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OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 7. Mar 2017, 06:11
by Anythingtech
HARDWARE:
2013 iMac, 27"
3.2GHz Intel Core i5
32GB 1600 MHz DDR3
NVIDIA GeForce GT 755M 1024 MB

HOST OS: 10.12.3 macOS Sierra
virtualbox: 5.1.14
Host Audio Driver: CoreAudio
Audio Controller: Intel HD Audio

GUEST OS: 10.11.6 El Capitan (currently testing with)

OUTCOME = SLOW & CHOPPY PLAYBACK!!!, Like think "slow motion", where it appears something is wrong with sample rate.
[from attached virtualbox log]
00:00:01.185717 Audio: Initializing Core Audio driver
00:00:01.185725 Audio: Using VBox 5.0.x audio code!
00:00:01.201255 Audio: Host audio backend supports 2 output streams and 2 input streams at once
00:00:01.201296 Audio: Initializing VRDE driver
00:00:01.201301 Audio: Using VBox 5.0.x audio code!
00:00:01.201304 Audio: Host audio backend supports 1 output streams and 2 input streams at once

I'm just trying to run ANY VERSION OS X (10.10, 10.11, 10.12) as a Guest VM within virtualbox WITH WORKING AUDIO for the simple purpose/test of:

1.) Install Spotify
2.) Play a song

That's it. I just want to use spotify within the guest to play a song and listen to the output through the host OS speakers. Pretty simple? -- But it seems we're still suffering from the no audio / choppy audio issues as when spotify begins to play the song, it plays back in a "SLOWED DOWN", or "PITCHED DOWN" rate, almost as though there is an issue with the sample rate of playback!?!?

Is OS X guest audio STILL UNUSABLE!?!? It seems like it's been like this, at least for me, since around Jul 2016 - possibly longer?

Can anyone confirm we're still waiting on a fix for this? I couldn't find any open I'm willing to help troubleshoot.

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 7. Mar 2017, 07:36
by socratis
I think you missed the following:
Anythingtech wrote:00:00:01.185725 Audio: Using VBox 5.0.x audio code!
Do you know what that means? It means that when for the 5.1.x series they tried to revamp the audio part, and it didn't work out (it was in fact so bad, worse than the 5.0.x and previous ones), they had to revert back to the 5.0.x audio code, just to get this this "working", forget about "working adequtely".

Patience is your only friend for the moment, unless you really know your hardcore multi-platform programming, I'd say in the area of real-time buffered events with really strange timings. ;)

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 7. Mar 2017, 08:08
by Anythingtech
I didn't miss that! That's why I posted it -- I wanted to let somebody know that 5.0.x audio code is NOT working in 5.1.14 virtualbox!!! Not even "not adequately" it just doesn't work period! lol.

I don't mind waiting for a fix if one is in the works... But do you know of an open bug I can track for progress because I've have periodically been installing and trying to play sound from an OS X guest VM for almost over a year and thats a long time to wait!!!

Alternatively, Is there a way to revert back to a previous version of virtualbox when guest sound was working? Do we know specifically when it broke?

Thank you.

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 7. Mar 2017, 09:55
by socratis
Anythingtech wrote:I wanted to let somebody know that 5.0.x audio code is NOT working in 5.1.14 virtualbox!!!
Maybe I didn't make myself clear. This *IS* the sound working. The "beep" that you might hear I mean. You *DO* see the output audio options, right? That's "working" for you! Before, you didn't even have an audio output. That's what I mean "not working". You do *NOT* want to see the 5.1.x audio. Or actually, if you do, you can revert to something in between 5.1.0 and 5.1.8.
Anythingtech wrote:But do you know of an open bug I can track for progress
Search the bugtracker for open tickets + audio. There are way too many to list them individually...
Anythingtech wrote:Alternatively, Is there a way to revert back to a previous version of VirtualBox when guest sound was working?
You must be new around here... ;)
On OSX guests? No. I didn't say they broke something that was working. It was never really working really on OSX guests. Never. It's not its forte. It definitely doesn't come even close to being used as an audio output the way that you envision it. If you had some sort of audio feedback for your actions (as in "beep") you were happy...

Any particular reason you're not using Spotify natively? Because at the end you'll have to realize that some real-time, resource relying processes are not working that great in a VM. Don't even think for example to play a game on a VM. Except Minesweeper or Chess...

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 4. Dec 2017, 10:00
by DrD
I agree this is a lousy issue. I get terribly poor, slow/deep audio with my snow leopard guest on 5.0.26. Everyone sounds like James Earl jones.
The only fix that's worked for me is installing the VoodooHDA driver (Avoid any other old, ~2010 era sound drivers like the plauge). Google 'VoodooHDA .

Installing it is easy. When you're done, just make sure to go to system preferences -> audio -> output tab, and select the 'Speaker (Black Unknown)' output.

It's still not perfect, but it's way better than anything else you'll find. The audio itself sounds just fine; there's just small, brief bits of choppiness to put up with.

Hope that helps!

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 4. Dec 2017, 10:56
by socratis
@DrD
I just want to emphasize that this extension will not work with all OSX guests. I tested it on a 10.11.6 guest and it failed to install. And remember, that last time you followed a Hackintosh procedure, you got into hot water.

Please do not advise people to follow Hackintosh tactics, methods and installations.

It's not supported and most importantly, it's going to make troubleshooting impossible, pure pain and a headache.

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 5. Dec 2017, 04:14
by DrD
Isn't hackintosh considered running OS X natively on custom PC hardware? I realize it's just semantics; I've just never heard it used in conjunction with virtualization or OS X guests before.

First things first, I'm glad you ran this on 10.11. That definitely needs to pointed out.

*Note for VoodooHDA driver - this works on 10.6 guest (verified); it's not currently verified what other versions of OS X it works with

I found this info about VoodooHDA from someone in the exact same situation as me. Who, like the the thread poster here, is frustrated with the near-useless audio in his OS X guest. This isn't new, in case that needs to be pointed out. Here's an example of this from back in 2010:

viewtopic.php?f=30&t=33358

OmegaX appears to have gone out of his way to make a driver 7 years ago to fix OS X audio issues. It worked back then, it doesn't work now. I'm sure plenty of people appreciated the effort and were grateful when it did.

Seeing as how Virtualbox doesn't have a fix for this (and it's been an issue for at least 7 years - a long time), I'm more than willing to try and fix it myself. That doesn't mean that you can't be strictly orthodox, if you choose. I'm not ragging on virtualbox, it's free. But hey, I found a fix, it works, and from my perspective that's better than, say... waiting until your children are all grown up and off to college for an official vbox solution.

If I can help save a real person's time, skip the trial and error, and direct them straight to something that fixes the audio, why not? With your help, it's been narrowed down to OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Let's keep the momentum going.

I'd be very interested to see what other versions of OS X this fix works with, and which it doesn't. That would be incredibly helpful.

If anyone has the resources - and time - could you possibly try installing VoodooHDA on any other OS X version? (socratis has ruled out 10.11.) I only have 10.6 (on an old disc) and 10.13 (running natively). I imagine making clones would be safe and save time. Just make a clone, try installing the VoodooHDA driver, see if the audio is mostly fixed (remember: system preferences -> audio -> output tab, and select the right output), then keep or delete the clone afterwards, depending on how it went.

Post your results here!

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 6. Dec 2017, 10:54
by socratis
First I'd like to say that I consider Hackintosh anything that's not from Apple. Especially if you combine this with the fact that the VoodooHDA extension is primarily designed to work with CloverEFI (a classic tell tale of a Hackintosh) you'll understand why I called this a "hack". Because it is. Plain and simple.

Searching simply for "VoodooHDA" takes you to the Sourceforge site, with the default version of the kext being "VoodooHDA-2.8.8.pkg.zip". That one fails on 10.11, or anything other than 10.6 (from my understanding).

However, if you search more carefully in the Files section, you can see that there is a newer version, "VoodooHDA.kext-2.9.0d10.zip". That one fails as well, because it's only the updated "VoodooHDA.kext", and not the whole package, which among other things disables the Apple supplied "AppleHDA.kext".

Finally, there is the "VoodooHDA-2.9.0-Clover-V10" in GitHub, which supposedly works for 10.6 up to 10.12 and it's based on the original "VoodoHDA" kernel extension. The appropriate file would be "VoodooHDA 2.9.0 Clover-V10.pkg".

Choosing the "Classic" method for 10.11, froze the VM. Not good. Choosing anything else didn't manage to detect any sound card. Thankfully I was experimenting with a VM that had a snapshot (like all of my VMs), so I could revert quickly back to normalcy. No more Hackintosh tests, I'll wait for the proper fix.

If you tell the users to change their core kexts, do you want a bet that 99% of them will "forget" to mention that fact when they complain about a kernel panic, a frozen VM, or an incorrect behavior? Which makes troubleshooting a complete and ugly nightmare...

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 8. Dec 2017, 23:06
by DrD
That's very interesting. And strange. What are the odds I'd have the only version of OS X that the voodooHDA works on? Seriously, that's genuinely odd to me. I trust you here. That said, I wonder if anyone else can try this too, just for redundancy and total confirmation (sometimes I've done things myself and not had any luck, for some wild reason, and it worked for someone else).

Code: Select all

If you tell the users to change their core kexts, do you want a bet that 99% of them will "forget" to mention that fact when they complain about a kernel panic, a frozen VM, or an incorrect behavior? Which makes troubleshooting a complete and ugly nightmare...
That's why I suggested using a clone. If someone knows how to go about this, I figure they understand there are underlying changes to remember.

I really wish I was a great coder. I'm not. My forte is front end web programming. If I was better with this stuff (and seeing how I am an OCD perfectionist on the things I can do), I would go out of my way to make a driver that gets the sound working perfectly on OS guests. And go out of my way to make it work across all intel-capable guest, even if that means multiple variations / kexts, which the installer has to select from based on the running OS version. AND allow the uninstaller to revert things back to the original configuration (backups are created upon install). Trust me, I would. Unfortunately I'm old enough to know by now I don't have the talent for this kind of coding.

Regardless, those of you out there should note I have working audio on 10.6. It took me days to of trial and error before I stumbled upon this solution, and I hope I can save you some time. That's the single only reason I'm here on this thread, to help. I hope that multiple people try out my suggestions above, and do some tinkering if you're up for it, just to absolutely verify whether I have the only case that's working - or not.

Re: OS X on OS X w/ 5.1.14 -> Still NO AUDIO / "SLOW" AUDIO ???

Posted: 8. Dec 2017, 23:27
by socratis
DrD wrote:That said, I wonder if anyone else can try this too, just for redundancy and total confirmation
I could volunteer, over the weekend. I do have a 10.6.8 VM stuck in an external HD somewhere. I just need to start digging and making room on my SSD to accomodate it. I don't promise anything, but I'm going to try to test it over the weekend... ;)