virtualbox.org

thewzd wrote:and 895mb video ram. Fingers crossed....

ehhm, BTW... do you have compiz running on the host?

fixedwheel wrote:ehhm, BTW... do you have compiz running on the host?

Hi, I'm not sure what "compiz" is, so just in case it was a process that I'd see if I had it, I checked with [ps -ef | grep "compiz"] but it showed no results (other than the grep line!) - If you're able to explain where else I need to check to find out, I'm happy to look. Unfortunately, I'm stuck to my laptop about 14hrs a day! :-\

thewzd wrote:process that I'd see if I had it, I checked with [ps -ef | grep "compiz"] but it showed no results (other than the grep line!)

then its probably not there. Should be /usr/bin/compiz or if you look into synaptic package manager search for compiz. Its a composite window manager for openGL animated desktop effects and could be suspicious ...

hi,
compiz is present in the usr/bin folder
but when i look at 'add/remove applications' there are no compiz items installed on the system
so i'm guessing that i'm ok to rule out any compiz issue, but thanks for the insight.
i also checked my desktop settings, and my visual effects on desktop settings are set to 'none'

...another quick update, relating to compiz.

Now that I understand what compiz is, I looked for related apps to control it, and I installed the 'Advanced Desktop Effects Settings' available through Add/Remove Applications.

Having had some fun with those effects, with VB running, I got back to checking to see if things made any difference or not. And they didn't, no matter what settings were in place.

However, what did make a difference was when I'd finished playing around, and I switched off the Desktop Effects back to 'None'. Now when I use VB, the host CPU is reporting to be around 50%, not 85-95+%.... so I wonder if Compiz has access to some setting that might be helping to reduce the CPU load, or is it a fluke?

Just to confirm.... [ps -ef | "compiz"] now shows that compiz IS running, whilst before, it was NOT.

Strange huh.

ps: and re-checking again before pressing submit, I'm still at 54% with an idle (Windows quest CPU at 5%).... so somethings changed.

I use Compiz-Fusion on my Xubuntu Host without VB taking any additional CPU. Note that I use Xfce as desktop manager, not Gnome.