Guru Meditation crash event (5.0.x)

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RicV
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Guru Meditation crash event (5.0.x)

Post by RicV »

I have been using VirtualBox 5.0.x together with a PDM plug-in library that I wrote for some time now. The device being modeled includes a PCI/PCIe switch with downstream 2 function endpoint.

I have come across a problem where VirtualBox crashes when attempting to boot the guest. It pops up a "Guru Meditation" dialog box saying that a critical error has occurred while running the virtual machine, and recommends to seek help in the community.

Since the problem goes away when the PDM library is removed, I have no doubt that something about the model is the precipitating factor. However, I can find no indication of trouble within the device model. It would really help to know what VirtualBox is choking on. Any ideas?

I have attached the recommended files. Usually the VBox.png file is a black box, but one time I got it with an error message. Both host server and guest are Ubuntu 14.04. VirtualBox is 5.0.14 OSE — I know that is old, my own development env is 5.0.36, but this user has reasons to remain at 5.0.14 for now, and I need to investigate in their environment.

Thanks for any insight you can offer!
Attachments
VBox.log.bz2
(32.93 KiB) Downloaded 45 times
VBox.png
VBox.png (1.83 KiB) Viewed 6652 times
Last edited by RicV on 22. Apr 2017, 17:51, edited 2 times in total.
frank
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Re: Guru Meditation crash event

Post by frank »

Sorry, 5.0.14 is ancient.
RicV
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Re: Guru Meditation crash event (5.0.x)

Post by RicV »

I was worried that might be the response, so meanwhile I have set up a 5.0.36 test environment, and reproduced the same exact problem. Please see new attachments.

Please note this is not version specific. I first saw it in 5.0.10 and it blocked my effort to displace QEMU in this verification team. Now I have another opportunity there, but the same problem in 5.0.14. Today I reproduced it in 5.0.36.
Attachments
VBox_v5036.log.bz2
(38.45 KiB) Downloaded 46 times
VBox_v5036.png
VBox_v5036.png (1.84 KiB) Viewed 6637 times
Last edited by socratis on 21. Apr 2017, 19:26, edited 1 time in total.
Reason: Removed unnecessary attachment, be more "green".
mpack
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Re: Guru Meditation crash event (5.0.14)

Post by mpack »

Why 5.0.36? Is there some reason you're avoiding the latest version, i.e. 5.1.20?
RicV
Posts: 96
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Primary OS: Ubuntu other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
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Re: Guru Meditation crash event (5.0.x)

Post by RicV »

I did port my solution to 5.1.18 a few weeks ago, after making numerous changes to adapt to the PDM API changes, but it is only partially working even with simple test cases. It's just not detecting my PCIe endpoint in the 5.1.18 build, so either something broke in 5.1.x when PDM was updated, or more likely I made some mistake when adapting to the PDM changes, either way it's a bit of a tangent to the problem at hand.

But the real reason is that the validation team I am engaging with standardized on 5.0.14 for now. They have many users, with different verification solutions based on 5.0.14. For them, updating their verification environment is an expensive prospect because they have to test it on so many solutions and then roll it out to so many users. No doubt they will move to 5.1, but probably not until their next project cycle.

I need to fit my solution into their environment as it is today, i.e. 5.0.14. It's easy to accommodate different 5.0.X builds with one PDM library source tree because the PDM API differences are minor. But the differences in PDM between 5.0 and 5.1 making having once source tree support both problematic. And of course I have a short window of opportunity. It's frustrating because everything seems to be working fine until suddenly it's lights out.

All I was hoping for in this thread was a clue where to start looking. The text of the error suggests this is a "should never happen" case, so even without having the same exact version available, I should think some expert could drop a hint or two. I will start trying to track this down on Monday by grepping all of VBOX source for the error code to see what I can find. But I have little expertise on the internals of VBox beyond the PDM API, so I am not expecting a rapid success.
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