43

I'm running Ubuntu Desktop 18.04/20.04 LTS as a guest in Virtualbox on a Windows 10 host with multiple physical screens connected to the host. Every time I boot the Ubuntu VM it comes to a black screen, i.e. no feedback. However, if I type the password and press Enter it logs in and shows the Desktop as normal. I suspect it might be a graphics issue.

Any idea what to do?

user2514157
  • 783
  • 8
  • 19
Irvin H.
  • 1,491
  • 1
  • 10
  • 9

8 Answers8

96

So as i've suspected that it's a graphics issue, I went into the settings, first thinking it's a drivers issue, since many other posters of slightly different questions have had solutions with changing the drivers/controllers (or even CPU architecture etc). The other thought I had that might be the problem is that i'm running multiple screens on the host. Perhaps the guest VM is struggling to connect with them.

What worked for me was to:

  • Shutdown the VM
  • Go to the specific VM settings
  • Go to the Display Tab
  • Under the Screen Tab I increased my Monitor Count (which then indicated an error that the "settings are invalid"), which made me think of tinkering with the Video Memory.
  • So I increased the Video Memory to 64MB (it was 16MB initially)
  • Booted up the VM ... and hey presto it worked ... now i see my login screen
Irvin H.
  • 1,491
  • 1
  • 10
  • 9
  • 2
    Thanks. I solved my issue with exactly your steps. My host machine is Win10. It has 2 screens. – smwikipedia May 18 '19 at 07:41
  • 3
    Works for 20.04 too. – Martin May 15 '20 at 00:51
  • 4
    So I increased the Video Memory to 64MB (it was 16MB initially) - this is it, my virtual box instance turned back (video driver crashed) when I went into full screen mode. Increasing the video memory did the trick! – matrixanomaly May 23 '20 at 05:42
  • Interestingly, the black screen started occurring for me after I installed, updated Ubuntu to latest stuff, ran the "Guest Additions CD Image", and rebooted.... Increasing the video memory also fixed things for me! – Jeroen Oct 13 '20 at 20:37
  • In my case, turning off 3D acceleration fixed it. – Thagomizer Feb 24 '21 at 01:19
  • 20.04 works well, somehow I needed to switch to full-screen mode – Ender Jun 01 '21 at 03:57
  • This issue happened to me after upgrading to version 6.1. In my case the video memory was 128 MB. Decreasing it to 64 MB worked for me. – astinaam Feb 26 '22 at 18:16
  • all the controls are greyed out – mLstudent33 Apr 01 '22 at 19:40
  • I had a problem, indeed I selected 8 screens at first and the max memory available jumped to 256, so I selected 256. But it wasn't a good idea because when I selected only 2 screens the 256 mo was still available. After some tests it turns out that selecting 64 or 128 mo was the solution for me with VBoxVGA and without any 3D option. – Patapoom Oct 04 '22 at 12:56
11

I did what they said there: Black screen in Ubuntu in Virtual Box "I changed the graphics controller to VBoxVGA"

And it worked for me. My host machine is Windows 10 and it has 2 screens

Marc Bannout
  • 211
3

With VBox 6.0 and Ubuntu 18.04 neither worked for me.

Switching to VMSVGA fixed the display.

Gryu
  • 7,559
  • 9
  • 33
  • 52
Wolfgang Schulz
  • 131
2

I tried upping available video memory and changing the display adapter type with no luck. I had a hunch it may be related to VirtualBox Guest Additions. Uninstalling them did it for me.

  • Change into /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-<version_number> folder

        cd /opt/VBoxGuestAdditions-<version_number>

  • In there run:

        sudo ./uninstall.sh
Cheekysoft
  • 121
1

I encountered the same error with the version of VirtualBox from Ubuntu's official repositories. Increasing video memory fixed the problem as reported.

However, installing VirtualBox 6.1 per the instructions on Oracle's website allowed me to run Ubuntu without increasing video memory.

Either way works fine, but newer software is nice.

crenshaw-dev
  • 31,762
1

What solved the issue for me is this:

  • Change Display > Graphics Controller > "VBoxSVGA"
  • Autoresize Guest Display -- ON

I know, that is against recommendation for Linux guests, but it works perfectly fine for me. And there is no need to try to increase monitor count or increase the Video-Memory. I am using it with 16MB of video-memory on a 1600x900 monitor.

bdutta74
  • 305
0

I tried all previous answers with no luck.

But, inserting CD VBoxGuestAdditions and install it (a recent version) worked

Andres Camilo Sierra Hormiga
  • 1
  • Can't be a solution. The OP mentioned, that he used multiple monitors in a VM. Only possible if he has installed the guest additions. See here how to answer a question. If you want to comment (which your answer is), wait until you have enough reputation – kanehekili Jul 04 '20 at 21:25
0

My problem was that I chose the wrong OS type: I chose Ubuntu 32 bit but my installation was a 64 bit one. After about an hour of fiddling with video memory/display type/HW acceleration/virtualization flags, I finally realized where the catch was. A big thank you to Oracle for not automatically detecting the type of instructions the OS tries to execute thus not helping those who got little sleep the night before.

Avio
  • 2,986