[WorksForMe] Mac crashes when waking if it sleeps while VM is running

[Meestor_X]

If I have VB running (Win7 Guest) on my MacBook host, and I put my Mac to sleep, when it wakes, the Mac will not restart. I have to do a hard shutdown and reboot to get it working again. Then when I open VB, the Guest has been "improperly shutdown" just as though it had been powered off while running.

1. Is there a way to get VB to pause the Guest when the Host goes to sleep?
2. What can I do (other than try to remember to pause the guest) to keep my Host from locking up when waking if the guest is running?

I did some searching, and other than a reported bug from 7 years ago, I couldn't find anything on this specific issue.

[socratis]

when it wakes, the Mac will not restart

What does "will not restart" mean? Does OSX wake up or not? How about the VM? The whole computer is frozen?

Personally I don't put my OSX to sleep while VirtualBox is running, so I can't help you any more in that aspect based on personal experience.

[Meestor_X]

Thank you for your reply! I really hope I can resolve this.

Well, it's "kinda" locked up.
The computer wakes up and shows the login screen, but the Touch Bar is blank and the fingerprint reader doesn't respond. I can type in my password, but the computer doesn't go any further. It's "hung" at that point. No response to the mouse or any keypresses at that point.
I have to press and hold the power button until the Mac shuts down, then restart it. When it restarts, if I choose "re-open the previously opened apps", the guest has been unsafely shut down.

[socratis]

Most probably the VM has the focus and all input is directed to the VM. Do you see your password being entered in the password field?

One of the things I would definitely do is to remove all power saving options from the guest, all sleep options, all screen saver options, all lock screen options. And never run it full screen, and at a minimum switch apps so that the VM is not the front topmost app at the time that your Mac goes to sleep. Try these steps and see if the situation changes...

[Meestor_X]

Thanks, well, I was hoping it would just work the way they describe in the manual...

Some host power management events are handled by VirtualBox. The actual behavior depends on the platform:

Host Suspends
This event is generated when the host is about to suspend, that is, the host saves the state to some non-volatile storage and powers off.
This event is currently only handled on Windows hosts and Mac OS X hosts. When this event is generated, VirtualBox will pause all running VMs.

Host Resumes
This event is generated when the host woke up from the suspended state.
This event is currently only handled on Windows hosts and Mac OS X hosts. When this event is generated, VirtualBox will resume all VMs which are where paused before.

Any suggestions on how to figure out why it isn't work as described in the manual?

[socratis]

You don't "Suspend" your Mac, you put it to sleep, i.e. you simply close the lid. That's not suspend, that's sleep. So, please try the advice that I gave you first. You know what they say? First you learn how to walk, then you learn how to run...

[Meestor_X]

I appreciate your suggestions, but even if following that advice did do something it doesn't really matter. If I have to actively do anything before my Mac sleeps, then I would just pause the guest. I would like to find out if there's a way for the guest to automatically pause when the host sleeps.
Since they talk about suspending rather than sleeping in the manual, (I figured they were the same thing, my bad) are you saying if I can somehow have my Mac suspend instead of sleep, it would work properly?

[socratis]

I told you I haven't tried it, so I can't help you any more, I'm sorry. If you want to follow the manual, by all means, do.

[Meestor_X]

I understand. Thank you for trying to help, nonetheless.

Hopefully someone else here knows something about this and can weigh in.

[Meestor_X]

Friendly bump.

Maybe with the new VB6 there's a fix for this?

[socratis]

Friendly bump.

Well accepted/deserved...

Maybe with the new VB6 there's a fix for this?

I don't think so, but I could be wrong.

Can we go once again with your setup details?

• What's the guest OS? Does the guest OS matter? What have you tried?
• Is the guest running in FullScreen mode when you put the Mac to sleep? Do you have the same reaction for a normal (windowed) guest as a FullScreen mode one?

I tried a couple of scenarios over here (2015 MacBookPro11,5) but I couldn't get it to do anything weird. I have a feeling that it's the FullScreen mode coupled with the touch-bar...

[Meestor_X]

Thank you! Curious - why do you ask to not be quoted in your sig? I find it keeps the conversation clear, especially when there's multiple posters...

Can we go once again with your setup details?

• What's the guest OS? Does the guest OS matter? What have you tried?
• Is the guest running in FullScreen mode when you put the Mac to sleep? Do you have the same reaction for a normal (windowed) guest as a FullScreen mode one?

I tried a couple of scenarios over here (2015 MacBookPro11,5) but I couldn't get it to do anything weird. I have a feeling that it's the FullScreen mode coupled with the touch-bar...

Host is MBP, with Touch Bar, Running Mojave
Guests are Windows 7 x64 at the moment.
I have a Win 10 x64 VM install as well, but I never use it. Let me try that and see what happens.
Definitely full-screen has issues.
If I "save state" when I close the guest, instead of shutting down the guest, and it was full-screen, there are issues when I start up that guest again. It comes up with 2 VMs, one that doesn't respond to keyboard or mouse, and another that isn't full-screen but actually works.
It's so strange, so I should do a video of the Win7 weirdness.
In the meantime, I'll try the Win10 and see what happens there.

[mpack]

Thank you! Curious - why do you ask to not be quoted in your sig? I find it keeps the conversation clear, especially when there's multiple posters...

Socratis isn't objecting to being quoted as you have done, he objects to people using quote when they should be using reply, i.e. when they are not addressing specific passages. Some people just keep using quote, leaving the entire verbatim message in the quote - when two of those go head to head then each additional post then redundantly requotes the entire thread so far, like in a mailing list. It's irritating and hard to see the wood for the trees!

[Meestor_X]

Thanks, mpack. I fully agree. That's why I HATE mailing lists!

Ok, so here's the scoop.

Win10 - no problems. Can sleep host and it wakes up fine, with the Win10 VM running.

Win7 - No amount of changes that I have done stop this issue from happening. I have tried a lot of things.
Fullscreen/windowed
Laptop monitor/external monitor
VB Settings for Win7 Guest:

• VMSVGA vs VBOXVGA Driver
  Increase Video Memory
  Switch from IHC9 to PIIX CPU

Win 7 Settings:
Changed power settings like "sleep after" and a few others, don't really see anything that would affect this issue.

Nothing has worked. Clearly the issue is Win7, but I really need Win7 to work if at all possible because I'm a programmer and I use the Win7 VM as a test bed for software as many of my users are still stuck in the past...

[Meestor_X]

Here's the log, not sure if this helps?

At 00:00:44 the VM is fully booted and waiting.
At 00:01:01 I pressed the Sleep Button on my MBP
At 00:02:00 I powered back on my MBP. (I assume in the log that shows as 00:01:03 or maybe 00:01:21, not sure if the clock on the log keeps rolling when the host is asleep)

Code: Select all

00:00:44.861693 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.

00:01:01.255080 Pausing VM execution, reason 'host suspend'
00:01:01.255430 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'SUSPENDING'
00:01:01.261650 AIOMgr: Endpoint for file '/Users/andyb/VirtualBox VMs/Windows 7 (x64) New/Snapshots/{3c94b6c4-673f-4852-b55c-d7ca960d6033}.vdi' (flags 000c0781) created successfully
00:01:01.307277 PDMR3Suspend: 51 527 280 ns run time
00:01:01.307291 Changing the VM state from 'SUSPENDING' to 'SUSPENDED'
00:01:01.307302 Console: Machine state changed to 'Paused'

00:01:03.095003 GUI: UIDesktopWidgetWatchdog::sltHandleHostScreenWorkAreaResized: Screen 0 work area is formally resized to: 0x23 x 1680x1027
00:01:21.298723 USB: Failed to open device 'p=0x8600;v=0x05ac;s=0x0000004da4e08516;l=0x14200000', plug-in creation failed with irc=0xe00002be.
00:01:21.298839 usbProxyConstruct: Failed to open 'p=0x8600;v=0x05ac;s=0x0000004da4e08516;l=0x14200000', rc=VERR_OUT_OF_RESOURCES
00:01:21.298890 ERROR [COM]: aRC=NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005) aIID={872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed} aComponent={ConsoleWrap} aText={Failed to create a proxy device for the USB device. (Error: VERR_OUT_OF_RESOURCES)}, preserve=false aResultDetail=-80
00:01:22.820684 Resuming VM execution, reason 'host resume'
00:01:22.820987 Changing the VM state from 'SUSPENDED' to 'RESUMING'
00:01:22.821259 AIOMgr: Endpoint for file '/Users/andyb/VirtualBox VMs/Windows 7 (x64) New/Snapshots/{3c94b6c4-673f-4852-b55c-d7ca960d6033}.vdi' (flags 000c0723) created successfully
00:01:22.822524 Changing the VM state from 'RESUMING' to 'RUNNING'
00:01:22.822544 Console: Machine state changed to 'Running'
00:01:23.063291 GUI: UIMachineLogicFullscreen::sltMachineStateChanged:Machine-state changed from 'paused' to 'running': Adjust machine-window geometry...
00:01:23.063318 GUI: UIMachineLogicFullscreen::adjustMachineWindowsGeometry
00:01:23.063334 GUI: UIMultiScreenLayout::update: GUI/AutomountGuestScreens is disabled
00:01:23.063355 GUI: UIMachineLogicFullscreen::revalidateNativeFullScreen: For machine-window #0