VirtualBox

Ticket #5063 (closed defect: fixed)

Opened 2 months ago

Last modified 2 months ago

XAUTHORITY is not passed along with DISPLAY from Frontends to VM process => Fixed in SVN/3.0.8

Reported by: talonso Assigned to:
Priority: major Component: GUI
Version: VirtualBox 3.0.4 Keywords: XAUTHORITY DISPLAY environment
Cc: Guest type: other
Host type: other

Description

Changeset 4064 (also 4127) introduced passing the DISPLAY variable of the starting application to the VM process but neglected to also pass XAUTHORITY, which is needed to open the X window.

If VBoxSVC is already running without XAUTHORITY set, opening a VM via the VirtualBox GUI or VBoxManage fails ("/usr/bin/VirtualBox --startvm " does work).

Only DISPLAY is passed from the Frontends.
E.g. from /src/VBox/Frontends/VBoxManage/VBoxManage.cpp: 

const char *display = RTEnvGet ("DISPLAY");
if (display)
env = Utf8StrFmt ("DISPLAY=%s", display);

Sample error messsage: 

$ VBoxManage startvm IMARS                                                                                
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.4
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Waiting for the remote session to open...
ERROR: Virtual machine 'IMARS' has terminated unexpectedly during startup
Details: code NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005), component Machine, interface IMachine, callee <NULL>

Of course if I disable X security if works fine: 

$ xhost +                                                                                                 
access control disabled, clients can connect from any host
$ VBoxManage startvm IMARS                                                                                
VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.0.4
(C) 2005-2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
All rights reserved.

Waiting for the remote session to open...
Remote session has been successfully opened.

Change History

2009-09-24 13:11:46 changed by frank

That result is a bit surprising as the default location of the .Xauthority file is in the user's home directory. Did you set the XAUTHORITY environment variable?

2009-09-24 15:19:49 changed by talonso

Here's the environment for VBoxSVC (started by an SMF service): 

$ ps -ef | fgrep VBoxSVC
 talonso 29822     1   0   Sep 18 ?           6:48 /opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VBoxSVC --automate

$ pfexec pargs -e 29822
29822:  /opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VBoxSVC --automate
envp[0]: VBOX_XPCOM_HOME=/opt/VirtualBox/amd64
envp[1]: _=/opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VBoxManage
envp[2]: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
envp[3]: PATH=/usr/sbin:/usr/bin
envp[4]: PWD=/export/home/talonso
envp[5]: SHLVL=1
envp[6]: SMF_FMRI=svc:/application/virtualbox/autoboot:GSPrint
envp[7]: SMF_METHOD=start
envp[8]: SMF_RESTARTER=svc:/system/svc/restarter:default
envp[9]: SMF_ZONENAME=global
envp[10]: TZ=America/New_York
envp[11]: A__z="*SHLVL

And here is the environment I get when starting VirtualBox within a gnome session: 

$ ps -ef | fgrep WorkWin2000d
 talonso  1485 23654   0   Sep 18 pts/6     195:01 /opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VirtualBox --startvm WorkWin2000d

$ pfexec pargs -e 1485
1485:   /opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VirtualBox --startvm WorkWin2000d
envp[0]: VBOX_XPCOM_HOME=/opt/VirtualBox/amd64
envp[1]: DESKTOP_STARTUP_ID=
envp[2]: _=/opt/VirtualBox/amd64/VirtualBox
envp[3]: COLORTERM=gnome-terminal
envp[4]: DBUS_SESSION_BUS_ADDRESS=unix:path=/tmp/dbus-k5XY0FZJdR,guid=003aa032840df0b3425f03ea4aac7507
envp[5]: DESKTOP_SESSION=gnome
envp[6]: DISPLAY=:1.0
envp[7]: DTSTARTIMS=False
envp[8]: EDITOR=gedit
envp[9]: GDMSESSION=gnome
envp[10]: GDM_LANG=en_US.UTF-8
envp[11]: GDM_XSERVER_LOCATION=local
envp[12]: GNOME_DESKTOP_SESSION_ID=this-is-deprecated
envp[13]: GNOME_KEYRING_SOCKET=/var/tmp/keyring-QnaJZZ/socket
envp[14]: GTK_IM_MODULE=iiim
envp[15]: GTK_RC_FILES=/etc/gtk/gtkrc:/export/home/talonso/.gtkrc-1.2-gnome2
envp[16]: G_BROKEN_FILENAMES=yes
envp[17]: G_FILENAME_ENCODING=@locale,UTF-8
envp[18]: HOME=/export/home/talonso
envp[19]: LANG=en_US.UTF-8
envp[20]: LOGNAME=talonso
envp[21]: MAIL=/var/mail/talonso
envp[22]: MANPATH=/usr/gnu/share/man:/usr/share/man:/usr/X11/share/man
envp[23]: ORBIT_SOCKETDIR=/var/tmp/orbit-talonso
envp[24]: PAGER=/usr/bin/less -ins
envp[25]: PATH=/usr/gnu/bin:/usr/bin:/usr/X11/bin:/usr/sbin:/sbin
envp[26]: PWD=/export/home/talonso
envp[27]: SESSIONTYPE=1
envp[28]: SESSION_MANAGER=local/R300:/tmp/.ICE-unix/22731
envp[29]: SHELL=/bin/ksh
envp[30]: SHLVL=1
envp[31]: SSH_AUTH_SOCK=/var/tmp/keyring-QnaJZZ/socket.ssh
envp[32]: TERM=xterm
envp[33]: USER=talonso
envp[34]: USERNAME=talonso
envp[35]: WINDOWID=54526003
envp[36]: XAUTHORITY=/tmp/.gdmAQ2RZU
envp[37]: XDG_DATA_DIRS=/usr/local/share/:/usr/share/:/usr/share/gdm/
envp[38]: XMODIFIERS=@im=iiimx
envp[39]: _AST_FEATURES=UNIVERSE - att
envp[40]: A__z="*SHLVL

2009-09-24 17:11:59 changed by frank

  • summary changed from XAUTHORITY is not passed along with DISPLAY from Frontends to VM process to XAUTHORITY is not passed along with DISPLAY from Frontends to VM process => Fixed in SVN.

Thanks for the report and the clarification. Fixed in SVN and in the next maintenance release.

2009-10-06 10:26:42 changed by sandervl73

  • status changed from new to closed.
  • resolution set to fixed.
  • summary changed from XAUTHORITY is not passed along with DISPLAY from Frontends to VM process => Fixed in SVN to XAUTHORITY is not passed along with DISPLAY from Frontends to VM process => Fixed in SVN/3.0.8.

© 2009 Sun Microsystems, Inc.
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