014-10-11 19:51:16)

mauritiusdadd · 2014-10-12 07:33:13

First of all, remove again the VirtualBox config dir:

rm -R ~/.config/VirtualBox

then use the following command

VBOX_USER_HOME=~/.config/VirtualBox virtualbox

If even the above command does not work and the VBoxSCV log files are still empty (that is very strange), try to manually execute the VirtualBox XPCOM Server:
1) open a terminal window and execute the command

/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC

2) open another terminal windown and execute virtualbox
3) finally post here the output of VBoxSVC command started in point 1)

Can you also provide the output of the following commands?

pacman -Qs virtualbox

lsmod | grep vbox

cat /etc/vbox/vbox.cfg

PS: remember to use the [⁣code] tag when you post the output of a file or a console

madcyclist19 · 2014-10-12 15:23:00

Apologies for the delay in replying, was taking part in a cycling hill climb competition this morning, cold wet and miserable !!!

I'm very greatfull for your help, the steps below have resolved the issue, now able to start normally without Sudo.

mauritiusdadd wrote:

First of all, remove again the VirtualBox config dir:
rm -R ~/.config/VirtualBox
then use the following command
VBOX_USER_HOME=~/.config/VirtualBox virtualbox

Time to do a google search and try and understand what was causing the issue !!!

Thanks again for your time !!!!

Arch Linux

#1 2014-10-11 10:45:20

[Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#2 2014-10-11 11:00:09

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#3 2014-10-11 11:14:17

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#4 2014-10-11 11:20:58

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#5 2014-10-11 12:32:58

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#6 2014-10-11 12:52:11

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#7 2014-10-11 13:09:30

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#8 2014-10-11 13:20:57

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#9 2014-10-11 16:18:32

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#10 2014-10-11 19:50:12

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#11 2014-10-12 07:33:13

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

#12 2014-10-12 15:23:00

Re: [Solved] Virtual Box not running under User account

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