Mouse and keyboard lag

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
princec
Posts: 4
Joined: 23. Oct 2009, 13:32
Primary OS: MS Windows Vista
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu
Location: England
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Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by princec »

PUEL 3.0.8
Host: Windows XP, dual core Intel
Guest: Ubuntu 9.10 beta
Guest extensions installed, running in a window

Problem:
Keyboard and mouse input is mysteriously very laggy - as if typing over a remote shell. All the clicks and keyboard presses are queued up and execute a random interval later, sometimes several seconds. The mouse pointer itself, however, is running smoothly.

I wonder if this is related to the strange lag in the graphics also - fades in particular seem to hang for a second before completing.

Hope that's of some use to someone!

Cas :)
Puppygames - Makers of Titan Attacks, Droid Assault, and Ultratron
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
Guest OSses: *NIX

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Perryg »

Please share with us the guest settings (all of them) and the amount of host RAM?
32 or 64 bit?
rasta
Volunteer
Posts: 215
Joined: 24. Jul 2008, 00:25

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by rasta »

This behavior is identical to that experienced with a Solaris guest on a WinXP host:

http://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/5140

Playing sounds appeared to be the issue for me.
rasta
Volunteer
Posts: 215
Joined: 24. Jul 2008, 00:25

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by rasta »

Also see comments near the end of this thread:

http://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic. ... 0&start=45
Perryg
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Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Perryg »

Very strange,
I have Ubuntu Karmic running in seamless on top of Vista 32bit Business and listening to Last Fm in Karmic while writing this in Vista.
No lag or sound problems at all.
I do have sound issues in OpenSolaris and just quit using sound months ago, just didn't interest me to find a fix (sorry rasta) I am not that well versed on Solaris.
I also have the reverse, IE: Karmic 64 bit as host and Vista 64 bit Business as guest and that does not show these problems either.

Running VirtualBox PUEL version 3.0.10 now and did not have these problems with 3.0.8. I did however uninstall and reboot before I installed the new version. Although not required I am somewhat old fashioned in that regards. I simply do not trust Windows to do a clean upgrade, period! Maybe that is why I do not have some of these problems?
rasta
Volunteer
Posts: 215
Joined: 24. Jul 2008, 00:25

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by rasta »

Thank you for the info, Perryg. With 3.0.8, I tried uninstalling Vbox completely, rebooting, and re-installing, and that did not help with the audio problem.
sevketcaba
Posts: 1
Joined: 31. Oct 2009, 19:52
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: OSE other
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 9.10

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by sevketcaba »

same issue with u

Here are the details:
Host :
Windows XP SP3 32bit
AMD64 4200+ X2
2 GB DDR2 800
Radeon 2600HD 512 MB

Guest:
Ubuntu 9.10 (Same issues with both 32 Bit and 64 Bit)
2 Processors
1024 MB Ram
128 MB Graphics Memory

And also item rollover effects so slow, menus don't disappear after clicking an item. All these problems begin after installed the guest add-ons.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
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Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Perryg »

sevketcaba wrote:same issue with u

Here are the details:
Host :
Windows XP SP3 32bit
AMD64 4200+ X2
2 GB DDR2 800
Radeon 2600HD 512 MB

Guest:
Ubuntu 9.10 (Same issues with both 32 Bit and 64 Bit)
2 Processors
1024 MB Ram
128 MB Graphics Memory

And also item rollover effects so slow, menus don't disappear after clicking an item. All these problems begin after installed the guest add-ons.
I see several things that could cause your problem.
1) Low on actual RAM
2) Assigning that much Vram is a total waste since it is all system RAM. 16 or 32 is more than enough.
3) 64bit guest in 32 bit host is a major performance hit.
4) multiprocessor guest on single processor host, can slow down performance, try it with one processor.
5) Assigning 50% of the system memory is maxed out Ubuntu does not need that much RAM, try it at 512 meg and see if things settle down.
Keskidi
Posts: 5
Joined: 22. Nov 2009, 15:31
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 9.10

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Keskidi »

Hi,

My problem is the same (but 1 processor, 384 ubuntu RAM, on 32bit only, with a radeon too), and you don't answer the question (I mean, you don't read the problem).

In fact, the problem is not that the Ubuntu guest system is slow,
the problem is that the Ubuntu guest system became slow after the Additions install.
Menu display is really slow, selection is really hard, I have to wait 1/2 seconde on terminal after each keypress to see it displayed, ... While it was not .

Before the installation, the VM was using about 90 % cpu on windows, now it is using not more than 35 % of cpu, gpu activities is near 0%, swap on windows or Ubuntu is not used more, so what happening ? Did the timer frequency change ?
Perryg
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Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Perryg »

What do you mean I did not read the problem?
I read the problem and suggested some things to check. Are you also trying this over a remote shell?
Send you guest settings and maybe we can see where the problem is.
Keskidi
Posts: 5
Joined: 22. Nov 2009, 15:31
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 9.10

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Keskidi »

Well,

Guest parameters are standard one
Ubuntu 9.10,
RAM 384Mo on 1Go, ACPI, 1 cpu AMD 1.8Ghz with PAE/NX,
Video Ram 64Mo on 512Mo with 3D acceleration,
PIIX4 and SATA (AHCI), CDROM
DirectSound ICH AC97
PCnet-FAST III (Am79C973) NAT
USB 2.0 EHCI
No share

It works fine until I install the additions following chapter 4.3 of VirtualBox documentation. At restart, Ubuntu is slow, choice on menu are not always in rollover mode (the color is not brown, but if I click on it, the choice is correct - specially on the last option - like shutdown), in terminal mode, delay between action and display is 1/2-1sec. I got about 256Mo of free physical memory in windows while the machine is running, cpu used by the machine is between 30%-45%, GPU usage = 0%-2%.
As I only start the ubuntu machine, install additions and restart, this is the only thing that cause the problem, I guess.
As I'm novice on Ubuntu, may be is it possible to uninstall this additions or some part in order to check.
Notice, that's not very important, I may reinstall Ubuntu, but I think it could be useful to know what's the problem and how to correct/avoid it.
What do you mean with remote shell ? RDP server is not active.
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
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Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Perryg »

How much RAM does the Host have?
256M of free memory suggests that you don't have a lot to begin with or you are running a lot on the host.
vRam memory is taken from the Host RAM not the GPU so set it to around 12 Meg on a Linux guest should help.
Post the guest log file so we can see what is really going on.
Keskidi
Posts: 5
Joined: 22. Nov 2009, 15:31
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 9.10

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Keskidi »

1 GB
256 MB of free physical memory while the Ubuntu VM's running - so I think it's enough

So I decided to test additions, by installing modules one by one
The problem appear after the restart of :
sh /media/cdrom0/VBoxLinuxAdditions-x86.run drm-module
No problem with the others.
Don't know what for but Direct Rendering, I suppose a link with the Graphic card, no ?
Is there a problem with ATI radeon graphic cards ?
Mine is ATI Radeon HD 3650 - 512MB
Perryg
Site Moderator
Posts: 34369
Joined: 6. Sep 2008, 22:55
Primary OS: Linux other
VBox Version: OSE self-compiled
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Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Perryg »

Can you post the VBox Guests log? That will tell me more than anything else as to the problem.
At this point I can only guess but with 1 Gig of host ram it may be that you need to cut the guest ram down to 256Meg.
It all depends on the amount of free RAM before you start the guest.
Also if you turn off the 3D effects you should see a major improvement with that small amount of actual memory.

Actually the DRM does not really connect the guest to the video card but uses the hosts drivers to do so.
So it is RAM and processor dependent not the actual vRam or GPU.
Keskidi
Posts: 5
Joined: 22. Nov 2009, 15:31
Primary OS: MS Windows XP
VBox Version: PUEL
Guest OSses: Ubuntu 9.10

Re: Mouse and keyboard lag

Post by Keskidi »

Hi,

The problem of RAM is possible, but there's not more usage of RAM with DRM or not, I launch the VM with about 350MB already used and it grows to 800MB with or without this module - 850MB max.
Response time without this module is 10 time slower than without (display, keyboard, ...).
What are talking about with 3D effects ? the 3D acceleration checkbox in VirtualBox or parameters in Ubuntu (I only install last version with updates, I didn't change anything except for additions).

I suppose the log is the vbox.log ?
So VBOX-Before.log is Startup - install DRM-module - Stop - Normal behaviour
VBox-before.log
Before DRM
(51.64 KiB) Downloaded 37 times
And VBOX-After.log is Startup - Stop - Slow behaviour
VBox-after.log
With DRM
(53.42 KiB) Downloaded 34 times
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