System instability - OS X kernel panics - with 4.1.x?

[jglogan]

I've been running with 4.1.4 now for about 10 days and whereas before the upgrade things were rock solid, I'm now experiencing OS X kernel panics (grey screens) about once or twice a day. These panics seem to occur primarily when I'm shutting down a guest system.

Has anyone else seen this sort of instability after jumping to 4.1.4?

I'm running OS X 10.6.8, 64-bit. I'm usually running one Ubuntu 10.04.3 guest, occasionally I'll have a second one running.

Thanks,

John

[hank]

Yes. Mid-2011 mini, OSX 10.7.1, since 4.1.4 VBox (but not with 4.1.2 on the same Mac, and not with 4.1.2 on an older Mac with 10.6.8 )
Windows VMs
panic attached; brief excerpt:
---
BSD process name corresponding to current thread: VirtualBoxVM
Mac OS version:11C74
Kernel version: Darwin Kernel Version 11.2.0: Tue Aug 9 20:54:00 PDT 2011; root:xnu-1699.24.8~1/RELEASE_X86_64
Kernel UUID: 59275DFA-10C0-30B3-9E26-F7B5DFB1A432
System model name: Macmini5,1 (Mac-8ED6AF5B48C039E1)

[jglogan]

I have attached the four panic summaries I have, all page faults:
1.) 10/4, caller 0xffffff80002d1208, trap at 0xffffff8000249148, current thread VirtualBoxVM
2.) 10/12, caller 0xffffff80002d1208, trap at 0xffffff8000477256, current thread mdworker
3.) 10/13, caller 0xffffff80002d1208, trap at 0xffffff8000249148, current thread VirtualBoxVM
4.) 10/14, caller 0xffffff80002d1208, trap at 0xffffff8000477256, current thread Google Chrome

Looks like this is a fairly common signature; googling the caller address yields several hits. There are several that refer to the problem occurring while an iPhone is connected (EDIT: most posts refer to network tethering via USB; I'm not doing this) via USB to the Mac.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3055006?start=0&tstart=0

Hank, is this the case for you also?

[Sharpie]

I have been sticking to VirtualBox 4.0.12 since I experienced this behavior after updating to 4.1.2.

OS X 10.6.8, x86_64 kernel.

[tedrob]

I too got a kernel panic after closing my recently install VB 4.1.4 having shut down the Guest OS (Win7) on my Mac OS X 10.7.2.

Took me by surprise, so no more details. Thought it may have been the 10.7.2 update, rather than the 4.1.4 one.

[hank]

> problem occurring while an iPhone is connected (EDIT: most posts refer to network tethering via USB; I'm not doing this) via USB to the Mac.
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/3055006?start=0&tstart=0
Hank, is this the case for you also?

No iphone or anything else connected via USB at any time.

I just got another kernel panic and it's worse than the previous ones. The other times I was able to get everything working after rebooting.

This time, I can't load any VMs at all; the one VM I had open when the kernel panicked shows as aborted and can't be opened, giving "exit code 1" and
Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: Machine
Interface: IMachine {5eaa9319-62fc-4b0a-843c-0cb1940f8a91}

the other VMs also won't open either. (all Windows guests)

Trying to look at Settings, it says "failed to access the USB subsystem could not load the host USB proxy service VERR_GENERAL_FAILURE, and then the details are

Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x00004005)
Component: Host
Interface: IHost {dab4a2b8-c735-4f08-94fc-9bec84182e2f}
Callee: IMachine {5eaa9319-62fc-4b0a-843c-0cb1940f8a91}

---
When I close the bouncing icon in the Dock for the VM that won't open, I get:
Kernel Driver Not Installed (rc=1908)
Make sure the kernel module has been loaded successfully

VBox may have been developing problems before this last kernel crash, I've been having trouble with all but one VM not having their remote desktop ports available -- and it was the one where RD did work that now is aborted.

Dunno. Will poke at it further. I've sent all the reports to Apple routinely. Can post more here if there's something that would be useful to someone.

[hank]

uninstalled; installed 4.1.2 this time hoping it would help.
Got another kernel panic within half an hour.
Mystified.

[Sharpie]

uninstalled; installed 4.1.2 this time hoping it would help.
Got another kernel panic within half an hour.
Mystified.

I had to downgrade all the way to 4.0.12 before the panics stopped.

[jglogan]

I upgraded to 4.1.6 and no change. USB connection has nothing to do with this AFAICT.

The common thread is that it happens around startup/shutdown of a VM. All I have to do is start and stop VMs enough times, and kaboom.

[hank]

> had to downgrade all the way to 4.0.12 before the panics stopped.

Anyone knowledgeable enough about this to file a proper bug report with, er, whoever?
Apple, I guess?

I know Apple gets the automatic reports, but I wonder if there's any hope of getting this sorted out by asking for help somewhere.

[jglogan]

I filed https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/9897.

[frank]

Let's summarize: This seems to be a 4.1.x regression as I've seen reports that even after downgrading to 4.1.2 the problem persists, is that correct?

[jglogan]

Hi Frank,

I can confirm that the issue happens regularly for me when using 4.1.4 and 4.1.6. I don't recall experiencing the issue with 4.1.2 myself, but back in August when that release came out, my usage patterns were a little different - I ran a single dev VM and that's it. Now I run a second VM intermittently for testing, and it's typically around the time that that VM starts up and shuts down that I see the failure.

thanks! John

[nycademon]

Hi Frank--

This happened to me today, after upgrading to 4.1.6. I have used 4.1.2 and 4.1.4 with no problems (though I don't use Virtualbox extensively), with either Ubuntu or Windows 7 guest.

[jstultz]

My coworkers and I also see this on a routine basis, on 4.1.4 as well as 4.1.6, running on various Macbook Pros running snow leopard and lion. At least once a day between 6 of us; seemingly always while shutting down a guest.