I ask this because I am having trouble booting my current vm’s and wondered if it would be safe to use the newer version from synaptic? Or is there a reason the newer version has not been used in the regular upgrades?
Hi @heathrobinson,
Your primary question. In my experience there’s never been upgrades across major versions like 5.1 to 5.2. Manual upgrade only. This isn’t synaptic’s decision - it’s the repositories synaptic is using or method of installation that determines this.
There’s a few ways you could be seeing multiple versions in synaptic.
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Did you by chance add Oracle’s repository per THIS PAGE?
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Did you download a *.deb file and install from that?
As for trouble booting, try disabling 3D under Display. That’s been causing fits for a few people - like me. 
Safe? I abandoned 5.2 and reverted to 5.1 due to horrible performance. I’m running VBox on Ubuntu-MATE 16.04 LTS. You may want to mention the version(s) you’re talking about.
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Hello Bill_MI
I’m running version 5.1.32 which I think I installed either using apt-get or from the “Boutique”, it was a while ago…
there is. however, this line in the sources.list.d directory, virtualbox.list file:
deb http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualbox/debian xenial contrib
which might explain it offering 5.2 in synaptic.
I’m pretty sure I did not use Oracle’s repo nor a .deb file.
I will try disabling 3D acceleration, perhaps try 2D acceleration instead?
I also noticed some errors regarding gdm and the vboxdrv in the dmesg, I will post these if the thing will 3D does not work.
I also noticed these lines when running “modinfo vboxdrv” which I don’t understand:
vermagic: 4.4.0-116-generic SMP mod_unload modversions retpoline
parm: force_async_tsc:force the asynchronous TSC mode (int)
Possibly something to do with meltdown and spectre kernel updates?
Thanks in advance, and for previous.
Heathrobinson.
I had a similar question here. The upgrade was easy, however, as others noted, 5.2 does not look as good as previous versions.
Hello,
firstly, I disabled 3D and all worked fine! Thanks Bill, this has saved me a lot of hassle, no idea why it worked of course but happy it did.
I had a quick look at those other posts. I wonder was 3D enabled or not on these occasions? But will be sticking to 5.1 for now, also does a purge of virtualbox affect your individual guests, ie do they dissappear or are they protected by being on virtual drives?
Heathrobinson.
Great! Glad that worked. It’s funny how the 3D option came around as a symptom in early 5.2 but never an issue in 5.1 until a later update to 5.1. Perhaps you saw exactly what I saw - the 3D issue started with the update from 5.1.30 to 5.1.32. Synaptic history may have it.
By the way, I get the 3D issue now on 5.1 only when using the Guest Additions CD install which I like to do because of sharing clipboards. If I don’t install this, most Linux guest kernels already have basic graphics and mouse integration without the full additions from the virtual CD and the 3D setting is not an issue.
As for purging, it better not delete anything in the VMs like settings (.vbox) or disks (usually .vdi) or even snapshots. I purged 5.2 when going back to 5.1 and had to add back all my VMs one at a time. I do put VMs in a separate data partition outside my home directory, though.
It is a mystery how the Oracle repository got added to your system. I doubt it was the Boutique and more likely Vbox itself (shrug). Anyone?
Hello,
there was this in the changelog for virtualbox-5.1:
virtualbox-5.1 (5.1.32-120294~Ubuntu~xenial) unstable; urgency=low
- rebuild Debian package
– Oracle Corporation [email protected] Mon, 15 Jan 2018 16:54:24 +0000
and it was around the time things started to go pear-shaped.
I take it you don’t have “virtualbox.list” in your sources.list.d (!)
As for not needing the virtual CD for guestadditions, wherever I get a new kernel and need to install new guestadditions I start with a much reduced screen size and would find it odd to use virtualbox without them.
There is also a “vbox-install.log” with friday’s date on it which I can’t explain, unless it got altered the day I changed the 3D thing?
Well at least it’s working.
Heathrobinson.
[quote=“heathrobinson, post:7, topic:16067”]
there was this in the changelog for virtualbox-5.1:
[/quote]I’ve never seen a changelog for 5.1 other than here and it’s quite different. I’m curious where you got that? AFAIK the Oracle repo has never supported changelogs (like you get in synaptic).
[quote=“heathrobinson, post:7, topic:16067”]
I take it you don’t have “virtualbox.list” in your sources.list.d (!)
[/quote]That’s a different way of doing the exact same thing described here, which is the way I’m set. It is probably more common to use /etc/apt/sources.d/*.list but Oracle chose an older method that behaves identically.
I see both 5.1 and 5.2 have new updates and a 3D regression fix is in both. I’ll be testing this out soon.
EDIT: The 3D problem created by 5.1.32 is fixed for me in 5.1.34. @heathrobinson, I’ll bet you can turn on 3D if you update AND install the new Additions.
I got it from here:
zless /usr/share/doc/virtualbox-5.1/changelog.Debian.gz
There is one for most of the stuff in “/usr/share/doc/”
I did n’t go to that much trouble
I have also updated and turned the 3D back on, it works just fine. Next time this sort of thing happens, perhaps I should be a little more patient and wait for the updates!
Heathrobinson.