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VirtualBox Freezing

Posted: 14. Jun 2012, 09:45
by bph
I have an odd problem runnign VirtualBox

I had been using it successfully for several weeks running Windows7 64 bti VM on Ubuntu 11.10 Host

I then upgraded Host OS to Ubuntu 12.04 and broke VirtualBox I think due to kernel mismatch

My solution was to renistall the 12.04 (precise) .deb package from the virtualbox download site

This worked *during* the current session, i.e. while I was logged in to Ubuntu

However, closing down the machine then restarting ubuntu and then starting virtualbox was causing my machine to freeze completely

I then deleted the Windows VM uninstalled VirtualBox and reinstalled VirtualBox via the ubuntu software manager

I then reinstalled the Windows VM

Again, all worked fine *during* that session, but now, after closing down and rebooting, virtualbox freezes the machine every time

Has anyone experienced any similiar problems to this?

Re: VirtualBox Freezing

Posted: 14. Jun 2012, 10:12
by bph
having done a little more digging, this bug seems to be very similar to what I am experiencing:

Ticket #10528 (new defect) <- sorry not allowed to post urls yet...

a further question would be how I can implement the fix? Does this imply I have to rebuild virtualbox from the latest svn src to fix the problem?

So far I have just been using the precompiled binaries from the download section, e.g. the precise .deb file

Re: VirtualBox Freezing

Posted: 14. Jun 2012, 11:20
by bph
for now I have added:

nmi_watchdog=0 nowatchdog

to /etc/defult/grub, e.g.

Code: Select all

# If you change this file, run 'update-grub' afterwards to update
# /boot/grub/grub.cfg.
# For full documentation of the options in this file, see:
#   info -f grub -n 'Simple configuration'

GRUB_DEFAULT=0
#GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT=0
GRUB_HIDDEN_TIMEOUT_QUIET=true
GRUB_TIMEOUT=10
GRUB_DISTRIBUTOR=`lsb_release -i -s 2> /dev/null || echo Debian`
# Uncomment for original line pre-virtualbox bug workaround (bph 20120614)
#GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash nmi_watchdog=0 nowatchdog"
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX=""

# Uncomment to enable BadRAM filtering, modify to suit your needs
# This works with Linux (no patch required) and with any kernel that obtains
# the memory map information from GRUB (GNU Mach, kernel of FreeBSD ...)
#GRUB_BADRAM="0x01234567,0xfefefefe,0x89abcdef,0xefefefef"

# Uncomment to disable graphical terminal (grub-pc only)
#GRUB_TERMINAL=console

# The resolution used on graphical terminal
# note that you can use only modes which your graphic card supports via VBE
# you can see them in real GRUB with the command `vbeinfo'
#GRUB_GFXMODE=640x480

# Uncomment if you don't want GRUB to pass "root=UUID=xxx" parameter to Linux
#GRUB_DISABLE_LINUX_UUID=true

# Uncomment to disable generation of recovery mode menu entries
#GRUB_DISABLE_RECOVERY="true"

# Uncomment to get a beep at grub start
#GRUB_INIT_TUNE="480 440 1"


then re-ran update-grub, e.g.

Code: Select all

$ sudo update-grub
touch-wood - this *seems* to have fixed the problem

Re: VirtualBox Freezing

Posted: 14. Jun 2012, 11:28
by michaln
I'll post the ticket URL here: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10528

Yes, that certainly sounds like what you ran into, and the workaround given in the ticket should apply.

Re: VirtualBox Freezing

Posted: 16. Jun 2012, 12:34
by mwildam
Thank you sooo much!
The bug is already fixed by the way in SVN (so maybe fixed with next release of VirtualBox).