16.04 VirtualBox VM (from vhd file) hangs at "non blocking pool is initialized"

virtualbox 16.04 hyper-v azure

12,237

Solution 1

This is long-standing bug in the images released by Canonical.

The grub configuration is trying to use a serial port, but when it is not there, it fails to handle this gracefully. So, either add a serial port or change grub not to requires it.

Three options here to get it to boot the first time:

if the grub menu is available, you can edit the boot arguments to remove console=ttyS0
you can also enable a serial port in VirtualBox
you can mount the drive from another VM or via loopback device and remove console=ttyS0 from /boot/grub/grub.cfg

Two options to get it to boot thereafter:

leave a serial port attached via VirtualBox
override the GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT value in /etc/default/grub or /etc/default/grub.d/*.cfg to not include console=ttyS0, then run sudo update-grub and verify /boot/grub/grub.cfg has your changes.

Solution 2

I had this problem on actual machine and the fix was to enable "nomodeset" option for kernel. It is doing this because Ubuntu is trying to switch to a high resolution video mode for the console and your hardware isn't cooperating. To fix this

Fixing this while at the machine

When Grub2 shows up highlight the menu item for Ubuntu and press 'e'

Go to the line where it loads the kernel and press 'End' to go to the end of the line Add 'nomodeset'

Press F10 or Ctrl-X to boot it

Fixing this for good

Update the grub config file nano /etc/init/grub

Find the line that starts with GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT

Edit the line to include nomodeset, in my case, the line looked like this afterwards: GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="nomodeset"

Save/exit nano Run update-grub Reboot

12,237

Rhangaun

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

Rhangaun over 1 year

I'm trying to boot Canonical's Azure 16.04 .vhd file in a VirtualBox VM and it hangs at "non blocking pool is initialized".

It works in Hyper-V, so it may only be a bug in virtual box (5.0.20).
Rhangaun almost 8 years

With the cloud/azure image, I don't have a Grub2 menu showing up before it hangs.
tikend almost 8 years

You should have Grub installed, but it just does not show probably. Try holding Shift during boot.
Rhangaun almost 8 years

when I hold Shift, I get : error : terminal 'serial' isn't found.
William Turrell about 7 years

@tikend I've got a similar error message here, but adding nomodeset(I'm putting it between "ro" and "console=tty console=ttyS0") then Ctrl-X to save/boot doesn't make any difference to what happens. Don't suppose you've any ideas? I note that the display font changes shortly after it reaches "switched to clocksrc tsc" line…
William Turrell about 7 years

Fixed! I realised that it was odd for console to be listed twice (I had tried nomodeset at the end of the line as well to no effect), so I deleted the second console and it booted. Should be able to fix it permanently now...
Kalyan almost 6 years

Adding a serial port to VirtualBox seemed to help in my case.
vas about 5 years

Adding a serial port to VirtualBox solved this problem for me
P-P over 3 years

Adding a serial port to VirtualBox seemed to help in my case.