Heavy screen flickering VirtualBox 6.1.48 / 7.0.12 Ubuntu Wayland guest kernels 6.4 / 6.5

[Erwin]

Heavy screen flickering occurs with Ubuntu Wayland guest after installing guest Ubuntu updates.

Screenshot:

VirtualBox Forum:

• ​Heavy screen flickering VirtualBox 6.1.50 / 7.0.14 Ubuntu guest kernels 6.4 / 6.5
• ​Graphical corruption with VB 7.0.14 and Ubuntu 22.04.3
• ​Artifacts in Ubuntu 22.04 guest on Kubuntu 22.04 host, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti

Reproducible on AMD Ryzen 7/9 Windows/Linux host computers as all guests running Ubuntu (Wayland) flavors are affected after updated kernel versions 6.4/6.5:

• Ubuntu 22.04 / 23.10 desktops running kernel versions 6.4 and 6.5
• Fedora 39, kernel 6.6.9-200.fc39
• Hosts Windows 10 and any Linux
• VirtualBox versions 6.1.50, 7.0.14 and older
• Corresponding Guest additions installed
• Guest Display settings: 128MB, 3D acceleration unchecked (as 3D graphics acceleration is not supported by VirtualBox)
• Latest Windows 10 host NVidia driver v546.33

Problems:

• Screen flickering occurs especially in full screen of the guest and maximized guest window.
• Additionally, the Ubuntu 23.10 / 24.04 installation window does not start or is white (popup asks to quit as there is no GUI response).
• Very slow GUI guest response.

[pm4492]

Getting this error in Xorg.0.log with kernel 6.6 not with kernel 6.1

[    53.021] (EE) vmwgfx_scanout_update: failed to send dirty (-12, Cannot allocate memory)
[    53.021] (EE) vmwgfx_scanout_update: failed to send dirty (-12, Cannot allocate memory)

[pm4492]

Among the kernels that I can find, 6.3.9 is the last one that works and 6.4 is the first one that has this issue.

[bradfordwetmore]

This may be related to:

​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?t=110879

There were reports of similar vmwgfx errors in that one as well.

Was seeing large rectangles for where the cursor was supposed to be, along with major flickering.

[macsek]

Same issue here, different hardware (12th Gen Intel(R) Core(TM) i7-1255U 1.70 GHz, 32GB RAM), more recent VirtualBox version.

​https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=545533

Freshly installed VirtualBox 7.0.14 r161095 (Qt5.15.2) and VirtualBox 7.0.14 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack running on Win11, the only VM created is an Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 64 bits. Ubuntu was installed from the official (just downloaded) iso automatically by VirtualBox. (I like this feature 8) ) Nothing is modified at all, no additional program is installed. The windows screen is working well, however the ubuntu VM window (and only that) shows stripes, like on an old monitor. I suspected the VirtualBox video driver (VMSVGA) and tried to change it to VBoxSVGA and VBoxVGA but setting either resulted me not able to log in so I reverted. I restarted more times, reinstalled Guest Additions two times, no change.

After retaining the original software state (no updates, no installs) the stripes does not show the next day, screen is normal. However when tried to start terminal (to check kernel version) I received an error message and terminal did not start, even on 2nd try. I have sent the problem report right now.

stripes_logs.zip contains the logfiles. Please let me know if you need more information.

[discoverix558]

I can confirm the problem, I work with a Windows 10 host and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS guests in seamless mode. After updating VBox to version 7.0.14 – including corresponding guest additions – graphics are unstable. VBox „forgets“ the seamless mode (that was always the case in version 7), means when I do something else and then return to the guest, I often have to switch the seamless mode on again as the screen does not fit the display. With version 7.0.14 I experience now that the guest starts flickering once I switch to seamless – not at the first time, but latest at the 3rd. I have not found a way to stop it other than to reboot the guest. As I am updating ubuntu regularly and I noticed that the kernel is now on version 6.0.15-14. My CPU type is AMD 5700G without an additional graphics card, I am working with a resolution of 3820 x 2160 (x 2026 seamless). I am happy to provide more details or log data if that is of any help to resolve the problem. Does anyone know a „least annoying“ workaround while this issue is pending ?

[bradfordwetmore]

@discoverix558:

Until this issue is resolved, I've been booting into an older kernel.

For booting to an older kernel, the best solution for me was to set (in /etc/default/grub):

GRUB_DEFAULT=saved
GRUB_SAVEDEFAULT=true

With this settings the last selected value is kept for the next boot. If you have a new kernel you don't have to edit your config.

Don't forget to re-run sudo update-grub. Then boot into grub and select the a downrev'd kernel.

Not ideal.

I've heard the VB devs are aware of the issue, but that's all the insight I have.

[Erwin]

@VirtualBox developers, can you reproduce this issue? It is still listed as "new defect".

Updates: Bug still exists in VirtualBox versions 6.1.50, 7.0.14 and older.

[Erwin]

New duplicate bugreports on VirtualBox forum related to this issue:

• ​Graphical corruption with VB 7.0.14 and Ubuntu 22.04.3
• ​Artifacts in Ubuntu 22.04 guest on Kubuntu 22.04 host, Nvidia RTX 3060 Ti

[discoverix558]

@Erwin: Thanks for your suggestions to use a downlevel kernel. I tried different things and now found that the easiest workaround is to simply switch off Wayland as described here  ​https://linuxconfig.org/how-to-enable-disable-wayland-on-ubuntu-22-04-desktop which replaces Wayland by Xorg as display manager.

I had to reboot the machine in order to get my stuff working properly, just restarting gdm was not enough. Results are promising: flickering is gone, seamless mode works fine and I cannot see any other graphical limitation. I am just using it for 24 hours now, but let’s hope it‘s a possible clue.

P.S.: other than stated my kernel version is 6.5.0-14.

[Erwin]

@discoverix558 Thanks for your feedback. Please noticed that several people on different platforms already reported that this major screen flickering VirtualBox bug exists in both Wayland and Xorg. Switching Xorg may temporary work for you.

Probably all VirtualBox users installing Linux guest with kernel >= 6.4 and VirtualBox <= 7.0.14 are affected since there is no official solution.

The only workaround at this moment is downgrading the Linux kernel back to 6.3 or older.

This bug needs to be confirmed and fixed by VirtualBox developers.

[Erwin]

Q1) @VirtualBox moderators: Can you change the affected version + title to 7.0.14? Otherwise I'll create a new ticket for 7.0.14 at 6 Februrary as I cannot modify version/title of this ticket.

Q2) @VirtualBox developers: Can you confirm that this bug is reproducible?

As long as we do not receive a confirmation, we assume as community that this critical bug has no priority. Oracle, please keep us informed about the progress as the issue is already open for more than 3 weeks without a response.

[Erwin]

Duplicate ticket https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/21981 created for 6.1.50 / 7.0.14 since there is no moderator to change the title of this ticket.

[Erwin]

5 weeks after opening this issue:

@VirtualBox developers: Can you confirm that this bug is reproducible? What is the roadmap/schedule to fix this critical bug?

[Erwin]

Duplicate ticket https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/21981 has been closed. No progress.

@MODERARTORS: Can you change VirtualBox version to 7.0.14 in this ticket?

[Erwin]

+1