virtualbox.org

Hello there. I am using VirtualBox Version 5.1.26 (the latest version, which I could download from the website) and I tried to run a VMachine with Windows 10 (guest OS) on MacOS (host OS ). There was no problem until yesterday. Windows 10 was installed and working perfectly on the VBox.

However today when I tried to use Virtualbox again and tried to start the virtual machine. It too like half a minute to just open the VirtualBox initial Window of the VM where it just says the virtual machine logo. There was no other program running on my Mac at that time by the way. After that the Virtualmachine booted normally however I heard the welcome sound of Windows without the screen actually showing the windows desktop. So I started to understand that there was I big problem with the whole windows manager of the VirtualBox or the Mac I do not know.

I then tried to click on Window and start using them. When I click the colour wheel of MacOS appeared I could do nothing and on the task manager the VM process was declared as not responding. After 30 sec I was in Windows with the windows clicker. Then I tried to go to Mac . Again the colour wheel waited about 1 min and then I could use MacOS. So from my little understanding I think that there must be a serious problem with the windows manager.

Also forgot to mention. While I was waiting after I hit the start button for the Windows machine to start the VBox manager open himself a subwindow with a progress bar and there something like creating Qt Process 1/2 or something like that. It disappered in like 3 sec but I think it underlines even more that there must be some Window Manager Problem.

Anyway I tried everything humanly possible uninstalled installed all again for the start I even installed Qt 5.6 but still the windows will freeze for 10 - 30s. Even when I will close the whole program it will take like 30s after I have given the command to quit. I have never come across to something like that so I do not know what other information, log files or .... to give you.

Please give some suggestions. If you need any other information from my side please let me know. I will try to give answer as some as possible. Thank you in advance for you help and you time and wish we can resolve it together.

Forgot to mention that I also tried it with a Linux image. Again the same window manager problems thank you

Thank you for your fast and detailed answer. I did all that you suggested. I have included the last section of the Unistaller script and the log file during the installation as requested.
VirtualBox however again frozen as the last time but because I waited about 5min until it defreezes every time there was no error log because I did not forced to kill the program. I hope that you can make head and tails of it and find a solution. Thanks again for your fast response.

Your uninstall/install logs look OK. But, are you saying that you did not get a VirtualBox.app crash, you only get the crash when you force-quit it?

In any case, more logs:

1. Start the VM. Not from a saved or paused state. Clean start.
2. Take the steps required to generate/observe the error. In your case, start the VM.
3. Shut down the VM. Not saved or paused. Completely shut down. If you can't shut it down by normal means, close the VM window and select "Power off".
4. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show Log..."
5. Save it (only the first VBox.log), ZIP it and attach it to your response.

I would also like to see the "recipe" of the VM, the ".vbox" file:

1. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager. Select "Show in Finder".
2. ZIP the selected ".vbox" file and attach it to your response.

Thanks again for your fast response. This time it crashed. It actually happened when I tried to maximize the window of the VMachine. The WM just froze again and therefore I could not power off from the guest OS as the window was black. However the manager was showing the OS running without any problem on its very small screen that it has. So I gave the command from the VBox Manager to power off and after 30sec there was the crash message of the VMachine. I attach you all the requested log and crash files hope is help. Thanks again for your help.

Virtual_Starbucks wrote:It actually happened when I tried to maximize the window of the VMachine.

Lesson 1: Do not maximize the VM screen. It wants more resources. See below.

Your problem is that your MacBookAir does not have that many resources. For example:

00:00:02.295982 OS Release: 16.7.0
00:00:02.296311 Host RAM: 4096MB (4.0GB) total, 1176MB available
00:00:02.473830   RamSize   <integer> = 0x0000000080000000 (2 147 483 648, 2 048 MB)
00:00:02.474321   VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)

You have 4 GB of RAM. You're running 10.12.6. That's barely enough for a 10.12 system to run. The minimum is 3 GB, which is reflected on how much available RAM you have left. About 1 GB.

Now, from that 1 GB, you allocate 2 GB to your guest. Plus 128 MB for vRAM, plus some overhead. Do you see the problem with the RAM mathematics? You're starving your host, it can't do it. It's going to swap like crazy, even essential parts of the OS.

You did a good thing to assign 1 CPU to the guest, out of the 2 CPUs that your host has (no, it does *not* have 4). But running a Win10-64 computer on a single CPU, is a problem of its own. It's not enough.

So, both your host and your guest are under-powered. That's why the slowness, that's why the crashes. In other cases I would suggest to get more RAM, but your MacBookAir can't get memory upgrades.

Suggestions:

• If you want to run your Win10, reboot your Mac and simply launch Win10. Nothing else. No Safari, no Mail, no nothing. Except one thing which you should actually keep in your Dock running at login: Activity Monitor, turned to the Memory tab.
• Enable 2D and 3D acceleration. Even though it may seem counter-intuitive, it will take off the load from your CPU and into your GPU.
• Keep your settings conservative. Don't use weird screen resolutions.

Thanks for the response. I have also mentioned this memory problem but I had no other choice. I also wanted to ask you how you can tell the number of the cores as in the activity monitor 4 can be seen. Are they 4 logical cores and in reality there are only 2 physical cores? I also wanted to ask you whether I can run windows in 1.5 Gb RAM . What do you think? Thanks for your professional support again

Moreover I wanted to ask you what options would you suggest on the acceleration tab of system setting tab for a windows virtual machine. Thanks

Hello again. I have done some testing today and I tried to run a puppy linux version which uses very little RAM and CPU. So I allocated 500 Mb of RAM to the virtual machine and one core and the same problem happened again. I mean virtual box would freeze when I change windows between Mac and the VBox and even sometimes crash. So I do not know if memory is the big problem here. Sure in the case of windows VMachine I can understand that but on the Puppy Linux Virtual Machine why? Thanks

Virtual_Starbucks wrote:Are they 4 logical cores and in reality there are only 2 physical cores?

Yes, exactly. See CPU Cores versus threads and also the specifications about your Intel i5-4250U CPU.

Virtual_Starbucks wrote:I also wanted to ask you whether I can run windows in 1.5 Gb RAM

It's going to be tough. Give it a shot.

Virtual_Starbucks wrote:what options would you suggest on the acceleration tab of system setting tab for a windows virtual machine.

The ones that come with the template. Do not mess with them unless you're experimenting, know what you're doing, or have been instructed to do so from a developer or seasoned user.

Virtual_Starbucks wrote:I tried to run a puppy linux version which uses very little RAM and CPU.

Post a log of a failed session please.

Thanks for answering my questions. I tried again as I told you with Puppy Linux and it would freeze every time I change windows between the host and the guest machine exactly as it did with Windows 10. For some reason it would not crash now while frozen. It crashed some days before again when I was changing windows between the host and the guest machine but before trying it today I erased old log files so they do not get mixed therefore I cannot send you any logs. Anyway. The problem still remains whatever OS I will run the VBox will freeze for 20 sec every time I switch between Host and Guest machine Windows and then work just fine. I have dual booting windows so I can work but again thanks for your professional support and help

I believe I am having the same problem as the OP. However, my machine is definitely NOT underpowered. I see the same temporary (~ 20 second) freeze each time I switch to my Win7 VM. I'm running 5.1.30. I first thought it had something to do with running the guest in full screen mode. However, the same temporary freeze occurs in windowed mode. My machine is a 27" iMac (macOS 10.12.6) with 32GB RAM, 3.5 GHz Quad i7 with the Win7 VM on an external USB 3 SSD. The VM is given 8192 MB of RAM and 4 processors.

Switching between other Mac applications is fine. I only get the spinning wheel when I switch to the VM. Also, when I shut down the VM, it crashes at the end of the shutdown process and shows "Aborted" in the VirtualBox Manager window. That's likely a separate issue. The final message in the log is: 00:04:08.149772 Console: Machine state changed to 'PoweredOff'

I'm not sure if this helps or not, but the macOS console shows this group of 9 messages each time I switch to the Win7 VM. HID devices would be the keyboard and mouse. Is the VM re-establishing USB connections every time I switch to it?

default 09:09:03.988451 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:09:03.988491 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd562502520 *count=5 size=480
default 09:09:03.988529 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55cf880e0 *count=1 size=96
default 09:09:03.988879 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:09:03.988920 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55cfaaa50 *count=5 size=480
default 09:09:03.988951 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55cf7d260 *count=1 size=96
default 09:09:03.991386 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=6 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:09:03.991414 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f956550 *count=6 size=576
default 09:09:03.991446 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f956eb0 *count=1 size=96
~~~~~~~
default 09:13:17.414122 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:13:17.414158 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f96a1e0 *count=5 size=480
default 09:13:17.414191 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f9858b0 *count=1 size=96
default 09:13:17.414517 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:13:17.414561 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55cb08780 *count=5 size=480
default 09:13:17.414611 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55cb08a60 *count=1 size=96
default 09:13:17.417002 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=6 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:13:17.417033 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55a709da0 *count=6 size=576
default 09:13:17.417085 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55a70a020 *count=1 size=96
~~~~~~~
default 09:15:02.209633 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:15:02.209677 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd562506560 *count=5 size=480
default 09:15:02.209718 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55cfedef0 *count=1 size=96
default 09:15:02.209945 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:15:02.209979 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55cfc07d0 *count=5 size=480
default 09:15:02.210003 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55cfab7b0 *count=1 size=96
default 09:15:02.212202 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=6 reportHandlerCount=1
default 09:15:02.212246 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55cfc1050 *count=6 size=576
default 09:15:02.212271 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55cfc12d0 *count=1 size=96

Those console messages actually might be relevant. I get the same spinning ball freeze when I disconnect a USB device using the "Devices > USB" menu (Mac menu bar) within the VM. The following messages appear in the macOS console when disconnecting a USB device using the "Devices > USB" menu.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
default 10:27:26.813884 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:27:26.813923 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55c906da0 *count=5 size=480
default 10:27:26.813967 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55c905f90 *count=1 size=96
default 10:27:29.374081 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 3243: aq@0x7fd55b82c200 volume 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
default 10:27:29.375263 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 194: AQME device AQDefaultOutput: client starting: <AudioQueueObject@0x7fd55b82c200; [0]; play>; running count now 1
default 10:27:29.375516 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 879: aqmeio@0x7fd55c909f60, device 0x30 (AQDefaultOutput), AudioDeviceStart (err 0)
error 10:27:30.086535 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 254: AQDefaultOutput (109): skipping input stream 0 0 0x0
default 10:27:31.219246 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 376: AQME device AQDefaultOutput: client stopping: <AudioQueueObject@0x7fd55b82c200; [0]; play>; running count now 0
error 10:27:32.092174 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 254: AQDefaultOutput (188): skipping input stream 0 0 0x0
default 10:27:41.826162 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:27:41.826200 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f8c0270 *count=5 size=480
default 10:27:41.826228 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f8c0490 *count=1 size=96
default 10:28:06.404680 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 3243: aq@0x7fd55b82c200 volume 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
default 10:28:06.405706 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 194: AQME device AQDefaultOutput: client starting: <AudioQueueObject@0x7fd55b82c200; [0]; play>; running count now 1
default 10:28:06.405834 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 879: aqmeio@0x7fd55c909f60, device 0x30 (AQDefaultOutput), AudioDeviceStart (err 0)
error 10:28:07.630490 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 254: AQDefaultOutput (115): skipping input stream 0 0 0x0
default 10:28:09.265438 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 376: AQME device AQDefaultOutput: client stopping: <AudioQueueObject@0x7fd55b82c200; [0]; play>; running count now 0
error 10:28:09.636173 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 254: AQDefaultOutput (188): skipping input stream 0 0 0x0
default 10:28:31.355227 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:28:31.355274 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55ca07070 *count=5 size=480
default 10:28:31.355324 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55ca05900 *count=1 size=96
default 10:28:33.863566 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 3243: aq@0x7fd55b82c200 volume 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000 1.000
default 10:28:33.864551 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 194: AQME device AQDefaultOutput: client starting: <AudioQueueObject@0x7fd55b82c200; [0]; play>; running count now 1
default 10:28:33.864724 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 879: aqmeio@0x7fd55c909f60, device 0x30 (AQDefaultOutput), AudioDeviceStart (err 0)
error 10:28:34.938933 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 254: AQDefaultOutput (163): skipping input stream 0 0 0x0
default 10:28:35.868951 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 376: AQME device AQDefaultOutput: client stopping: <AudioQueueObject@0x7fd55b82c200; [0]; play>; running count now 0
error 10:28:36.944593 -0600 VirtualBoxVM 254: AQDefaultOutput (188): skipping input stream 0 0 0x0
default 10:28:46.366612 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:28:46.366676 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f99a3c0 *count=5 size=480
default 10:28:46.366720 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f94c7a0 *count=1 size=96
default 10:30:15.430671 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:30:15.430706 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f8c88f0 *count=5 size=480
default 10:30:15.430748 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f8c3a50 *count=1 size=96
default 10:30:15.430960 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=5 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:30:15.431001 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f8bbf90 *count=5 size=480
default 10:30:15.431026 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f8b59d0 *count=1 size=96
default 10:30:15.432916 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::start: elementCount=6 reportHandlerCount=1
default 10:30:15.432941 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=0 *buffer=7fd55f8bd040 *count=6 size=576
default 10:30:15.432974 -0600 VirtualBoxVM IOHIDDeviceClass::buildElements: type=1 *buffer=7fd55f8ad010 *count=1 size=96
default 10:30:38.693534 -0600 kernel process VirtualBoxVM[64901] caught waking the CPU 45010 times over ~97 seconds, averaging 462 wakes / second and violating a limit of 45000 wakes over 300 seconds.
default 10:30:38.693611 -0600 symptomsd Received CPU wakes trigger:
VirtualBoxVM[64901] () woke the CPU 45010 times over 97.26 seconds (average 462/sec), violating a CPU wakes limit of 45000 over 300 seconds.
default 10:30:38.694853 -0600 symptomsd Found DiagUsageStats for RESOURCE_NOTIFY of EXC_CPU_WAKE : NON-FATAL (VirtualBoxVM) - <DiagnosticCaseUsage: 0x7fafe262c820> (entity: DiagnosticCaseUsage; id: 0x810000cb <x-coredata://DBFEE6E2-CB33-4558-980F-51449460D1FB/DiagnosticCaseUsage/p516> ; data: {
casesAccepted = 3;
casesSeen = 3;
domain = "RESOURCE_NOTIFY";
"interarrival_mean" = "5592.154276996851";
"interarrival_var" = "262277.3616164043";
lastAccepted = "2017-11-13 16:22:05 +0000";
lastSeen = "2017-11-13 16:22:05 +0000";
process = VirtualBoxVM;
subtype = "NON-FATAL";
type = "EXC_CPU_WAKE";
})
default 10:30:38.694940 -0600 symptomsd 3 reports for VirtualBoxVM is still under the limit of 5. Allowing report.
default 10:30:38.695500 -0600 symptomsd Updating RESOURCE_NOTIFY report statistics for RESOURCE_NOTIFY : EXC_CPU_WAKE : NON-FATAL : VirtualBoxVM
default 10:30:39.187781 -0600 spindump Removing excessive log: file:///Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports/VirtualBoxVM_2017-10-26-071744_Walleye.wakeups_resource.diag
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The "process VirtualBoxVM[64901] caught waking the CPU 45010 times over ~97 seconds" message is concerning. Why would the CPU need to be woken up if I'm actively using the VM?