How to get past hang when installing Ubuntu 18.10 (beta) in Virtualbox (Mac)?

Question

When trying to install the current Ubuntu 18.10 (beta) desktop image (.iso) in VirtualBox (v5.2.18 r124319 for MacOS 10.13.6), I get the perennial problem of a blank screen hang after the initial splash screen.  No error messages at all, just a hang. I've had this same problem with the daily 18.10 betas and was hoping that maybe it would resolve itself if I waited for the first official beta, but it hasn't.

With past Ubuntu VMs I think I've gotten past this by increasing memory for the VM, but going to 2048 MB and beyond isn't helping this time. Nor has increasing video memory or toggling 3D acceleration or the paravirtualization interface (as discussed in this thread).

Any suggestions for getting past this would be much appreciated!

Bryan · Answer

The official version of 18.10 works fine for me. I'd say "problem solved", but I'd still prefer to have the option of pre-release testing. Hopefully things will go better with 19.04.

Michael Coyle · Answer

I had the same problem. Using the Synaptic software installer, I did a force reinstall of: virtualbox, virtualbox-dkms, virtualbox-guest-additions, and for good measure virtualbox-qt.

I then restarted and it worked beautifully.

Axel Naumann · Answer

Yup, same here. This did it for me:

Boot to the black screen.
In VirtualBox's menu, select Input > Keyboard > Insert Alt Print Screen.
At the password prompt, enter user name ubuntu, empty password.
At the shell, enter sudo service gdm3 restart.

This git me to the desktop, with 4GB RAM, ICH9, EFI, 128MB video memory with 3D acceleration enabled - but I doubt any of this is crucial.

The install finished successfully, and from here on booting just worked.

How to get past hang when installing Ubuntu 18.10 (beta) in Virtualbox (Mac)?

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