Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Discussions about using Windows guests in VirtualBox.
fth0
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by fth0 »

fth0 wrote:I'd suggest to use the VirtualBox version 6.1.22 from Oracle, install the matching Virtualbox 6.1.22 Guest Additions and change Display > Screen > Graphics Controller to VBoxSVGA.
My suggestions were in a specific order for a reason: The combination of VirtualBox 6.1.x and the VirtualBox GA 5.2.44 (which you're still using) is supposed to just work well enough to update the GA (*), and not supposed to work with the VBoxSVGA graphics controller, which was firstly implemented in VirtualBox 6.0.x.
Marco Sulla wrote:GA are irrelevant, since the slowdown is noticeable from the boot
Even if your issues do not depend on the GA, IMHO it doesn't make much sense to investigate a (possibly invalid) setup that was only used by you and therefore is not comparable to well working setups of other users.

Regarding the slowness: What exactly do you mean with "extremely slow", especially in the timeframe before the GA are running?

(*) FWIW, the reboots during the VM startup (mentioned by scottgus1) could very well be the result of the version mismatch.
Marco Sulla
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

scottgus1 wrote: How long has your host OS been running? Has it been updated a lot or is it a brand-new install on a clean empty disk?
It's brand new.
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

This is the last log. It's slow as usual.
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fth0
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by fth0 »

Marco Sulla wrote:This is the last log.
In the win10-2021-07-13-23-07-44.log file, the aforementioned reboot during the startup did not occur any more, so updating the GA saved you from the delay of this unnecessary crash (01:20). Additionally, it made the log file comparable to the log files of other users, so far, so good.
Marco Sulla wrote:It's slow as usual.
In the win10-2021-07-13-23-07-44.log file, the perceived slowness can be seen as large delays between log messages (e.g. before the 00:45, 01:55 and 04:20 timestamps). To investigate further, I'd suggest to use your favorite task manager on the host OS to figure out what happens during those pauses.

Other than that, you didn't answer my question around what "extremely slow" means to you, so I cannot draw any conclusions from that.
Marco Sulla
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

fth0 wrote:I'd suggest to use your favorite task manager on the host OS to figure out what happens during those pauses.
Excuse me, but what a Task Manager can say to me about the fact that Virtualbox 6.1 is slow with 2 cpus and fast with only 1?
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by fth0 »

Marco Sulla wrote:Excuse me, but what a Task Manager can say to me about the fact that Virtualbox 6.1 is slow with 2 cpus and fast with only 1?
For example, a task manager can show you which OS processes and which OS threads are consuming the CPU (and memory, disk I/O, etc.) in realtime. So if I had multi-second pauses, that would be the first tool I'd use, before starting with more complicated and time-consuming methods. On a Linux host, I'd start with top.

Regarding 1 vs. 2 vCPUs, I'd suggest to do both VM runs and compare the timing inside the VBox.log files and inside the task manager information.
Marco Sulla
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

fth0 wrote:For example, a task manager can show you which OS processes and which OS threads are consuming the CPU (and memory, disk I/O, etc.) in realtime.
How can I identify the threads (that is: what name they have in top or htop)?
scottgus1
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by scottgus1 »

I think the idea is to arrange top/htop so the program using highest cpu appears at the top of the columns, then see what names appear at the top while the VM appears to be seized or slow.
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by fth0 »

In top, 'H' toggles the threads, 'V' toggles a tree view. The memory in use belongs to the process, therefore each thread shows the same amount of memory. The latter can be helpful if the processes/threads are sorted by other criteria like CPU usage.

In htop, "F5" shows a tree view, but I don't know how to show the thread names.
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

This is my list of processes. I can't find the second process. Can you point me to the process in question?
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fth0
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by fth0 »

What do you mean with "the second process"? Where the other 20% CPU usage are? Within top, it would be easy to see inside the heading lines.

PS: ps -elfH is another useful set of options for the ps command, showing the processes in their hierarchy.
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by mpack »

Now the topic seems to have turned into Linux tuition. Please note that this forum is "Windows Guests". I think Google would be a better source of info on how to use specific Linux tools.
Marco Sulla
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

fth0 wrote:PS: ps -elfH is another useful set of options for the ps command, showing the processes in their hierarchy.
Thank you a lot, this is the output:

Code: Select all

0 S marco      53642       1  0  80   0 - 18634 poll_s 00:56 ?        00:00:01   /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxXPCOMIPCD
0 S marco      53648       1  0  80   0 - 240539 poll_s 00:56 ?       00:00:01   /usr/lib/virtualbox/VBoxSVC --auto-shutdown
4 S marco      53668   53648 84  80   0 - 3646326 -    00:56 ?        00:18:04     /usr/lib/virtualbox/VirtualBoxVM --comment win10 --startvm 0fd2592b-5199-4eca-8a65-2f4e9a4ec6ac --no-start
mpack wrote:Now the topic seems to have turned into Linux tuition
It's not Linux, is BSD.
Marco Sulla
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by Marco Sulla »

Wel,, what's the problem so? I do not understand very well the output. It seems there is only one thread.
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Re: Windows 10 extremely slow on Virtualbox 6

Post by fth0 »

I believe we need a third person located on your side (or a totally different approach):

I've been suggesting possible procedures to investigate the problem on your host yourself, which would be a task for a Linux/BSD system administrator administering your host. You seem to not have the necessary knowledge to do the investigation yourself (nothing personal!), and I cannot teach you how to do it without spending hours or days of my spare time (*). So from my POV, you'll need someone with the necessary capabilities and time on your side.

(*) Note that most volunteers and moderators of the VirtualBox forums are not affiliated to Oracle or the VirtualBox development. We're just fellow VirtualBox users.
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