Because of an unexpected problem, I find myself re-creating my four Solus VMs, and I'm having problems with a couple of them.

When I try to create a GNOME VM, I've waited minutes after the countdown ends, and still all I have is a flashing cursor. As I remember, I was able to figure this one out before, so I'll keep working on it.

When I try to create a MATE VM, the ISO boots to a Live session and requires a Live user password. It's been years since I tried to create one of these, and I don't remember what that is. And I've been unable to find it anywhere, such as the Solus download page. Why is it so hard for a new user to install MATE?

    I remember seeing an old thread about an issue with the Mate 4.3 iso, maybe try a 4.2 iso?

      Brucehankins Yup, the MATE ISO has issues in a virtual machine for some reason (can't remember the details right now). Older one should work fine. Also the username is live, and no password.

          Staudey Also the username is live, and no password.

          The user name is not changeable ... I can't set it to live. And if I don't provide a password, it just displays the login page again.

              elfprince Tried live ?

              This is what I've gotten with every suggestion so far, including live.

                in theory there should be no password. hit 'enter' for password?

                edit: user name grayed out/unchangeable. just saw that. has to be some terminal maneuver to reset

                Brucehankins I remember seeing an old thread about an issue with the Mate 4.3 iso, maybe try a 4.2 iso?

                The last time I needed to create these VMs, it was the Solus 4.3 GNOME ISO that wouldn't work, but I was able to use the 4.2 ISO to install it. This time, I was unable to click the [Next] button for the installer, but I'm going to try that one more time. I think I might be able to get to the top border of that button, and that might work.

                  WetGeek "Live User" is just the full name. No matter, as it won't work. It just displaying the login page again is the bug I was talking about. The 4.3 ISO doesn't work in VMs

                    I'm giving up on this for now. Maybe the new ISOs will work, when they're available.

                    I've created dozens of VMs using VirtualBox, and I've had the four Solus VMs available for years. This time, I've only been able to create a Budgie VM and a Plasma VM. No luck at all with GNOME or MATE.

                    SOLUS TEAM, PLEASE NOTICE:
                    Anyone working with the installer for the new ISOs should be aware that clicking the [Reboot] button at the end of an installation causes problems. I think it's because the installer might still have some data to flush to the file system, and clicking [Reboot] doesn't allow that to happen.

                    I've known for a long time that the way to avoid those problems is to close the installer, and shut down from the Live session. Then remove the ISO. When the VM is then started, it will boot to the new OS, not the Live session. Maybe this could be fixed in the new ISOs.

                      WetGeek Anyone working with the installer for the new ISOs should be aware that clicking the [Reboot] button at the end of an installation causes problems. I think it's because the installer might still have some data to flush to the file system, and clicking [Reboot] doesn't allow that to happen.

                      This is a VM issue. On bare metal, the reboot is paused during the reboot process with an instruction to remove the installation USB and click "Enter" to finish the reboot process. I personally don't think that it is the Solus team's obligation to support VM installations.

                          elfprince I am adding this to my "Cold metal has the final say" notes. 😀

                          As JoshStrobl said in 2021: "We target bare metal not virtualized environments." I think that is appropriate.

                            tomscharbach This is a VM issue.

                            Interesting. The VM is executing the same code, with the same instructions in the same order, but doing something different. How does the code know that it's being run on a VM? Just chalking it up to magic for now. Sorry for the bother.

                                WetGeek Interesting. The VM is executing the same code, with the same instructions in the same order, but doing something different. How does the code know that it's being run on a VM? Just chalking it up to magic for now. Sorry for the bother.

                                Gnome Boxes runs into the same issue. I think the issue arises because the ISO is mounted but doesn't unmount during VM reboot, as removing a Live USB does in a bare metal install/reboot, so the reboot process doesn't flush/complete properly**. My workaround on Gnome Boxes has been to do the installation (which is screwed up as often as not), and then clone the installation (Gnome Boxes has a tool for cloning), open the clone and remove the original installation, which seems to work somehow. I don't know why -- magic, maybe?

                                I haven't used Virtual Box in years, but when I did, I often used pre-built, pre-tested VDI files from OSBoxes. A lot simpler than rolling your own, and avoids the reboot issue. The VDI collection isn't comprehensive, but it works when available.

                                ==============

                                ** You've probably noticed, as I have, that on bare metal, a "removing live files" process takes place after the installation USB is removed during the reboot pause. I don't think that happens if the ISO remains mounted.

                                    Funny, I never had any issues with the Solus installation in Gnome Boxes (not sure about Virualbox; it's been a while)

                                    tomscharbach I don't think that happens if the ISO remains mounted.

                                    If the ISO remains mounted, the reboot simply restarts the Live session. That's happened to me as well. Then I shut it down, remove the ISO from the virtual CD drive, and boot again to the new OS. I've used that method in the past, but usually I just shut down the installer when it's done, and then close the VM and remove the ISO.