OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I have a MacOS 10.13.5 host, and have several VMs. One is a Windows 10 VM, another is a Photon OS VM (Linux). Starting randomly about a few weeks ago, every single time I try to click the window of a running VM, the mouse changes to the pinwheel of death, and hangs for 10-25 seconds. It won't let me interact with the VM in any way until it is done hanging. Once focus is gained, everything is smooth as butter until I switch windows and attempt to return; it starts the process over again. I can see that the VM is working fine by watching the mini-window in the main VirtualBox window. For instance, I can try to boot a VM cold, and watch the progress in the mini-window, while also watching the pinwheel waiting for the actual VM window to appear. The Windows 10 VM is old, and used to be fine. I created the Photon OS VM recently, and it has done it since inception. I don't think it is a VM problem due to the varying ages and OSs. I tried deleting the entire VirtualBox installation from my laptop, and reinstalling; no help. I made sure to use AppDelete to get the other random files it created as well; not just the program in the Applications folder.
Does any one have any ideas? It drives me insane trying to multi-task, only to have a long wait every single time I try to give focus back to my VM. Thanks in advance!
Does any one have any ideas? It drives me insane trying to multi-task, only to have a long wait every single time I try to give focus back to my VM. Thanks in advance!
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
Does the match check out?a42887 wrote:and have several VMs.
- Total CPUs for your guests + 1 ≤ Host CPUs.
- Total RAM+vRAM+overhead for your guests ≤ Host available RAM + some.
Edit: Fixed the math of the "simple rule", it was "simply wrong". |
- Gather the necessary information:
- Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state).
- Observe the error, i.e. let it "serve you the colorful pizza of death".
- Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
- With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
- Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I'm nowhere near resource limits. I only run one at a time, and the most I have allocated in any machine is 1 CPU and 3 GB of RAM on a 4 CPU, 8GB of RAM host.socratis wrote:Does the match check out?
- Total CPUs for your guests + 1 ≤ Host CPUs.
- Total RAM+vRAM+overhead for your guests ≤ Host available RAM + some.
Please see attached for the log. Thanks for the help so far!
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
Your log file would beg to differ with you.a42887 wrote:I'm nowhere near resource limits. I only run one at a time, and the most I have allocated in any machine is 1 CPU and 3 GB of RAM on a 4 CPU, 8GB of RAM host.
You have definitely allocated memory to the guest that you don't have available on the host. Your options are: a) allocate less memory to the guest, b) close some applications on the host, or c) buy some more memory for the host.VBox.log wrote:00:00:01.653896 Host RAM: 8192MB (8.0GB) total, 1424MB available 00:00:01.781094 RamSize <integer> = 0x00000000c0000000 (3 221 225 472, 3 072 MB, 3.0 GB) 00:00:01.781884 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)
You only have two cores on your host, not 4. VirtualBox deals in physical cores and not anything different that the CPU vendors would have you think about.VBox.log wrote:00:00:01.992478 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I guess I didn't convey that properly: I'm no more resource constrained than I ever have been with this same setup. I never experienced this issue before, despite the same constraints.andyp73 wrote:Your log file would beg to differ with you.
I was going off what VirtualBox allows me to allocate; it gives me the choice to allocate 1-4 CPUs.andyp73 wrote:You only have two cores on your host, not 4. VirtualBox deals in physical cores and not anything different that the CPU vendors would have you think about.
Anyway, I closed every application on the MacBook except VirtualBox to ensure resources weren't the issue. It still does the exact same freezing behavior even when it is the only thing running. New log attached showing it when it is the only application open.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
You cannot make such a statement, because you don't know how much available RAM you have every time you start the VM. You don't check every time, do you?a42887 wrote:I'm no more resource constrained than I ever have been with this same setup.
And so is the 3D acceleration. Shutdown the VM and enable them in the VM settings » Display. You'll also notice that the max VRAM will jump from 128 to 256 MB after that; max the VRAM as well. Then re-install the Guest Additions (GAs) in the guest.00:00:32.283197 GUI: 2D video acceleration is disabled
Go in the VM Settings » Storage. Select the SATA controller on the left side, and check the "Use Host I/O Cache". See if that helps as well00:00:01.847900 [/Devices/ahci/0/LUN#0/Config/] (level 5) 00:00:01.847903 BlockCache <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)
Finally, you did well to allocate one CPU to your guest(s), since your i5-5257U CPU has two cores. But (and this goes again virtualization logic), try to allocate 2 CPUs for your guest, after you've tried the settings as suggested above.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
socratis wrote:Shutdown the VM and enable them in the VM settings » Display. You'll also notice that the max VRAM will jump from 128 to 256 MB after that; max the VRAM as well. Then re-install the Guest Additions (GAs) in the guest.
Done and done.socratis wrote:Go in the VM Settings » Storage. Select the SATA controller on the left side, and check the "Use Host I/O Cache". See if that helps as well
Done.socratis wrote:Finally, you did well to allocate one CPU to your guest(s), since your i5-5257U CPU has two cores. But (and this goes again virtualization logic), try to allocate 2 CPUs for your guest, after you've tried the settings as suggested above.
No change. I have uploaded the log from this Windows session below.
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I really don't think it is so much a VM problem, as it is a VirtualBox problem interacting with the host OS. For instance, I screen captured the process with my Photon OS VM, which is just a Linux shell; no graphics to interfere here. Here is the link:
https://streamable.com/s8wui
Unfortunately, screen capture doesn't capture the spinning wheel of death, but let me walk you through it. You can see from the time I start the VM to the time the VM window will even popup there is a delay (I would have expected it to appear at 0:06, but it doesn't until 0:21). This is the first spinning wheel of death. Watching the mini-window, you can see the VM is progressing as it should be for boot. You see the VirtualBox BIOS screen, you see the OS splash screen, and you see it start loading in Linux. At 0:25, you can see me click to try to give the VM focus. You can again see the loading progressing as it should in the mini-window, but not in the main VM window. More spinning wheel of death on my end. It takes until 0:40 for the dialog to popup about capture. I click capture at 0:42, and it takes 0:58 for the machine to actually respond. You can tell when it does when the cursor marker starts blinking next to the login prompt. You can't see it well, but it is blinking in the mini-window the whole time - the VM itself is working fine. Now, until it loses focus, the VM works as expected from this point forward. If I were to click any other Mac window and come back, we'd start the process over again until it finally starts responding to my interactions (although the VM is running fine, I just can't interact with it). I start shutdown at 1:09, and the VM completes shutting down at 1:10, as the state changes to Powered Off in the title of the window. However, the spinning wheel of death makes one more appearance, and instead of the window closing at 1:10, it hangs until 1:25 before disappearing on its own.
I've attached the log for this exact session in the screen capture as well.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I don't think so, because everybody and their uncle would be yelling murder! I tend to think that there's something with your host that forces this behavior. The question is what...a42887 wrote:I really don't think it is so much a VM problem, as it is a VirtualBox problem interacting with the host OS.
I have two things in mind. The first one is the fact that (I believe) you use APFS, please confirm:
The second thing is that I have the following in my log, you don't:00:00:01.626533 File system of '/Users/Adam/VirtualBox VMs/AF/Snapshots' (snapshots) is unknown 00:00:01.626574 File system of '/Users/Adam/VirtualBox VMs/AF/Snapshots/{17535a0c-f653-4998-964b-787f3037c257}.vdi' is unknown
Can you ZIP and post the ".vbox" file for the Win10 VM? Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, "Show in Finder". That's the file I'm after...00:00:02.050517 AIOMgr: Endpoints without assigned bandwidth groups: 00:00:02.050523 AIOMgr: /Users/Shared/VirtualBox/Machines/Windows 10 (64)/Snapshots/{89216c65-2b4f-4064-b28b-eeb5cae61f2e}.vdi 00:00:02.050527 AIOMgr: /Users/Shared/VirtualBox/Machines/Windows 10 (64)/Windows 10 (64).vdi
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I didn't mean that the entire code of VirtualBox is flawed, more that there is something not playing nice between the host and VirtualBox. Maybe a bug; could be on either side.socratis wrote:I don't think so, because everybody and their uncle would be yelling murder! I tend to think that there's something with your host that forces this behavior. The question is what...
I've attached both separately just in case.socratis wrote:Can you ZIP and post the ".vbox" file for the Win10 VM? Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager, "Show in Finder". That's the file I'm after...
Also, I am formatted as APFS. Just to clarify though, it was APFS even back when it didn't have this behavior. I didn't upgrade MacOS in between or anything.
Thanks for the help so far.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I can't find anything wrong with your setup, honestly.
Example: since the beginning of June, I started seeing my kernel_task going crazy. And you can't figure out easily what's causing the kernel to go bezerk. It was showing up as huge CPU usage, in any/all/random instances. I thought it was VirtualBox at the beginning. Nope. I thought it was Firefox. Nope. I thought it was Mail, Safari, Flash, HTML5, <name_it>. Nope. Long story short, I think I've narrowed it down to the HardwareMonitor application that got an update at around the same time. Results: everything was semi-freezing. Even the mouse was moving in quanta!
After that I thought that it was the updates I was postponing for so long (since Jan-Feb/2018) because they included the Spectre/Meltdown patches, and I didn't want to slow down the computer for no good reason. So, I applied them. And nothing changed. Actually, one thing did; my compilation times for VirtualBox went from 25 min to 65 min! Oops...
So, try to think back what happened. What have you done to your system? When? Are you using FileVault by any chance? And can you please post the output of:
What happened at that time? Things in computers don't happen "randomly", there's an underlying cause. The problem is locating it.a42887 wrote:Starting randomly about a few weeks ago
Example: since the beginning of June, I started seeing my kernel_task going crazy. And you can't figure out easily what's causing the kernel to go bezerk. It was showing up as huge CPU usage, in any/all/random instances. I thought it was VirtualBox at the beginning. Nope. I thought it was Firefox. Nope. I thought it was Mail, Safari, Flash, HTML5, <name_it>. Nope. Long story short, I think I've narrowed it down to the HardwareMonitor application that got an update at around the same time. Results: everything was semi-freezing. Even the mouse was moving in quanta!
After that I thought that it was the updates I was postponing for so long (since Jan-Feb/2018) because they included the Spectre/Meltdown patches, and I didn't want to slow down the computer for no good reason. So, I applied them. And nothing changed. Actually, one thing did; my compilation times for VirtualBox went from 25 min to 65 min! Oops...
So, try to think back what happened. What have you done to your system? When? Are you using FileVault by any chance? And can you please post the output of:
kextstat | grep -v com.apple
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
If I knew, I'd be hunting it down. The host updates itself, and I know it has taken at least one incremental update to MacOS High Sierra. i'm on 10.13.5 now. I also don't use the VMs daily, so between the only semi-frequent usage patterns for the VM and the self-updates, I really can't say exactly when it started. I also assumed (incorrectly) the first time or two it happened that it was just resource constrained. No other new software has come or gone though, nor have there been any hardware changes. Nothing else seems to be having an issue. Only the OS would have taken a patch, in addition to me manually updating VirtualBox when it prompts that an update is available.socratis wrote:So, try to think back what happened. What have you done to your system? When? Are you using FileVault by any chance? And can you please post the output of:
kextstat | grep -v com.apple
FileVault is disabled.
Here is the output of the command:
Code: Select all
MacBook-Pro:~ User$ kextstat | grep -v com.apple
Index Refs Address Size Wired Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against>
145 0 0xffffff7f82fdc000 0x5000 0x5000 com.bitgapp.eqMac2Driver (2.0) C8E2C7F3-989B-3EF0-AE56-80D339AC2703 <121 5 4 3>
193 3 0xffffff7f85c70000 0x64000 0x64000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.2.12) 3AABEB96-18B4-378E-B3EE-A0F6EB91DDE7 <7 5 4 3 1>
194 0 0xffffff7f85cd4000 0x8000 0x8000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.2.12) 9ABE1230-E87E-3B89-8E2A-B0B3BAA5F63D <193 165 52 7 5 4 3 1>
196 0 0xffffff7f85cde000 0x5000 0x5000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.2.12) 3EF145FE-B581-3F71-8F0F-E04C62C5A91D <193 7 5 4 3 1>
197 0 0xffffff7f85cef000 0x6000 0x6000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.2.12) F6F0D614-6816-3226-9263-DA96DB33D890 <193 5 4 1>
MacBook-Pro:~ User$
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
I'm having a similar issue to this - Win10 will run for a while before completely freezing (not responsive at all). It freezes on my iMac pro, but not on my MacBook pro (odd). Same OS image file used on both, so it's certainly specific to VirtualBox, not the Guest OS.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
Assuming you are running the same version of VirtualBox on both, what are the other differences between your iMac pro and MacBook pro in relation to software? Different versions of macOS? Different tools installed?kristiandg wrote:It freezes on my iMac pro, but not on my MacBook pro
The log files from the guest on both machines along with the output from running the kextstat command on both machines might give an interesting comparison.
-Andy.
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Please don't ask me to do your homework for you, I have more than enough of my own things to do.
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
You have the same VM, the same VirtualBox, the same host OS, a different computer, and you came to the conclusion that it's VirtualBox behaving differently on different computers? Interesting...kristiandg wrote:so it's certainly specific to VirtualBox
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Re: OS X Host, Any VM - Freezing every single time when trying to utilize VM
This thread got kind of sidelined; any ideas from the output above?a42887 wrote:Here is the output of the command:Code: Select all
MacBook-Pro:~ User$ kextstat | grep -v com.apple Index Refs Address Size Wired Name (Version) UUID <Linked Against> 145 0 0xffffff7f82fdc000 0x5000 0x5000 com.bitgapp.eqMac2Driver (2.0) C8E2C7F3-989B-3EF0-AE56-80D339AC2703 <121 5 4 3> 193 3 0xffffff7f85c70000 0x64000 0x64000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxDrv (5.2.12) 3AABEB96-18B4-378E-B3EE-A0F6EB91DDE7 <7 5 4 3 1> 194 0 0xffffff7f85cd4000 0x8000 0x8000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxUSB (5.2.12) 9ABE1230-E87E-3B89-8E2A-B0B3BAA5F63D <193 165 52 7 5 4 3 1> 196 0 0xffffff7f85cde000 0x5000 0x5000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetFlt (5.2.12) 3EF145FE-B581-3F71-8F0F-E04C62C5A91D <193 7 5 4 3 1> 197 0 0xffffff7f85cef000 0x6000 0x6000 org.virtualbox.kext.VBoxNetAdp (5.2.12) F6F0D614-6816-3226-9263-DA96DB33D890 <193 5 4 1> MacBook-Pro:~ User$