Mojave Guest boot hangs early (Catalina host, VirtualBox 6.1.4)

[SteveMacGeek]

Have a client with a NEW 2020 MacBook, running Catalina 10.15.4 host. Guest is Mojave 10.14.6.

Mojave VM hangs in boot after Start InitBootStruct:

Code: Select all

Root device UUID is  <really long UUID>
End InitBootStruct
Start LoadRAMDisk
End LoadRAMDisk
Start FinalizeBootStruct
Start RandomSeed
End RandomSeed

...and that's it! Just sits there. I've attempted to stop and start it a few times, same result. VirtualBox has ALL relevant permissions. This same Mojave VM image has booted flawlessly for HUNDREDS of clients running Catalina.

A VBox.log is attached.

Here's the showvminfo:

VBoxManage showvminfo "Virtual_Mojave_WB_v2"
Name: Virtual_Mojave_WB_v2
Groups: /
Guest OS: macOS 10.13 High Sierra (64-bit)
UUID: a0c00283-2d81-4bb8-8d02-03c848ba1d90
Config file: /Users/theuser/VIRTUAL BOX/WB VirtualBox VM/Virtual_Mojave_WB_v2.vbox
Snapshot folder: /Users/theuser/VIRTUAL BOX/WB VirtualBox VM/Snapshots
Log folder: /Users/theuser/VIRTUAL BOX/WB VirtualBox VM/Logs
Hardware UUID: a0c00283-2d81-4bb8-8d02-03c848ba1d90
Memory size 5046MB
Page Fusion: disabled
VRAM size: 128MB
CPU exec cap: 90%
HPET: enabled
CPUProfile: host
Chipset: ich9
Firmware: EFI
Number of CPUs: 1
PAE: enabled
Long Mode: enabled
Triple Fault Reset: disabled
APIC: enabled
X2APIC: disabled
Nested VT-x/AMD-V: disabled
CPUID Portability Level: 0
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode: disabled
Boot Device 1: HardDisk
Boot Device 2: DVD
Boot Device 3: Not Assigned
Boot Device 4: Not Assigned
ACPI: enabled
IOAPIC: enabled
BIOS APIC mode: APIC
Time offset: 0ms
BIOS NVRAM File: /Users/theuser/VIRTUAL BOX/WB VirtualBox VM/Virtual_Mojave_WB_v2.nvram
RTC: UTC
Hardware Virtualization: enabled
Nested Paging: enabled
Large Pages: enabled
VT-x VPID: enabled
VT-x Unrestricted Exec.: enabled
Paravirt. Provider: Default
Effective Paravirt. Prov.: Minimal
State: powered off (since 2020-04-14T21:03:01.552000000)
Graphics Controller: VBoxVGA
Monitor count: 1
3D Acceleration: disabled
2D Video Acceleration: disabled
Teleporter Enabled: disabled
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Tracing Enabled: disabled
Allow Tracing to Access VM: disabled
Tracing Configuration:
Autostart Enabled: disabled
Autostart Delay: 0
Default Frontend:
VM process priority: default
Storage Controller Name (0): SATA
Storage Controller Type (0): IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 30
Storage Controller Port Count (0): 3
Storage Controller Bootable (0): on
SATA (0, 0): /Users/theuser/VIRTUAL BOX/WB VirtualBox VM/Virtual_Mojave_WB_v2-disk1.vdi (UUID: a5f122e4-881b-48b8-9047-4fc79aaced8e)
SATA (1, 0): Empty
NIC 1: MAC: 0800273957BC, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82545EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2: disabled
NIC 3: disabled
NIC 4: disabled
NIC 5: disabled
NIC 6: disabled
NIC 7: disabled
NIC 8: disabled
NIC 9: disabled
NIC 10: disabled
NIC 11: disabled
NIC 12: disabled
NIC 13: disabled
NIC 14: disabled
NIC 15: disabled
NIC 16: disabled
NIC 17: disabled
NIC 18: disabled
NIC 19: disabled
NIC 20: disabled
NIC 21: disabled
NIC 22: disabled
NIC 23: disabled
NIC 24: disabled
NIC 25: disabled
NIC 26: disabled
NIC 27: disabled
NIC 28: disabled
NIC 29: disabled
NIC 30: disabled
NIC 31: disabled
NIC 32: disabled
NIC 33: disabled
NIC 34: disabled
NIC 35: disabled
NIC 36: disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: USB Keyboard
UART 1: disabled
UART 2: disabled
UART 3: disabled
UART 4: disabled
LPT 1: disabled
LPT 2: disabled
Audio: enabled (Driver: CoreAudio, Controller: HDA, Codec: STAC9221)
Audio playback: enabled
Audio capture: disabled
Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
Drag and drop Mode: Bidirectional
VRDE: disabled
OHCI USB: disabled
EHCI USB: disabled
xHCI USB: enabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Bandwidth groups: <none>

Shared folders:<none>

Capturing: not active
Capture audio: not active
Capture screens: 0
Capture file: /Users/theuser/VIRTUAL BOX/WB VirtualBox VM/Virtual_Mojave_WB_v2.webm
Capture dimensions: 1024x768
Capture rate: 512kbps
Capture FPS: 25kbps
Capture options:

Description:
VirtualBox Mojave Guest version 1. Uploaded 10-26-19.

Volume not compressed.
Guest:

Configured memory balloon size: 0MB

[fth0]

00:00:01.718401 Host RAM: 8192MB (8.0GB) total, 3214MB (3.1GB) available
[...]
00:00:01.939762   RamSize           <integer> = 0x000000013b600000 (5 291 114 496, 5 046 MB, 4.9 GB)

You're trying to use memory that you don't have available.

[SteveMacGeek]

You're trying to use memory that you don't have available.

Is this your suspicion, or a known issue with VirtualBox?

Are you saying that VirtualBox:

1) Is asking for actual RAM and NOT just system-allocated virtual memory? (and how would it do that?)

2) Wouldn't put up a warning if it couldn't get enough memory?

3) Would go ahead and launch the Guest if it felt it didn't have enough memory?

I find it hard to believe that of the hundreds of users that have downloaded and successfully launched this specific VM image, including on machines with only 4GB of RAM, that this would be an issue on a new MacBook with 8GB of RAM and hundreds of GB of free hard disk space (ie virtual memory).

Looking in the LOG, I noticed these lines:

00:00:01.586934 DMI Product Name: MacBookAir9,1
00:00:01.586987 DMI Product Version: 1.0
00:00:01.586990 Firmware type: failed - VERR_NOT_SUPPORTED

Relevant?

[SteveMacGeek]

SOLUTION FOUND:

No, this guest boot hang didn't have anything to do with memory. I tried setting the required memory down to 3GB -- same problem.

I even tried the NEW VirtualBox 6.1.6 release. No difference.

But one change I made DID make a difference: setting the MacOS type to a generic "64-bit" WORKED. Previous, the VM was set to MacOS 10.13 High Sierra.

Does anyone know why this would've made a difference? On virtually hundreds of other Catalina Host / Mojave Guests launched from the exact same box/vdi combination, this setting wasn't required.

[fth0]

Is this your suspicion, or a known issue with VirtualBox?

It's an experience of a lot of users asking for help in this forum. If the physical memory that is free when starting a VM is less than the memory that is configured for the VM, all sorts of unexpected things happen, guest crashes and host crashes among them.

Are you saying that VirtualBox:
1) Is asking for actual RAM and NOT just system-allocated virtual memory? (and how would it do that?)
2) Wouldn't put up a warning if it couldn't get enough memory?
3) Would go ahead and launch the Guest if it felt it didn't have enough memory?

1) Yes. VirtualBox requests several memory areas: the obvious (configured) base memory and video memory, and a lot of small ones. Most of them are requested as physical memory, and some even have to be contiguous. Just take a look at Activity Monitor for yourself. (For the how question, I think I recall you are a developer. So you could take a look at the open source code yourself. )
2) 3) If VirtualBox were an error-free software ...

But one change I made DID make a difference: setting the MacOS type to a generic "64-bit" WORKED. Previous, the VM was set to MacOS 10.13 High Sierra.

Interesting. The only difference I know about is the different proposed size of the virtual disk image. But what do I know ...