VirtualBox 6.1.16 Ubuntu 20.04 Guest freezes/crashes when windows 10 screensaver or screen lock

[SamH]

When I lock screen on Windows 10 host and then unlock and log back in (log back into windows) my VirtualBox Ubuntu 20.04 Guest v6.1.16 freezes (I even have issues closing the main window of VirtualBox guest). Totally unresponsive. Only closing guest (after putting in some effort) main window with quite a few attempts including VirtualBox Manager on host freezing at the same time and restarting gets the VM back to life only to be unusable after host screen lock again... These never happened in all these many years I am using VirtualBox. What to do here? Thanks.

I have switched off 3D acceleration for guest in virtual machine settings and I have no screen saver or lock screen or anything like that on the guest itself.

I have attached the logs of last two sessions when this happened.

I have created a ticket here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20020

[fth0]

00:00:02.751007 Host RAM: 32609MB (31.8GB) total, 21884MB (21.3GB) available
00:00:02.888973   RamSize           <integer> = 0x00000005afb00000 (24 422 383 616, 23 291 MB, 22.7 GB)

You've provided RAM to the VM that you don't have available. Other than that, I see nothing in the VBox.log files that indicates a problem. For a test, provide only 8 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs to the VM, and see if the problem persists.

[SamH]

It doesn't help. VM keeps crashing/freezing no matter how I limit resources available to it. See attached logs for proof.

00:00:02.751007 Host RAM: 32609MB (31.8GB) total, 21884MB (21.3GB) available
00:00:02.888973   RamSize           <integer> = 0x00000005afb00000 (24 422 383 616, 23 291 MB, 22.7 GB)

You've provided RAM to the VM that you don't have available. Other than that, I see nothing in the VBox.log files that indicates a problem. For a test, provide only 8 GB of RAM and 2 vCPUs to the VM, and see if the problem persists.

[fth0]

00:00:02.554999 VirtualBox VM 6.1.16 r140961 win.amd64 (Oct 16 2020 16:33:17) release log
00:00:02.648650   Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 6.1.16 r140961; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)
00:00:52.360407 VMMDev: Guest Additions information report: Version 6.1.10 r138449 '6.1.10_Ubuntu'
00:00:52.375047 VMMDev: Guest Log: vboxguest: Successfully loaded version 6.1.10_Ubuntu
00:00:57.169733 VMMDev: Guest Log: 13:53:47.514585 main     VBoxService 6.1.16 r140961 (verbosity: 0) linux.amd64 (Oct 15 2020 16:40:53) release log
00:00:57.194308 VMMDev: Guest Log: vboxsf: Successfully loaded version 6.1.10_Ubuntu on 5.4.0-54-generic SMP mod_unload  (LINUX_VERSION_CODE=0x50441)

In the host, you're using VirtualBox 6.1.16 and the VirtualBox Extension Pack 6.1.16, so far, so good. In the guest, you're using a mixture of the VirtualBox Guest Additions (GA) 6.1.16 and 6.1.10_Ubuntu. I'd suggest to uninstall both GA, reboot the guest, and install the VirtualBox GA (not the Ubuntu ones) again.

Additional notes: You've configured the (experimental) ICH9 chipset and a custom video mode (3840x2160, 4k). Both settings are not very common, so it's not clear if they contribute to your problem.

[SamH]

I am trying to remove/uninstall GA 6.1.10_Ubuntu but it doesn't work. Anything I do, these packages are not found. Before I successfully uninstalled 6.1.16 GA... Can you please give me a hint how to remove these default Ubuntu vbox GA packages? because they are still being reported in the VBox.log as being loaded...

[fth0]

You could try installing the Ubuntu package and then uninstalling it again.

[SamH]

OK, so I managed to remove all traces GA 6.1.10_Ubuntu and reinstalled GA 6.1.16 (so in VBox.log, only GA 6.1.16 appears). It took many restarts before GA 6.1.16 had an effect (correct resolution, shared folders etc.). However, the VM still crashes/freezes after lock screen log in on Windows host. I have played around with different settings (like chipset etc.). Nothing helps. VM is still crashing/freezing.

[multiOS]

Have you tried disabling the power settings/time out procedures in the VM, which are pretty useless as they don't communicate with the Host Machine?

[SamH]

Yes, I did. Everything is disabled. Even before I opened this thread. See attached screen from power management.

I find this strange. Never happened before upgrade to VirtualBox 6.1.16...

[SamH]

Here is another ticket/bug report experiencing the same issues: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20038

[fth0]

Thanks for the link to the other Bugtracker issue. I've commented there, and I think the comment could also apply to your case, although your VBox.log file doesn't show the same error messages.

[SamH]

For me disabling audio in VM settings provided needed stabilization of the machine and now freezing or crashing is no longer happening when screen lock on host happens. This https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/20038#comment:3 helped.

[fth0]

Thanks for reporting back!

[Jü]

Hello,
I have the same issue
But since i need audio, it's not an option to turn off audio for the VM.
Will there be any fix?
Thanks.

[dcendents]

I have a similar error that also seems to indicate problems with the audio settings.

Host: Ubuntu 20.04
Guest: Windows 10 Pro

It seems to happen randomly, nothing to do with inactivy as the VM hangs while I'm working in it.
However this has been happening a few times lately and the only change I can think of is me listening to music on the Host.

The log files do not report errors but have many entries related to PulseAudio:

Code: Select all

00:00:32.488464 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...
00:04:13.955452 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...
00:25:59.272296 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...
00:44:36.504815 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...
00:52:05.088394 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...
00:55:53.916036 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:55:53.920760 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:59:19.591193 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
01:36:07.832836 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...
01:47:57.128310 PulseAudio: Retrieving server information ...

My solution currently is to open a prompt and savestate the VM and relaunch it.