VirtualBox 12.04 Ubuntu ultra-slow.

[ArchEnthusiast]

Hello,

I just recently moved desktops, and brought my Ubuntu VM with me. I exported the appliance on the previous machine, moved the actual SSD with the VM on it to my current newer machine, and re-imported it after installing VirtualBox.

The new host is:

------------------
System Information
------------------
Time of this report: 6/16/2012, 00:52:11
Operating System: Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (6.1, Build 7600) (7600.win7_gdr.120503-2030)
Language: English (Regional Setting: English)
System Manufacturer: System manufacturer
System Model: System Product Name
BIOS: BIOS Date: 05/10/12 12:54:23 Ver: 38.08
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-2500K CPU @ 3.30GHz (4 CPUs), ~3.3GHz
Memory: 16384MB RAM
Available OS Memory: 16348MB RAM
Page File: 4671MB used, 28024MB available
Windows Dir: C:\Windows
DirectX Version: DirectX 11
DX Setup Parameters: Not found
User DPI Setting: Using System DPI
System DPI Setting: 96 DPI (100 percent)
DWM DPI Scaling: Disabled
DxDiag Version: 6.01.7600.16385 32bit Unicode
(Motherboard: ASUS P8Z68-V LE)

The issue is that as I booted the VM, things were immediately sluggish. It takes a minutes or two just to get to the login screen (whereas previously it took maybe a second or two) and once I'm finally logged in, even opening a terminal might take in order of minutes. It's basically completely 100% unusable.
To double-check, I created a new VM (on same SSD, same dynamic VMDK size), and got the same result. In fact I couldn't even get the thing to install, as that would have easily taken over one hour.
To triple-check, I created a Ubuntu 64bit VM in VMware Player and everything was working as intended, no slow-downs at all.

Someone suggested this might be a software virtualization emulation issue. I have definitely enabled hardware virtualization support, as demonstrated by the VMware solution. I have no clue at this point, and I'd love to keep using VirtualBox, but if my only option at this point is to feed VMware 99 bucks, guess I'll have to.

Thanks for reading!

I pasted my virtualbox settings below:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!--
** DO NOT EDIT THIS FILE.
** If you make changes to this file while any VirtualBox related application
** is running, your changes will be overwritten later, without taking effect.
** Use VBoxManage or the VirtualBox Manager GUI to make changes.
-->
<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.12-windows">
<Machine uuid="{551dcaa3-8a7b-4862-9a06-af5d088e8d7b}" name="UbuntuBoxLianLi" OSType="Ubuntu" snapshotFolder="Snapshots" lastStateChange="2012-06-16T07:25:56Z">
<MediaRegistry>
<HardDisks>
<HardDisk uuid="{379d7628-30f3-4112-be02-a48cca868dde}" location="UbuntuBoxLianLi-disk1.vmdk" format="VMDK" type="Normal"/>
</HardDisks>
<DVDImages/>
<FloppyImages/>
</MediaRegistry>
<ExtraData>
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/Fullscreen" value="on"/>
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastCloseAction" value="powerOff"/>
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint" value="1920,1136"/>
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastGuestSizeHint1" value="1600,1120"/>
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastNormalWindowPosition" value="435,238,1424,842,max"/>
<ExtraDataItem name="GUI/LastNormalWindowPosition1" value="-1912,30,1600,1162"/>
</ExtraData>
<Hardware version="2">
<CPU count="4" hotplug="false">
<HardwareVirtEx enabled="true" exclusive="false"/>
<HardwareVirtExNestedPaging enabled="true"/>
<HardwareVirtExVPID enabled="true"/>
<PAE enabled="true"/>
<HardwareVirtExLargePages enabled="true"/>
<HardwareVirtForce enabled="false"/>
</CPU>
<Memory RAMSize="2048" PageFusion="false"/>
<HID Pointing="USBTablet" Keyboard="PS2Keyboard"/>
<HPET enabled="false"/>
<Chipset type="PIIX3"/>
<Boot>
<Order position="1" device="Floppy"/>
<Order position="2" device="DVD"/>
<Order position="3" device="HardDisk"/>
<Order position="4" device="None"/>
</Boot>
<Display VRAMSize="128" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="false" accelerate2DVideo="false"/>
<RemoteDisplay enabled="false" authType="Null" authTimeout="5000">
<VRDEProperties>
<Property name="TCP/Ports" value="3389"/>
</VRDEProperties>
</RemoteDisplay>
<BIOS>
<ACPI enabled="true"/>
<IOAPIC enabled="true"/>
<Logo fadeIn="true" fadeOut="true" displayTime="0"/>
<BootMenu mode="MessageAndMenu"/>
<TimeOffset value="0"/>
<PXEDebug enabled="false"/>
</BIOS>
<USBController enabled="true" enabledEhci="false"/>
<Network>
<Adapter slot="0" enabled="true" MACAddress="0800277AEDE2" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
<BridgedInterface name="Realtek PCIe GBE Family Controller"/>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="1" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027A18C20" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="2" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027B92589" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="3" enabled="false" MACAddress="0800279FC003" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="4" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027FDBF02" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="5" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027DC1C46" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="6" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027F4BD6D" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
<Adapter slot="7" enabled="false" MACAddress="080027B7EC42" cable="true" speed="0" type="82540EM">
<DisabledModes>
<NAT>
<DNS pass-domain="true" use-proxy="false" use-host-resolver="false"/>
<Alias logging="false" proxy-only="false" use-same-ports="false"/>
</NAT>
</DisabledModes>
</Adapter>
</Network>
<UART>
<Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x3f8" IRQ="4" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
<Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x2f8" IRQ="3" hostMode="Disconnected"/>
</UART>
<LPT>
<Port slot="0" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
<Port slot="1" enabled="false" IOBase="0x378" IRQ="4"/>
</LPT>
<AudioAdapter controller="AC97" driver="DirectSound" enabled="false"/>
<RTC localOrUTC="UTC"/>
<SharedFolders/>
<Clipboard mode="Bidirectional"/>
<IO>
<IoCache enabled="true" size="5"/>
<BandwidthGroups/>
</IO>
<HostPci>
<Devices/>
</HostPci>
<Guest memoryBalloonSize="0"/>
<GuestProperties>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/HostVerLastChecked" value="4.1.16" timestamp="1339824821842431300" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/LoggedInUsersList" value="" timestamp="1339830784406600800" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/HostInfo/GUI/LanguageID" value="en_US" timestamp="1339830787799531600" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Product" value="Linux" timestamp="1339831074846925300" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Release" value="3.2.0-25-generic" timestamp="1339831074847425400" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/Version" value="#40-Ubuntu SMP Wed May 23 20:30:51 UTC 2012" timestamp="1339831074847425401" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/OS/ServicePack" value="" timestamp="1339831074847925400" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Version" value="4.1.12" timestamp="1339831074847925401" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/VersionExt" value="4.1.12_Ubuntu" timestamp="1339831074847925402" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Revision" value="77245" timestamp="1339831074847925403" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestAdd/Vbgl/Video/SavedMode" value="1920x1200x32" timestamp="1339831075011946300" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/IP" value="192.168.1.146" timestamp="1339831084845194900" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Broadcast" value="192.168.1.255" timestamp="1339831084845695000" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/V4/Netmask" value="255.255.255.0" timestamp="1339831084845695001" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/MAC" value="0800277AEDE2" timestamp="1339831084846195100" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/0/Status" value="Up" timestamp="1339831084846195101" flags=""/>
<GuestProperty name="/VirtualBox/GuestInfo/Net/Count" value="1" timestamp="1339831535125873300" flags=""/>
</GuestProperties>
</Hardware>
<StorageControllers>
<StorageController name="IDE Controller" type="PIIX4" PortCount="2" useHostIOCache="true" Bootable="true">
<AttachedDevice passthrough="false" type="DVD" port="1" device="0"/>
</StorageController>
<StorageController name="SATA Controller" type="AHCI" PortCount="1" useHostIOCache="false" Bootable="true" IDE0MasterEmulationPort="0" IDE0SlaveEmulationPort="1" IDE1MasterEmulationPort="2" IDE1SlaveEmulationPort="3">
<AttachedDevice nonrotational="true" type="HardDisk" port="0" device="0">
<Image uuid="{379d7628-30f3-4112-be02-a48cca868dde}"/>
</AttachedDevice>
</StorageController>
</StorageControllers>
</Machine>
</VirtualBox>

[ArchEnthusiast]

Update: I imported the VM into VMware Player and it seems to work great, with no slowdowns. So it seems like the host itself isn't fundamentally broken, but there's something VirtualBox is doing wrong.