[Pkg-virtualbox-devel] Bug#836366: trying to run nested does bad things with the host

[Marc Haber]

Package: virtualbox
Version: 5.1.4-dfsg-1
Severity: minor
Tags: upstream

Hi,

I am trying to do nested virtualization and wanted to use virtualbox
as the "inner layer" of the nest. This is needed because I want to
test software using test-kitchen, which does not have a KVM driver.
Because test-kitchen is not in Debian, I decided to move the entire
setup in a scratch VM that I can easily snapshot and scrap.

There are a few bug reports in the upstream tracker that virtualbox
does not support nested virtualization and probably never will. As the
bug reports are not clear whether they are talking about virtualbox as
inner or outer layer of the virtualization, I decided to try it
anyway. Actually, I do not know whether the _inner_ layer of a nested
virtualization does need to know that it is running virtualized in the
first place.

That being said, virtualbox used as the inner layer of nested
virtualization hangs at "Starting virtual machine (2/2) 20%". Clicks on
the window close button are ignored, but it is possible to kill off
the VirtualBox process.

Virtualbox should properly detect situations it will not run in and
report this to not confuse people. It should also document more
clearly that "does not support nested virtualization" even applies to
the inner layer of a nest.

Greetings
Marc

-- System Information:
Debian Release: stretch/sid
  APT prefers unstable
  APT policy: (500, 'unstable')
Architecture: amd64 (x86_64)

Kernel: Linux 4.7.0-1-amd64 (SMP w/2 CPU cores)
Locale: LANG=en_DK.utf8, LC_CTYPE=en_DK.utf8 (charmap=UTF-8)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/dash
Init: systemd (via /run/systemd/system)

Versions of packages virtualbox depends on:
ii  adduser                               3.115
ii  init-system-helpers                   1.42
ii  libc6                                 2.24-1
ii  libcurl3-gnutls                       7.50.1-1
ii  libgcc1                               1:6.2.0-2
ii  libgsoap9                             2.8.30-1
ii  libpng16-16                           1.6.24-2
ii  libpython2.7                          2.7.12-2
ii  libsdl1.2debian                       1.2.15+dfsg1-4
ii  libssl1.0.2                           1.0.2h-1
ii  libstdc++6                            6.2.0-2
ii  libvncserver1                         0.9.10+dfsg-3+b1
ii  libvpx3                               1.5.0-4
ii  libx11-6                              2:1.6.3-1
ii  libxcursor1                           1:1.1.14-1+b1
ii  libxext6                              2:1.3.3-1
ii  libxml2                               2.9.4+dfsg1-1+b1
ii  libxmu6                               2:1.1.2-2
ii  libxt6                                1:1.1.5-1
ii  procps                                2:3.3.12-2
ii  python2.7                             2.7.12-2
pn  python:any                            <none>
ii  virtualbox-dkms [virtualbox-modules]  5.1.4-dfsg-1
ii  zlib1g                                1:1.2.8.dfsg-2+b1

Versions of packages virtualbox recommends:
ii  libgl1-mesa-glx [libgl1]  11.2.2-1
ii  libqt5core5a              5.6.1+dfsg-3+b1
ii  libqt5opengl5             5.6.1+dfsg-3+b1
ii  libqt5widgets5            5.6.1+dfsg-3+b1
ii  virtualbox-qt             5.1.4-dfsg-1

Versions of packages virtualbox suggests:
pn  vde2                            <none>
pn  virtualbox-guest-additions-iso  <none>

-- no debconf information


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