Windows 2000 guest hangs CentOS host

[bgee22]

I have a Windows 2000 guest that I use for testing. It was working up through VBox 6.0.0 and guest additions 6.0.0. I just upgraded the host to VBox 6.0.2. Now when I launch the Windows 2000 guest, it INSTANTLY locks the entire host computer. It is locked so hard that I have to pull the power plug to get it back. Even holding down the power button for 20 seconds does nothing.

As I said, this is INSTANTLY! The Windows 2000 guest does not even display a window to start in. The Vbox.log file for it is ZERO bytes. I see nothing useful in /var/log/messages, probably because the system locks before anything can get written.

Is there any other log file I can look at? Any other diagnostics I can run?

The host is CentOS 6, 64 bit, 16 gig ram and an i7 processor. I have attached the .vbox file defining the guest to this post.

Thanks - Bill Gee

[socratis]

I have attached the .vbox file defining the guest to this post.

Nothing seems to be attached...

• Does it happen with other VMs? Can you find out?
• Have you run any "fsck" or "memtest" on the host?
• How about your host's "dmesg" output or other logs, do they show anything?

[bgee22]

Hmmm.... I know I uploaded that .vbox file to something! No idea where it went. It's about 8K, probably too much to include as embedded text in a post. I will give it another try, and rename it as a .txt.

vmwin2k.txt

Renamed .vbox file

(8.42 KiB) Downloaded 19 times

As for other questions -

1) The Windows 2000 guest is the only guest that does this. All my other guests (and they are a range of operating systems) work just fine. Well, except for the one that got a scrambled drive image because the host locked while it was building the guest additions ...

2) I have not run either memcheck or fsck on the host. It would be a VERY unlikely coincidence if the hard drive failed at exactly the time I did the 6.0.2 upgrade. Remember - that Windows 2000 guest was working just a few days ago.

3) Dmesg shows nothing that I can identify as being related to this. /var/log/messages also shows nothing.

All the guests are stored on a secondary hard drive, which is actually an SSD. That device is relatively new, with about 7500 operating hours on it. The underlying file system is ext4.

[socratis]

I see nothing out of the ordinary with your setup, nothing to warn such a reaction from the host. The only thing I started thinking from your first post is something wrong with the hardware on your host. Either a corrupted file, or some bad RAM. Other than that, and with the absence of the VBox.log, which you said isn't even created, I wouldn't know where to look for info.

Except maybe the VBoxSVC.log, can you track that down? Should be in the "~/.config/VirtualBox" if I remember my Linux-locations correctly...

[bgee22]

It does create a VBox.log file - but with zero bytes.

I found VBoxSVC.log. They are in ~/.VirtualBox. Attached is one from a session that locked. There are some errors in there, but I cannot tell if they are related.

VBoxSVC.log.1.txt

VBoxSVC.log.1 from a session that locked

(4.95 KiB) Downloaded 16 times

It seems odd that hardware would fail exactly when I did an upgrade. Not impossible, but improbable. Just in case, I will run a SMART full self-test on the SSD. It won't hurt and who knows? It might show something.

Bill Gee

[socratis]

There are some errors in there, but I cannot tell if they are related.

No, those are red herrings, and it's got to do with the Preview window if I'm not mistaken:

00:01:30.095199 nspr-3   ERROR [COM]: aRC=VBOX_E_IPRT_ERROR (0x80bb0005)
	aIID={5047460a-265d-4538-b23e-ddba5fb84976} aComponent={SessionMachine}
	aText={Saved screenshot data is not available (VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED)},
	preserve=false aResultDetail=-37

It seems odd that hardware would fail exactly when I did an upgrade.

There's no way that I can predict when the lamp in my kitchen will burn, but chances are under stress.

If you think the upgrade alone might be responsible for this, uninstall VirtualBox and downgrade to the previous working version. Let's see what happens...

[bgee22]

It has been a couple of weeks, but I did NOT forget about this!

Update: I can confirm that this is a problem in VirtualBox 6.0.x.

Test one: I created a new host machine and install VB 5.2. I imported the Windows 2000 virtual machine files to it. Windows 2000 started and ran with no errors. The host computer did NOT hang.

Test two: I upgraded my main host computer to VB 6.0.4. Windows 2000 guest would start and get to the login screen, then throw a guru meditation. At that point the host was completely locked up. Power-off restart was required.

Test three: I changed the VB configuration for the Windows 2000 guest. Specifically - I changed the network adapter from PCNet Fast III to Intel Pro 1000/MT (Desktop). The guest will now boot and run without error. The host machine does not hang. Unfortunately there is no driver for this card in my Windows 2000 image, so it does not have any network connectivity.

Test four: I changed the network adapter to PCNet PCI II. The result is the same as for test two.

Sounds like the PCNet adapters are still not virtualizing quite right.

Bill Gee

[socratis]

I created a new host machine... Windows 2000 started and ran with no errors. The host computer did NOT hang.

Sounds like the PCNet adapters are still not virtualizing quite right.

If your 2nd conclusion was correct, then your new host would hang as well. So would mine, so would so many other peoples. So, no, your 2nd conclusion is not correct; the PCNet adapters seem to be fine.

The question is why it hangs your "main" host. And you did an excellent detective work to narrow it down to the networking portion. Any driver updates for your main's network cards? What brand are they? Anything else network related running on the main?

[bgee22]

I am not going to claim much credit for detective work on this. My main clue came from the FreeDOS forums where there has been major discussion over problems with the PC-Net adapter virtualization. In the case of FreeDOS, the PC-Net adapter is just about the only one for which suitable drivers exist.

The test host was the same hardware as my primary. In fact all I did was substitute a different hard drive to do a test build on.

The host computer is a SuperMicro mainboard C7SIM-Q with an Intel 82578DM Ethernet chipset. I am running 64-bit CentOS 6.10 on it, with current patches and kernel as of 9 Feb 2019. It is dedicated to VirtualBox, so the only processes running on it are related to that function.

All the other guests are set to use the Intel Pro/1000MT emulated network interface. I don't remember why I set the Windows 2000 guest to use the PC-Net card. Perhaps it is because that was the default so many years ago.

The

[socratis]

My main clue came from the FreeDOS forums where there has been major discussion over problems with the PC-Net adapter virtualization

Yes, I'm aware of that, I filed the ticket...

• #18286 DOS-class VMs don't recognize PCnet-FAST III (6.0.0 regression) - Fixed with 6.0.1 r128070 or later.

But there's a huge difference between "not recognized by the guest" and "locking the host". I have a couple of hosts around and there was never a problem with the Win2K guest VM that I keep rotating around. And more importantly you tested the same VM on a different host. The "main" host has an issue, no doubt. The locking part is indeed an interesting one and if it's not the hardware that's affected, then it may be a software issue.

Right now you have it set up as Bridged. Can you change it to NAT or something different just to make sure that it isn't the filter that might be causing this?