4.0.4 (and 4.0.2) fails on new quad core Macbook Pro

[pvernaza]

Has anyone tried this dual-booting to a Linux host? I'm very curious as to whether this is a Mac OS issue or a Sandy Bridge issue.

[natethegreat44]

Has anyone tried this dual-booting to a Linux host? I'm very curious as to whether this is a Mac OS issue or a Sandy Bridge issue.

I just installed Windows 7 (64 bit) via boot camp, and then installed VirtualBox 4.0.4 on that. I created a new VM (VT-x is enabled) and everything was ok there... so it appears to be an issue with Mac OS Virtualbox, not Sandy Bridge. I will add the log file to the ticket... if this is not useful, please let me know and I'll stop adding them.

Also, for what it's worth, VMWare Fusion and Parallels seem to be having the same issues with the new MacBook Pros and 12 core machines: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/304588

Hope this helps.
Thanks,
Nate

[stl]

Parallels on my new quad core Macbook Pro runs Windows Server 2008 swimmingly. I've been developing in VS 2010 all evening...

STL

[bkirby]

Nate, thanks for doing the bug submission, and thanks to everyone for figuring this out so quickly.

I'm seeing the same thing, not surprisingly, on the 17" 2.2GHz model. Unusable with horrid performance and occasional kernel panics with VT-x on. I'm getting by with a single-cpu VM running 32-bit Windows 7.

[masterofsnooker]

hello

any news for this problem?

daniel

[pratul]

The new MBP's are configured to start in 64bit mode. I was having similar issues till I booted it in 32-bit mode and have an XP VM running with 2 cores, VT-x enables. Been running for the past 30 minutes and working great (At least for now)

To boot the MBP in 32 bit mode, hold down the "3" and "2" keys when you power on. Go to "About this Mac" --> More Info.. --> "software" to verify. "64-bit kernel and extensions" should be "No"

[rayp]

The new MBP's are configured to start in 64bit mode. I was having similar issues till I booted it in 32-bit mode and have an XP VM running with 2 cores, VT-x enables. Been running for the past 30 minutes and working great (At least for now)

To boot the MBP in 32 bit mode, hold down the "3" and "2" keys when you power on. Go to "About this Mac" --> More Info.. --> "software" to verify. "64-bit kernel and extensions" should be "No"

This "work-around" has been working for me for several hours now with two VMs running (both WinXP). Thanks for the work-around, and hopefully we will see a 64-bit kernel fix soon...

[kewlpics]

Hope this gets fixed soon. Has anyone tried previous versions of VBox?

[joe.r]

Just confirming that booting the new MacBook Pros into 32 bit mode does indeed work around the problem. I was able to boot my Win7 installation with full acceleration and 3 processors assigned to it. I've never seen it move that fast!

To boot between 32/64 bit kernels:

http://support.apple.com/kb/ht3773

[spaaarky21]

I have a dual core i5 MBP and I've found the entire 4.0.x branch to be unusably slow. I went back to 3.2.12 so I can actually get something done.

[jamesthuang]

Yes! The problem comes from enable VT-x.
I have a MBP early 201, 2.2 Ghz 15" . I was quite satisfied with my MBP mid 2009, Windows XP on VB 4.0.4.
But when I changed to this new MBP with same VB and guest OS, it ran awful. It slaggier than slaggiest .
But after I went through this forum, I disabled VT-X and boomp!!! it's back.
Thanks!

[Marcet]

Also, for what it's worth, VMWare Fusion and Parallels seem to be having the same issues with the new MacBook Pros and 12 core machines: http://communities.vmware.com/thread/304588

I've tested both VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop (both latest tryout versions), and they do not have this problem, with or without VTx activated.
I've tested them with Fedora 14, CentOS 5.5, Windows XP and Windows 7.

[CoryAllison]

Thought I would add to the fray:

New model Quad Core MBP running 4.0.4 with 32bit Win7 guest.

In 64 bit mode I experience similar behavior as mentioned in most of the previous threads as well as random kernel panics.

Booting 32bit mode allows me to add additional processors with acceleration and the kernel panic issue seems to have resided.

Regards,

Cory

[lshaner]

FYI, there are numerous, well-known issues with Virtual Box on 64-bit Mac OS X.
The issues that I identified in the following post have NOT improved AT ALL with later revisions of Virtual Box.

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 69&start=0

[washirv]

Same here, fully updated to 10.6.7. If I run a VM in 64 bit mode, I can almost guarantee a full system freeze if I do much else. Running video in Chrome or Firefox provokes it quickly. Safari takes longer to bring it down, but it will within 15-20 minutes. VT-x setting doesn't make any difference.

32 bit mode does not share this problem.

Edit: I've been running two VMs under Fusion for a day under 64 bit OSX alongside a variety of other programs, with no troubles at all.