Discuss the 5.2.6 release

[Selin]

I've tried to use both - PIIX3 and ICH9 chipsets (according to https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/11103 ).
No difference.
Total RAM available for the guest with EFI is 3.757.088.768 bytes.

[ChipMcK]

FreeBSD 11.1

check out Virtualbox on FreeBSD

[Selin]

I knew that FreeBSD is out of list of supported OS, but until now everything have worked good with OSE version.
Looks like it is time to move away from VirtualBox as it's OSE version doesn't support EFI, NVE and some more usefull stuff on FreeBSD

[socratis]

@Selin
Just to set the rules: EFI is still declared as experimental. ICH9 is still declared as experimental. Having said that, I don't see why you would make the distinction for the OSE edition, the fixes are a part of the OSE. Maybe you should talk to the FreeBSD people?

Right-click on the VM in VirtualBox Manager, Show in <something>, ZIP that ".vbox" file and attach it.

[Selin]

Tried with CentOS 7 - the same issue.
Guest is configured to use 128GB, but only ~3.5 GB is available:
> systeminfo
...
Total Physical Memory: 3,519 MB
...

Looks like no option.
Need to use NVMe disks, so EFI is required (for guest).
With NVMe + PIIX3 chipset guest system won't boot.
With ICH9 guest system boots but sees only 3.5GB RAM.
Without EFI system doesn't see NVMe disks.

Side problems discovered so far:
When "Use host I/O cache" is enabled for NVMe controller - Windows 2016 installation fails with error 0x80070017 (CRC Media Error). Checksum for ISO used is correct and everything was installed fine with I/O cache disabled.
And one more problem - very high CPU usage by VirtualBox when guest is started (even when no load on guest system).

[ChipMcK]

@Selin

only ~3.5 GB is available

check out I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests

[socratis]

Need to use NVMe disks

Why?

[Selin]

check out I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests

Looks like not my case.
# cat /proc/cpuinfo
flags: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx pdpe1gb rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf eagerfpu pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 fma cx16 xtpr pdcm pcid dca sse4_1 sse4_2 x2apic movbe popcnt tsc_deadline_timer aes xsave avx f16c rdrand lahf_lm abm 3dnowprefetch epb cat_l3 cdp_l3 invpcid_single intel_pt tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid fsgsbase tsc_adjust bmi1 hle avx2 smep bmi2 erms invpcid rtm cqm rdt_a rdseed adx smap xsaveopt cqm_llc cqm_occup_llc cqm_mbm_total cqm_mbm_local dtherm ida arat pln pts hwp

Need to use NVMe disks

Why?

For testing purpose.
But looks like this is not a good idea...

Will try with all default recommended settings.

[socratis]

@Selin
Just FYI: a CPU having a capability, with an OS having available that capability, are two completely different things.

[Selin]

@Selin
Just FYI: a CPU having a capability, with an OS having available that capability, are two completely different things.

Currently I'm using CentOS as host.
# cat /etc/centos-release
CentOS Linux release 7.4.1708 (Core)

Trying to use Windows Server 2016 as guest.

[Selin]

Hm...
Problem with performance is gone after replacing the motherboard of the host system.
Host I/O cache works properly.
Host CPU usage is correlated with load of guests running.
EFI is still not working properly (i.e. only 3.5GB of RAM is available with EFI), so this part is to be solved another way.

Sorry for false alarm.

P.S. I've back to my favorite FreeBSD OS as a host. Host extension pack is not available, but I hope we can live with this.

[Smeagol]

I am also happy to report that with the 5.2.7 (from the special link that was placed at VirtualBox download page) additions my guest Ubuntu 14.04 is back with hardware acceleration. Now I can work with Unity and Compiz again. Thanks!

I am happy to report that with the 5.2.7 additions my Linux Mint VM looks totally beautiful. Thank you much!