No start: 7.0.12 -> 7.0.14 on macOS Catalina

[johangrimm]

I run VirtualBox Version 7.0.12 r159484 (Qt5.15.2) on a

Mac mini late 2012
2.5 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5
16 GB 1600 MHz (maxed out memory...)

with
macOS Catalina, version 10.15.7 (19H2026)


Most of the time, the minimalistic machine:
Win10 64
4096 RAM
1 CPU
No network

work for hours. But occasionally, it just terminates, Especially if left idle which makes me extra curios.

So, of course I tried the update going from 7.0.12 to 7.0.14.
Then the machine wouldn't start at all! Neither did a new machine, tried different settings.
Regardsless of hardware setup, has anyone had a similar experience?

Unfortunately I did not save the log files from the 7.0.14-attempt!


This is the last 7.0.12 sudden death

Code: Select all

00:01:09.273423 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners
00:01:09.273489 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary
00:01:09.273524 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners
00:01:09.273544 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=1, Machine-state=6
00:01:09.319329 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state really changed, notifying listeners
00:01:09.319558 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::adjustGuestScreenSize: Adjust guest-screen size if necessary
00:01:09.319594 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners
00:01:09.319612 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=1, Machine-state=6
00:01:09.319644 GUI: UISession::sltAdditionsChange: GA state change event came, notifying listeners
00:01:09.319663 GUI: UIMachineLogicNormal::sltCheckForRequestedVisualStateType: Requested-state=1, Machine-state=6
00:01:16.939745 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 002 132 617 ns lag; new total: 60 002 132 617 ns
00:01:32.491965 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:01:32.900421 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:01:32.915240 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:01:34.661859 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:01:39.508274 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:01:40.439233 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:01:41.088755 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:03:25.383646 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:03:25.998277 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:03:44.177567 Shared Clipboard: Signalling host about guest clipboard data failed with VERR_NOT_FOUND
00:04:35.936615 Shared Clipboard: Signalling host about guest clipboard data failed with VERR_NOT_FOUND
00:11:14.137318 AHCI#0: Port 0 reset
00:11:14.138482 VD#0: Cancelling all active requests
00:12:46.126059 Shared Clipboard: Signalling host about guest clipboard data failed with VERR_NOT_FOUND
00:14:21.112057 Shared Clipboard: Signalling host about guest clipboard data failed with VERR_NOT_FOUND
00:14:40.137014 Shared Clipboard: Signalling host about guest clipboard data failed with VERR_NOT_FOUND
00:17:54.958806 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:17:54.961312 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:22:09.800626 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:22:10.365617 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL loaded.
00:22:10.946832 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:22:44.874020 VMMDev: Guest Log: VBOXNP: DLL unloaded.
00:23:09.930039 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 005 922 529 ns lag; new total: 120 008 055 146 ns
00:24:13.183685 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 006 557 235 ns lag; new total: 180 014 612 381 ns
00:25:16.559669 TM: Giving up catch-up attempt at a 60 004 417 183 ns lag; new total: 240 019 029 564 ns
00:42:03.918148 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=00007fc851198000 w=1663 h=936 bpp=32 cbLine=0x19FC flags=0xD origin=0,0
00:42:03.918308 Display::i_handleDisplayResize: uScreenId=0 pvVRAM=00007fc851198000 w=1663 h=936 bpp=32 cbLine=0x19FC flags=0x1 origin=0,0
00:42:03.918351 GUI: UIFrameBufferPrivate::performResize: Size=1663x936, Using fallback buffer since no source bitmap is provided

I wonder if the screen saver might have affected the resources, killing the virtual machines graphic memory handling?
I know I should consider a faster hardware but, this is what I have right now.

[granada29]

Although VirtualBox 7.0.x will run on Catalina, it can be a miserable experience. The 7.x version of VirtualBox uses the Apple hypervisor which seems to add considerable overhead and is now unsupported by Apple - i.e. there will be no improvements.

I went through this with a late 2012 MacMini 6,2 and in the end uninstalled VirtualBox 7.x and re-installed the then latest version of VirtualBox 6.1.x.

VirtualBox 6.1.50 is available, but now like Catalina, is unsupported. However, it continues to run very well and certainly meets my needs running 2 Linux VMs, each with uptimes of months.

I think you should seriously consider using VirtualBox 6.1.50 on your machine.

[johangrimm]

I think you should seriously consider using VirtualBox 6.1.50 on your machine.

Thank you ever so much! It's exactly this type of feedback only a forum could give, I will give it a try.

Edit: Works perfect so far!

[JonH]

VirtualBox 6.1.50 is available, but now like Catalina, is unsupported. However, it continues to run very well and certainly meets my needs running 2 Linux VMs, each with uptimes of months.

I think you should seriously consider using VirtualBox 6.1.50 on your machine.

@granada29
Can you give me some tips on backleveling? I tried this several months ago and it didn't want to start, I had to revert to the 7.0.12 which is my current install. I'm running on a 2017 iMac (18,3) with Ventura on an Intel chip. I probably did not do the backlevel process correctly.

Thanks

[granada29]

@JonH

I'm not sure what you mean by backleveling. Since you are running Ventura, you will have to run VirtualBox 7.0.x as Ventura (and later) will not support installation of the kernel extensions (kexts) that are used by VirtualBox 6.1.x and earlier

The current release of VirtualBox is 7.0.14

I am running that successfully with Ventura on my iMac 18,3

[JonH]

@JonH

Since you are running Ventura, you will have to run VirtualBox 7.0.x

@granada29
Thanks. This answers my question. I won't be able to go back (backlevel) to 6.x