Graphics Issues with VBoxSVGA

[Bryan R Festa]

With the upgrade to VirtualBox 6.0.12 I received a warning that in version 6.1.0 VBoxVGA will no longer be supported and I need to migrate my VM to VBoxSVGA.

I attempted to change my Graphics Controller which placed my VM in an unusable state as it kept crashing the Windows GUI. I put the guest into SafeMode to install the guest additions which allowed me to boot.

Now when using the guest I am unable to view applications as they render as black boxes. Examples of applications not working: Google Chrome, Microsoft Outlook, just about anything not part of Windows OS.

I have also tested VMSVGA and this is not working either. My Display configuration is: Video Memory: 256 MB Screens: 2 Graphics Controller: VMSVGA Acceleration: 2D Video, 3D Remote Desktop Server: Disabled Recording: Disabled

Happy to provide anything that helps with diagnostics, but the logs were not showing anything of value to me.

[Socratis]

1. The warning is about 6.1.0 and a combination of 3D acceleration + VBoxSVGA. 6.1.0 is not even close to being out yet, so no need to panic.

2. Even though the VBoxSVGA/VMSVGA are new, they're the future with the older VBoxVGA being phased out. The first thing will be the 3D acceleration, hence the warning. Which can be translated to "Get your affairs in order before you're going to be caught by a surprise".

3. If you have a specific issue, with a specific setup/option/app, state just that. Do not throw everything into one report.

BTW, it's usually better and faster, if issues get first addressed in the ​VirtualBox forums, a lot more eyes there. More than 95% of the issues are resolved in the forums, which keeps the developers focusing on the bug fixes and enhancements, and there is no need for another ticket to keep track of. For example, yours is most probably not a bug and someone from the developers has to deal with it and close it as "Invalid".

[Bryan R Festa]

Socratis, thank you for the feedback. So maybe all the background story is adding confusion. The issue being called out is the applications rendering as black boxes in Windows 10 guest using VBoxSVGA.

As you said, this is a warning about getting affairs in order. Therefore I would like to inform developers that the VBoxSVGA isn't ready yet and isn't working properly enough to push as the go to driver. Once again, I don't see things in the logs to address the rendering issue and I'm happy to collect data or debug in anyway. This is a bug/defect in the rendering engine of the graphics controller for VBoxSVGA. If you want to clean up my ticket go ahead, but it is in fact not working as expected.

[Socratis]

Replying to bmfesta2009:

Therefore I would like to inform developers that the VBoxSVGA isn't ready yet and isn't working properly enough to push as the go to driver.

Oh, absolutely! What I guess I was trying to say is that's it's better to have a discussion about the issue in the forums first, so we can see:

1. If anyone else has the same problem exactly, if anyone else can replicate it.

2. If there's something wrong with your setup (not up-to-date drivers for example).

3. If we can categorize your case as an existing ticket or something new.
   
   

Once again, I don't see things in the logs to address the rendering issue

There might be none! I had the same issue with a Win10-64 guest and the VBoxVGA vGPU, and it was addressed in a 6.0.11 test build, now it's included in the 6.0.12 official release. In case you're wondering, there were not enough shaders allocated on my OSX host.

This is a bug/defect in the rendering engine of the graphics controller for VBoxSVGA.

Most certainly sounds like it... ;)

If you want to clean up my ticket go ahead, but it is in fact not working as expected.

Oh, I can't "clean up" anything, I'm just a simple user like yourself. I can only make suggestions... :)