SMP failures

[Marian Kechlibar]

Hello,

I have a Windows XP guest running on openSuse host (kernel 2.6.30). The processor is Intel Core2Quad.
The Windows XP guest has the correct HAL version (halmacpi.dll). If I setup more than 1 virtual processor
in the System properties of the guest, the Task Manager shows multiple cores, which is OK.

However, as soon as I set more than 1 virtual processor, the guest system starts to behave strangely in the next startup.

1. Every other startup ends abnormally - the Windows startup screen just hangs, and the log is full of messages Async IO thread probably stuck ... I am attaching the log.

2. If Windows manages to start correctly (that is, in 50% of occassions), I try to compile a project in Eclipse, with 2 parallel builds. As the "make" starts, the Windows guest crashes into BSOD, with message MEMORY MANAGEMENT. Therefore, I cannot effectively work with more than 1 processor. I am attaching the log as well, but it does not show anything suspicious.

3. Last night, I tried to move a 600 MB ISO file from a shared folder into the guest's own virtual hard drive, using Explorer in the guest Windows. It took 40 minutes to finish! I read about painful slowness of shared folders before; therefore, I tried to drop the network connection, which did not help at all.

Best regards

Marian

[Perryg]

Do you have I/O-APIC turned on?

[Marian Kechlibar]

Do you have I/O-APIC turned on?

Yes, I do.

[graysky]

Not to hijack your thread, but I'm running an XP Pro guest OS on my Arch Linux x86_64 (kernel 2.6.30) host and have also observed some really quirky behaviors. Mainly, the guest OS is very choppy and takes much longer to accomplish tasks with 2, 3, or 4 CPUs enabled than it does with just 1. Even booting takes 2-3x longer

My host machine is an X3360 (Xeon quad). I don't think SMP is ready for primetime use just yet. Can others post their feedback using it? Are you guys experiencing the same slow down as I am or is it just me

[Marian Kechlibar]

Mainly, the guest OS is very choppy and takes much longer to accomplish tasks with 2, 3, or 4 CPUs enabled than it does with just 1. Even booting takes 2-3x longer
... Are you guys experiencing the same slow down as I am or is it just me

Hi, I noticed similar behavior, but I did not measure it exactly. Surely the booting took longer. Could it be that the CPUs are fighting with one another for access to disk drives?

----

Sun VBox developers: anyone interested in the logs I posted?

[anblasko]

I have also same symptoms , linux host, XP guest. On 2 core host, if I enable 2 cores for guest I got 100% per core on host even with guest on idle and guest becomes badly responsive (time on guest moves at least 5 or more times slower). When I revert to 1 core everything becomes normal.

[poup99]

I am having the same problem but with a windows 7 64 bits guest in an Ubuntu 64 bits host with VB 3.0. The processor is a phenom x4 940. If i use 1 processor i am having a decent performance but when i select more then 1 processor the performance is slowed to near unusable.

[twistedlincoln]

I'm having similar problems. Guest takes ~ten minutes to boot with multiple CPUs, but only ~20 seconds when only a single CPU. Both the guest and the host are GNU/Linux.

Running VB 3.0 final.

[nbi]

My XP guest under Debian Lenny hard-locks with more than one CPU. XP is very choppy which is most noticeable with the audio. All problems disappear when configured for one CPU.

[mobrien118]

I agree with all of these posts, and am trying to find a way to switch my XP kernel back to the uniprocessor one. The (virtual) system is unusable in its current state.

[graysky]

@mobrien118 - you can try the method described in this thread to do it. Your second option is to just reinstall the guest which w/ windows blows since you have to reinstall/reconfigure all your software.