[SOLVED] Virtualbox issues ONLY with manjaro

binkyd · 12-21-2020, 10:53 AM

Can someone tell me exactly which Virtualbox packages I need to install in manjaro to get VB to work?

In manjaro I keep getting stuck trying to install the Extension pack, and having the app tell me my password is wrong. Last time I got it figured out, but this time nothing is working.

(Can't ask on the Manjaro forum - no matter how many times I sign up, it won't let me log in, so I don't know if it's any good)

ondoho · 12-21-2020, 02:41 PM

Well, on Archlinux it's:

Code:

community/virtualbox 6.1.16-3
    Powerful x86 virtualization for enterprise as well as home use
community/virtualbox-ext-vnc 6.1.16-3
    VirtualBox VNC extension pack
community/virtualbox-guest-dkms 6.1.16-3
    VirtualBox Guest kernel modules sources
community/virtualbox-guest-iso 6.1.16-1
    The official VirtualBox Guest Additions ISO image
community/virtualbox-guest-utils 6.1.16-3
    VirtualBox Guest userspace utilities
community/virtualbox-guest-utils-nox 6.1.16-3
    VirtualBox Guest userspace utilities without X support
community/virtualbox-host-dkms 6.1.16-3
    VirtualBox Host kernel modules sources
community/virtualbox-host-modules-arch 6.1.16-15
    Virtualbox host kernel modules for Arch Kernel
community/virtualbox-sdk 6.1.16-3
    VirtualBox Software Developer Kit (SDK)

binkyd · 12-22-2020, 10:41 AM

Thanks for that, @ondoho - it's what I've been doing.

I have this box set up for easy-install-dual-boot, and I've tried Mint, openSUSE, Ubuntu and Fedora - no problems with Virtualbox.
Manjaro Cinnamon and XFCE are both broken - the errors are kernel related but nothing I found to help worked.
Now tired of going there.

Back on Dec 3 Manjaro delivered a large (53 items) update and it completely borked this box. Unrecoverable. Even Timeshift restores wouldn't fix it.
Spent 2 weeks trying to figure out what happened - got nowhere. Every other distro I've burned and installed has been fine but loads of issues getting up and running again.

No problems in ages with this machine before that update - what kind of coincidence is that?
I've heard that Manjaro can somehow "break" - is this what they mean?

binkyd · 12-23-2020, 05:15 PM

It seems I needed to install the appropriate linux-headers - which I thought were installed by default
Never had to do that before.

It also seems that there was an element of "pebkac" here.

ondoho · 12-24-2020, 11:04 AM

Thanks for reporting back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binkyd

Back on Dec 3 Manjaro delivered a large (53 items) update and it completely borked this box. Unrecoverable.

Quote:

Originally Posted by binkyd

It also seems that there was an element of "pebkac" here.

Can you clarify on this please?
I'd like to know if Manjaro really is that unreliable or what actually happened there.

binkyd · 12-31-2020, 09:21 AM

An update flat out borked the box and had to completely rebuild (https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ed-4175686233/)

The "pebkac" was all the ways I probably made it worse....

And now Manjaro has done it again.
Another large update removed ungoogled-chromium, and I had to do another restore to get it back.

Don't know what's going on with manjaro, but they're not getting a third strike. I'm changing distros.

ondoho · 12-31-2020, 02:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by binkyd

An update flat out borked the box and had to completely rebuild (https://www.linuxquestions.org/quest...ed-4175686233/)

The "pebkac" was all the ways I probably made it worse....

And now Manjaro has done it again.
Another large update removed ungoogled-chromium, and I had to do another restore to get it back.

Don't know what's going on with manjaro, but they're not getting a third strike. I'm changing distros.

You aren't really showing/telling us what is happening there.
"Manjaro borked update" is not very informative and offers no surface to help or point out mistakes.

sevendogsbsd · 12-31-2020, 02:25 PM

The link is about a Mozilla update: those are typically a version compatibility issue with an existing profile. Firefox will create a blank, new profile in this case, which appears to be what happened. Has nothing to do with the OS though.

binkyd · 12-31-2020, 03:57 PM

OK, I'm confused about the whole thing. I'm not knowledgeable enough to know what I should have been looking for at the time and thus I don't know what info would help so:

First, Firefox disappeared - not just replaced, the profiles were gone, removed from the disk and not in Trash
Then, multiple other programs failed to start up, and with all of them "which <program name>" came up with "not found" - and which in my panic I didn't list so I could say which ones
It was all so similar to what one imagines a windows virus might do - not saying it was a virus, just a description.

So I ran a Timeshift restore from the previous day, and it couldn't restore grub

Did the same from a Live-USB, the restore would not work.

Did a re-install, and restored from Timeshift - no go.

Still can't understand what happened - had to do a complete re-install of everything.

For a couple of months this was the best, smoothest, glitch-free-est Linux install I'd ever had, but after this update, I'm gun-shy.

ondoho · 01-01-2021, 06:59 AM

All that sounds like the problem was much deeper (hard disk dying?) and definitely not caused by an OS update.
It's moot now since you reinstalled but keep it in mind.

BTW, Einstein never said that.

binkyd · 01-05-2021, 07:26 AM

@ondoho
a) I know - I'm cheating. You're the first to make note.
It's a non-attributed quote that is also supposed to have been said by Richard Feynman and many others, and in many forms.
Interesting thingy here: https://skeptics.stackexchange.com/q...and-it-well-en
Not as many people will know about all the other versions, and the Einstein one is maybe better accepted by the Great Unwashed Masses

b) I hear you on the hardware issue - in the year I've had this box it seems that it gets transient issues best described as "gremlins" and freaks out - none of the HW analyzers I've tried have found any problems.