gnome-shell crashes repeatedly after virtualbox update

Question

I am using virtualbox 6.1.34 with Ubuntu 22.04 host and guest and gnome-shell started crashing about every minute. It worked fine for years and I don't know what changed exactly.

I copied the vm over to another PC with the same virtualbox and there it works fine.

What I see happening as a user is that the window I focus on suddenly gets switched and I don't see the top bar for a short time.

Maybe it has something to do with the graphics drivers. Is there a way to confirm that? I tried several proprietary NVIDIA drivers and the generic driver with the same result.

What I can see in the log, but I cannot make sense of (see below for the full messages):

Can't update stage views actor...

Error looking up permission:... No entry for geolocation 3.ATK Bridge is disabled but a11y has already been enabled.

Unset XDG_SESSION_ID, getCurrentSessionProxy() called outside a user session. Asking logind directly.

Failed to create file /run/user/1000/gnome-shell-disable-extensions:... File exists

1 - I get that a lot but could not find out what it means.

2 - I don't care about geolocation, or? Can I disable the app that leads to this error to make sure it's not related?

3/4 - What does this even mean? Is it related?

5 - That file does not exist, so I don't know why it complains that it exists and I don't know if it's related.

This is part of journalctl /usr/bin/gnome-shell:

Sep 05 16:17:01 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[2868]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowGroup>:0x561299fa4360] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:01 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[2868]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaWindowActorX11>:0x56129b810750] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:01 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[2868]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<MetaSurfaceActorX11>:0x56129b8146a0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:31 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Running GNOME Shell (using mutter 42.2) as a X11 window and compositing manager
Sep 05 16:17:31 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: ATK Bridge is disabled but a11y has already been enabled.
Sep 05 16:17:32 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Unset XDG_SESSION_ID, getCurrentSessionProxy() called outside a user session. Asking logind directly.
Sep 05 16:17:32 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Will monitor session 2
Sep 05 16:17:32 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Telepathy is not available, chat integration will be disabled.
Sep 05 16:17:32 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Failed to create file /run/user/1000/gnome-shell-disable-extensions: Error opening file “/run/user/1000/gnome-shell-disable-extensions”: File exists
Sep 05 16:17:32 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Error looking up permission: GDBus.Error:org.freedesktop.portal.Error.NotFound: No entry for geolocation
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <overviewGroup>[<StWidget>:0x563b5a5f4340] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <overview>[<Gjs_ui_overview_OverviewActor>:0x563b5aff5860] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_overviewControls_ControlsManager>:0x563b5a807c60] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_workspaceThumbnail_ThumbnailsBox>:0x563b5a374ce0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_workspaceThumbnail_WorkspaceThumbnail>:0x563b5b647490] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<ClutterActor>:0x563b5b722fe0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<ClutterActor>:0x563b5b723300] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_workspaceThumbnail_WindowClone>:0x563b5b723620] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<ClutterClone>:0x563b5b86a420] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_workspacesView_WorkspacesDisplay>:0x563b5b109350] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_workspacesView_WorkspacesView>:0x563b5b881c10] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_workspace_Workspace>:0x563b5b8824e0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<ClutterActor>:0x563b5b875f60] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<Gjs_ui_windowPreview_WindowPreview>:0x563b5b88e870] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<ClutterActor>:0x563b5b88a350] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<ClutterClone>:0x563b5b86a760] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:33 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Can't update stage views actor <unnamed>[<StIcon>:0x563b5b895ca0] is on because it needs an allocation.
Sep 05 16:17:34 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: GNOME Shell started at Mon Sep 05 2022 16:17:32 GMT+0200 (CEST)
Sep 05 16:17:34 my-virtualbox gnome-shell[3880]: Registering session with GDM

EDIT: I upgraded to Ubuntu 22.04 on the guest system and the latest virtualbox extensions.

EDIT: Added output of journalctl /usr/bin/gnome-shell

EDIT: Fixed some of the unrelated errors and updated the log to make it more simple to see what the actual problem is.

I'm having exactly the same problem. I have VirtualBox 6.1.34 and an Nvidia card. — teg_brightly, Sep 06 '22 at 10:59
Do you remember which version you had before updating? I've tried downgrading to 6.1.32, but it didn't help. I want to try downgrading to an even earlier version, or intall a later version via deb. — teg_brightly, Sep 07 '22 at 08:43
@teg_brightly I just move the vm to another PC with the same version and there it works fine, so it is probably something else. — phobic, Sep 07 '22 at 14:25
Sidenote: I've launched another VM, which hasn't received any updates since the bug appeared, and it has the same issue, so it seems it's caused by something in the host / virtualbox. — teg_brightly, Sep 07 '22 at 17:24
Something probably related: https://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=276883&p=2 https://forum.manjaro.org/t/virtualbox-error-in-the-last-update/113744 — teg_brightly, Sep 07 '22 at 17:33
Other related questions: https://askubuntu.com/questions/1427770/how-to-install-the-latest-version-of-virtualbox-via-gui https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtualbox/+bug/1988473 (from https://askubuntu.com/questions/264292/how-do-i-install-virtualboxs-deb-package#comment2486609_264295) — teg_brightly, Sep 07 '22 at 18:02

teg_brightly · Accepted Answer · 2022-09-08T09:20:22.613

This bug is apparently caused by some updates in the 5.15.0-47 kernel. There is a bug report here: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtualbox/+bug/1988473

Reportedly, switching to an earlier kernel, such as 5.15.0-46 makes virtualbox guests functional again. Also the bug has been fixed in later Virtualbox versions, such as 6.1.36.

From the above thread:

I uploaded virtualbox in unapproved queue for focal (20.04) and jammy (22.04). Waiting for SRU team to have a look

So it seems a fix is on the way.

It reportedly can affect any virtualbox guests, including Windows, different GNU/Linux distributions.

Possibly related issues and more explanations: https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=106071&start=15#p519086

From the above thread:

It is related to Kernel commit 6e8ec2552c7d which fixes security vulnerabilities.

My guess is that the latest linux kernel received a greater security enhancement by a redesigned random number generator. That improvement is described in detail here: https://www.theregister.com/2022/03/21/new_linux_kernel_has_improved/.

The improvement seems to be so important that it has been ported back to older kernels still widely used.

The VirtualBox test builds 6.1.35r151864 (and newer) are supposed to support Linux kernels 5.18, 5.17.12+, 5.15.44+, 5.10.119+ and more on the host and in the guest.

Related question: How to install the latest version of VirtualBox (via GUI)?

Thanks, but trying with virtualbox 6.1.38 the vm does not even start up: Failed to load R0 module /usr/lib/virtualbox/VMMR0.r0: Unable to locate imported symbol 'SUPR0FpuBegin' for module 'VMMR0.r0' (VERR_SYMBOL_NOT_FOUND). — phobic, Sep 11 '22 at 16:06
Yes. It started working after I restarted the host computer. This is probably one of the worst experiences I had with virtualbox. Thanks a lot for your help :) Oh, and 6.1.38 can now easily be updated just by running sudo apt update; sudo apt upgrade. — phobic, Sep 12 '22 at 21:39

gnome-shell crashes repeatedly after virtualbox update

1 Answers1