CentOS and VirtualBox

Recently I updated my sole CentOS 7 virtual machine (VM), which included kernel updates, which meant also updating the VirtualBox Guest Additions (GA).

After a reboot the video resolution was the default 1024x768. Try as I might I could not get the GA vboxvideo driver to compile using the VirtualBox ISO image. The other GA components compiled fine.

The problems started with 3.10.0-862* kernels. No problems with the 3.10.0-693* kernels. The only clue in the install log:

/tmp/vbox.0/vbox_fb.c:86:31: error: "struct drm_framebuffer" has no member named "bits_per_pixel'

Searching the web indicated the bug was caused by the latest CentOS kernel. A forum discussion ensued and a couple of VirtualBox bug reports.

Eventually the problem was tagged as resolved by th VirtualBox developers.

Except the problem persisted on my system.

After a few weeks I updated VirtualBox from 5.1.38 to 5.2.14. The problem disappeared.

Posted: July 19, 2018 Category: Usability Tagged: CentOS, Virtual Machines

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