GURU MEDITATION | HELP!

[643.com]

Been logging in for years and just now had the Guru Meditation error. Have the log, but the file is too big to attach and the characters are too many to post to one posting. Let me know the best way to get that information posted. I have taken the following steps:

1. Decreased RAM from 12 GB --> 8 GB
2. Decreased CPU from 3 --> 2
3. Increased HD Capacity for .vdi (via Terminal) from 350 --> 390 GB (had 5 GB free before increase)

Still getting the error. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[socratis]

Have the log, but the file is too big to attach and the characters are too many to post to one posting. Let me know the best way to get that information posted.

ZIP it?

[643.com]

Great! Totally didn’t think about that!

[socratis]

00:00:01.582372 Host RAM: 16384MB (16.0GB) total, 9424MB (9.2GB) available
00:00:01.726343 RamSize  <integer> = 0x00000002ff400000 (12 872 318 976, 12 276 MB, 11.9 GB)
00:00:01.726738 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000010000000 (268 435 456, 256 MB)

12276+256=12532 MB (plus some overhead). That's way too much for your available 9424 MB that you have free. You are assigning memory to your guest, that you do not have available. Either close some applications on the host, buy more RAM for the host, or reduce the amount of RAM assigned to the guest. I'd go with the last option...

VirtualBox VM 5.2.12 r122591 darwin.amd64 (May  9 2018 11:58:54) release log
00:00:01.584645   Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 5.1.30 r118389; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)

The Extension Pack (ExtPack) has to match the VirtualBox version. Update your ExtPack...

00:00:01.726486 Path <string> = "/Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso" (cb=67)

Always eject the Guest Additions (GAs) CD when you're done installing the GAs.

[643.com]

Thanks so much! I will work on that in the morning and post my results.

[643.com]

Made the corrections you recommended:

1. Virtual RAM - tried 4 GB and then 6 GB
2. Extension Pack - installed extension pack to match VM build
3. Virtual Disc - ejected guest additions iso

Still getting the guru message.

Attached is the log. Thanks in advance!

[socratis]

Your log looks as plain and boring, as mine does. So, it doesn't make sense on the surface. Let's dig deeper. Please post the output of the command:

• kextstat | grep -v com.apple

[643.com]

Always like boring logs!

Here is the terminal output...

$ kextstat | grep -v com.apple
Index Refs Address            Size       Wired      Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
  162    3 0xffffff7f8393f000 0x64000    0x64000    org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.2.12) 3AABEB96-18B4-378E-B3EE-A0F6EB91DDE7 <7 5 4 3 1>
  168    0 0xffffff7f839a3000 0x8000     0x8000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.2.12) 9ABE1230-E87E-3B89-8E2A-B0B3BAA5F63D <167 162 57 7 5 4 3 1>
  170    0 0xffffff7f839ab000 0x5000     0x5000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.2.12) 3EF145FE-B581-3F71-8F0F-E04C62C5A91D <162 7 5 4 3 1>
  171    0 0xffffff7f839b0000 0x6000     0x6000     org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.2.12) F6F0D614-6816-3226-9263-DA96DB33D890 <162 5 4 1>

[socratis]

Bummer! Everything seems in place...

• Where did you get the VM from? Did you install it yourself?
• Where did you get the ISO from? Can you try the official Microsoft ISO/VMs?
  
  1. You get a Win10 ISO from Microsoft. You create a Win10 VM, install using the downloaded ISO. 4.4 GB, version 1803, build 17134.
  2. You download a pre-made Win10 VM from Microsoft (saves you the installation time), and I believe it has a longer time-to-die contract, but you can't activate it, it will simply die. You can activate one with the ISO method, that's why I suggested that one first.

There are two kinds of VMs, if you choose to go down that road:

• The Internet Explorer compatibility VMs: 4.3 GB, build 17.17134. If I were to use a pre-made VM, I'd use that one.
• The Development VMs: 15.9 GB, build 201712.

[643.com]

Helpful.

Answers to your questions:

1. I created the Windows 10 VM whenever the program for free updates was going on with Microsoft. We had a Windows 8.1 Disc (not OEM) from a previous computer that died (thus, the need for the Mac/VM solution). I downloaded Windows 10, did a clean install (on the VM) and inserted the 8.1 disc to verify original purchase. All that to say - it was a clean install of Windows 10.
2. I created the VM to have 350 GB of space, use 12 GB of the 16 GB of RAM from the host (at that time the user wasn't using the Mac side for anything but internet-based work), and all was well. UNTIL Sunday! That is when the GURU message started. The only thing I could find in troubleshooting was that they had used 345 GB of the 350...which led me to add capacity up to 390 GB (via terminal command) and then bump down the RAM (since the user is now using more apps on the Mac side) to 8 GB.

My Plan & Questions:

1. I am planning on installing a fresh Windows 10 install (as per #1 above) and park that on an external hard drive (with plenty of space) and run it at 8 GB of RAM with about 1 TB allocated for storage. (Would you recommend anything different?)
2. POTENTIAL PROBLEM: How does my user access all the files from the original .vdi? There are documents and email, etc...that the user has not backed up from that original .vdi

Thanks so much for your time!

[socratis]

1. OK, that seems like a new, fresh install.
2. I will definitely need a lot more details about this part:

   which led me to add capacity up to 390 GB (via terminal command)

• How exactly did you increase the size?
• What was the command used?
• What did you do after you ran the command?

As for your plan:

1. I can't recommend specific HD and RAM sizes, except the "minimum". They both depend on your guest's needs (what' you're going to be running on the guest), as well as your host's available resources. Just make sure that your host doesn't run out of either RAM or HD space. That would be the "maximum".
2. You could mount the VDI from VM 1, as a second hard disk on VM 2. And I would definitely do that on a backed up VDI. And backup the important data before doing anything else. No excuses.

[643.com]

Great!

1. I used: VBoxManage modifyhd --resize [new size in MB]
2. Any reservations for running VM1 on an external HDD?

Thanks!

[643.com]

Oh, and I viewed the capacity in VM settings and confirmed it increased by 40 GB...

[socratis]

Take a look at How to resize a Virtual Drive. Does the procedure look familiar? The command that you used, simply increases the theoretical size of the disk, it doesn't resize the partitions. You could use the Windows built-in mechanism (if you could boot), but, could you boot the VM with a GParted ISO and see what happens and what GParted reports?

As I said, your setup and your logs look fine, up to the point that you're about to boot. And then it crashes with something "nasty". Which I can't figure out what it is, doesn't compute. Unless you've managed to somehow mess up the VDI in the process, but I wouldn't be expecting a TRIPLE_FAULT at that point, at least it's not a common one...


As for the "running VM1 on an external HDD"? It's going to be slow. By definition. Doable, but molasses slow. Search the forums for similar questions and potential time comparisons. For example, a recent one: Having my VMs on a USB key makes them slow.

[643.com]

Helpful. Looks like I was successful with Step 1 but couldn't get to Step 2 because I can't get past the "Guru". I am working on creating a fresh vdi on a 4 TB external drive (hoping that will be plenty of storage space!). I will keep you posted.

Thank you SO MUCH for your assistance!