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nixos/virtualbox-guest: support VMSVGA graphics adapter #86473

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merged 4 commits into from Jul 5, 2020

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bachp
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@bachp bachp commented May 1, 2020

This makes VMSVGA the default and recommended graphics adapter for virtualbox.

Motivation for this change

Currently with virtualbox 6.1.6 guest resizing is broken.

Also Virtualbox complains that VBoxVGA is not the recommended graphics adaptere for linux guests, and that VMSVGA should be used. In newer versions of Virtualbox (6.1+) VMSVGA seems to be the only adapter supporting 3D acceleration (#81850).

This PR makes VMSVGA work out of the box in NixOS, including Auto resize and 3D acceleration.

Things done

I tested the resulting machine with:

  • VMSVGA with 3D (OK)
  • VMSVGA without 3D (OK)
  • VBoxVGA (OK, no auto resize)

VBoxVGA is still supported, but I could not test autoresizing as it is currently broken, even before my changes.

  • Tested using sandboxing (nix.useSandbox on NixOS, or option sandbox in nix.conf on non-NixOS linux)
  • Built on platform(s)
    • NixOS
    • macOS
    • other Linux distributions
  • Tested via one or more NixOS test(s) if existing and applicable for the change (look inside nixos/tests)
  • Tested compilation of all pkgs that depend on this change using nix-shell -p nixpkgs-review --run "nixpkgs-review wip"
  • Tested execution of all binary files (usually in ./result/bin/)
  • Determined the impact on package closure size (by running nix path-info -S before and after)
  • Ensured that relevant documentation is up to date
  • Fits CONTRIBUTING.md.

@bachp bachp changed the title nixos/virtualbox-guest: VMSVGA nixos/virtualbox-guest: Supporte VMSVGA graphics adapter May 1, 2020
@bachp bachp changed the title nixos/virtualbox-guest: Supporte VMSVGA graphics adapter nixos/virtualbox-guest: supporte VMSVGA graphics adapter May 1, 2020
@bachp bachp changed the title nixos/virtualbox-guest: supporte VMSVGA graphics adapter nixos/virtualbox-guest: support VMSVGA graphics adapter May 1, 2020
@ofborg ofborg bot requested a review from svanderburg May 1, 2020 14:11
@takeda
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takeda commented May 6, 2020

@bachp thanks for this, I run into this issue and was looking for a solution.

One question, I noticed that VBoxClient --vmsvga when running as root also resizes the screen, while seems like currently what's started is VBoxClient --vmsvga-x11 which uses xrandr. Is there a benefit of libxrandr over DRM?

I'm also wondering if virtualbox guest addition should install libnotify when that package is installed with x11, when I added this package the error popup shows up, which would help diagnosing problems like this in the future.

Will this be backported in 20.03?

@flokli flokli requested review from blitz and B4dM4n May 19, 2020 14:46
@blitz
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blitz commented May 19, 2020

AFAIK the VBoxVGA model is somewhat deprecated / in maintenance mode, so switching to VMSVGA is the right choice.

I've also verified that the screen resizing now works with VMSVGA

@nixos-discourse
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This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/does-anybody-have-working-automatic-resizing-in-virtualbox/7391/4

@nixos-discourse
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This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/does-anybody-have-working-automatic-resizing-in-virtualbox/7391/6

@nixos-discourse
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This pull request has been mentioned on NixOS Discourse. There might be relevant details there:

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/nixos-20-03-virtualbox-screen-doesnt-resize-and-crops-part-of-the-viewport/7539/4

@jtojnar
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jtojnar commented Jun 10, 2020

Do we also need to have the generated OVA appliance use VMSVGA?

--- a/nixos/modules/virtualisation/virtualbox-image.nix
+++ b/nixos/modules/virtualisation/virtualbox-image.nix
@@ -72,6 +72,7 @@ in {
         audiocontroller = "ac97";
         audio = "alsa";
         audioout = "on";
+        graphicscontroller = "vmsvga";
         rtcuseutc = "on";
         usb = "on";
         usbehci = "on";

@jtojnar
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jtojnar commented Jun 10, 2020

Indeed looks like it is needed. Without it, the appliance built with nix-build nixos/release.nix -A ova.x86_64-linux is imported with VBoxVGA as graphics controller; with it it uses VMSVGA correctly so we need that to match the documentation.

The library could not be loaded which prevented autoresizing
when using the VMSVGA adapter.
VMSGVA is recommended by virtualbox for Linux clients.
Compared to VBoxVGA and VBoxSVGA it also supports 3D acceleration.

Adding the driver makes nixos work with all three supported graphics card
types.
Virtualbox recommends VMSVGA for Linux guests.

It is also currently the only one supporting 3D acceleration
and it works out of the box with NixOS and auto screen resizing.
@bachp
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bachp commented Jun 17, 2020

@jtojnar I updated the PR to make vmsvga the default adapter on the generated OVA.

@takeda I couldn't get VBoxClient --vmsvga working, even when running as root.

@takeda
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takeda commented Jun 17, 2020

@bachp I was able to run it by adding:

 systemd.services.virtualbox-resize = {
    description = "VirtualBox Guest Screen Resizing";

    wantedBy = [ "multi-user.target" ];
    requires = [ "dev-vboxguest.device" ];
    after = [ "dev-vboxguest.device" ];

    unitConfig.ConditionVirtualization = "oracle";

    serviceConfig.ExecStart = "@${config.boot.kernelPackages.virtualboxGuestAdditions}/bin/VBoxClient -fv --vmsvga";
  };

to configuration.nix, note that VBoxClient --vmsvga-x11 should be removed from VBoxClient-all.

Looking at other distros they also add it as a service.

@bachp
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bachp commented Jun 18, 2020

@takeda I think we should take this up in a separate PR improving on this one. Are you OK with this?

@takeda
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takeda commented Jun 20, 2020

@bachp sorry I just noticed your response. Yes, I think it is better to have something working right now than nothing.

@jtojnar
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jtojnar commented Jun 27, 2020

Anything remaining here?

@jtojnar jtojnar merged commit 07cebef into NixOS:master Jul 5, 2020
@bachp bachp deleted the virtualbox-vmsvga branch July 5, 2020 20:38
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5 participants