Fedora 23 / XOrg 1.18 - vboxvideo driver isn't compatible -> fixed in 5.0.16 and later

[AndreyVen]

I installed official Fedora 23 KDE Spin inside VirtualBox 5.0.8 (host OS: Windows 10). Video driver from VirtualBox Guest Additions cannot be installed, because of incompatibility with XOrg server version.

For end user it looks as he/she cannot resize the screen of guest (no integration) and also there is no 3d acceleration.

Additional Notes:

• clipboard sharing works
• mouse integration works
• shared folders integration works

As I understand: It's necessary to add support of XOrg server 1.18 into vboxvideo driver.

Investigations which I performed on clean installation of Fedora 23 (+official rpm updates):

1) I tried to install vbox additions 5.0.8. No success, screen is not resizeable.

There is a message during installation process of VBoxGuestAdditions:

Warning: unsupported pre-release version of X.Org Server installed.  Not
installing the X.Org drivers.

2) I tried to download test build of guest additions (VBoxGuestAdditions_5.0.9-103895.iso):

The same message:

Warning: unsupported pre-release version of X.Org Server installed.  Not
installing the X.Org drivers.

3) I followed suggestion from forums and copied file vboxvideo_drv_117.so directly to /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/

Result: The driver isn't compatible with new XOrg. Message in xorg's log:

[     5.310] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[     5.310] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/vboxvideo_drv.so
[     5.311] (II) Module vboxvideo: vendor="Oracle Corporation"
[     5.311] 	compiled for 1.17.0, module version = 1.0.1
[     5.311] 	Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[     5.311] 	ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 19.0
[     5.311] (EE) module ABI major version (19) doesn't match the server's version (20)
[     5.311] (II) UnloadModule: "vboxvideo"
[     5.311] (II) Unloading vboxvideo
[     5.311] (EE) Failed to load module "vboxvideo" (module requirement mismatch, 0)
[     5.311] (II) LoadModule: "modesetting"

cp commandline:

cp /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-5.0.9/lib/VBoxGuestAdditions/vboxvideo_drv_117.so /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/vboxvideo_drv.so

4) I tried to follow other suggestions from forums and downgraded of XOrg server to previous version

Result: VirtualBox addons can be installed, integration works fine, but there are strange UI errors in KDE:

• task panel occasionally disappears, but appears on resizing of screen
• I cannot switch to terminal session by pressing Ctrl+Alt+F2. Switch happens, screen resized to text based terminal size, but I still see graphics from X session, it's not refreshed.

I'm sure it's Fedora 23rd's incompatibility with previous release of XOrg server. There is nothing to be fixed in Virtual Box.

Software versions:

• Virtual Box 5.0.8 r103449
• Guest Additions 5.0.8 r103449, 5.0.9 r103895
• Host OS: Windows 10 x64 (all updates installed)
• Guest OS: Fedora 23 KDE Spin (all official updates installed), downloaded from ​https://spins.fedoraproject.org/en/kde/
  • Kernel: 4.2.5-300.fc23.x86_64
  • XOrg: 1.18.0-0.6.20151027.fc23

Log files of XOrg and VirtuaBox installation are attached.

[h-w]

Similar problem with Fedora 23 (kernel 4.2.5-300.fc23.x86_64). After copying vboxvideo_drv_117.so to /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/vboxvideo_drv.so and appropriate chcon, Xorg.0.log shows:

[    23.493] (II) LoadModule: "vboxvideo"
[    23.493] (II) Loading /usr/lib64/xorg/modules/drivers/vboxvideo_drv.so
[    23.503] (II) Module vboxvideo: vendor="Oracle Corporation"
[    23.503]    compiled for 1.17.0, module version = 1.0.1
[    23.503]    Module class: X.Org Video Driver
[    23.503]    ABI class: X.Org Video Driver, version 19.0
[    23.503] (EE) module ABI major version (19) doesn't match the server's version (20)
[    23.503] (II) UnloadModule: "vboxvideo"
[    23.503] (II) Unloading vboxvideo
[    23.503] (EE) Failed to load module "vboxvideo" (module requirement mismatch, 0)

The Xorg version appears to be:

fedora23 $ Xorg -version

This is a pre-release version of the X server from Fedora Project.
It is not supported in any way.
Bugs may be filed in the bugzilla at http://bugs.freedesktop.org/.
Select the "xorg" product for bugs you find in this release.
Before reporting bugs in pre-release versions please check the
latest version in the X.Org Foundation git repository.
See http://wiki.x.org/wiki/GitPage for git access instructions.

X.Org X Server 1.17.99.902 (1.18.0 RC 2)
Release Date: 2015-10-26
X Protocol Version 11, Revision 0
Build Operating System:  4.1.8-100.fc21.x86_64
Current Operating System: Linux fedora23.localdomain 4.2.5-300.fc23.x86_64 #1 SMP Tue Oct 27 04:29:56 UTC 2015 x86_64
Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=/vmlinuz-4.2.5-300.fc23.x86_64 root=/dev/mapper/fedora-root ro rd.lvm.lv=fedora/root rd.lvm.lv=fedora/swap rhgb quiet LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
Build Date: 28 October 2015  12:22:56AM
Build ID: xorg-x11-server 1.18.0-0.6.20151027.fc23
Current version of pixman: 0.33.4
        Before reporting problems, check http://wiki.x.org
        to make sure that you have the latest version.

It appears we need a vboxvideo_drv.so compiled for this newer version of Xorg: ABI major version 20.

Best Rgds, -H-

[Frank Mehnert]

Of course a new vboxvideo_drv.so driver is required as the ABI changed. Unfortunately Fedora uses a release candidate of X.org for their stable version which is inconvenient. There was no decision yet if/when to provide a VBox driver for this unstable X.org version.

[Frank Mehnert]

The 5.0.10 Additions contain a driver for X.org 1.18 on Fedora 23 so this should work (sans 3D support).

[AndreyVen]

I checked it in fresh VirtualBox 5.0.10. vboxvideo driver works now, screen resizing works fine.

[Navjot Singh]

I tried in VirtualBox 5.0.10 as well. But am still getting the same X.org error on Fedora 23 Workstation. Tried from both guest OS - Ubuntu and Windows 10.

[AndreyVen]

Update: It works fine in VirtualBox 5.0.16 with disabled 3D acceleration. If I enable it then GlxGears don't show any gears, just black background. KDE glitches and sometimes hangs.

I think this ticket can be closed.

[Michael Thayer]

For GNOME (but probably not KDE), the updated Additions build on the Downloads page may work with 3D enabled (I would have to check that though).

That said, I will close this ticket as suggested. Thanks for the feedback.