Ubuntu 18.04 Gnome hangs/freezes on boot after upgrading to kernel 5.4.0-73 in Windows VirtualBox

Question

Similar to:

• Ubuntu 18.04 LTS installed in VirtualBox hang at boot up after system update
• Ubuntu 18.04 freezes after update
• Ubuntu doesn't boot after upgrading kernel

But this happened just now, after an upgrade to kernel version 5.4.0-73-generic.

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The graphical session freezes on boot (just a blank screen after the disk checking message). The text console still works (I can switch to it with Ctrl-Alt-F2).

$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description:    Ubuntu 18.04.5 LTS
Release:    18.04
Codename:   bionic

$ uname -a
Linux bionic-vbox-vm 5.4.0-73-generic #82~18.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Fri Apr 16 15:10:02 UTC 2021 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

VirtualBox 6.1.22 r144080 (Qt 5.6.2) win64 in Windows 7.

Answer 1

Fixed it by changing Settings->System->Acceleration->Paravirtualization Interface

from Default to KVM.

It turns out, it doesn't really "hang" but rather fails to start updating the screen initially.

Resizing the VM window got the picture back.