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Bug 266939 - virtualbox-{bin,modules}-2.2.0: shows empty window with no messages at start
Summary: virtualbox-{bin,modules}-2.2.0: shows empty window with no messages at start
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Gentoo Linux
Classification: Unclassified
Component: Current packages (show other bugs)
Hardware: All Linux
: High critical with 1 vote (vote)
Assignee: Markus Ullmann (RETIRED)
URL:
Whiteboard:
Keywords:
: 267045 270817 (view as bug list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2009-04-21 05:12 UTC by Jimmy C. Chau
Modified: 2009-08-24 21:36 UTC (History)
18 users (show)

See Also:
Package list:
Runtime testing required: ---


Attachments
Confirmation that an Intel and not a PCNet network adapter was used. (Windows XP Professional.xml.bkup-2009Apr21,17.24 KB, application/xml)
2009-04-21 12:36 UTC, Jimmy C. Chau
Details
changes between the VirtualBox.xml from before the downgrad and the VirtualBox.xml from after the upgrade again (VirtualBox.xml.diff,520 bytes, text/plain)
2009-04-21 21:26 UTC, Jimmy C. Chau
Details
virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild (virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild,4.81 KB, text/plain)
2009-05-02 17:27 UTC, Jérôme Poulin
Details

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Description Jimmy C. Chau 2009-04-21 05:12:10 UTC
After a recent upgrade of VirtualBox (bin and modules) to 2.2.0, VirtualBox no longer starts properly.  Instead, it shows an empty window.  No relevant errors appear (in either the window, another window, the xterm window used to run virtualbox, dmesg, /var/log/messages, or /var/log/syslog).  The --debug option to virtualbox does not yield any messages either.  

However, if I move my ~/.VirtualBox/ folder, it will successfully prompt me to agree to the license agreement.  After I agree, it will display the blank window described above and a blank registration window.  

The first time I ran virtualbox after the upgrade, it did alert me that it was missing my CD/DVD media (ISO images for CDs that I sometimes mount on my Virtual Machine).  This message did not appear again.  

Re-emerging =app-emulation/virtualbox-modules-2.2.0 and =app-emulation/virtualbox-bin-2.2.0 did not resolve the problem.  revdep-rebuild did not report any broken dependencies.  

After adding the following lines to /etc/portage/package.mask and running "emerge -avuDN world", the downgraded version of virtualbox (bin) (2.1.4) was able to run without any apparent problems:
# VirtualBox appears to have broken after this upgrade
=app-emulation/virtualbox-modules-2.2.0
=app-emulation/virtualbox-bin-2.2.0

Note that in order for me to use version 2.1.4 of VirtualBox again, I needed to restore the backed-up versions of the following xml files in my ~/.VirtualBox/ folder with the following commands, where "Windows XP Professional" is the name of the virtual machine:
$ sudo cp VirtualBox.xml.1.6-linux.bak VirtualBox.xml
$ cd Machines/
$ cd Windows\ XP\ Professional/
$ sudo cp Windows\ XP\ Professional.xml.1.6-linux.bak Windows\ XP\ Professional.xml

Reproducible: Always

Steps to Reproduce:
1. Upgrade to =app-emulation/virtualbox-modules-2.2.0 and =app-emulation/virtualbox-bin-2.2.0
2. Open xterm and execute "virtualbox"


Actual Results:  
A blank window appears.

Expected Results:  
The VirtualBox user-interface that allows me to run my virtual machines should appear.  

$ emerge --info
Portage 2.1.6.7 (default/linux/x86/2008.0, gcc-4.3.2, glibc-2.8_p20080602-r1, 2.6.27-gentoo-r10-2009Apr14 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.27-gentoo-r10-2009Apr14-i686-Intel-R-_Pentium-R-_M_processor_1.73GHz-with-glibc2.0
Timestamp of tree: Mon, 20 Apr 2009 18:15:02 +0000
ccache version 2.4 [enabled]
app-shells/bash:     3.2_p39
dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7-r1, 2.1.7
dev-lang/python:     2.5.4-r2
dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r7
dev-util/cmake:      2.6.2-r1
sys-apps/baselayout: 1.12.11.1
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.6-r2
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.63
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.26
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.27-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-march=pentium-m -O2 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /var/lib/hsqldb"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c /etc/udev/rules.d"
CXXFLAGS="-march=pentium-m -O2 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="ccache distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://www.gtlib.gatech.edu/pub/gentoo  http://gentoo.mirrors.pair.com/         http://gentoo.netnitco.net      http://open-systems.ufl.edu/mirrors/gentoo       http://gentoo.mirrors.tds.net/gentoo    ftp://mirror.datapipe.net/gentoo        http://distfiles.gentoo.org     http://www.ibiblio.org/pub/Linux/distributions/gentoo"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
LINGUAS="en_US en"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.namerica.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac acl acpi alsa bash-completion berkdb bluetooth bzip2 cairo caps cdparanoia cjk cli cracklib crypt cups dbus dell directfb divx dri dts dvb dvd eap-tls emacs encode exif fbcon ffmpeg flac fortran ftp gd gdbm gif gmedia gnutls gpm gstreamer gtk hal hardened iconv ipv6 isdnlog java javascript jpeg jpeg2k laptop libcaca logrotate lzo mad mailwrapper matroska mbrola midi mmx mmxext mp3 mpeg mudflap ncurses nls nptl nptlonly ogg openal opengl openmp pam pcmcia pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd prediction preview-latex python qt3support qt4 quicktime readline realmedia reflection samba scanner sdl session socks5 sound spell spl sse sse2 ssl svg sysfs tcpd theora threads tiff tk truetype unicode usb v4l v4l2 vcd vlm vorbis wifi win32codecs wmf wmp wxwindows x86 xinerama xml xorg xulrunner xv xvid xvmc zlib" ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CAMERAS="ptp2" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="en_US en" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="intel"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LANG, LC_ALL, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Comment 1 J. M. Gottfried 2009-04-21 08:43:37 UTC
Same problem here:

emerge --info
Portage 2.1.6.7 (default/linux/amd64/2008.0/desktop, gcc-4.3.3, glibc-2.8_p20080602-r1, 2.6.29-gentoo-r1 x86_64)
=================================================================                                               
System uname: Linux-2.6.29-gentoo-r1-x86_64-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_T5750_@_2.00GHz-with-glibc2.2.5          
Timestamp of tree: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 08:00:01 +0000                                                              
distcc 3.0 x86_64-pc-linux-gnu [disabled]                                                                       
app-shells/bash:     3.2_p39                                                                                    
dev-java/java-config: 1.3.7-r1, 2.1.7                                                                           
dev-lang/python:     2.5.4-r2                                                                                   
dev-util/cmake:      2.6.3-r1                                                                                   
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.0                                                                                      
sys-apps/openrc:     0.4.2                                                                                      
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.6-r2                                                                                     
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.63                                                                                 
sys-devel/automake:  1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2                                                  
sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3                                                                                    
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4                                                                                  
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.6a                                                                                     
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.28-r1                                                                                  
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="amd64"                                                                                         
CBUILD="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"                                                                                    
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=core2 -pipe"                                                                                 
CHOST="x86_64-pc-linux-gnu"                                                                                     
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/4.2/env /usr/kde/4.2/share/config /usr/kde/4.2/shutdown /usr/share/config /var/lib/hsqldb"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c /etc/udev/rules.d"                                                                                              
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=core2 -pipe"                                                                                                 
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"                                                                                                  
FEATURES="distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"                    
GENTOO_MIRRORS="ftp://mirror.cambrium.nl/pub/os/linux/gentoo/ ftp://linux.rz.ruhr-uni-bochum.de/gentoo-mirror/ ftp://gentoo.mirror.dkm.cz/pub/gentoo/ ftp://ftp-stud.fht-esslingen.de/pub/Mirrors/gentoo/"                                                          
LANG="de_DE.utf8"                                                                                                                 
LC_ALL="de_DE.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
LINGUAS="de pl fr en en_GB"
MAKEOPTS="-j3"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage /usr/portage/local/layman/sunrise /usr/portage/local/layman/mornifle-gentoo-package"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="R X a52 aac aalib acl acpi alsa amd64 avahi bash-completion berkdb blas branding bugzilla bzip2 cairo cblas cdda cddb cdr chm cli cracklib crypt cups custom-optimization daap dbus djvu doc dri dvd dvdr dvdread emboss encode epydoc evo examples exif fam fbcon fbcondecor ffmpeg fftw firefox fits flac fortran gdbm gif git gnutls gpg gpm graphviz gs gstreamer gtk hal htmlhandbook iconvid3tag imagemagick inotify ipod isdnlog java java6 jfs jpeg jpeg2k kde kdeprefix lame lapack laptop latex ldap libcaca libnotify lm_sensors logrotate mad matroska midi mikmod mmx mng mono mp3 mp4 mpeg mudflap multilib musepack musicbrainz mysql ncurses nls nptlonly nsplugin ntfs ntp ocaml offensive ogg openexr opengl openmp pam pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python qt3support qt4 quicktimerdesktop readline reflection reiserfs ruby samba sbig sdl semantic-desktop session spell spl sql sqlite sse sse2 ssl ssse3 startup-notification subversion svg sysfs tcpd templates threads tiff timidity truetype unicode usb v4l v4l2 vcd vim-syntax visualization vnc vorbis wifi xcomposite xfs xml xorg xpm xscreensaver xulrunner xv xvid zeroconf zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multinull plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiationrewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev synaptics" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="de pl fr en en_GB" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="nvidia"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Comment 2 Fabio Cavallo 2009-04-21 09:42:05 UTC
and here
Comment 3 Balazs Nemeth 2009-04-21 10:26:24 UTC
And here too. virtualbox-bin-2.2 just stopped working. yesterday it worked fine, nothing changed.
Comment 4 Balazs Nemeth 2009-04-21 10:27:02 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> And here too. virtualbox-bin-2.2 just stopped working. yesterday it worked
> fine, nothing changed.
> 

emerge --info
Portage 2.1.6.7 (default/linux/x86/2008.0/desktop, gcc-4.3.2, glibc-2.8_p20080602-r1, 2.6.29-gentoo-r1 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.29-gentoo-r1-i686-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Duo_CPU_E4400_@_2.00GHz-with-glibc2.0
Timestamp of tree: Tue, 21 Apr 2009 06:45:01 +0000
ccache version 2.4 [enabled]
app-shells/bash:     3.2_p39
dev-java/java-config: 2.1.7
dev-lang/python:     2.5.4-r2
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r8
dev-util/ccache:     2.4-r7
dev-util/cmake:      2.6.2-r1
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.0
sys-apps/openrc:     0.4.3-r2
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.6-r2
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.63
sys-devel/automake:  1.5, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.18-r3
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.0-r4
sys-devel/libtool:   1.5.26
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.27-r2
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=prescott -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/udev/rules.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=prescott -pipe -fomit-frame-pointer"
DISTDIR="/_gentoo_portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="ccache distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://de-mirror.org/distro/gentoo http://gentoo.inode.at"
LANG="hu_HU.UTF-8"
LC_ALL="hu_HU.UTF-8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
LINGUAS="hu"
MAKEOPTS="-j4"
PKGDIR="/_gentoo_portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/_gentoo_portage/tmp"
PORTDIR="/_gentoo_portage/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/_gentoo_portage/overlay /_gentoo_portage/overlay-compiz"
SYNC="rsync://rsync.europe.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X acpi alsa bluetooth branding bzip2 cairo cdr cli cracklib crypt dbus dri dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss evo fam firefox flac ftp gdbm gif glib gnome gnome-keyring gstreamer gtk hal howl iconv isdnlog jpeg libnotify mad midi mmx mmxext mp3 mpeg mudflap ncurses networkmanager nls nptl nptlonly ogg opengl openmp pam pch pcre pdf perl png ppds pppd python qt3support quicktime readline reflection sdl session slang spl sse sse2 sse3 ssl ssse3 startup-notification svg sysfs tcpd tiff truetype unicode usb vorbis win32codecs x86 xcomposite xinerama xml xorg xulrunner xv zlib" ALSA_CARDS="hda-intel" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic auth_digest authn_anon authn_dbd authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock dbd deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers ident imagemap include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation proxy proxy_ajp proxy_balancer proxy_connect proxy_http rewrite setenvif so speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" APACHE2_MPMS="prefork" CAMERAS="canon" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse evdev" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" LINGUAS="hu" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="vesa i810 nvidia intel"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Comment 5 Balazs Nemeth 2009-04-21 10:31:17 UTC
(In reply to comment #3)
> And here too. virtualbox-bin-2.2 just stopped working. yesterday it worked
> fine, nothing changed.
> 

about "nothing changed". If I remember well, I migrated to gcc-4.3.2 on the weekend. :)
virtualbox definitely worked last week. however it may not be related.
Comment 6 Balazs Nemeth 2009-04-21 10:43:26 UTC
According to this: http://www.virtualbox.org/report/12
Try to change the network adapter from pcnet to Intel.
Comment 7 Jimmy C. Chau 2009-04-21 12:20:32 UTC
In reply to comment #6 from Balaz:

There are currently 432 bugs on the URL you provided.  I assume you are specifically referring to bug #3676 there since that appears to be the closest match your comment.  Thank you for your suggestion.  

However, our (or at least my) bug appears to be different: instead of hanging after a few minutes, our bug causes VirtualBox to hangs almost immediately: before it can draw the contents of the window that it creates.  This makes switching the network adapter a bit difficult since none of the control interfaces (aside from manually tweaking files) are available.  

Also, I can confirm from my downgraded version of VirtualBox (2.1.4) that I currently have my network adapter type set to "Intel PRO/1000 T Server (82543GC)".  I assume (although I cannot confirm) that when I had version 2.2.0 installed, the network adapter type was the same since I did not change the adapter type setting in the recent past; if VirtualBox changed this setting for me without notifying me, this assumption would not hold.  
Comment 8 Jimmy C. Chau 2009-04-21 12:23:25 UTC
(In reply to comment #7)

Note that the bug I mentioned in comment #7 (#3677) is not at bugs.gentoo.org, but at http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/3676 .

> There are currently 432 bugs on the URL you provided.  I assume you are
> specifically referring to bug #3676 there since that appears to be the closest
> match your comment.  Thank you for your suggestion.  
Comment 9 Jimmy C. Chau 2009-04-21 12:36:47 UTC
Created attachment 189046 [details]
Confirmation that an Intel and not a PCNet network adapter was used.

(In reply to comment #7)

The attachment (Windows XP Professional.xml.bkup-2009Apr21), which was originally called "Windows XP Professional.xml" and located at "~/.VirtualBox/Machines/Windows XP Professional", is a backup of the XML file that version 2.2.0 created for my virtual machine.  The following line in it confirms that an Intel and not a PCNet network adapter was used:
          <Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="080027EBC5B6" cable="true" speed="0" type="82543GC">
Comment 10 Peter Bleszynski 2009-04-21 18:42:01 UTC
One solution is to edit ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml and set GUI/UpdateDate to "never": 

<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDate" value="never"/>

Then kill and restart VirtualBox.

I think the empty window is a result of VirtualBox trying and somehow failing to check for updates as it starts up.  It was discussed in the forums.
Comment 11 Jimmy C. Chau 2009-04-21 21:26:31 UTC
Created attachment 189097 [details]
changes between the VirtualBox.xml from before the downgrad and the VirtualBox.xml from after the upgrade again

(In reply to comment #10)
I commented out the lines in package.mask that I used to mask VirtualBox to try the suggestion in comment #10.  I "emerge --sync" & "emerge -avuDN world".  

Strangely, this time when I start VirtualBox, a window appears asking if I want to convert my configuration file (I do not remember this happening when I ran 2.2.0 before).  I let it proceed and VirtualBox starts properly.  I did not need to manually edit VirtualBox.xml as suggested in comment #10.  

Did someone fix VirtualBox?  I do not see any recent changes to it at http://packages.gentoo.org/ .  Has it been fixed for anyone else or is it just me?  

I do not remember doing anything that may have fixed it aside from:
1. Masking 2.2.0 & downgrading from 2.2.0 (bin & modules) back to 2.1.4.
2. Restoring version 1.6 of the xml configuration files in ~/.VirtualBox.
3. Reporting this bug.
4. Unmasking 2.2.0
5. emerge --sync
6. emerge -avuDN world, which updated to =app-emulation/virtualbox-modules-2.2.0, =dev-python/pygtk-2.14.1, and =app-emulation/virtualbox-bin-2.2.0.
7. running VirtualBox
8. Allowing VirtualBox to convert my configuration files.

In short, I don't know how it got fixed, but it works for me now (marking as such for now).  I'd appreciate if someone can explain what happened or if other people can confirm that this is fixed for them.  

Attached is a diff of the old and new ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml from the old 2.2.0 install and the new 2.2.0 install.  The differences appear to be consistent with the suggestions in comment #10 and the forum thread at http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-755297.html .
Comment 12 Jimmy C. Chau 2009-04-21 21:36:48 UTC
Out of curiosity, I decided to try the "Check for Updates..." item under the Help menu of VirtualBox.  It hung and I had to send a TERM signal to close it.  Running VirtualBox again, I noticed that the "Check for Updates..." item is now grayed-out.  

I believe that VirtualBox crashing while checking for updates is a bug that should be fixed.  However, I do not know whether I should re-open this bug or create a new bug report for the hang caused by checking for updates.  Any advice from the more experienced?
Comment 13 Tijmen van Hoeckel 2009-04-22 17:22:25 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> One solution is to edit ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml and set GUI/UpdateDate to
> "never": 
> 
> <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDate" value="never"/>
> 
> Then kill and restart VirtualBox.
> 
> I think the empty window is a result of VirtualBox trying and somehow failing
> to check for updates as it starts up.  It was discussed in the forums.
> 

This solution worked for me. Virtualbox is now starting as normal, after http://bugs.gentoo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=267045

Comment 14 Petteri Räty (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2009-04-22 19:16:53 UTC
A workaround existing doesn't warrant marking as FIXED. Reopening until it's fixed so that updating users don't stumble upon this.
Comment 15 Petteri Räty (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2009-04-22 19:17:10 UTC
*** Bug 267045 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 16 brent 2009-04-26 19:17:32 UTC
just confirming:

same issue and Comment #10 worked for me. able to create new machines; didn't test starting older ones yet but i didn't have anything on them that i needed.



zsh 2979 # emerge --info
Portage 2.1.6.11 (default/linux/x86/2008.0/desktop, gcc-4.3.3, glibc-2.9_p20081201-r2, 2.6.29-gentoo-r1 i686)
=================================================================
System uname: Linux-2.6.29-gentoo-r1-i686-Intel-R-_Core-TM-2_Extreme_CPU_X9000_@_2.80GHz-with-gentoo-2.0.0
Timestamp of tree: Sun, 26 Apr 2009 18:15:02 +0000
app-shells/bash:     4.0_p17-r1
dev-java/java-config: 2.1.7
dev-lang/python:     2.4.4-r13, 2.5.4-r2, 2.6.2
dev-python/pycrypto: 2.0.1-r8
dev-util/cmake:      2.6.3-r1
sys-apps/baselayout: 2.0.0
sys-apps/openrc:     0.4.3-r2
sys-apps/sandbox:    1.9
sys-devel/autoconf:  2.13, 2.63-r1
sys-devel/automake:  1.4_p6, 1.5, 1.7.9-r1, 1.8.5-r3, 1.9.6-r2, 1.10.2
sys-devel/binutils:  2.19.1-r1
sys-devel/gcc-config: 1.4.1
sys-devel/libtool:   2.2.6a
virtual/os-headers:  2.6.28-r1
ACCEPT_KEYWORDS="x86 ~x86"
CBUILD="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
CHOST="i686-pc-linux-gnu"
CONFIG_PROTECT="/etc /usr/kde/3.5/env /usr/kde/3.5/share/config /usr/kde/3.5/shutdown /usr/share/config /var/lib/hsqldb"
CONFIG_PROTECT_MASK="/etc/ca-certificates.conf /etc/env.d /etc/env.d/java/ /etc/eselect/postgresql /etc/fonts/fonts.conf /etc/gconf /etc/gentoo-release /etc/revdep-rebuild /etc/sandbox.d /etc/splash /etc/terminfo /etc/texmf/language.dat.d /etc/texmf/language.def.d /etc/texmf/updmap.d /etc/texmf/web2c /etc/udev/rules.d"
CXXFLAGS="-O2 -march=i686 -pipe"
DISTDIR="/usr/portage/distfiles"
FEATURES="candy ccache distlocks fixpackages parallel-fetch protect-owned sandbox sfperms strict unmerge-orphans userfetch"
GENTOO_MIRRORS="http://gentoo.chem.wisc.edu/gentoo"
LANG="en_US.utf8"
LC_ALL="en_US.utf8"
LDFLAGS="-Wl,-O1"
MAKEOPTS="-j2"
PKGDIR="/usr/portage/packages"
PORTAGE_CONFIGROOT="/"
PORTAGE_RSYNC_OPTS="--recursive --links --safe-links --perms --times --compress --force --whole-file --delete --stats --timeout=180 --exclude=/distfiles --exclude=/local --exclude=/packages"
PORTAGE_TMPDIR="/var/tmp"
PORTDIR="/usr/portage"
PORTDIR_OVERLAY="/usr/local/portage/layman/ikelos /usr/local/portage/layman/sunrise"
SYNC="rsync://rsync21.us.gentoo.org/gentoo-portage"
USE="X a52 aac aalib accessibility acl acpi ads alsa async audit automount avahi avi bash-completion bashcompletion berkdb branding bzip2 cairo cdparanoia cdr cli cracklib crypt cups curl dbus divx divx4linux dri dv dvd dvdr dvdread eds emboss encode esd evo examples fam fbcon fbcondecor festival ffmpeg firefox flac fortran gcrypt gdbm geoip gif glitz gnome gnome-keyring gnutls gpm gstreamer gtk hal iconv idea ipv6 irda isdnlog jpeg kerberos lame ldap libnotify live loop-aes lzo mad midi mikmod mjpeg mp3 mpeg mudflap mysql ncurses networkmanager nls nptl nptlonly nsplugin nss offensive ogg openal opengl openmp pam passwordsave pcre pdf perl pkcs11 plugins png ppds pppd profile python qt3 qt3support qt4 quicktime readline reflection samba sdl session slang speex spell spl ssl startup-notification svg sysfs syslog tcpd theora threads tiff truetype unicode usb utils vcd vidix vim-syntax virtualbox vorbis wifi win32codecs winbind wireshark x86 xcb xinerama xml xorg xscreensaver xulrunner xv xvid xvmc zlib" ALSA_CARDS="ali5451 als4000 atiixp atiixp-modem bt87x ca0106 cmipci emu10k1 emu10k1x ens1370 ens1371 es1938 es1968 fm801 hda-intel intel8x0 intel8x0m maestro3 trident usb-audio via82xx via82xx-modem ymfpci" ALSA_PCM_PLUGINS="adpcm alaw asym copy dmix dshare dsnoop empty extplug file hooks iec958 ioplug ladspa lfloat linear meter mmap_emul mulaw multi null plug rate route share shm softvol" APACHE2_MODULES="actions alias auth_basic authn_alias authn_anon authn_dbm authn_default authn_file authz_dbm authz_default authz_groupfile authz_host authz_owner authz_user autoindex cache dav dav_fs dav_lock deflate dir disk_cache env expires ext_filter file_cache filter headers include info log_config logio mem_cache mime mime_magic negotiation rewrite setenvif speling status unique_id userdir usertrack vhost_alias" CAMERAS="canon" ELIBC="glibc" INPUT_DEVICES="keyboard mouse" KERNEL="linux" LCD_DEVICES="bayrad cfontz cfontz633 glk hd44780 lb216 lcdm001 mtxorb ncurses text" USERLAND="GNU" VIDEO_CARDS="radeon radeonhd fglrx"
Unset:  CPPFLAGS, CTARGET, EMERGE_DEFAULT_OPTS, FFLAGS, INSTALL_MASK, LINGUAS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS, PORTAGE_COMPRESS_FLAGS, PORTAGE_RSYNC_EXTRA_OPTS
Comment 17 Jérôme Poulin 2009-05-02 17:19:55 UTC
I was actually checking with VirtualBox bug tracker and didn't think about checking in Gentoo's one until a developper told me it was a problem with a missing script, VBoxSysInfo.sh which gets deleted at line 109 of the 2.2.2 ebuild in jokey overlay.
Not rm'ing the file should fix the problem.
ref: http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/3901#comment:5
Comment 18 Jérôme Poulin 2009-05-02 17:27:50 UTC
Created attachment 190152 [details]
virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild

Here is the diff.

Index: virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild
===================================================================
--- virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild	(revision 667)
+++ virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild	(working copy)
@@ -104,9 +104,8 @@
 
 	rm -rf src rdesktop* deffiles install* routines.sh runlevel.sh \
 		vboxdrv.sh VBox.sh VBox.png vboxnet.sh additions VirtualBox.desktop \
-		VirtualBox.tar.bz2 LICENSE VBoxSysInfo.sh rdesktop* vboxwebsrv \
-		webtest kchmviewer VirtualBox.chm vbox-create-usb-node.sh \
-		90-vbox-usb.fdi
+		VirtualBox.tar.bz2 LICENSE vboxwebsrv webtest kchmviewer \
+		VirtualBox.chm vbox-create-usb-node.sh 90-vbox-usb.fdi
 
 	if use headless ; then
 		rm -rf VBoxSDL VirtualBox VBoxKeyboard.so
Comment 19 .:deadhead:. 2009-05-03 17:25:06 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> One solution is to edit ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml and set GUI/UpdateDate to
> "never": 
> 
> <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDate" value="never"/>

WoW thank you dude! It works(tm)!

cheeers
Comment 20 Denilson Sá Maia 2009-05-13 21:13:19 UTC
(In reply to comment #18)
> Created an attachment (id=190152) [edit]
> virtualbox-bin-2.2.2.ebuild
> 
> Here is the diff.

This is not enough. The VBoxSysInfo.sh will be installed without execute permssion. I needed to manually run:
 chmod +x /opt/VirtualBox/VBoxSysInfo.sh
in order to solve it.

Probably (but I've not tested that), it should be enough to add VBoxSysInfo.sh to the line 124:
 for each in VBox{Manage,SVC,XPCOMIPCD,Tunctl}; do
changing it to:
 for each in VBox{Manage,SVC,XPCOMIPCD,Tunctl,SysInfo.sh}; do
Comment 21 Jérôme Poulin 2009-05-21 14:48:18 UTC
Yes that is good and makes sense, is Jokey on vacation, we just need someone to apply the fix now.
Comment 22 Tristan Heaven (RETIRED) gentoo-dev 2009-05-23 18:47:43 UTC
*** Bug 270817 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***
Comment 23 urcindalo 2009-05-26 07:14:20 UTC
(In reply to comment #10)
> One solution is to edit ~/.VirtualBox/VirtualBox.xml and set GUI/UpdateDate to
> "never": 
> 
> <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDate" value="never"/>
> 
> Then kill and restart VirtualBox.

Thanks for the suggestion. I was hit by this bug, too, when I updated from stable 1.6.6 to ~amd64 2.2.2 (ose version).

The first thing I tried was to remove ~/.VirtualBox, to no avail.
Then I found this bug and I *added* your line to my VirtualBox.xml, so that it now reads:

===
...
    <ExtraData>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDate" value="never"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/RegistrationDlgWinID" value="31457654"/>
      <ExtraDataItem name="GUI/UpdateDlgWinID" value="46137718"/>
    </ExtraData>
...
===

The "GUI/RegistrationDlgWinID" and "GUI/UpdateDlgWinID" values were already there. After saving the modified VirtualBox.xml and launching VirtualBox 2.2.2 again, its windows and not blank anymore.

Hope this info helps.
Comment 24 Jérôme Poulin 2009-05-26 13:10:50 UTC
Can someone fix the damned ebuild instead of always submitting workarounds?
Comment 25 Jérôme Poulin 2009-08-23 16:47:34 UTC
This should be closed, 2.0 is no more and this does not happen in 3.0 neither.
Comment 26 Jimmy C. Chau 2009-08-24 21:36:31 UTC
(In reply to comment #25)
> This should be closed, 2.0 is no more and this does not happen in 3.0 neither.
> 

Alright, resolving as fixed then.  Thanks to everyone who helped out.