Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Discussions about using Solaris guests in VirtualBox.
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

sej is correct. I did not mean ACPI shutdown (not available from hung guest). I meant just power off from the VM menu.

SSCbrian is having no problems on a 64-bit host. sej, is your host 64-bit? My host is WinXP 32-bit.

Maybe it is time to upgrade my host to WinXP x64? What is the probability that future Vbox versions will fix the hanging problem for 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts? Upgrading to a 64-bit host is a major hassle and will cause days of system downtime.

With pre-2.2.4, my 64-bit Solaris 10 guest problem symptoms were apparently different (at least most of the time) than under 2.2.4. Previously, guest windowing would slowly die, without pegged core. Now, the hang is instantaneous, with pegged core. Does anyone have any ideas regarding how I can further diagnose my guest problems?

Would upgrading my Solaris 10 guest from u5 to u7 help?

Thanks in advance....
SSCBrian
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by SSCBrian »

rasta wrote: Would upgrading my Solaris 10 guest from u5 to u7 help?
It's worth a try I'd guess. Make backups first though, just in case it hangs part way through or otherwise destroys your data! :-)
Perryg
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by Perryg »

I guess the obvious is there is a known issue with some 64 bit guest running on 32 bit hosts.

Chapter 13. Known issues
The following section describes some issues that are known not to work in VirtualBox 2.2.4. Unless marked otherwise these issues are planned to be fixed in later releases.

64-bit guests on some 32-bit host systems with VT-x can cause instabilities to your system. If you experience this, do not attempt to execute 64-bit guests.

As for it being fixed in future releases (like my mother used to say) don't hold your breath, it may be a while!
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

Yes, this is obvious. See bug #2258 and previous posts in this thread. The changelog for 2.2.4 stated that it fixed some issues regarding "VMM: ?xed hanging 64 bits Solaris guests," so I had hoped that the problems I had experienced would be resolved. This unfortunately does not appear to be the case.
sej7278
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by sej7278 »

SSCBrian wrote:
rasta wrote: Would upgrading my Solaris 10 guest from u5 to u7 help?
It's worth a try I'd guess. Make backups first though, just in case it hangs part way through or otherwise destroys your data! :-)
heh, sscbrian has obviously tried this before lol! i applied a patch cluster to u5 and it totally hosed it, although i think that was because the guest hung halfway through.

i'd do a fresh install, as a patch cluster isn't really the same as upgrading from u5 to u7 (i guess you get the kernel etc) i don't even know if you can upgrade solaris in that way, unlike linux.
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

I did an upgrade install to u7 today. Everything went fine, and I am now applying new patches. It sure would be great if my hanging problem went away! It's nice to dream, anyway.

Before my 64-bit guest hangs, its performance is simply PHENOMINAL, and everything works splendidly.
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

Ooops, I meant PHENOMENAL!
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

The upgrade to u7 did NOT fix the 64-bit Solaris 10 guest hanging problem on my WinXP 32-bit host. 64-bit Solaris guests are still COMPLETELY HOSED using Vbox 2.2.4 with my configuration.
sej7278
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by sej7278 »

rasta wrote:The upgrade to u7 did NOT fix the 64-bit Solaris 10 guest hanging problem on my WinXP 32-bit host. 64-bit Solaris guests are still COMPLETELY HOSED using Vbox 2.2.4 with my configuration.
running a 64-bit guest on a 32-bit os has got to be pushing it a bit anyway. is it a 64-bit chip with pae+vtx then, just running a 32-bit xp? have you tried a 64-bit vista host?

you did an upgrade install didn't you? have you tried a fresh 10u7 install - that's what i did, but then i'm 64-bit linux host so quite a different setup.....
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

With VMware, 64-bit Solaris guests run great on 32-bit Windows hosts. I have Xeon E5345 64-bit capable (VT-x) chips running 32-bit XP. I have not tried any other host OS. As I wrote above, it looks like 64-bit hosts are required to run 64-bit Solaris guests. 32-bit Solaris guests are too slow to be worth the trouble with Vbox, and they're unstable anyway. If I did anything, I would upgrade my host to XP Pro x64. Vista unavailable to me.

I have not, and will not, try a fresh u7 install. There is almost NO WAY it will fix the hanging problem, and is thus not even close to being worth the trouble for me.

Thanks anyway for your suggestions!
SSCBrian
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by SSCBrian »

rasta wrote:32-bit Solaris guests are too slow to be worth the trouble with Vbox, and they're unstable anyway.
I didn't have any instability with 32-bit Solaris on Vista x64, but you're right, it was incredibly slow! Very painful. I kept flipping back and forth between 32-bit and 64-bit depending on if I wanted slow/reliable or fast/unreliable. Glad it seems to be fixed for 64 on 64 now at least. Hopefully they fix the 64 on 32 for you in the next version!
rasta
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by rasta »

It really is frustrating, because, as I wrote above, the 64-bit guest performance is AWESOME on my box, before the hang. I have my u7 guest all configured properly now, all patches applied, and have saved a snapshot. Maybe the hanging will subside now............. :?: Meanwhile I'll wait for the 32-bit host fix.

Have a great weekend!
afberendsen
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by afberendsen »

Same problem here.

Hardware is AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ with 8GB of RAM
Host OS is Linux storage.berendsen.local 2.6.29.4.afb.fc10.x86_amd64 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 20:55:16 NZST 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Guest OS os Solaris u6 in 32-bit mode

Does not matter if X is running or not.
sej7278
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by sej7278 »

afberendsen wrote:Same problem here.

Hardware is AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+ with 8GB of RAM
Host OS is Linux storage.berendsen.local 2.6.29.4.afb.fc10.x86_amd64 #1 SMP Thu Jun 11 20:55:16 NZST 2009 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
Guest OS os Solaris u6 in 32-bit mode

Does not matter if X is running or not.
can't you just run it in 64-bit mode - or does the athlonx2 not have svm?
bqbauer
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Re: Fed up of dying Solaris guests

Post by bqbauer »

There's no way for me to say this bug is fixed, but I can say I haven't had any problems with 64-bit Solaris guests (Solaris 10 u7) on VB 2.2.4 running on an OpenSolaris 2009.06 64-bit host. Same for a 2008.11 host. Prior to 2.2.4 or Solaris 10 u7, definitely problems. I've left the guest running for days, even running as an NIS client at work. The one thing I've done possibly differently than some folks on the bug report is to use a SATA disk in the guest. Perhaps that helped minimize the underlying issue? I've given the guest from 2-4GB memory, and I have tested on a Q6600 CPU and an i7-920.

And to answer another comment, yes you can upgrade an earlier Solaris 10 to the u7 release. Sorry if this was answered and I missed it, or if I misunderstood the question.

Hope this helps at least a little.
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