Windows 10 guest freezes up my entire iMac

[Buayaguy]

Hi all,

I've been looking through the forums seeing if I could find an answer to this, but pretty much everything I found related to computer crashing or freezing up was related to the user over-provisioning the guest OS.

My machine is a year old iMac, 4Ghz i7 (8 processor cores), 32 gigs of RAM, AMD Radeon 2 GB video card, running High Sierra.

I have the VM settings attached, but basically there shouldn't be an issue with over-provisioning. I typically still have at least 10-12 gigs free while the VM is running.

I'm also running the latest version of Virtualbox with extension pack: 5.2.6 r120293

I'm running it in fullscreen mode, because I need the screen space (running Cisco Packet Tracer, since they don't offer a native Mac version, and don't want to constantly reboot into a bootcamp-type situation...)

So the problem is that it just locks up the machine randomly - it usually never goes much past...30-40 minutes, unless I have it minimized, but if I'm actively using it, it tends to lock up within 10-15 minutes at the latest, and recently it locked within the first couple of minutes I had it open. When it locks up, the mouse freezes and the system reboots within a couple of seconds.

Is there any known issue for this, or better yet, any kind of fix or at least workaround?

I'll try to get a recent crash report when it happens again.

Thanks,

-Bryan

[socratis]

I'll try to get a recent crash report when it happens again.

That's a good idea, because right now we don't have a lot to work with. Besides the OSX kernel panic log, see if there's a VirtualBox crash log, or any other system log from that time. ZIP them and attach the ZIP to your response (see the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form).

Also, post the VBox.log from the time of the crash. Before re-launching the VM, right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log". Save only the first "VBox.log". ZIP it as well and attach that too.

Finally, please post raw the output of the command:

• kextstat | grep -v com.apple

[Buayaguy]

Hi, Socratis, thanks for the reply.

Surprisingly, the VM stayed working well for the entire 15 minutes I was using it, but then I was leaving for class around 3:30pm (15:30), and I left it running full screen.

When I got home about 5 hours later (20:20), the computer was rebooted, waiting for me to login. It said to look in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports, but I didn't see anything that obviously said "crash" or "freeze" or even "panic". I looked online and it suggested running sysdiagnose to find the most recent crash, which I ran, and it gave me this first logfile:

fs_usage_2018-02-02-204219_iKho.crash

Notice the time stamp is 20:42 - that's when I actually ran sysdiagnose, not when the crash happened (I still don't know exactly when that happened.)

The second file I attached is that first vbox logfile you wanted. I added VBOX to the front of it, but I didn't want to alter the timestamp, in case that was important.

Here is the output of the kextstat:

Code: Select all

Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
  147    0 0xffffff7f80e21000 0x5000     0x5000     com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower (2) 2D779840-7439-31E5-8A66-D786C3F47B75 <82 5 4 3>
  153    0 0xffffff7f87619000 0x3000     0x3000     com.radiosilenceapp.nke.filter (2.2) 3A2ED084-A6E7-3BEB-A0EC-1B7DE0EB41F6 <4 1>
  158    3 0xffffff7f8761c000 0x63000    0x63000    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.2.6) C32CCC8B-7E44-3974-BEC0-9C1FA570690D <7 5 4 3 1>
  162    0 0xffffff7f8767f000 0x8000     0x8000     com.avg.FileShield (3.0.0) 5E0FED9F-9809-3E9F-BBFF-9560C9A6EC3D <5 4 1>
  164    0 0xffffff7f87687000 0x8000     0x8000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.2.6) A60E8437-734A-3C07-8488-5885145AEE0C <163 158 58 7 5 4 3 1>
  165    0 0xffffff7f8768f000 0x5000     0x5000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.2.6) 552BD757-0D66-3F90-9A20-C6C7881F4A2F <158 7 5 4 3 1>
  166    0 0xffffff7f87694000 0x6000     0x6000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.2.6) 8B8163C1-1125-36B8-AC6A-1AA38506938D <158 5 4 1>

Here is a list of the files in /Library/Logs/DiagnosticReports that were written between when I left and got back home today (there aren't many.)
If there are any log files there that you think may be helpful, please let me know and I'll be happy to zip them and put them in an attachment.

Code: Select all

iKho:DiagnosticReports root# ls -al | grep "$(date +"%Y-%m-%d")"
-rw-rw----@   1 _analyticsd  _analyticsusers     996 Feb  2 18:00 Analytics_2018-02-02-180006_iKho.core_analytics
-rw-rw----@   1 root         _analyticsusers    3693 Feb  2 20:28 Console_2018-02-02-202800_iKho.memory_resource.diag
-rw-rw----@   1 root         _analyticsusers    3010 Feb  2 20:22 Dock_2018-02-02-202245_iKho.memory_resource.diag
-rw-rw----@   1 root         _analyticsusers  134995 Feb  2 20:44 WindowServer_2018-02-02-204412_iKho.wakeups_resource.diag
-rw-rw----@   1 root         _analyticsusers   19343 Feb  2 16:28 mds_2018-02-02-162826_iKho.memory_resource.diag
-rw-rw----@   1 root         _analyticsusers   24972 Feb  2 16:29 mds_stores_2018-02-02-162915_iKho.memory_resource.diag
-rw-rw----@   1 root         _analyticsusers    2445 Feb  2 20:23 trustd_2018-02-02-202300_iKho.memory_resource.diag

Thanks for your reply, very much appreciated.

-Bryan

[socratis]

[quote]
com.Cycling74.driver.Soundflower
com.radiosilenceapp.nke.filter
com.avg.FileShield
[/quote]

I'd start by uninstalling the Soundflower extension, since this is an abandoned project (last commit in 2014), certainly way before the OSX 10.13.3 that you're using. And it has been shown to cause crashes in the past.

Then uninstall your custom RadioSilence firewall (you already have a built-in one, did you know?), and then your AVG.

Your VBox.log looks fine, except the fact that you're using a VHD. Why? I get a feeling that this is a migrated setup from an older computer. Oh, and remember to eject the Guest Additions (GAs) CD once you're done installing the GAs.

[Buayaguy]

I actually need SoundFlower to do my online recordings (I don't use a physical amp, so I need a way to route the sound from Logic to my online recording app), but I could uninstall it for the time being - I won't be recording until these CCNA classes are over in May...

I do know I have a firewall, but I don't believe it stops software from calling *out*. I don't mind uninstalling it for this though.

It's actually *not* a migrated setup from an older machine...I just noticed that - I must've accidentally chosen VHD for some reason. I normally always leave it as a default vdi, weird...


So those kexts that you had me post - are those specifically possible culprits as to why it may be freezing up? As I said, I've been using Soundflower for like 3 years now with no issues, and for some reason it's Virtualbox with Windows 10 is the only time it's freezing up like this.

But yes, I'll uninstall those, and I'm going to install a Linux VM to see if that one has any issues and will report back.

Thanks,

-Bryan

[socratis]

are those specifically possible culprits as to why it may be freezing up?

I don't know. I've been using VirtualBox for about 8 years now, and I never had a freeze. A kernel panic about 4-something years ago, but it was fixed really quickly. On the other hand, there are no 3rd party kexts in my setup, except "com.github.osxfuse.filesystems.osxfuse", but that is being updated every month or so, not abandoned since 2014.

I've been using Soundflower for like 3 years now with no issues

Soundflower and 10.13 are not meant for each other. Soundflower was last tested with 10.10 (the 2.0.b2, with the signed kext). It has caused problems with VirtualBox in the past.

You don't have a smoking gun. That's the problem, we're shooting in the dark trying to figure out what might be the bad interaction.

[Buayaguy]

I'm reinstalling Windows 10 again (it was pretty much a clean install already), but I want to get it on a standard vdi, just to clear up any possible issues there.

I also installed Windows 7 and have it running currently with Packet Tracer open, so we'll see if it suddenly freezes in the next 30-60 minutes as well...

[Buayaguy]

Well, I thought I had it fixed. I reinstalled Windows 10 as a new VM, as a .vdi file, the setup went fine, I was able to load my software back on it.

Was downloading from websites to a networked drive multiple times, no problem.

Then suddenly out of nowhere, it froze up again and rebooted

Here's the current kextstat report:

Code: Select all

root# kextstat | grep -v com.apple
Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
  154    3 0xffffff7f84784000 0x63000    0x63000    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.2.6) C32CCC8B-7E44-3974-BEC0-9C1FA570690D <7 5 4 3 1>
  161    0 0xffffff7f847e7000 0x8000     0x8000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.2.6) A60E8437-734A-3C07-8488-5885145AEE0C <160 154 58 7 5 4 3 1>
  162    0 0xffffff7f847ef000 0x5000     0x5000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.2.6) 552BD757-0D66-3F90-9A20-C6C7881F4A2F <154 7 5 4 3 1>
  163    0 0xffffff7f847f4000 0x6000     0x6000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.2.6) 8B8163C1-1125-36B8-AC6A-1AA38506938D <154 5 4 1>

Again, I couldn't find an actual .crash file in the logs - the last one I found was from almost a month and a half ago for a completely different issue (that one had something to do with VNC connecting to a Linux server I had, but I repurposed the server for something else, and got rid of the VNC client.)

I included one more copy of the vbox file (there was only one this time.)

And just for good measure, here are the stats of the system while it's running Windows 10 in windowed mode (not full screen.)

Stats1.jpg (95.65 KiB) Viewed 8310 times

Stats2.jpg (82.82 KiB) Viewed 8310 times

I went back and saw that you had recommended others to turn off all power management in Windows, so I set it to high performance as suggested, but I also turned off any kind of sleeping of the computer or hard drive.

I still haven't had a chance to properly test Windows 7 - it was running pretty sluggish for some reason, so I'm gonna go back and see what I can do there...I don't *have* to run Windows 10 - if Windows 7 can run Packet Tracer without freezing up on me, I'll do that instead...

Thanks again for the help so far - should I see if I can find a crash log in Windows too?

-Bryan

[socratis]

Again, I couldn't find an actual .crash file in the logs

I think you should start looking elsewhere, in "Console.app"; the "All messages", the "system.log", and anything else you can think of. I do not believe this to be a simple issue with VirtualBox, or Win10, because somebody else would have mentioned something.

I would try to limit as much as possible all running apps, from background daemons to services, both in the host and the guest, for two reasons: 1) it's going to make shifting through a ton of logs easier, and 2) it might take whatever is causing this out of the equation.

For example, I would create a new network location: "No network". In that "location", delete each and every adapter/service so that the list is empty. I do that for every OSX installation that I've ever had, be it physical or virtual. It's a quick way to isolate the OS from any network activity.

[Buayaguy]

Thanks for all the time you spent helping me with this, but after trying out Packet Tracer in Windows 7 under Virtualbox, it was unusable for minutes at a time (with 6 gigs of RAM), whereas it ran very speedy under Windows 10, but Win 10 keeps freezing me up.

I tried twice more to get Linux up and running under Virtualbox, and it does, but somehow it *really* doesn't like trying to autorun the extensions off that CD - it always quits with an error, and after rebooting (and making sure there's no virtual CD in the drive) it always booted into a black screen that I could never get past.

So after finding out that I was using most of the hard disk space on my iMac (Somehow I only had 99 gigs free out of 500), I reinstalled macOS, and at the same time, just decided to do the Bootcamp and for the time being, boot into Windows 10 manually (although I think I'm going to end up getting Fusion again, because it does let you control an existing Bootcamp partition from the Mac side.)

I just need to start working on Packet Tracer sooner rather than later, and don't have tons of time to figure this out
(I did realize after reinstalling macOS that it probably fixed whatever was going on with VBox and Windows 10, but at that point just didn't feel like risking it again...)

So thank you again for the help; unfortunately I couldn't do what I really wanted (control Windows from my Mac) at least for now, but PT is really important for my classes, so that has to come first.

-Bryan

[socratis]

Quick Q... Does this "freeze" happen only if you run this "Packet Tracer"?

[Buayaguy]

The funny thing is, I didn't seem to have the freeze ups until I started installing software on the VM...but once stuff was installed, Packet Tracer didn't need to be running in order for the VM to freeze up. There was one time, I had just started the VM up and was using the machine maybe 5 minutes just using Chrome and it froze. It also did freeze after 15-20 minutes of PT being open as well though.

I'm currently on the Windows side of Bootcamp, and yesterday I was running Packet Tracer for like 2 hours doing labs, and no issues whatsoever. I guess there's something about the virtualization running on top of macOS that was an issue. I run ESXi as my hypervisor OS on my VM server, and before I got that server, I was running Virtualbox on top of a Linux installation, and NEVER had an issue running Windows 10 (the same original iso file) on either one of them.

[socratis]

As I said, this might be a very limited corner case, when something triggers something. Really tough to debug, replicate and fix... I don't even have Packet Tracer for example. And, no, you don't have to be running something for that to be affecting the system.

Funny that you mentioned Chrome; even installing Chrome (in Windows at least) causes a lot of pain to VirtualBox, because it installs a couple of background services, things like Updater and Error Reporting. The latter is responsible (or used to be in the past) for a lot of weird crashes on Win Hosts, something that took us a long time to figure out.

[Buayaguy]

I gave the new Firefox a shot in macOS, and for whatever reason, it would straight up reboot my machine at random. Maybe it was something I was running in the background, but when I switched to FF, I actually *stopped* using Chrome altogether, until I found out FF was the only new app I was running, and I was still rebooting...

Needless to say, I went right back to Chrome...

[socratis]

Wait a minute... Firefox causes your Mac/OSX to reboot????? Seriously???
There's something really, really rotten in Denmark...
Firefox is a non-installable, user level app (meaning no kernel or security requirements involved). Something is seriously out of whack in your setup/computer. Have you tried running the Diagnostics on your Mac?