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I have Ubuntu 12.04 running on VirtualBox under Windows 8. I've had it for about a year now and have had no problem whatsoever. A few nights ago, out of nowhere and while I was in the middle of working on my windows machine, I saw Ubuntu (which is running on a 2nd monitor) crash. Basically the screen went black, tons of text appeared and disappeared before I could read any of it.

After a restart it asked me to check the file system and then it boot up to a login screen I've never seen before, as I always had it log in automatically. Now, when I type my password, the screen turns black for a second and then brings me back to the login screen.

I know my password (I am able to login when pressing ctrl+alt+f1), but I don't really know where to go from here. I was able to follow some instructions on uninstalling VBox Additions but that did not help. It's important to specify that nothing changed on the host or the VM for a long time (it was probably running for a month straight when that happened).

Any help would be appreciated. I don't want to upgrade to 13 or 14 unless it's absolutely necessary.

thanks in advance!

Update: I'm also unable to log in with Guest. I have tried different desktop environments (2D, Unity, etc) and the same happens in all of them.

Shual
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You are in luck BECAUSE you are using version 12.04. The following advice either does not work in 14.04, or if it does I've not figured out how to manage it. So far only two of the 50 or so people I support have upgraded to 14.04 or higher, and they seem to be getting by, okay, but I have yet to see the advantage, and I dread having to figure out how to fix it if they run into a problem like yours.

What I'm about to suggest may or may not fix the problem to your satisfaction, if at all, but it may yield critical information for solving the actual problem.

Next time you are at the pre-login screen, where the default kernel is listed at the top, select the menu choice "Previous Linux versions" and then open one of those, preferably fairly recent.

My assumption here is that your inexplicable failure may have been due to a kernel change which was unfortunately incompatible with your virtual machine. I realize VM's are supposed to cater to an operating system's every whim, but what if it was configured one way, and then the kernel changed?

I've only seen this one time and on a Toshiba laptop which was straight up, and not a VM. It was extremely frustrating to solve in so much as I was never entirely able to solve it, but merely restore useful function of the computer with some annoyance for its owner. To this day the owner has to select that menu choice every time in order just to boot the computer. He's also new to Ubuntu and this hasn't impressed him in the least.

If this helps, and better still, if you can figure out how to solve it without as much inconvenience, please be sure to let me know both for my continuing education, and of course for my unfortunate friend.

gyropyge
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