virtualbox.org

Discuss the VirtualBox 6.1.20 release here.
You can download the release here.
VirtualBox 6.1.18 is a maintenance release.

Changelog is here.

VirtualBox 6.1.20 Changelog wrote:VMM: Fixed extremely poor VM performance depending on the timing of various actions (regression in 6.1.0)

Can you please elaborate on this (e.g. giving some background info and/or examples)?

Unable to start any VM (Windows 7, 10 and Linux) if the virtual machine has an LSI Logic SAS controller defined.
There does not need to be a vdi attached to controller, just having the SAS controller defined to the VM causes it to fail with
NS_ERROR_FAILURE 0x8004005 Isession C0447716-FF5A-4795-B57A-ECD5FFFA18A4

This is a regression from 6.1.18 as my VM's with that SAS controller work fine with 6.1.18.

Hi,

I am running Windows 8.1 Pro as guest OS in Windows 10 Pro 20H2 host with EFI BIOS in VirtualBox 6.1.20. I created vm using disk2vhd from my old machine by uninstalling all the drivers and then creating vhd image out of it. Everything else works fine in VBox except sound which keeps of echoing permanently.

If I click on Speaker button on taskbar, it plays a dummy sound. That sound keeps on repeating itself. If I play something in browser, say a Youtube video. If I close the browser, last 1 or 1.5 seconds of the sound of that video keeps on playing unless I start another audio file, or close the VM.

I tried SoundBlaster 16, but no speakers are detected in Vbox. I tried with ac97 but I wasn't able to find any direct drivers.

Any help in fixing this issue will be great. I am ok to upgrade/ downgrade vbox version if a known version is working fine. Thanks!

Please try a fresh new VM, see if that VM has the same sound problem. You might be able to get a Windows 8.1 ISO from Microsoft to try with.

If a fresh VM also has the same issue, try downgrading Virtualbox to 6.1.18.

update from 6.1.18 to 6.1.20 introduces sound echo on the end of any sound played for windows guests win 7, win 8.1 & win 10
reverting to 6.1.18 fixes problem

The Raven wrote:Unable to start any VM (Windows 7, 10 and Linux) if the virtual machine has an LSI Logic SAS controller defined.
There does not need to be a vdi attached to controller, just having the SAS controller defined to the VM causes it to fail with
NS_ERROR_FAILURE 0x8004005 Isession C0447716-FF5A-4795-B57A-ECD5FFFA18A4

This is a regression from 6.1.18 as my VM's with that SAS controller work fine with 6.1.18.

I can confirm this regression on Windows and Solaris host platforms. It can be easily reproduced.
Create any new VM without any disks. Just add LSI Logic SAS or SCSI adapter into storage section and your VM will not start.
You will not even see the BIOS screen with logo.

BTW, It took me awhile to understand this issue and find a workaround how to switch from LSI Logic SAS to SATA/AHCI.

BTW, It took me awhile to understand this issue and find a workaround how to switch from LSI Logic SAS to SATA/AHCI.

Unfortunately, that workaround is not available to me. I have Windows 7 guests running on a particular hardware that, for historical reasons,
need their disks (but not SSD) attached to a SAS controller.
I've had to revert back to 6.1.18 which is a pity, as 6.1.20 has 24 security related fixes in it.

Thanks @scottgus That worked. I downgraded to 6.1.18 and it did the job. Thought there is bit latency in playing the sound, but no echo and repetition. Having said that I tried fresh install on VirtualBox 6.1.20 and was getting same issue. So definitely some problems with that version. I was worried if something wrong happened in vhd image cause that's crucial one.

Thomas_B wrote:update from 6.1.18 to 6.1.20 introduces sound echo on the end of any sound played for windows guests win 7, win 8.1 & win 10
reverting to 6.1.18 fixes problem

I can confirm this. Happening across a wide variety of hardware, all running Latest Win 10 Pro or Win 10 LTSC, with both Win 7 and Win 10 VM's. Also the drag & drop file transfer (which has never worked reliably in the 6x series for me) seems to be even worse. I'm going back to 6.18 and will sit this one out.

I had the same problem with 6.1.20 the first time I launched my Win10 VM. Muting the sound (Devices|Audio) and enabling it again made the annoying noise go away, and it did not repeat.

I'm waiting to see if it was a one-off glitch.

It is not one time. Depends on the sound

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20273

Makes vbox 6.1.20 unusable for me unfortunately.

Eek. I'm seeing several problems with this release.

First, there is high CPU use, I have not pinned down why. Perhaps it was due to launching a Windows VM I haven't used for a while, from an hdd rather than an SSD. So there may have been more disk I/O than normal. Then there are strange audio effects that others have reported, it gets stuck in a repeat loop of the last few ms of audio: this glitch seems to be related to the high CPU use. I've seen this now with Win10 and Win7 guests using Intel HD audio.

The audio glitch is quite repeatable (with Intel HD audio) if I start a video in a web browser and then quit the browser while its playing.

Edit:  I have been unable to reproduce the problem using AC'97, although that audio is glitchy (stop start). Also, in Win7 if I go to the lock screen (is it called) with Ctrl+Alt+Del, the screen is entirely black unless I run the mouse over some active areas which then gets repainted. It's like the Win10 transparency issues have been migrated - btw this Win7 VM is using VBoxSVGA with 3D acceleration.

Same audio issue here. W10 host, W7 guest.
I noticed the issue before even upgrading guest additions (ding sound on UAC dialog remained repeating). So likely the problem is host-side implementation.

If you want to be noticed then this discussion should be part of the "Discuss the VirtualBox 6.1.20 release" topic, not out there on its own. I will move the posts.