Ubuntu 12.04 update + VirtualBox VM 4.1.14 r77440 - No input

Question

I can only enter my password with the keyboard and this is what I see after I login

If I try to switch to a terminal with CtrlAlt+F1 I get this

I don't have a clue how to fix this, or if it's even possible to fix this without access to a terminal.

The recovery console does not work either. It opens, but keyboard input doesn't seem to be working for it either.

Anybody had this happened?

Update (next day) Keyboard input lets me do Alt+F2 and invoke a terminal, but I can't change focus to the terminal window that opens. Any tip on how to switch focus (Alt+Tab wont work) to the terminal window.

Maybe looking at this you might have a clue what's going on, maybe there's no window manager loading?

Answer 1

Have you sanity checked all the basic Virtual Machine configuration settings? That is, try to set the VirtualBox VM settings to something, well, simple?

1. In General ensure that the Operating System is Linux and Version is Ubuntu or Ubunt-64 as appropriate.
2. In System use PIIX3 as the chipset. Do not enable EFI.
3. In Display, only 1 display, naturally. Turn both 3D & 2D accerleration off. I have no idea what to advise on the size of video memory. So, 32 MB? (Seems like way more than adequate, so why not?)
4. In Audio I always have to use "ICH 97" or I get no sound in Ubuntu. (I have no idea why "Intel HD Audio" om VirtualBox does not work for Ubuntu. I keep intending to ask about that.)

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Just as an attempt to see if you can get into any kind of a usable terminal mode, have you tried booting into single user mode?

1. Select (highlight) the GRUB boot menu entry you wish to use.
2. Press e to edit the GRUB boot commands for the selected boot menu entry.
3. Add the kernel boot option single after ro quiet splash on the line near the bottom.
4. Press either Ctrl+X or F10 to boot using these kernel options.

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If you can successfully boot into single user mode, you can then both install the VirtualBox Guest Additions and apply any current 12.04 updates. I suggest that you try doing this.

1. Begin by installing dkms using

   apt-get update
   apt-get install dkms
   

   I recommend this for two reasons:

   • Oracle recommends doing this in the Installing the Linux Guest Additions section of their VB manual.
   • I personally have had problems installing the Guest Additions in a VB VM when I did not install dkms. ;-)

2. Attach the Guest Additions image file to the CD drive of your virtual machine. On my MacBook this image is located at:

   /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso
   

   Note: Pressing Shift+⌘+G will open a Go To The Folder window in Finder into which you can enter the full path name for the image file.

3. Mount the your virtual machine's (virtual) CD device:

   mkdir /media/VbAdditionsCD
   mount /dev/cdrom /media/VbAdditionsCD
   

4. Run the Guest Additions install:

   /media/VbAdditionsCD/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
   

5. I would also recommend applying any other current 12.04 updates with:

   apt-get upgrade
   apt-get dist-upgrade
   

   (It may not help but it is worth a try, no?)

6. Reboot and let us know what happens

   reboot now
   

Note: sudo is not required for the commands listed above because when you use single user mode you are root (Mentioning this just in case someone is curious).

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Have you looked at any of the logs? Can you can boot the VM from a Live CD? If so, have a look at the VM's /var/log/syslog.

It also occurs to me that since this is happening inside a VirtualBox VM you (also) should look at the logs for the virtual machine to see if anything "pops out" at you.

You could also cut and paste the text of the log into a pastebin, paste.ubuntu.com for example, and then add the link to the pastebin to your question.

Answer 2

I saw the same symptoms after the 12.04 update. I removed and reinstalled the VBox additions and then did an "apt-get -f install". Both logged in as root booted in single user mode. Remove the "gfxmode $linux_gfx_mode" line in grub if you can't get single user mode to boot.

Answer 3

I also tried the sanity checks as well and those helped me figure out what is wrong. In my case, it was a missing install of "libjpeg8" during upgrade from 11.10. To fix it, here's what I did:

• Hold SHIFT while booting, choose "previous Linux versions". In that menu, I had the options for Ubuntu, with linux 3.0.0-14, Ubuntu, with linux 3.0.0-12, Ubuntu, with linux 2.6.38-11. I chose -12, which I assume corresponds to 11.10 that I had.
• Upon booting, I got the same black screen but this time the tiles on the left were operational, so I was able to open a terminal window and click on it so that I could type.

sudo apt-get install libjpeg8

• Then I removed the vbox guest additions (I had to run this a few times. Each time I ran, uninstaller did something so I tried until uninstaller did not report any change)

sudo sh /media/VBOXADDITIONS_4.1.12_77245/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run uninstall

• and reinstalled

sudo sh /media/VBOXADDITIONS_4.1.12_77245/VBoxLinuxAdditions.run

Upon reboot, I got a working desktop.