VBox 6.0 RC1 Windows Server 2019 guest crashes (Fedora29 host)

[FranceBB]

Hi,
Windows Server 2019 x64 crashes during the normal usage, after the login.
I rebooted a few times.
The first time it crashed while I was trying to open Visual Studio.
The second time, it crashed while I was typing ipconfig /all in cmd.
The third time, it crashed while I was trying to update another program.

I tried to limit the cores of the CPU to 1, but it still crashed.
I'm using the legacy Virtual Box Graphic, 'cause with the new SVGA fails to refresh the screen (as already reported by another user).
https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=90719
Anyway, for what it's worth, I gave a shot to SVGA as well, but it crashed as well.

In attachment you'll find the logs.
The host is Fedora 29, the guest Windows Server 2019 x64.
For the records, I also have Windows XP x86 as guest in this machine and it works fine.

I don't know what's causing the issue.
Besides, 2D and 3D acceleration are disabled.
I don't know if someone has an ISO of WIndows Server 2019 and can reproduce it.

[socratis]

In attachment you'll find the logs.

!1) Why three, do you think we're gonna spent 3x the time analyzing it? We only need one.
2) Why not ZIPPED? You should know better by now...

So, please edit your message and delete the two logs that are not needed, and replace the third with its ZIPPED counterpart. When we're asking for a log, we don't want to see a random log, from a random run, with random settings. I want to see "The" log where/when the problem occurs.

I don't know if someone has an ISO of WIndows Server 2019 and can reproduce it.

I don't, where do you get one? Do you have to be an MSDN member or something? Cause it does sound like a beta release...

[FranceBB]

Yep, sorry, my bad, I zipped it.
Anyway, the other two were to show that I had the same crash even though I was doing different tasks.
The logs show the problem as I just rebooted in order to keep them clean.

As to Windows Server 2019, I'm a Microsoft Insighter and I have access to pre-release softwares.
I've been testing it since March 20, 2018 'till it was released for general availability on October 2, 2018 and I still use it.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/cloud-p ... er-pricing

[socratis]

First of all, thanks for taking care of the logs! Much better for you, us and the server!

00:00:02.767418 Guest OS type: 'WindowsNT_64'

That's definitely the wrong template for a Win2019 server! That's the template for "Other Windows (64-bit)" and it's the most conservative of the templates, meaning for the oldest Windows possible, somewhere between WinXP and WinVista. You should go with the latest of the templates, "Win2016 (64-bit)".

00:00:02.823575 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
00:00:03.071354 CPUM: Physical host cores: 4

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about physical processors (cores), not logical ones (threads). See "CPU Cores versus threads" and "Why is it a bad idea to allocate as many VCPUs as there are physical CPUs?".

As to Windows Server 2019, I'm a Microsoft Insighter and I have access to pre-release softwares.

If the only way to get access to this puppy is by following the "Pricing and licensing for Windows Server 2019" link, I'm sorry, but I won't spend a single dime on test driving something...

[FranceBB]

You have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about physical processors (cores), not logical ones (threads).

It's a 4c/8th CPU; Hyper threading it's turned on, therefore I assigned 4c, the maximum allowed. Limiting the core assigned to 1 doesn't fix the crash, though.
By the way I do know that virtualbox uses physical cores only, as it would have terrible timings with the threads, that's why I assigned 4cores only.

That's the template for "Other Windows (64-bit)" and it's the most conservative of the templates, meaning for the oldest Windows possible

Got it. I'll switch it to Win Server 2016.
I changed a few settings manually when I installed it, by the way, like AHCI instead of IDE, Intel HD as audio instead of AC97 etc.
I thought that the template was just something to provide pre-configured settings and that it didn't really matter as long as these settings were changed manually once the VM was created.

I'm sorry, but I won't spend a single dime on test driving something

I would never ask you to spend 500 bucks to test an OS, it was just a link to the official page.
Speaking of which, if you are curious, you'll be able to get the evaluation version from the Evaluation Center as soon as Microsoft will make it available: https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/cloud-p ... ows-server

[socratis]

By the way I do know that virtualbox uses physical cores only, as it would have terrible timings with the threads, that's why I assigned 4cores only.

You knew, yet you assigned all of them? Hmm... you shouldn't, that doesn't compute, I'm sorry to say...

I thought that the template was just something to provide pre-configured settings and that it didn't really matter as long as these settings were changed manually once the VM was created.

Yes, indeed. But not all of them are GUI changeable, for example, LargePages. Only by comparing the output of "VBoxManage showvminfo <VM>" and/or the <VM>.vbox files you'll be able to tell for sure. Before you install the guest. And even then, I'm not sure if there are no runtime changes based on the template.

if you are curious, you'll be able to get the evaluation version from the Evaluation Center as soon as Microsoft will make it available

Now you're talking, we might be in business!

Finally, I wouldn't expect this to be a big priority unless this thing becomes an official release...

[FranceBB]

Apparently, audio was the culprit as disabling it in both host (VM settings) and guest solved the problem.
To be fair, disabling audio is not a big deal as it's very unlikely to use it on a server anyway.

[socratis]

Apparently, audio was the culprit as disabling it in both host (VM settings) and guest solved the problem.

Audio??? Audio was preventing your VM from starting??? And what do you mean "disabled in the guest"? I can understand the VM Settings part, but not the "in the guest" part, can you explain? Also, any chance of narrowing this down to Input or Output?

This would be the second instance of the Intel HDA causing issues with the latest Windows, the first one that the latest insider build (18298) doesn't even see the audio card, see "Win 10 Guest 'no audio device installed' (#18182)". But at least it doesn't crash...

And finally another question... Since you're using the Beta to test this, can you try with VirtualBox 5.2.22, just to make absolutely sure that this is not a 6.0.0 regression?

[FranceBB]

The latest stable doesn't crash on normal usage, however it has a crackling sound without any reasonable delay handled by the application playing audio.
The audio panel opens up normally and I can see both a virtual microphone and a virtual speaker.
It does crash, however, as soon as a third party application tries to access the device: Skype App for Windows prompts the user to a blue screen as soon as the call starts, Skype Web (with the .msi extension to make calls) does exactly the same.
In other words, it still has problems, just a slightly different behaviour.
I don't know whether it's related to virtualbox or Windows Server 2019, but I might try to uninstall the latest updates and revert back to a former release.
If that fixes the error, then it's M$ fault.

With the latest beta version, instead, the VM crashes and closes itself without prompting me to a blue screen during normal usage, probably as soon as something makes a call to the kernel querying the audio driver someway.
By disabling the audio in the host by modifying the settings in the virtual machine and by disabling the audio service in the guest during the safe mode (just to make sure no audio is loaded whatsoever) I can avoid to make it crash.
Unfortunately, I can't test AC97 nor SoundBlaster as I failed to find compatible drivers with Windows Server 2019.
I did try to switch from PulseAudio to ALSA on the host, but the VM crashed anyway, implying that the problem doesn't occur on the host side, but on the guest side.
Last but not least, I tried to fire up two VMs (Windows XP with AC97 and Windows 98 with SoundBlaster) and they were both working fine, which makes me believe that Intel HD Audio is what triggers the crash on Windows Server 2019. I wonder whether it's WS2019 related only or not, but I can't setup a Windows 8.1 VM to test how Intel HD audio behaves this very moment.
Keep in mind that Windows Server 2019 shares most of the code with Windows 10, but it's not w10 as the Kernel, the graphic stack and other things are different.