Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

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SunSlick
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Joined: 24. Jun 2019, 16:07

Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by SunSlick »

I have Windows 10 host machine and an Ubuntu 18.04 guest. I upgraded from Virtualbox 5.2 to Virtualbox 6.0 few months ago. After the upgrade I can't seem to be able to keep the guest stable. I used to be able to leave the VM running for several days without issues. However, since the upgrade, the VM seems to crash within 24 hours. I am aware of the changes related to video adapters (Virtualbox 6.0 vs 5.2) and tried various settings, but can't seem to prevent the crashes. What bugs me is that even when I downgraded to 5.2, the crashes continue.

I am not very familiar with VM log file (attached) and need some help in finding source of the crashes. Could anyone help look through please?
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VBox.log
(93.82 KiB) Downloaded 27 times
mpack
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by mpack »

00:00:03.208508 Host RAM: 8129MB (7.9GB) total, 1103MB available
...
00:00:04.863792 RamSize <integer> = 0x00000000c0000000 (3 221 225 472, 3 072 MB, 3.0 GB)
00:00:04.864094 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)
Huge overcommittment of RAM. I'm amazed this ever worked.

You need to free up whatever is hogging all that host RAM. Perhaps it's something you recently added.
SunSlick
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Joined: 24. Jun 2019, 16:07

Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by SunSlick »

So I upped the RAM to 16GB - The VM seems more stable indeed but still not robust yet. Fiddling with a few different configurations to stablize. Thanks for the pointer !
SunSlick
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Joined: 24. Jun 2019, 16:07

Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by SunSlick »

Oh well, spoke too soon. The machine has started crashing regularly again. Could you take another look please?
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VBox.log
(108.09 KiB) Downloaded 26 times
BillG
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by BillG »

SunSlick wrote:So I upped the RAM to 16GB - The VM seems more stable indeed but still not robust yet. Fiddling with a few different configurations to stablize. Thanks for the pointer !
You what? Your RAM is over-committed, not under! There is only 1.1G available on the host to run your vm.
Bill
mpack
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by mpack »

Hi Bill, I believe the OP means that he added more RAM to the host. The guest is still 3GB.

Unfortunately I'm seeing no sign of any crash. The log simply terminates at the 35 hour mark. I'm going to need some idea of what the VM was doing at the time.

Did the VM just exit like that, or was the log grabbed while the VM was still running?

The last line of the log is audio related. It may be worthwhile disabling audio as a test.
fth0
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by fth0 »

Regarding VBox.log files, I'm still a bit of a layman. But I noticed a special timing in the 2nd VBox.log file:
00:00:02.372160 Log opened 2019-07-31T12:08:40.924776900Z
07:56:26.116329 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'RESETTING'
31:56:49.926942 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'RESETTING'
@SunSlick
Your VM has been reset around 20:05 UTC on 2019-07-31 and on 2019-08-01, nearly exactly 24h apart:
Did you initiate those resets yourself?
If yes, what do you mean by crashing?
If no, those are the crashes. What event may have taken place on two consecutive days at this same time of day?
mpack
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by mpack »

Thanks for trying to help, but I'd point out that the topic title is "VirtualBox crashing", not "Guest OS crashing". A guest OS reset may indeed indicate a guest OS crash, but then I'd want to know what evidence exists that the problem is with VirtualBox and not the guest OS.

VirtualBox has an excellent crash handler built in. If VirtualBox crashed then I'd expect to see the log terminate with a "Guru Meditation" report. It is exceedingly rare for the log to just stop in mid stream - the most common cause of that happening is the user copying the file while it is still open for writing, so all we get is everything up to the last buffer flush.
fth0
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by fth0 »

mpack wrote:Thanks for trying to help, but I'd point out that the topic title is "VirtualBox crashing", not "Guest OS crashing".
I'm not so sure what the OP really means: The topic title says "VirtualBox crashing" and in all posts the OP speaks about the "VM crashing" (even after having enough RAM now :)). From a first time poster I do not expect correct terminology, so IMHO the OP could mean anything from a guest OS hanging, over a guest OS restarting, up to a VM window disappearing. Therefore I'm asking the OP what he means by "VM crashing", and if he initiated the resets himself.

@SunSlick: Please don't forget to answer mpack's questions and suggestions, since he definitely has more knowledge about Virtualbox then me. :!:

EDIT:
We may have a very simple version mismatch problem here:
00:00:02.372156 VirtualBox VM 6.0.10 r132072 win.amd64 (Jul 12 2019 09:34:54) release log
00:00:02.422449 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:02.422479 Oracle VM VirtualBox Extension Pack (Version: 6.0.8 r130520; VRDE Module: VBoxVRDP)
@SunSlick: The Extension Pack version must always match the VirtualBox version, so please update it.
SunSlick
Posts: 4
Joined: 24. Jun 2019, 16:07

Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by SunSlick »

mpack wrote:Thanks for trying to help, but I'd point out that the topic title is "VirtualBox crashing", not "Guest OS crashing". A guest OS reset may indeed indicate a guest OS crash, but then I'd want to know what evidence exists that the problem is with VirtualBox and not the guest OS.
My apologies on the terminology, I am a newbie indeed.

By "Virtualbox crashing", I meant that the guest OS was hanging, like in the attached picture. Say I launch the guest OS, it runs for few hours without problem. However, when I go back to the machine after a few hours, the guest window shows the screen frozen as shown in the picture. In this state, I can't reset the machine. I can't even close the window by pressing the exit button. I can't find anything effective in the virtualbox hypervisor(?) either, so I end up using Windows Task Manager in the host machine to terminate all virtualbox related process. Also, the image is not my actual screengrab, I just found something similar online to demonstrate.

Fortunately, after I followed @mpack's suggestion to disable audio, the guest OS has stopped hanging.

By "upped the RAM to 16GB", I meant that I increased the host RAM to 16GB.
ubuntu boot.png
ubuntu boot.png (21.88 KiB) Viewed 2147 times
fth0 wrote: @SunSlick: The Extension Pack version must always match the VirtualBox version, so please update it.
I have been using VirtualBox for a few years, and am careful to match the Extension Pack with the VirtualBox version. I may have slipped in this instance, I am not sure.
fth0 wrote: @SunSlick
Your VM has been reset around 20:05 UTC on 2019-07-31 and on 2019-08-01, nearly exactly 24h apart:
Did you initiate those resets yourself?
I noticed this too. The machine is resetting at 20:05 UTC every day. I did not initiate the reset manually. Is there is a setting in Ubuntu/Virtualbox to reset the machine at a fixed time? If so, I may have set it, I don't recall. Either way, I am not bothered by the reset, as long as the machine does not hang.

@mpack, @BillG, @fth0: Much appreciate all the help!
mpack
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by mpack »

SunSlick wrote:Is there is a setting in Ubuntu/Virtualbox to reset the machine at a fixed time?
In VirtualBox - no.

In Ubuntu - pass.
fth0
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Re: Virtualbox crashing after update - assistance with log files

Post by fth0 »

SunSlick wrote:Is there is a setting in Ubuntu/Virtualbox to reset the machine at a fixed time?
In Ubuntu Linux there are so many ways to automate anything (like a reboot) that no one knows them all. ;) To see if it is related to the cron mechanism, you can look at /etc/crontab. Generally, you can look at the SYSLOG messages in /var/log/syslog*, and if you're lucky, there are events around 20:05 UTC.
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