Discuss the 5.1.26 release

[Suprazz]

I had to downgrade to 5.1.24.

5.1.26 lost all usb fonctionnality. I tried to reboot vm, host, reinstall. Tried usb 1.1 controller and 2.0 and nothing worked.

Reinstalled 5.1.24 and everything work fine.

Host is windows 10, vm is windows 10 too.

[frank]

Very unlikely that the upgrade has anything to do with that. I'm not aware of any USB-related changes in 5.1.26. When you upgraded to 5.1.26, did you also upgrade the Extension Pack?

[tonny]

Since upgrading from 5.1.22 to 5.1.26 I also sometimes get the memory could not be read error.

error.png (21.28 KiB) Viewed 5959 times

It occurs randomly when starting a VM, and seems independent of the guest type (I had it on Windows XP but also on CentOS, Debian and openSUSE).
I could not find a clear way to reproduce it so far, but seems to occur more often if starting multiple VMs at the same time.
In the case of the log attached, I started 3 VMs a the same time, and the first one that started (openSUSE) is the only one that got the error.

[marcthin]

I can confirm this. On al vm's on my virtueel box is there this problem.

The 5.1.24 release works perfect.

[mpack]

Those look like a hardening problems, not a release based issue. Please see FAQ: Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues.

[mingle]

After the initial install I had a crash, then it worked a couple of times, now I get the crash each time I run my Linux Guest.

Reverted to 5.1.24 and all is fine again.

Mike.

[mpack]

No logs == no attention paid to problem.

[tonny]

Here's another crash log with the hardening log also included.

Maybe it's a wild guess, but if I disable audio in the VM I can no longer reproduce the error.
I did some trial and error startup of multiple VMs and from 10 runs with audio, at least one VM crashed in 5 of the runs.
Disabled audio in all these VMs and from 10 runs without audio, none crashed. All other settings were the same.

Edit: btw, if the issue is indeed hardening related, shouldn't it occur at any VM startup? Can it be hardening and occur randomly?

[mpack]

Are all crashy VMs using the same audio settings, e.g. AC97?

[tonny]

Yes, all the ones I tested now are all AC97 with DirectSound host.
However, the first time I encountered this issue was starting an XP + Windows 7 and those had AC97 and HD Audio respectively. I have not tested that combination recently.
Should I try some combinations?

Come to think of it, the Windows 7 with HD Audio never crashed since upgrading to 5.1.26, only the XP and Linux VMs with AC97.

[mpack]

A modern guest OS should presumably support something more modern than AC'97 (which as the name implies is now 20 years old), so I think it would be particularly telling to try a different audio chipset in a VM which currently crashes. I.e. try Intel HD Audio.

[tonny]

I changed all 4 test VMs to HD Audio, ran 10 more group startups and the problem did not surface anymore.
So it seems to be AC97 related, though I don't have a VM that crashes consistently all the time to be able to say for sure.
Looking at the 5.1.26 release notes, maybe it's related to this change:
* Audio: implemented record gain registers for AC'97 emulation; those are needed for newer Ubuntu guests which rely on those when controlling gain and muting the recording (capturing) levels

Thanks for your help!

[Suprazz]

Yes I upgraded everything. Twice.

Very unlikely that the upgrade has anything to do with that. I'm not aware of any USB-related changes in 5.1.26. When you upgraded to 5.1.26, did you also upgrade the Extension Pack?

[socratis]

Yes I upgraded everything. Twice.

There was a famous quote for the iPhone antenna problems: You're Holding It Wrong.

Here's the "proper" installation procedure for VirtualBox. It has proven that it helps with hidden rejections from Windows due to the UAC, which is becoming more and more invasive. Pay special attention to the Run-As-Administrator. It is a completely different thing compared to being an administrator. Use the Run-As-Administrator even if you are the Administrator; the first one (Run-As-Administrator) is really important, being an Administrator is not:

1. Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.
2. You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out Device Cleanup to remove unused devices from your computer.
3. Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.
4. Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show.
5. If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.
6. Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
7. Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.

[michaln]

There is a regression in 5.1.26 which can cause VMs with AC'97 audio configured to crash. So far the problem has only been seen on Windows hosts, and it's somewhat random (which means that some users will see it almost all the time and other users almost never).