"Failed to initialize COM ... VirtualBox COM server" error message after re-boot, first login

[pablo]

Hi,

For more information, see the '[vbox-users]' list: March 14 around noon ET.

Subject: openSUSE 10.2 - "Failed to initialize COM ... VirtualBox COM server" error

It appears we have a regression. In 1.3.6, openSUSE 10.2/KDE, I am able to leave the main VirtualBox window running and reboot my machine and at first login, there are no VirtualBox errors.

With 1.3.8 and the same environment, I get the above error message in a pop-up box at first login after a reboot.

In 1.3.6 and 1.3.8, I see two processes running after I shut down VirtualBox:

• VBoxSVC --daemonize
• VBoxXPCOMIPCD

If I manually 'kill' the processes in 1.3.8 before rebooting my machine, no error is displayed.

In 1.3.6, I don't have to 'kill' these processes.

Cheers, -pablo

[Michael Thayer]

This is probably because VirtualBox currently does not properly support X11 session management.

[pablo]

I would agree with the above comment however VirtualBox 1.3.6 didn't squawk with the same error. :)

[oz42]

/me too ;-) fresh install of 1.3.8_Debian_etch. Yesterday I could run VirtualBox as a normal user running X. Today after a reboot I get this error message. vboxdrv had been loaded automatically.

What server daemons are we talking about? Should they run? /etc/init.d/vboxdrv is the only virtualbox init script.

Conclusion: virtualbox is unusable on Debian 4.0 hosts. :-(

[pablo]

Hi oz42,

I believe you misunderstood the details of my bug report. I wasn't discussing Unix daemons but rather user-level processes with the names listed above. If you manually 'kill' the processes, there's no issue.

Even with the pop-up error message, you should be able to run VirtualBox. If not, there's another issue.

If you want to avoid seeing the error message, do the following before you log out:

1) Stop the VirtualBox GUI
2) Open a shell and issue the following: ps -fu _your user name_ | grep VBox
3) 'kill' the two processes listed.

For example, on my machine I have the following processes running:

% ps -fu pablo|grep VBox
pablo     9051     1  0 Apr17 ?        00:00:01 /opt/VirtualBox-1.3.8/VBoxSVC --daemonize
pablo     9054  9051  0 Apr17 ?        00:00:00 /opt/VirtualBox-1.3.8/VBoxXPCOMIPCD
pablo    27420 27354  0 10:58 pts/6    00:00:00 grep VBox

and if I want to avoid the error message, I can 'kill' them before I log out:

kill -9 9051 9054

[oz42]

OK, then I will have to file a new bug report. Thanks for the explanation!

[abridgett]

I've just hit this too, there is a buglet in the VirtualBox script.

It was occasionally finding the grep PID as the SERVER_PID, therefore it didn't start the VBoxSVC and hence the error.

I've also added "-f" to the mv commands for good measure (I did get a "do you want to replace this file" prompt once).

Patch to be attached in a few seconds :-)

[abridgett]

patch for PID detection

[Majandi]

I had this problem using an USB Mouse and Keyboard.

If you use virtualbox with mouse or keyboard connected at any USB port, you will get this problem.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Retry with 1.4.0 and reopen if you still see the same problems.