Win 10 host, Win 7 guest - unbearably slow even after disabling WSL2

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
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adamf663b
Posts: 13
Joined: 6. Oct 2015, 18:38

VirtualBox is very slow in Windows 10 - green turtle icon exists

Post by adamf663b »

I followed the steps and no longer see the turtle. However, I still get the incredible slowdowns anywhere between 10 and 90 minutes of use. It's so slow that it takes up to 40 seconds for a keystroke to be seen.

The solution for me was to back out all the way to version 5.2.44.
There were incompatible settings, so I had to 'remove' my VM and recreate it using the same .vdi disk image.
Last edited by scottgus1 on 19. Nov 2021, 19:28, edited 2 times in total.
Reason: removed expletives
adamf663b
Posts: 13
Joined: 6. Oct 2015, 18:38

Win 10 host, Win 7 guest - unbearably slow even after disabling WSL2

Post by adamf663b »

With a win10 host, I run virtualbox for an ubuntu guest.
I tried all combinations for win10 with and without hyperv, etc., but what would happen is that anywhere between bootup and hours later, things would slow to a crawl, so slow that pressing a key in a terminal window and seeing it received could take 30 seconds. Nothing useful in dmesg, syslog, or journalctl. The virtualbox log was also unhelpful.
Per another thread, I became aware of a 'turtle' icon on the virtualbox status icons. I had to uninstall some other windows programs that were using virtualization, preinstalled by my work admin. I got rid of the turtle icon, but it didn't make any difference. Finally, I reverted back to 5.2.44 and everything works great.
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Win 10 host, Win 7 guest - unbearably slow even after disabling WSL2

Post by scottgus1 »

Adam, I merged your two posts recommending to go back to 5.2.44 as a fix for slow VMs. 5.2 is no longer supported, and it is not a good idea to multi-post a really old version for new OS's as a solution.

Also, I removed your references re "POS", as you probably weren't referring to "point of service" and we run a clean forum here. :wink:

If you want to try to fix your original problem, please upgrade Virtualbox and Extension Pack to 6.1.26 https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Download_Old_Builds_6_1 . Then if you run into the slowdown, please provide a VM log:

Start the VM from full power off, not save-state. Run until you see the problem happen, then shut down the VM from within the VM OS if possible. If not possible, close the Virtualbox window for the VM with the Power Off option set.

Please right-click the VM in the main Virtualbox window's VM list, choose Show Log. Save the far left tab's log, zip the log file, and post the zip file, using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.
adamf663b
Posts: 13
Joined: 6. Oct 2015, 18:38

6.x still rubbish

Post by adamf663b »

On a clean win10 laptop, I installed virtualbox 6.1 (latest'n'greatest as of 7/13/2022), then installed ubuntu 20.04 guest VM.
It worked perfectly for about two weeks, then VB started exhibiting problems that I'd seen on another win10 install: extreme slowness to the point of needing 10 seconds just to echo a character in a terminal window. Last setting I'd changed was adding a second network interface, unconnected. I didn't bother trying only a single net interface this time around as that didn't help on the prior box's 6.1.x crawling, and I needed two net i/fs. I don't have the patience to spend hours trying fruitlessly to diagnose 6.1 again. On the previous box, I had tried all acceleration options with and without hyper-v installed.

Reverting to VB 5.2, like on the previous win10 box, cured the slowness.
Acceleration is shown to be "VT-x/AMD-V, KVM paravirtualization"; the System/Acceleration setting is 'default.'
scottgus1
Site Moderator
Posts: 20965
Joined: 30. Dec 2009, 20:14
Primary OS: MS Windows 10
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Windows, Linux

Re: Win 10 host, Win 7 guest - unbearably slow even after disabling WSL2

Post by scottgus1 »

Merged again. Instructions have been given. Please follow them before posting another rant. Except, of course, use 6.1.34, instead of 6.1.26.

You might also try the 6.1.35 test build; it's reported to do better with active host Hyper-V. Save the test build installer until you update again later. You'll need it if your host's MSI installation database goes south (they do) and the installer will not be available for download after the next even-number version gets released.

Regardless of which you try, we need a log per the instructions to help.
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