Extremely choppy audio

[eric@fulminatus.com]

I'm running VirtualBox 4.3.30 on a Yosemite host with a Mavericks guest. I've got audio through my monitor, and I have these settings:

Code: Select all

[X] Enable Audio
Host Audio Driver: CoreAudio
Audio Controller: ICH AC97

On the guest, in the lower right corner on the microphone icon, I have the following selections

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[X] Apple Inc. Display Audio [0209]
[X] Apple Inc. FaceTime HD Camera (Display) [7160]
[ ] Apple Inc. Bluetooth USB Host Controller [0103]
[X] Apple Inc. Apple Thunderbolt Display [0139]

I can get audio to play out of my monitor, but it's very choppy, to the point of being unusable. I tried with all three Audio Controllers: Intel HD Audio, ICH AC97, and Soundblaster 16.

Is there anything I can do to make audio work better on this guest? I would appreciate any ideas you might have. Thanks!

[loukingjr]

I'm surprised audio works at all. Without guest additions for OSX guests there's not much to try. OSX guests are not officially supported.

[eric@fulminatus.com]

Hm, that's a downer. Are there any unofficial options you know of?

When you say OSX guests, you mean "Guest Additions for OSX", right? I thought that a Mavericks guest on a Yosemite host is a supported configuration.

[loukingjr]

You can get some OSX guests to run. But there are no guest additions available. Being able to "run" in VirtualBox is different than being officially supported.

[eric@fulminatus.com]

Out of curiosity, what is the list of supported guest OSes? Under section 1.7, bullet 2, the manual says

The supported operating systems are grouped; if you want to install something very unusual that is not listed, select "Other".

Since Mac OS X is a type, and Mac OS X 10.9 Mavericks (64-bit) is a version when setting up a guest, I took that to mean that Mavericks was a supported guest OS.

--EDIT--
I guess I found it? http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/serve ... index.html Are you saying that "Commercial Support" means "supported" and "Community Support" means "good luck"? I'd done a little research, and Teh Internetz seemed to think that VirtualBox did actually support both Mac hosts and guests. And I assume there are no plans to support OS X going forward?

[loukingjr]

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Guest_OSes

As far as OSX guest support, there hasn't been any announcements. Doesn't mean there never will be. However, support is usually based on Oracle's customer base so there would have to be a demand from them for OSX guest support I would think.

If you really need OSX guest support, I would look at the two commercial applications for OSX.