"Virtualbox has active connections" on shutdown.

[Sunny Rio]

This has been going on a for a long time, and a Google search shows it happens in Boinc, Bluestacks, everything using Virtualbox. There is a SEVERE bug in Virtualbox, so when you shut down a computer, Virtualbox just sits there and complains about an "active connection" without telling the user what it's actually doing. Well this is exceedingly annoying if you remotely shut down a computer then it doesn't. Please please please fix this!

[scottgus1]

I have seen this happen on one of my hosts once or twice, and it comes from some issue preventing Virtualbox from closing down properly.

It doesn't happen under normal circumstances. Please describe exactly how you're using Virtualbox, especially if you have any VMs 'running as a service' or from Task Scheduler, etc.

Also, go to C:\Users\{youraccount}, and zip & post the '.Virtualbox' folder (note the period in the name) using the forum's Upload Attachment tab.

[Sunny Rio]

It happens every single time I use it. Virtualbox needs to tell me exactly what is stuck or I can't help it. I run Boinc projects under Virtualbox - LHC, Rosetta, Cosmology, QuChemPedia. Boinc launches Virtualbox. If I shut down the computer I have to say "shut down anyway" because of some vague message about "active connections". Some people said it's still connected online to the server at LHC etc, but others have said something about it being a loopback connection. File cannot be attached - "The file is too big, maximum allowed size is 256 KiB." Mine is 284. I'll attach it in two parts.

[scottgus1]

Them's some big logs. Thanks for the uploads!

You're using Boinc-driven VMs. What happens when you run a standard Virtualbox VM?

Please set up the computer so it won't run the Boinc VMs automatically, if it did so before. Shut down and restart the PC without any Boinc VMs having run. Does the PC shut down without the error message?

Now, set up a regular Ubuntu VM in Virtualbox, install Ubuntu, run the VM, shut it down, then shut down the PC. Does the error message happen?

[Sunny Rio]

Yeah I use Boinc a lot, this is only one of 7 machines (which all have the problem - very annoying if I'm trying to reboot them remotely). Total power consumption, 3kW!

There is no error message unless a Boinc VM was running.

Not sure what you meant with Ubuntu, so I booted a VM using a Linux CD ISO: xubuntu-20.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso

Shut the VM down, then the computer, and no error.

Also tried leaving Ubuntu VM running, and just shut down the computer, and it passed the shutdown command successfully.

[scottgus1]

I booted a VM using a Linux CD ISO: xubuntu-20.04.4-desktop-amd64.iso

install Ubuntu

Got half way there

no error message unless a Boinc VM was running.

Shut the VM down, then the computer, and no error.

So this looks like Boinc is causing the error, not Virtualbox. Their setup isn't letting Virtualbox shut down properly.

If someone knows what to troubleshoot with this, they can weigh in. But you could also check with the Boinc support forums too.

[Sunny Rio]

Is there something specific Boinc should be doing? Surely shutting down the Windows machine should signal to all VMs to shut down? What has boinc to do with it. If you can give me a specific thing Boinc is doing wrong or not doing, I can pass it to the programmers. They won't do anything unless I have some info.

[scottgus1]

I don't know anything about Boinc, so we'll have to wait for someone who could diagnose this problem.

[fth0]

AFAIK, the BOINC projects use the obsolete VirtualBox 5.2.44, and even if you'd discover the background reason, it probably wouldn't be fixed unless it also was a bug in the current VirtualBox 6.1.x versions, and then it would only be fixed there.

Perhaps you can discover some offending BOINC VMs with one of the VBoxManage commands, but what could you do with this information afterwards? There have been other reports in the forums (google "boinc site:forums.virtualbox.org"), indicating that perhaps some rarely used Intel CPU math instructions were not emulated correctly, leading to hanging VMs. But as long as the BOINC projects keep using VirtualBox 5.2.44 ... you get the picture.

Edit:
Stroke through some wrong and non-constructive comments.

[Sunny Rio]

Boinc actually distributes VB 6. But I don't use it because a lot of projects don't run on it correctly. Oracle screwed something up and made programs incompatible.

The VMs do not hang, the program inside shuts correctly and Boinc logs the progress. But VB thinks it's still running.

In the Boinc forums we call it virtual pox.

[scottgus1]

fth0, I wonder if the VboxSVC service is not shutting down, or somehow multiple VboxSVCs, or VboxSVCs on different host accounts, are being started?

[fth0]

Ok, my memory seems to have failed me regarding the combination of BOINC projects and VirtualBox versions, sorry about that. I'll correct my previous posting for posterity (of course without really deleting the wrong content ).

Boinc actually distributes VB 6. But I don't use it because a lot of projects don't run on it correctly.

So what do those projects differently from other VMs running on VirtualBox without problems?

The VMs do not hang, the program inside shuts correctly and Boinc logs the progress. But VB thinks it's still running.

In this case, I meant something like "hang inside VBoxSVC". But I'll have to admit that this phrase is too unspecific for me, too.

fth0, I wonder if the VboxSVC service is not shutting down, or somehow multiple VboxSVCs, or VboxSVCs on different host accounts, are being started?

A lot of possibilities. Looking at the error messages in some of the VBoxSVC.log files, I've got a general idea of sequence of events to look for in the old and new log files of different BOINC-related threads:

While VBoxSVC is running, it takes kind of ownership of all registered VM configurations (.vbox files) without enforcing that on the filesystem level (I think). If in case of an error a VM configuration would be removed from the filesystem without using VirtualBox methods, that could lead to unexpected consequences. The same holds true for other resources managed by VBoxSVC. Something to look for when I'm really bored ...

[Sunny Rio]

Ok, my memory seems to have failed me regarding the combination of BOINC projects and VirtualBox versions, sorry about that. I'll correct my previous posting for posterity (of course without really deleting the wrong content ).

Boinc actually distributes VB 6. But I don't use it because a lot of projects don't run on it correctly.

So what do those projects differently from other VMs running on VirtualBox without problems?

I don't know the technicalities, but Kryptos (deceased), Cosmology, QuChemPedia (I think) don't run on VB 6, the tasks go wrong after 1% runtime. The programmers say it's too difficult to make it work on V6. LHC, Rosetta work ok, but Rosetta doesn't like CPUs without AVX extensions. Something to do with VB not passing this through properly.

The VMs do not hang, the program inside shuts correctly and Boinc logs the progress. But VB thinks it's still running.

In this case, I meant something like "hang inside VBoxSVC". But I'll have to admit that this phrase is too unspecific for me, too.

It's over my head, I haven't the foggiest idea what you mean

fth0, I wonder if the VboxSVC service is not shutting down, or somehow multiple VboxSVCs, or VboxSVCs on different host accounts, are being started?

A lot of possibilities. Looking at the error messages in some of the VBoxSVC.log files, I've got a general idea of sequence of events to look for in the old and new log files of different BOINC-related threads:

While VBoxSVC is running, it takes kind of ownership of all registered VM configurations (.vbox files) without enforcing that on the filesystem level (I think). If in case of an error a VM configuration would be removed from the filesystem without using VirtualBox methods, that could lead to unexpected consequences. The same holds true for other resources managed by VBoxSVC. Something to look for when I'm really bored ...

If you can fix these problems, you're a genius, and the Boinc community would be very greatfull.