# [Solved] Gentoo guest OS in VirtualBox 4.0 doesn't boots

## solamour

I've been using WinXP as host + VirtualBox 3.x + Gentoo guest OS without problems for quite some time. Then I upgraded VirtualBox to 4.0, and Gentoo stopped booting properly; I see GRUB screen, and a few seconds of kernel messages, but that's it.

http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac180/solamour/gentoo1.png

Funny thing is, when I press "PrntScrn" key, I see a few more lines, and then it gets stuck again with no further progress.

http://i897.photobucket.com/albums/ac180/solamour/gentoo2.png

VirtualBox 4.0 works fine with other guest OSs, such as Ubuntu and WinXP. Gentoo minimal installation disk works OK as well, so I suspect that it might have something to do with my kernel configuration, which isn't genkernel based. I'd appreciate any suggestions. Thank you.

__

solLast edited by solamour on Mon Jan 03, 2011 6:56 pm; edited 3 times in total

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## solamour

I went back to VirtualBox 3.x for the time being. I'll try it again when a newer version becomes available.

__

sol

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## lyallp

Did you create a new virtual machine using the existing disk or did the settings migrate over?

I found that some older VM's I have use different disk interfaces to more modern VirtualBox defaults, and thus, the VM's won't boot unless I specifically configure their drive to be IDE.

Basically, very closely inspect all the VirtualBox settings for the VM, maybe something has changed between the versions.

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## solamour

I set the virtual machine's setting in VirtualBox 4.0 same as 3.x with the existing .vdi (hard disk image) file, but that didn't work. So I created a new virtual machine, installed Gentoo from scratch with almost no changes in the kernel options, except the file system and network interface. It was the same result; I see the GRUB screen, kernel messages show up a few seconds, and then it gets stuck.

The kernels in other distros, such as Ubuntu and SystemRescue, were basically "genkernel" type, so I'm not sure what options I'm missing.

__

sol

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## Arkhelion

Hi,

In the VM settings, I've encountered a lot of issues using the ICH9 chipset, check that your VM uses PIIX3 chipset.

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## lyallp

Try booting the Gentoo install/rescue disk.

Type 

```
lspci -k
```

 to show what drivers are being used.

Ensure all of these drivers are configured in your kernel (use the '/' key in the 'make menuconfig' to search for them).

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## solamour

The chipset is PIIX3. And the following is the output of "lspci -k" when booted from the CD.

```
00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440FX - 82441FX PMC [Natoma] (rev 02)

00:01.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371SB PIIX3 ISA [Natoma/Triton II]

00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter

00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] 79c970 [PCnet32 LANCE] (rev 40)

        Subsystem: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] PCnet - Fast 79C971

        Kernel driver in use: pcnet32

        Kernel modules: pcnet32

00:04.0 System peripheral: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Guest Service

00:06.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB

        Kernel driver in use: ohci_hcd

00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 08)

        Kernel modules: i2c-piix4

00:0b.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FBM/FR/FW/FRW (ICH6 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller

        Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd

00:0d.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)

        Kernel driver in use: ahci
```

And I believe all the usual suspects were already included in the kernel.

```
CONFIG_PCNET32=y

CONFIG_USB_OHCI_HCD=y

CONFIG_I2C_PIIX4=y

CONFIG_USB_EHCI_HCD=y

CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y
```

Let me know if there is anything that I should check. Thank you.

__

sol

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## lyallp

Well, you have me stumped.

If you can successfully boot the Gentoo live cd, but can't your own installs, I suggest you switch your own install to use a genkernel and then gradually disable stuff that you know you don't have.

ie, update config, recompile and install, reboot.

Keep doing it till you either end up with a finely tuned lean mean kernel or it stops booting, in which case you will know what caused the problem and you can boot the .old to continue tweaking or you could keep a snapshot of a recent successful boot and simply copy the /usr/src/linux/.config file to a non-snapshot place (a local fileshare or usb key) such that when you roll back, you can recover your latest handywork.

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## gentoo_ram

I've been having issues running Gentoo guests on Windows Virtualbox hosts for a long time.  Even in the 3.x versions of Virtualbox.  I can't explain it.  I run Linux and Mac Virtualbox hosts with Gentoo guests no problem.  Only Windows hosts are a problem.  It's very odd.  On my latest Windows host/Gentoo guest under VM 4.0, when a process tries to read from an NFS filesystem, the process occasionally goes into "uinterruptible sleep" and never comes back.  But only under Windows.

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## solamour

I don't know why, but it looks like I need to turn on "CONFIG_SMP" in the kernel option, even if the virtual machine has only one processor. After selecting SMP, everything is working as expected.

```
Processor type and features

   Symmetric multi-processing support (SMP)
```

Thanks everyone (especially "ebd") for taking time to respond.

__

solLast edited by solamour on Mon Jan 10, 2011 12:07 am; edited 1 time in total

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## ipic

 *solamour wrote:*   

> I don't know why, but it looks like I need to turn on "CONFIG_SMP" in the kernel option, even if the virtual machine has only one processor. After selecting SMP, everything is working as expected.
> 
> ```
> Processor type and features
> 
> ...

 

+1

Well done for finding this - its pretty obscure.

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## gcasillo

I am suffering the same symptoms as the OP. I am running VirtualBox 4.0.0 r69151 on a Macbook Pro 17" running OS X 10.6.6. I created a VM for a Gentoo Linux guest and installed from a current amd64 minimal install CD. All seem to go well, but when I attempt to boot from the new installation, I get stuck on in the kernel booting process before the rest of the services are started:

```
INIT: version 2.88 booting
```

That's the last thing I see and it just seems stuck. I've googled and searched to no end. This thread most closely resembles my issue, however, I have CONFIG_SMP enabled as I'm running on a Core i5.

Any suggestions or ideas to get my new VM to boot fully are welcomed.

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