Unable to install 64-bit guests

[marcoc]

I agree that the installer probably doesn't require 2GB (at least not until further down the road). It may however require more than 512MB. Since the WIn7 requirements are clearly stated it wouldn't be the first time some lazy programmer has assumed he'll have enough RAM to buffer up half the DVD.

Look: lots of people install 64bit guests on Win7 hosts, and they don't see your issues. So, it stands to reason there is something unusual about your system. The most noticeable unusual feature I see is that you have very little free memory. Ignoring that glaring fact will, I believe, get us nowhere.

I don't ignore it, I've done the opposite. I've tested it with more than 2GB free RAM, didn't work. RAM is not the issue, end of story.

[mpack]

@Drups. Please do not hijack someone else's thread. Start your own, after searching to see if your question is already answered.

@marcoc: As you wish. I'll leave you to do your own diagnosis.

[marcoc]

@Drups. Please do not hijack someone else's thread. Start your own, after searching to see if your question is already answered.

@marcoc: As you wish. I'll leave you to do your own diagnosis.

What evidence is there that points to the suggestion that the RAM is the issue?

I've tried installing Ubuntu 64-bit, Windows 7-64-bit and Windows Server 2003 64-bit all with more than 2GB free RAM. Not one of those would start the setup. Al of them work with 32-bit. Please tell me why my RAM is causing the virtual machines to fail. I don't see any reason why adding more RAM to my system would fix anything.

[Perryg]

@marcoc,

Try to close all programs that you are running on the host to free up as much memory as you can. You can check the host task manager to see how much memory is available as well as the log file. Try your best to keep the available memory 2 times as much as you assign to the guest. You can actually install Windows-7 64-bit at 512MB but it will be really slow & seem like it hangs at times. 1024MB is the best in a virtual machine as a minimum.

Other things that can cause issues are conflicting host programs and other TSRs that could be running on the host. You would need to disable them one-at-a-time until you locate the one causing you issues (if there are any).

Note: looking at the log files that have been provided it really appears to be host memory issue, because there are no other complaints being registered by VirtualBox. Since that is all the we have to go on as far as remotely trying to help you diagnose your problem you will need to provide something that changes what it appears to be. Also something to consider is the install media. Always do an md5 check to make sure it is not corrupt.

[marcoc]

@marcoc,
You can actually install Windows-7 64-bit at 512MB but it will be really slow & seem like it hangs at times. 1024MB is the best in a virtual machine as a minimum.

Apparently, I can't . I'm at a loss here. It worked without any issue when I had a 32-bit host OS two weeks back. A bit slow ofcourse (I admit that 3GB is not a lot to run a VM), but it worked.

[marcoc]

After some further investigation, I think that VT-x is somehow not working properly. I have trouble booting a Windows 7 32-bit guest OS, but with VT-x disabled, everything works fine. I have an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 and Intel PM45 (notebook) mainboard, both of which (as far as I know) support VT-x properly. I also am 100% sure that VT-x was working back when I had a 32-bit host OS. So somehow the combination VT-x and 64-bit host OS makes think not work as it should. Any ideas, anyone ?

By the way, nested paging never works also. I have it enabled, but when I start the VM, VirtualBox always says nested paging is disabled.

[stefan.becker]

Sometimes a bios update helps.

[marcoc]

Sometimes a bios update helps.

There is no update for my BIOS .

[marcoc]

Today I decided to try to boot / install (whatever, doesn't really matter) a 64-bit guest OS under Ubuntu 64-bit (instead of W7 64-bit). To my surprise everything worked flawlessly! So it must be a Windows issue somehow. Anyone got an idea?

[marcoc]

Does anyone have an idea? This is the last line in the logs:

00:00:04.870 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=0000000008af0000 w=1024 h=768 bpp=24 cbLine=0xC00, flags=0x1

After that, just nothing. RAM is not the issue. Everything works wonderfully well under Ubuntu.

[Perryg]

Post the *complete* guests log file (as an attachment)

[marcoc]

Log attached. It's just braindead or something. It must be something in Windows that's causing the issue.

[Perryg]

Shows a *.vhd. DId you actually create this guest?
What is is exactly and what are the minimum system requirements for it?

[marcoc]

It's nothing special, I have tried at least 10 different .ISO's / VHD's. All of them just freeze and do nothing. All of them work fine under Ubuntu. I can get you 10 different log files with 10 different ISO's or VHD's if you want, but they all show the same issue (checked the log files myself). I've tried Windows 7, Windows XP, Windows 2008, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, whatever, almost everything as a guest OS. This is just one example.

[Perryg]

So is this a dual boot host that you can boot into Linux and it works but if you boot into Windows it does not work?