Mouse Hover on Devices Sub Menu crash

[appyface]

I upgraded a few days ago from 6.1.4 to 6.1.14 on my Win7 Pro Sp1 64-bit host box.

After install I removed the old extension pack (6.1.4) from preferences and added the new extension pack for 6.1.14. (Don't know this is relevant, just telling what I did.) I haven't upgraded the existing guests to the new GA yet.

Every previously existing guest (Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Linux Mint), as well as a brand-new Linux Mint guest created today on version 6.1.14 (with just the live CD running and no GA) have the same issue: While the guest is running, when I mouse-over the Devices menu at top and then move down to hover on one of the sub-menus, the guest window briefly flashes and the title bar has (Not Reponding). This is followed quickly by a pop-up box, which is the same on all guests:

VirtualBoxVM: VirtualBoxVM.exe - Application Error
The instruction at 0x69328a90 referenced memory at 0x00000008. The memory could not be read.
Click OK to terminate the program. (OK box)

Guest is aborted once clicking OK.

If I am lucky with my timing I can make it into the sub-menu function before this happens and the guest continues normally, as does the sub-function.

Thank you for any help and info. Kind regards.

[scottgus1]

That's very weird.

Try uninstalling Virtualbox then shut down and restart the computer. Your guests will remain behind safely.
Right-click the Virtualbox installer and choose Run As Administrator.
After the installer finishes and Virtualbox opens, it will still be running as Admin. Uninstall and reinstall the Extension Pack. Be sure the EP is the same version as Virtualbox.

Shut down and restart the computer again, then try a guest.

[appyface]

@scottgus1

I should have thought of that!

I had tried re-downloading both the installer and the guest additions, performing a repair install, and rebooting, which did not fix this.

Uninstall and reboot worked. Thank you so much.

Kind regards.

[scottgus1]

So everything is up and running again?

[appyface]

It sure is!

[scottgus1]

Great! Glad you're up and running.

[appyface]

Well, the problem is back.

I've just created a new VM for same - Linux Mint 20 Xfce 64-bit - and have booted the Live CD. As soon as the guest is up, hovering over the device menu gives the same memory error at the same address, and terminates the guest.

Seems like the Live CD is somehow interfering with the main program's memory?

I'll try reinstalling VBOX and rebooting once the guest is finished being installed this weekend.

[scottgus1]

Seems like the Live CD is somehow interfering

If the previous guests have the problem too:

Every previously existing guest (Windows XP, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Linux Mint)...have the same issue

then the LiveCD itself isn't causing the problem.

If a full reinstall didn't fix the problem, another thing to try is to reset the Virtualbox XMLs and re-register the guests.

Reboot the host so no Virtualbox processes are running. Go to C:\Users\{you} and move the '.Virtualbox' folder to the desktop. (Note the period in the folder name.) Your existing guest will not be affected.

Start the main Virtualbox window. It will start like the first day you installed it, with an empty guest list and reset Preferences. Virtualbox will make a new .Virtualbox folder.

Now try to make a new guest. See if the problem happens. Reboot and try the guest again.

If you now don't have trouble, you can find your existing guests using the Machine menu, Add function, and register the existing guests' .vbox files. You'll have to manually set up any Preferences settings you had from before.

If you continue to have trouble with the new guest before registering existing guests, then there is something unknown wrong with your host OS. What it is would be a realy big puzzle to me, though.

[appyface]

Just to clarify:

The previous guests did NOT have the menu issue UNTIL I installed Linux. I don't go to the menu regularly, but I did happen to earlier in the day before I installed Linux and did not have trouble. I noticed the problem on Linux after installing it. It was then I checked the other guests and they too had the menu crash issue. I have not created a new VM in a long time, this linux install was the first after many many months and vbox upgrades.

The uninstall, reboot, reinstall did fix the issue for the previous guests and for the installed linux guest. The menus behaved fine even this morning, right up until I created a new VM and booted the linux Live CD, and the problem was back.

So it could be true, linux live CD is not causing the issue.. maybe creating a new VM is causing the issue. Though that seems doubtful. Or it's something else as you say. Hard to say what's causative vs. coincidence...

When I get some time this weekend, I will first "fix it again" (I hope) with uninstall/reboot/reinstall, then create a new XP VM and see if the menu issue returns. If it doesn't I'll look at doing your other suggestions.

[scottgus1]

Uninstall/reinstall doesn't fix problems that might be in the settings files. Try the '.Virtualbox' folder move too.

[fth0]

First of all, the submenus are populated when you hover over them, so the first question would be which submenu exhibits the problem. Open the menu and advance slowly downwards to find out.

Additionally, reproduce the problem, tell us the wall clock time with an accuracy of about 1 second, and post the VBoxSVC.log file.

[appyface]

@fth0 It is the device menu, if I hover over that and stay there the crash will happen. If I move quickly enough into any of the submenus I can get into one before it crashes and the submenu works fine.

I did not have a chance to look at this over the weekend, I will try this week.

[fth0]

It is the device menu, if I hover over that and stay there the crash will happen. If I move quickly enough into any of the submenus I can get into one before it crashes and the submenu works fine.

Your description isn't detailed enough yet for me to come to a conclusion.

There are a lot of different mouse and keyboard actions you can perform. If you like, you can play the following adventure:

1. Mouse click (button down + up) on Devices and wait a few seconds.
2. Move the mouse downwards very fast to below the Devices menu and wait a few seconds.
3. Move the mouse upwards to hover over Insert Guest Additions CD Image... and wait a few seconds.
4. Move the mouse upwards one item and wait a few seconds.
5. Repeat step 4 until the crash happens.

When you hover with the mouse over a menu item which contains a submenu, the latter is populated and shown right away. If you do the same with the keyboard, it is not shown right away, but maybe populated nonetheless (I'm not sure about that).

1. Mouse click (button down + up) on Devices and wait a few seconds.
6. Press and release the Down key and wait a few seconds.
7. Press and release the Right key and wait a few seconds.
8. Press and release the Left key, and goto step 6.

[appyface]

I'm sorry, my time has evaporated and I'll have to leave this for another day.

What I can answer as to your questions, though:

To reiterate, if I hover over the device menu and stay there (or hover/click on any submenu that doesn't engage it) the crash will happen. If I move quickly enough into any of the submenus and execute it before it crashes, the submenu works fine. The key is to get a function executed before the crash, to escape it.

1. Mouse click (button down + up) on Devices and wait a few seconds. >>> near instant crash, less than a second - I can't stay on anything in this menu
2. Move the mouse downwards very fast to below the Devices menu and wait a few seconds. >>> start over and try to get to here, crash when I get there
3. Move the mouse upwards to hover over Insert Guest Additions CD Image... and wait a few seconds. >>> start over and try to get here, crash before I get there
4. Move the mouse upwards one item and wait a few seconds. >>> start over and try to move around, crash in less than a second
5. Repeat step 4 until the crash happens. >>> crash happens almost instantly if I don't get into a submenu and execute the function before it happens

When you hover with the mouse over a menu item which contains a submenu, the latter is populated and shown right away. If you do the same with the keyboard, it is not shown right away, but maybe populated nonetheless (I'm not sure about that).

>>> same as mouse, as soon as I engage Devices or any submenu that does not lead to an executable function quickly enough, crash.

1. Mouse click (button down + up) on Devices and wait a few seconds.
6. Press and release the Down key and wait a few seconds.
7. Press and release the Right key and wait a few seconds.
8. Press and release the Left key, and goto step 6.



As mentioned, my time has evaporated and I won't be coming back to this for some time (if it happens again).

FWIW I deleted the Linux Mint guest and now I don't have the problem. I don't have time anymore to play with getting the Linux Mint guest running so we can close this out.

Thank you to all for assistance, sorry I can't drive this to conclusion. Kind regards.

[fth0]

Thank you to all for assistance, sorry I can't drive this to conclusion.

No problem, and thanks for playing the adventure game and the feedback.