Guru Meditation on Linux host (Trusty) and WinXP guest

[dborn]

Just upgraded to VirtualBox 5.1.26r117224 and now WinXP guest goes to Guru meditation.
It boots in safe mode but not in normal mode.

See attached log and png file.

This is where things seem to unravel:

Code: Select all

00:00:12.018361 RAM ranges (pVM=00007f41f61f1000)
00:00:12.018362 GC Phys Range                     pvHC            
00:00:12.018365 0000000000000000-000000003fffffff 0000000000000000 Base RAM
00:00:12.018369 00000000e0000000-00000000e7ffffff 00007f41c37b1000 VRam
00:00:12.018373 00000000f0000000-00000000f0000fff 0000000000000000 PCNet
00:00:12.018376 00000000f0400000-00000000f07fffff 00007f41cba50000 VMMDev
00:00:12.018380 00000000f0800000-00000000f0803fff 00007f420e3fd000 VMMDev Heap
00:00:12.018384 00000000f0804000-00000000f0804fff 0000000000000000 USB OHCI
00:00:12.018388 00000000f0805000-00000000f0805fff 0000000000000000 USB EHCI
00:00:12.018391 00000000fee00000-00000000fee00fff 0000000000000000 APIC
00:00:12.018395 00000000ffff0000-00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000 PC BIOS - 0xffffffff
00:00:12.019018 fatal error in recompiler cpu: Trying to execute code with memory type addr_code=00000000f6b26020 addend=00007f40d53f3000 at 00000000f6b269eb. (iHandlerMemType=0x38 iMMIOMemType=0x30)
00:00:12.019019 
00:00:12.019067 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'GURU_MEDITATION'

Thanks for your help,
Daniel

[mpack]

Where did this image of XP come from? It does not seem to have been installed from scratch for VirtualBox. It looks like it has been created using the "import" feature. Is this another hacked "XP mode" VM?

[dborn]

Hi,
Yes this has been installed from scratch for VirtualBox but it's gone through several VBox upgrades over the years. It was working fine under VBox 5.0 (up to yesterday) until I decided to upgrade to version 5.1

I've also included the zipped .vbox file if it helps.

Thanks!
Daniel

[mpack]

Basically, the XP guest is doing something nasty, which makes me think this is not a normal XP guest. The only issue I can think of which affecting XP guests in 5.1 but not in 5.0 is when then XP guest originated as an XP mode VM, and these crash because the virtual BIOS layout changed in 5.1. But that can't be the case with a normal XP because normal XP isn't looking for special strings in the BIOS.

The only other thing you could try is to disable audio and see if that prevents the crash. This would be a test, depending on the result we can talk about it further - I'm not suggesting it as a solution.

The only other thing I noticed is that for some reason VirtualBox thinks it is a 64bit guest, but I couldn't see why. Sometimes it's just because the VM is very old. It's possible that the crash wouldn't happen if VT-x was enabled, but unfortunately your CPU doesn't support VT-x.

[dborn]

I confirm, this VM is very old (as is the OS for that matter!)

I disabled audio and still get the same issue.
Strange about the 64 bit mode, in the settings I have it set to Version: Windows XP (32-bit)
And in System/Processor, I have Enable PAE/NX set.

Here are the things I've tried so far with no success: (original/changed)
System: Enable PAE/NX (on/off)
Display: Video Memory (128MB/64MB)
Monitor count: (2/1)
3D accel: (on/off)
2D Video Accel: (on/off)
Audio: Enable (on/off)
Network: Promiscuous Mode (Allow All/Deny)
USB: Enable (on/off)

I tried Safe Mode with and without networking and that works.

If nothing else works, I don't mind going back to VBox 5.0.2 until I can get myself a Win10 installation disk and reinstall from scratch. I'm probably a few years overdue

Thanks,
Daniel

[mpack]

Please don't thrash around at random. None of these things you tried are relevent (except the safe mode test), and thrashing can only make problems worse. Don't make a change unless you know in advance what the effect will be.

I don't think that enable PAE/NX requires VT-x, but you may as well turn it off anyway since it's not useful for XP.

You should re-enable USB2 (EHCI) since you have a bunch of USB filters defined. USB filters and no USB support doesn't sound like a good combo.

The fact that safe mode works tells you that the crash is related to device drivers. You say that you already tested turning off audio support? Ok, next I would disable both 2D and 3D acceleration, since both require the cooperation of non-buggy host drivers.

[dborn]

Switching things on and off (one at a time and noting what was done) was meant more as a method of experimentation rather than a potential "fix" to my problem. None of them made any difference unfortunately.

As mentioned in my previous post, I already tried turning off 2D and 3D acceleration to no avail.
I absolutely need this VM for tomorrow morning so rolling back to 5.0.2 seems more and more likely in the short term at least.

EDIT: Looking at the 5.0.x releases... I assume that going to 5.0.40 would be better than going all the way back to 5.0.2?
I can't believe I hadn't upgraded VBox since July 2015!?

I don't like admitting defeat so quickly but I have no choice at the moment.

Thanks,
Daniel

[dborn]

Alright so I loaded VBox version 5.0.40 and now my WinXP VM functions as before.

Thanks for your help mpack, for now I need this "mission critical" VM so I will have to prepare for my future VBox upgrade and probably upgrade to Win10 in the process.

FYI: in the VBox.log for version 5.0.40, this line is seen:

Code: Select all

00:00:01.576012 WARNING! 64-bit guest type selected but the host CPU does NOT support HW virtualization.

Let me know if you'd like to get the entire file (or anything else) in case anybody is interested in finding out why my old VM failed with 5.1

Regards,
Daniel

[mpack]

The same line is present in the earlier log. I already mentioned lack of VT-x.

[dborn]

Understood but it still runs under 5.0.x but not under 5.1.x so why isn't the newer code able to cope with this situation?

One thing I don't see is where this "64 bit guest type" is happening. As far as I know, WinXP has never been anything but 32 bit and all settings seem to show 32 bit selections.
Would this be something broken inside the VM's disk files?

One thing I notice on 5.0.40 compared to 5.0.2, there seems to be a bug when I minimise the left "full screen" window to gain access to the host's screen and then when I return to the VM, I seem to lose access to the mini-toolbar on that screen. The window to the right (screen 2) seems to function correctly.

EDIT: Alright, I researched "mini toolbar" on the forum... Nevermind I understand it's a long standing issue.

Anyway, at least this works now. I understand what you said about the BIOS layout change.

Thanks,
Daniel

[socratis]

Understood but it still runs under 5.0.x but not under 5.1.x so why isn't the newer code able to cope with this situation?

Because moving forward, more and more of the code is going to be requiring hardware acceleration to be available on the host. Hardware moves on, software follows and takes advantage of that fact. I don't believe you can find a system built in the last 5 years that does not have hardware acceleration, save the 200€ ones.

As far as I know, WinXP has never been anything but 32 bit

Yes, it was this rare beast called WinXP-64, but I believe that there are more sightings of the Loch ness monster that this one. Drivers were scarce, applications were not written so that they could take advantage of the 64-bits, and it wasn't offering any significant improvement over its 32-bit little brother. It died a quiet and peaceful death. Although it may have helped a lot behind the scenes to the 64-bit transition.

[BillG]

Windows XP x64 used the server x64 code base and was released after the server version was released (and after XP SP1 was released for XP x32). Because of this, it was always one SP behind. This caused all sorts of problems when something required XP SP3, as the corresponding SP for the server and XP x64 was SP2. There was no SP3 for XP x64.

[dborn]

I know that VirtualBox is multi-OS on the host and guest side but in general, Linux has been good at running on less than bleeding-edge hardware. Fortunately, previous versions such as 5.0 are still available for download even if not supported anymore.

My host isn't that recent but it's still quite usable (dual core, 3Ghz, 4GB ram, dual screens, several TBs of storage, etc.) as a desktop machine. It would be a real shame if this would become unfit for running a few modest VMs.

Just to conclude on my story, I finally settled on the available version for my OS version (Ubuntu Trusty) which is 5.0.4, instead of the version 5.0.40 I downloaded from the virtualbox.org website as this older version seems to be better with the mini toolbar issue...