Arch Linux

revo86er

Member

Registered: 2017-03-01

Posts: 6

[SOLVED] VirtualBox won't start after kernel upgrade on btrfs

Hello Arch Community,

It's my first post, hi together

I've set up a virtual machine to configure a fresh Arch install with the purpose to use it as my main System.
And all worked well, like a charm. I've this particular system running my hardware right now.

I copied the prepared virtual machine as a testing / trash system on my new host, to have a virtual 'clone'

The issue I run into was while upgrading one of those three packages on the guest system (tried in different order), which recompile’s the kernel

==> Software upgrade (new version) :
core/btrfs-progs    4.9-1              -> 4.9.1-1
core/linux          4.9.9-1            -> 4.9.11-1
core/linux-firmware 20161222.4b9559f-2 -> 20170217.12987ca-2

system informations:

Guest: systemctl status vboxservice.service
● vboxservice.service - VirtualBox Guest Service
   Loaded: loaded (/usr/lib/systemd/system/vboxservice.service; enabled; vendor preset: disabled)
   Active: active (running) since Wed 2017-03-01 08:39:45 CET; 2min 10s ago
 Main PID: 327
   CGroup: /system.slice/vboxservice.service
           └─327 /usr/bin/VBoxService -f

Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell systemd[1]: Started VirtualBox Guest Service.
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: VBoxService 5.1.14 r112924 (verbosity: 0) linux.amd64 (Feb
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.000072 main     Log opened 2017-03-01T07:39:45.263
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.000532 main     OS Product: Linux
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.000733 main     OS Release: 4.9.9-1-ARCH
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.000892 main     OS Version: #1 SMP PREEMPT Thu Feb
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.001040 main     Executable: /usr/bin/VBoxService
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.001041 main     Process ID: 327
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.001042 main     Package type: LINUX_64BITS_GENERIC
Mar 01 08:39:45 archspell VBoxService[327]: 00:00:00.002369 main     5.1.14 r112924 started. Verbose le

Guest: cat /usr/lib/modules-load.d/virtualbox-guest-modules-arch.conf
vboxguest
vboxsf
vboxvideo

Installed VBox Packages on Guest:
virtualbox-guest-modules-arch 5.1.14-7
virtualbox-guest-utils 5.1.14-3

Guest: lsmod |grep vbox
vboxvideo              45056  2
ttm                    86016  1 vboxvideo
drm_kms_helper        126976  1 vboxvideo
drm                   294912  5 vboxvideo,ttm,drm_kms_helper
syscopyarea            16384  2 vboxvideo,drm_kms_helper
sysfillrect            16384  2 vboxvideo,drm_kms_helper
sysimgblt              16384  2 vboxvideo,drm_kms_helper
vboxsf                 49152  0
vboxguest             221184  9 vboxsf,vboxvideo

Installed VBox Packages on Host:
virtualbox 5.1.14-3
virtualbox-guest-iso 5.1.14-1
virtualbox-host-modules-arch 5.1.14-7

Host: lsmod |grep vbox 
vboxnetflt             28672  1
vboxnetadp             28672  0
vboxpci                24576  0
vboxdrv               385024  4 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt,vboxpci

problem appearance:
After upgrading the packages mentioned above, the system works until I shut it down. Even a reboot works (which is strange isn't it?!). But powering off and starting again, vBox comes up with a popup saying starting machine (which doesn't happen after 4,5 hrs running the CPU up). And after 1 min (see screenshot) it comes up with another popup (and another process) which jumps to 20% and stops there. Somehow it seems it starts two machines

I provided two screenshots, one shows the two popups and the other htop with those two processes (including the strace output of those after 4,5 hrs)
https://ptpb.pw/1xgd
https://ptpb.pw/4eIh
I've found similiar issues from ubuntu users who can recompile with dkms, but in arch I don't use dkms

Would be nice if I could solve this issue. Any ideas where I should shovel for it? I'm irritated by the behavior of virtual box

Edit: I should mention that I have a copy of the virtual disk just before the update

Last edited by revo86er (2017-04-16 14:06:43)

2ManyDogs

Forum Fellow

Registered: 2012-01-15

Posts: 4,645

Re: [SOLVED] VirtualBox won't start after kernel upgrade on btrfs

Welcome to Arch. Please read the Code of Conduct (specifically Pasting pictures and code) and replace your huge pictures with thumbnails or links.

Last edited by 2ManyDogs (2017-03-01 14:00:04)

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How to post. A sincere effort to use modest and proper language and grammar is a sign of respect toward the community.

revo86er

Member

Registered: 2017-03-01

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] VirtualBox won't start after kernel upgrade on btrfs

Welcome to Arch. Please read the Code of Conduct (specifically Pasting pictures and code) and replace your huge pictures with thumbnails or links.

Got it, sorry and thank you

revo86er

Member

Registered: 2017-03-01

Posts: 6

Re: [SOLVED] VirtualBox won't start after kernel upgrade on btrfs

I found the issue, it's related to btrfs cow feature

You can turn off the copy-on-write feature of btrfs for single files by setting the NOCOW attribute. This usually done by running chattr +C filename. This only works on empty files, so you have to create an empty file, set NOCOW, copy the contents of the actuale file into the empty file, and rename. (see https://btrfs.wiki.kernel.org/index.php … blocks.3F)

To set the NOCOW flag, do

F=vmimage
T=tmpfile
touch $T
chattr +C $T
dd if=$F of=$T bs=1M
rm $F
mv $T $F

source@superusers

I appended 'on btrfs' in the title

EDIT: As mentioned here

Last edited by revo86er (2017-04-17 08:19:14)