VirtualBox

#21034 closed defect (fixed)

Fail to contact COM server => Fixed in SVN

Reported by: efayol Owned by:
Component: VM control Version: VirtualBox 6.1.36
Keywords: COM Cc:
Guest type: other Host type: Linux

Description

I'm using Ubuntu 20.04.4 on x86_64 with Gnome on X11. Since I've updated to 6.1.36, I cannot use any vbox command nor the VirtualBox VM Manager GUI: they stall a few minute then end with an error about COM.

  • The VirtualBox GUI displays an error dialog with the following message: "

Failed to acquire the VirtualBox COM object.

The application will now terminate.

Callee RC: NS_ERROR_ABORT (0x80004004) "

  • Command "VBoxManage list vms" sends the following to stderr:

VBoxManage: error: Failed to create the VirtualBox object! VBoxManage: error: Code NS_ERROR_ABORT (0x80004004) - Operation aborted (extended info not available) VBoxManage: error: Most likely, the VirtualBox COM server is not running or failed to start.

Reinstalling Virtualbox 6.1.34, it is working fine again.

Attachments (2)

VBoxSVC.log (2.7 KB ) - added by efayol 20 months ago.
VM4.vbox (24.8 KB ) - added by efayol 20 months ago.

Download all attachments as: .zip

Change History (21)

comment:1 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Hi efayol,

Which package (6.1.36) did you install which does not work for you? Is there a chance that somehow you have installed VirtualBox package provided by Ubuntu in parallel?

Version 0, edited 20 months ago by galitsyn (next)

comment:2 by efayol, 20 months ago

I installed virtualbox-6.1_6.1.36-152435_Ubuntu_focal_amd64.deb from www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Linux_Downloads page. I have no other virtualbox package installed. virtualbox-6.1_6.1.34-150636.1_Ubuntu_eoan_amd64.deb is working fine.

comment:3 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Could you please attach $HOME/.config/VirtualBox/VBoxSVC.log (after you attempted to run "VBoxManage list vms" with 6.1.36)? I do not see the issue w/ 6.1.36 .deb and Ubuntu 20.04.4 host on my end by the way.

comment:4 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

And also, what is the output of "ps -AF | grep -i vbox" right after you executed VBoxManage?

by efayol, 20 months ago

Attachment: VBoxSVC.log added

comment:5 by efayol, 20 months ago

$ ps -AF | grep -i vbox
root       55377       2  0     0     0   0 18:03 ?        00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxWQueue]
root       55378       2  0     0     0   1 18:03 ?        00:00:00 [iprt-VBoxTscThr]
eric       55914   28894  0  3523  2464  10 18:08 pts/1    00:00:00 grep --color=auto -i vbox

I have many more VMs than the four is listed in the log file (see attachement). Looking at the pre-installation log file, the next VM in log should have been this one:

00:00:00.287344 nspr-2   Loading settings file "/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs/Squeeze32/Squeeze32.vbox" with version "1.12-linux"
Last edited 20 months ago by efayol (previous) (diff)

comment:6 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

efayol,

do you see any difference if you install https://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/6.1.36/virtualbox-6.1_6.1.36-152435~Ubuntu~eoan_amd64.deb (Ubuntu 19.10 / 20.10 / 21.04 version from Linux Downloads page) ?

comment:7 by efayol, 20 months ago

No, exactly the same behavior

comment:8 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Still cannot reproduce it here. Could you please attach strace_vboxmanage.txt from:

strace -f VBoxManage list vms 2> strace_vboxmanage.txt

comment:9 by efayol, 20 months ago

The file is too big to attach, even gziped. Please use this link to retrieve it: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ah3iDdkinMtTY2_mkTevbrPoN3wzlF0L/view?usp=sharing

comment:10 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Hi efayol,

Thank you for the log. I am currently looking at it. I noticed that the host is using French localization. Do you observe any difference if you run:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8 LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 VBoxMange list vms

Also, could you please attach "/home/eric/VirtualBox VMs/VM4/VM4.vbox"?

Last edited 20 months ago by galitsyn (previous) (diff)

comment:11 by efayol, 20 months ago

Same result. I also tried LANG=C with the same effect.

by efayol, 20 months ago

Attachment: VM4.vbox added

comment:12 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Thank you for the VM config. I think I reproduced the issue. It looks specific to VM4.vbox content. Will get back to you once it is fixed.

comment:13 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Hi efayol,

Your VM config is corrupted (will need to investigate why). The way to fix it could be to edit VM4.vbox manually and change "screens" value to something reasonable (say, "1"):

<VideoCapture enabled="false" screens="18446744073709551615" horzRes="1024" vertRes="768" rate="512" fps="25" maxTime="0" maxSize="0"/>

Note, there are multiple "VideoCapture" sections in config, all of them need to be updated. Also check other VMs. This is of course a workaround, but it can let you go until this case will be handled in the next VBox release.

comment:14 by pentagonik, 20 months ago

We found and fixed the bug -- we'll provide a test build soon, plus it will be included in the next upcoming maintenance release.

in reply to:  13 ; comment:15 by fth0, 20 months ago

Hi galitsyn,

wouldn't it be easier for the users to simply remove the VideoCapture sections as long as enabled=="false"? Or do you expect further problems with that strategy?

comment:16 by efayol, 20 months ago

Hi galitsyn,

Thank you for the workaround, it worked!

By the way, I had 3 other VMs with the same values in their vbox file. One happens to be a clone of a VM, I've not started in a while, that have no screens attribute at all in its VideoCapture tags. I suppose some version of Virtualbox have added that screen attribute when I've run these four VMs, erroneously initializing it with this value which is (264)-1.

6.1.34 and older versions were fine with it though...

in reply to:  15 comment:17 by galitsyn, 20 months ago

Replying to fth0:

Hi galitsyn,

wouldn't it be easier for the users to simply remove the VideoCapture sections as long as enabled=="false"? Or do you expect further problems with that strategy?


I would go for minimal change here (change to screens="1") because modifying VM's xml file is the very last thing to do and it is strongly not recommended (might have negative impact). But in this case, I do not see the other way to workaround problem.

comment:18 by pentagonik, 20 months ago

There is a new 6.1 test build available here which should fix the issues.

Please let me know if this works for you now. Thanks!

comment:19 by galitsyn, 19 months ago

Resolution: fixed
Status: newclosed
Summary: Fail to contact COM serverFail to contact COM server => Fixed in SVN

The issue should be fixed in VirtualBox 6.1.38. Please refer to https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads.

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