VirtualBox 2.1.0 crashing XP host

ww9rivers · Post by **ww9rivers** » 29. Dec 2008, 23:05

I am running a Ubuntu 8.04 guest on Windows XP host.

The host has been crashing quite frequently since my VBox upgrade from 2.0.4 to 2.1.0. I tried to downgrade to 2.0.6 but failed since I didn't back up the VM configs.

Besides waiting for whatever comes out after 2.1.0, does anyone have a workaround?

Thanks and regards.

chsh · Post by **chsh** » 30. Dec 2008, 06:46

I'm seeing similar behaviour on Vista 64-bit. It seems way less stable than when I was running it prior. It frequently hangs (not responding) and/or eats up available resources, and it isn't due to anything I've done in the guest -- it's just an Apache dev server on my LAN only.

MartinHK · Post by **MartinHK** » 30. Dec 2008, 15:54

Hi,

You wrote: "I am running a Ubuntu 8.04 guest on Windows XP host. ".

Me too. I have 2 computers with the same combinations, and just upgraded VirturlBox to version 2.1.0 today.

For the 1st computer, it worked generally OK except the mouse stopped working and I needed to swap it with the one on another computer. Sometimes when I was doing the network settings of the VM, there was unusual high volume noise from the hard drive, that never happened before.

For the 2nd one, the host crashed with blue screen, after turning-on the VM for 2-3 seconds, and this was repeatable. I changed the network from Host Interface to NAT, and this solved the problem.

My host's network adapter is "Realtek RTL8139 Family PCI Fast Ethernet NIC". I believe it has a problem working together with the "VirtualBox Host Interface Networking Driver".

Martin Lam

ww9rivers · Post by **ww9rivers** » 30. Dec 2008, 20:21

Martin, I think you are right about the problem being the "Host Interface" networking. I have the same suspicion, which is why I tried to down grade to 2.0.6.

The problem for me now is that port forwarding doesn't work in VBox 2.1.0, that puts me in between a rock and a hard place.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 31. Dec 2008, 02:38

If you take a look at the xml files, you should see two lines that say about the same, but one starts with something like this "". Now remove those characters, remove the second line (there should be a version in it, so remove the latest version) and try to start the VM after you installed 2.0.6 again. Make a backup first of course.

ww9rivers · Post by **ww9rivers** » 31. Dec 2008, 21:30

Sasquatch: Thanks for that tip! I thought I could just downgrade the code with simple config changes like that.

Anyway, right now, I only see these lines of XML comments in my VM's .xml file:

Code: Select all

<!-- Automatically converted from version '1.4-windows' -->
<!-- Automatically converted from version '1.3-windows' -->
<!-- Sun xVM VirtualBox Machine Configuration -->

I'll remove those and give it a try.

But, first I want to report a test I have done which may help the developers with this problem, I hope.

I installed the Microsoft Loopback interface, set the Ubuntu VM back to "Host Interface" but attached it to the loopback interface instead of the "Broadcom NetXtreme 57xx Gigabit Controller" that was my LAN NIC. The VM has been running overnight to now without crashing the Windows XP host.

That seems to point the finger to the "VirtualBox Host Interface Networking Driver". Of course, the fact that the loopback interface has no traffic may also have contributed to the stability.

Looking into the interface properties, I see these items on the Broadcom NIC:

* Novell Client for Windows
* Client for Microsoft Networks
* VirtualBox Host Interface Networking Driver
* File and Printer Sharing for Microsoft Networks
* QoS Packet Scheduler
* Network Monitor Driver
* Internet Protocol (TCP/IP)

The only thing not in the loopback interface's property sheet is the QoS Packet Scheduler.

ww9rivers · Post by **ww9rivers** » 31. Dec 2008, 22:22

To Sasquatch:

Removing the XML comments does not work. I get a message from VBox 2.0.6 saying "Cannot convert settings from version '1.5-windows'".

The problem is likely that the ".VirtualBox\VirtualBox.xml" file has this line in it:

Code: Select all

<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.5-windows">

So, it's probably back to 2.1.0.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 1. Jan 2009, 02:40

These are the lines I have in my XML file from the convertion:

Code: Select all

<!-- Automatically converted from version '1.4-linux' -->
<!-- Automatically converted from version '1.3-linux' -->
<!-- Sun xVM VirtualBox Machine Configuration -->
<VirtualBox xmlns="http://www.innotek.de/VirtualBox-settings" version="1.5-linux">

Change the '1.5' to '1.4' and it should be working. Note that these lines are from a Linux Host.

MartinHK · Post by **MartinHK** » 2. Jan 2009, 10:05

Hi ww9rivers,

ww9rivers wrote: The problem for me now is that port forwarding doesn't work in VBox 2.1.0, that puts me in between a rock and a hard place.

I'm new to VBox.

In which scenario we need to use port forwarding? Where to set them?

I have Vbox 2.1.0 on WinXP host, Win2K server as the guest. With the new Host Interface on V2.1.0, I directly assigned some IPs on the network adapter of the Guest, they work satisfactorily so far. I tried Remote Desktop and MS SQL Server 7 on the Guest, other computers in the network can access them without any problem.

If this the way a VM should work, seems we may not need port-forwarding. Do I miss anything?

Best regards,
Martin Lam

JackieKu · Post by **JackieKu** » 2. Jan 2009, 13:45

I'm using 2.1's host networking on Vista64 host, it also crashes.

The ethernet chip is Realtek RTL8111C.

ww9rivers · Post by **ww9rivers** » 2. Jan 2009, 18:17

@ Sasquatch: Changing 1.5-windows to 1.4-windows does not work for me. I still get the same message about not being able to read "1.4-windows" and a lot more errors when I change that to "1.3-windows" from VBox reading the XML files.

@ Martin: Port forwarding in VBox is just like port forwarding on a home network gateway: It's only needed when you do NAT networking on the VM and only useful when you want some services on your VM accessible from the outside.

In my case, I want to SSH into my VM as well as access to the web server I am running in the VM for development work. If "Host Interface" works, then I would be fine, too. The problem is that both are broken in 2.1.0.

As for setting up port forwarding, just google "VirtualBox port forwarding" you will find many answers. Or take a look at this one:

http://blog.nixternal.com/2008.12.19/vi ... orwarding/

Regards,
--
Wei

Post by **Sasquatch** » 4. Jan 2009, 20:53

Port forwarding is described in the manual. It is broken in 2.1.0 though, no TCP traffic is forwarded.

jmtdstoc · Post by **jmtdstoc** » 6. Jan 2009, 18:26

My Vista Business 64bit is also crashing frequently at random, with Virtualbox 2.1.0.
On one of the BSOD's I saw the file "Vboxdrv.sys" mentioned (or something similar).

My network adapter is "Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller".

Let's hope future versions solve these problems.

Post by **Sasquatch** » 6. Jan 2009, 23:11

jmtdstoc wrote:My Vista Business 64bit is also crashing frequently at random, with Virtualbox 2.1.0.
On one of the BSOD's I saw the file "Vboxdrv.sys" mentioned (or something similar).

My network adapter is "Marvell Yukon 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller".

Let's hope future versions solve these problems.

This is known. There are some issues with the new HIF system that causes these errors. We all hope they fix them in the next release (2.1.2). You can check the Bugtracker for a status on the known bugs in 2.1.0.

virtualbox.org

VirtualBox 2.1.0 crashing XP host

VirtualBox 2.1.0 crashing XP host

Still no 2.0.6