VBox 5.1x and 5.2x freeze/hang on any sound playback

[Kitsab]

Hello community,

Host Windows 7 64 Bit

I recognized massive issues with audio active.
Setting Windows direct sound and ICH AC97 or Intel HD Audio. Leads into massive hang of the guest system. The are messages like "CPU 1 stuck vor 27 seconds ..."
In the VBox.log there are messages spammed "last heartbeat 10 seconds ago ...".

1st try: Install was Xubuntu 18.04 which got stuck after GUI login screen. Not able to load GUI in 30 mins.
2nd try: Installed Arch Linux with XFCE4, work until I tried to playback any sound, at the point I try to playback sound system hang.
3rd try, with Arch client running without GUI only command line: aplay Sample.mp3 system hangs.

I was able to break the playback with CTRL+C and shutdown the machine by shutown -h 0 (this action took two hours). Without sound playback the system goes down in a few seconds.

Even a host reset (CTRL+R) will not resolve the "CPU stuck for x seconds" messages.

As soon as Audio goes to Dev0 or sound is deactivated in the VM configuration there are no problems, aplay Sample.mp3 runs but no sound as it goes to dev0.

I installed the most recent audio driver for my DELL Latitude notebook.

I took a look inside Linux the audio driver configuration seems to be fine.

I configured linux audio to only use stereo playback.

ls /dev/snd
by-path hwC0D0 pcmC0D0p pcmC0D1p seq
controlC0 pcmC0D0c pcmC0D1c pcmC0D2c timer

lsmod |grep snd
snd_hda_codec_idt 65536 1
snd_hda_codec_generic 90112 1 snd_hda_codec_idt
snd_hda_intel 49152 0
snd_hda_codec 155648 3 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec_idt
snd_hda_core 98304 4 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_codec_idt
snd_hwdep 16384 1 snd_hda_codec
snd_pcm 135168 3 snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_hda_core
snd_timer 40960 1 snd_pcm
snd 102400 7 snd_hda_codec_generic,snd_hwdep,snd_hda_intel,snd_hda_codec,snd_timer,snd_pcm,snd_hda_codec_idt
soundcore 16384 1 snd

I have no idea what to do to get audio playback for the guest system.

*from hardening log I had to delete the 75% of the tail, because it exceeded the upload limit.

Thanks for suggestions and tips.

Best regards

Kitsab

[keithterrill]

I am running Linux Mint 19 and the sound is on, off, part on-off, etc.

This has been going on ever since 5.1. Each update, I think it will be fixed..... but it isn't.

1. I switch the Audio from PulseAudio ICH AC97 to PulseAudio Intel HD Audio and boot.
2. If the sound doesn't work, I kill the VM and
3. I switch the Audio back from PulseAudio Intel HD Audio to PulseAudio ICH AC97 and boot.
4. if the sound doesn't work, I kill the VM and
5. go back to step one.
6. if the sound works I keep the system up an running

BUT after shutting down I have to repeat the above steps.

There appears to be no rhyme or reason to why it works when it works.

[Kitsab]

Hello,

thank you for the suggestion

for me it doesn't work this way, every time I switch to ICH AC97 the hang/freeze symptoms appear at console login, audio playback not started at this time.

If I started Intel HD again system will boot fine but as soon as playback is tried - hang/freeze

Thanks for further tips and suggestions.

Best regards

Kitsab