Windows guest sluggishness / lag with mouse pointer

[socratis]

Please be responsible. Don't open tickets just out of a grudge...

[cs2015]

Please be responsible. Don't open tickets just out of a grudge...

Don't worry, I'm sure the developers never actually read the tickets. They clearly never test the software after all.

[LouP]

Dear socratis and/or VirtualBox admins,

This is a "me too" for the issue of very slow graphics on a MacBook Pro 2016 running RedHat on VirtualBox. As previous comments mentioned, the graphics perform *much* better (albeit not extremely fast) with any 5.0.* version of VirtualBox. However, with any 5.1.* version of VirtualBox, the graphics is quite slow (e.g. moving a window across the screen is *very* slow and laggy), which renders the use of RedHat on VirtualBox extremely difficult and frustrating.

Please note that I have never had any issue and have never reported any problem with VirtualBox for the last several years. As a matter of fact, I just created the Oracle account in order to post this reply.

Also, note that my configuration is the following:
Apple MacBook Pro (15-inch, 2016) with 2.7GHz i7 processor with 16GB RAM and both Radeon Pro 455 (2GB) and Intel HD Graphics 530 (1.5GB)
macOS Sierra version 10.12.3
on VirtualBox, I am running RedHat linux.

I really hope you can point us to the right solution.

Best regards and thank you for the otherwise great piece of software!

[socratis]

It would be best if you went to the ticket itself (https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16436) and added your configuration.

Remember, the more data points the developers have, the better. That is, if you have slow graphics with RedHat, and you can try a couple of other live distros, it will definitely get a lot more traction.

Another HUGE point would be if you had an external/alternate HD where you could try a different OSX version than 10.12.x, say 10.11.x or even 10.10.x. That would really narrow down the testcase and simplify the developers life => quicker fix

BTW, 5.1.16 just came out, I'm not sure if you've tried it or not, but give it a shot. Plus there are several recommendations in the linked ticket; some work, some don't...

[LouP]

Thank you socratis for the quick response!

I will follow the link you provided and enter my config there.

However just to answer your questions, I did try with the latest version of VirtualBox (5.1.16), and I also tried all different suggestions that were posted but to no avail.

Thanks again.

[michaln]

I give up with this crappy amateurish software.

Thank you, we don't need to waste time with such users, it is not a productive use of anyone's time.

It is utterly absurd that the developers of VB apparently do not bother to check that it works with the latest version of MacOS. Had they actually tried it, it would be immediately blindingly obvious that something is very wrong with the graphics. A child would notice it !

Certainly. An adult on the other hand would consider the possibility that extrapolating from a sample size of one may be a very foolish thing to do.

The problem is that we do not have the magic hardware/software combination which shows this problem, and we don't know what that is. The only facts we have is that some Retina Macs are affected and some are not. We also know some non-Retina Macs are unaffected but don't know if some are.

We also have reports that the problem is intermittent and the lag is not constant and may not be reproducible at will. It is probably a problem with redraws being very slow (rather than input lag). So far no pattern has emerged as to what graphics hardware is affected or not, although we suspect that only certain graphics chip might show it.

We also know that Apple changed something but we don't know what it was.

[LouP]

Dear michain,

I just read your reply to cs2015 and thought I would give you some extra input:

I am convinced that this is not an intermittent problem. I consistently have it on my machine. Also, and as was mentioned previously, _any_ version of 5.0.* works relatively fine, and _all_ versions of 5.1.* show this problem. And this is happening on my 2016 macbook pro with the latest version of macOS, whereas it did not happen at all on my 2012 macbook pro (which was also upgraded to the latest version of macOS).

Note that I am currently running VirtualBox version 5.0.34 in order to get an "okay" performance on my RedHat guest, since with the 5.1.* the windows moving is really annoying.

I hope this helps.

[socratis]

I consistently have it on my machine.

I believe that this is the point that #michain was trying to make; there are specific combinations of OS version/hardware that exhibit this problem. Until the following is established, you can't focus on and identify the problem, let alone taking the steps in resolving it:

So far no pattern has emerged as to what graphics hardware is affected or not, although we suspect that only certain graphics chip might show it.

That's why adding "data points" to the report will help isolate the culprit. That's why your input was valuable, as well as everybody else's that wanted to contribute.

[agodfrin]

I just started having the same problem. I am running VB 5.1.12 r112440 (Qt5.6.2) with a number of Linux guests. They all have the same symptoms as described (I think): dragging windows around is very sluggish. The windows move but lag behind the mouse pointer.

BUT: this is not related to the version of the macOS host. I run macOS Sierra 10.12.3 on two MacBook Pros. I only started noticing the issue when I switched from my older 2012 MacBook Pro to a more recent 2016 MacBook Pro with a high-resolution retina screen. So I conclude that the issue is with the screen resolution, not the version of macOS.

I saw a suggestion of ticking the "Use Unscaled HiDPI Output" option in the Displays option. That actually "solves" the issue of sorts, but the VM screen is now tiny and unusable.

So my conclusion is that the issue is related to the resolution of the display screen. Only new MacBook Pro's with high-resolution display have the issue. If the VB developers test the Mac ports on machines without retina displays, then they will not see the issue.

I will also update the ticket with this information (if I can).

Albert

[socratis]

I only started noticing the issue when I switched from my older 2012 MacBook Pro to a more recent 2016 MacBook Pro with a high-resolution retina screen. So I conclude that the issue is with the screen resolution, not the version of macOS.
...
I will also update the ticket with this information (if I can).

Albert, that's a great observation! Please do post that in ticket 16436, it's going to help a lot with debugging this. Just to let you know, another idea was to pass the mouse as a USB device, as they think it may not have something to do with the display, but with the input coordinates being slowly updated/refreshed. Check out the ticket for the details...

[agodfrin]

Just to let you know, another idea was to pass the mouse as a USB device, as they think it may not have something to do with the display, but with the input coordinates being slowly updated/refreshed. Check out the ticket for the details...

I saw that hypothesis discussed. I am using the trackpad as well as a magic mouse. The issue happens with both indifferently. I don't think there is a way to connect a magic mouse directly to the VM. I will try and find a USB-wired mouse ...

I updated the ticket with the info.

Albert

[michaln]

I just started having the same problem. I am running VB 5.1.12 r112440 (Qt5.6.2) with a number of Linux guests. They all have the same symptoms as described (I think): dragging windows around is very sluggish. The windows move but lag behind the mouse pointer.

There are probably two completely different problems that happen to look the same. One is with guests that use 3D, and one is with guests that don't.

On a Retina Mac, guests without 3D are slow. And they're even slower when the VirtualBox scaling is used. That is somewhat expected. But guests that use 3D use a very different rendering path and should not be slow, yet in some cases are.

BUT: this is not related to the version of the macOS host. I run macOS Sierra 10.12.3 on two MacBook Pros. I only started noticing the issue when I switched from my older 2012 MacBook Pro to a more recent 2016 MacBook Pro with a high-resolution retina screen. So I conclude that the issue is with the screen resolution, not the version of macOS.

That is not a logically correct conclusion. If you ran El Capitan on your 2016 MBP, or on some other Mac that shows the slowness with Sierra, and if El Capitan was just as slow as Sierra, then you could say the problem has nothing to do with the OS version. You don't have enough data to say that.

So my conclusion is that the issue is related to the resolution of the display screen. Only new MacBook Pro's with high-resolution display have the issue. If the VB developers test the Mac ports on machines without retina displays, then they will not see the issue.

But of course we have Retina Macs. And they don't show such slowness, or not to a point where it would cause any significant lag. I have a 27" Retina iMac sitting next to me, it's fine (and it's running Sierra).

We have some indication that the problem may be related to the scaling selected in System Preferences / Displays, which apparently has different defaults on the 2016 MBPs.

As always it is critical that users provide VBox.log (attach to the ticket, not here) because from there we can figure out the basic facts about the host system.

[agodfrin]

On a Retina Mac, guests without 3D are slow. And they're even slower when the VirtualBox scaling is used. That is somewhat expected. But guests that use 3D use a very different rendering path and should not be slow, yet in some cases are.
...
We have some indication that the problem may be related to the scaling selected in System Preferences / Displays, which apparently has different defaults on the 2016 MBPs.

Well I just tried on Linux VM with and without 3D acceleration. I see no difference whatsoever. Dragging windows is as just as sluggish in both modes. I also see no difference in the way the screen refreshes (graphics display the same way, movies too).

I also tried ticking the "Use Unscaled HiDPI Output". Then the dragging looks better: much less sluggishness - but that may be just because the VM display is now very small (and actually unusable).

Then again, this problem, has been kicking around for several years now.

[socratis]

Then again, this problem, has been kicking around for several years now.

If someone reports a bug and *I* can't reproduce it, *I* can't fix something that seems imaginary to *me*, it's as simple as that. And *I* can''t do anything if 99% of this side of the universe sees it; if the *I* can't reproduce it, it ain't going to get fixed. No matter how loud all the users scream.

You end up with baffled developers and screaming users. And this is not going personally for you, this is because I'm closely watching the bug report (#16436) and everyone's reaction...

[agodfrin]

Then again, this problem, has been kicking around for several years now.

If someone reports a bug and *I* can't reproduce it, *I* can't fix something that seems imaginary to *me*, it's as simple as that. And *I* can''t do anything if 99% of this side of the universe sees it; if the *I* can't reproduce it, it ain't going to get fixed. No matter how loud all the users scream.

I know what you mean. I am in the same boat: things fail on the customer site. Works fine on ours ...

I see you are in Greece ... I am going to be in Athens for a couple of days around May 18. If it helps, I can show you the symptoms in my environment. Maybe that can be a step towards reproducing it (or at least understanding it). I can't let you walk away with my MacBook however