Virtualbox, Nvidia, Legacy and UEFI

Support & Help Requests
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#1

I’ve just gotten my system (Ubuntu-Mate 16.04) reinstalled on a msdos partition in Legacy Mode, and I seem to be faced with two, irreconcilable conflicts:

  1. I have a Windows program that will not run under wine (including winetricks, PlayOnLinux or CrossOver) so my only option seems to be virtualbox. I’ve installed virtualbox 5.1.14. When trying to install Windows XP in a virtual machine, the installation crashes along with ubuntu (all desktop icons turn white). I’m able to close all windows and reboot. I go back to virtualbox. Delete the Windows XP virtual machine and start over. Same thing. The install program crashes. From my google search it seems that there is (or have been) some issues with virtualbox on a Linux machine in Legacy mode. I don’t know if these have been resolved, but would appreciate any insights here.

  2. The easy solution might appear to be to install Mate in UEFI mode on a GPT partition, but this leads to the second part of my dilemma - I have an Nvidia graphics card. Installing Mate in UEFI results in poor graphics resolution with the nouveau driver and installing the Nvidia drivers crashes the system.

Surely there must be some way to get this to all work together short of installing a new graphics card. Any suggestions?

Jim

#2

Have you tried VMware Workstation?

http://www.vmware.com/products/player/playerpro-evaluation.html

It’s called the “evaluation” version". But it is fully functional for your needs

#3

When you say that the Nvidia drivers crashes the system in UEFI mode, is it by any chance a black screen upon boot that you get?

If so it could be similar to trying to run Ubuntu with Nvidia graphics on some Macbooks. There is a way around this but it is tricky: link

#4

Sometimes a black screen, sometimes the ?loading screen? (the screen before signin screen) locks up.

#5

Is this the same program that’s in Software Boutique? If so, is it better to install from there or to download from the website?

#6

What happens if you run

sudo lshw -businfo -class bridge -class display

?

#7

Could be you need to use nomodeset.

https://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1613132

#8

Screenshot at 2017-01-20 14:39:30.png728×462 69.3 KB

#9

My understanding of this is as follows: when I install ubuntu, because I have an nvidia card, I have to use nomodeset at grub. Once ubuntu is installed, nomodeset is no longer required if I’m using the nouveau drivers. However, to use the nvidia drivers in UEFI mode grub has to be permanently set to nomodeset.

This would certainly be my preferred solution as I could go back to a UEFI bios setting with a GPT partition. Does anyone watching here have any experience with this with an nvidia card?

#10

I use Ubuntu 16.04 and in my Software Boutique it is “Virtualbox” and “Virtual Machine Manager”. So, I don’t have VMware in my Boutique.

If you decide to install VMware, it comes as a “.bundle” installer. To install programs that come as a “.bundle” for Ubuntu, see below:

One thing to note: don’t delete the “.bundle” installer after you have installed it. If you ever want to uninstall the package, you need to run the “.bundle” installer again and it will give you the option to remove the installed program.

#11

It seems hard to tell the link talks about BIOS mode. Basically UEFI and legacy BIOS will provide different interface to devices.

Just a quick question in legacy mode do you have the Nvidia proprietary graphics card installed?

#12

Yes. The card is installed.

#13

Hi Jim,

I wouldn’t do this!, you should be using the EXT4 file system, is that what you formatted your Linux partitions to?. :smiley:

#14

Yes. I setup everything as in Part 3: Linux Returns of your partitioning guide.

1 Like
#15

Okay, did you use a DVD to do your install and did you burn it at the slowest possible speed?, if you used a USB stick, did you fully format it to FAT32?.

See also:

#16

I did format the USB stick to FAT32. I used Startup Disk Creator in the Control Center and this is how my USB stick looked afterwards: It seems to have been reformatted to FAT16 by Startup Disk Creator.

USB.png777×529 48.3 KB

Also, I keep getting the following warning. As you can see from the above screenshot, gparted in reporting the stick at 57.7 GB, but it's only a 14.4 GB.

I haven't been able to figure out a way to correct this. Does it make any difference?

#17

I've reformatted USB stick, installed unetbootin and installed ubuntu to USB using unetbootin. Here's screenshot using gparted after all completed. Disk size now being reported correctly and error messages no longer showing up. Does this mean I probably have a faulty install of ubuntu?

Screenshot at 2017-01-22 08:19:04.png777×529 37.4 KB

#18

Hi Jim,

that is quite possible?, it depends on how you did things earlier!, if you didn’t have a correctly formatted USB stick, it may well lead to errors!. :smiley:

The same goes for burning a DVD at the wrong speed!. :smiley:

#19

I have had nothing but problems using unetbootin , in fact I don’t think its ever worked for me.
I ended up using rufus from within windows or using disks found in most linux Os

1 Like
#20

I’ve reformatted my usb twice (the second time took over an hour because I overwrote everything with 0s), and used unetbootin to burn the iso image to disk.

Neither time did unetbootin create a bootable usb. I’ve tried installing mintstick without luck. I also tried disks, but got the same disk layout and error messages (disks reformatted my usb to FAT16) as when using Startup Disk Creator.

I’ve also tried to use udisks2. Synaptic says it’s installed , but I can figure out how to run it. Any thoughts? :dizzy_face: