3.0.0 on Windows Server 2008 32-bit

[mrle]

Hi, I just installed vbox 3.0.0 on my WS 2008 Enterprise (32-bit version). The CPU is an Athlon x2, with 8 GB of RAM.

Anyway, I can start a guest Linux or any other guest OS with 1 or 2 GB RAM, but I get a Guru Meditation error after a while - which I think it is memory-related. Here is what I get at the end of a log file from crashed VM:

Code: Select all

00:00:49.565 
00:00:49.565 !!Assertion Failed!!
00:00:49.565 Expression: RT_SUCCESS_NP(rc)
00:00:49.565 Location  : E:\tinderbox\win-rel\src\VBox\Runtime\common\misc\thread.cpp(727) RTThreadCreate
00:00:49.565 VERR_NO_MEMORY (-8) - Memory allocation failed.

I tried with or without AMD-V and PAE extensions, same result every time.

Anyway, is this configuration even supported? Can vbox VM access >4GB RAM on a 32-bit system?

BTW, I also tried the competing commercial product (vmware), it works without issues, but is somewhat slower than vbox.

[Perryg]

Perhaps you need to read Chapter 13. Known limitations of the VBox Users Guide. See if this issue relates to your situation.

[mrle]

Thanks.

I updated to 3.0.2 recently, and through some trial-and-error I found out that maximum RAM for a single virtual machine on my system is somewhere around 1800 MB. If I reduce VM RAM to that amount or less, I can start 3 or more VMs and they allocate physical system memory all the way up to 8 GB as expected. I suspect all of this is probably due to the 2 GB limit on per-process memory in 32-bit Windows.

[Entegy]

Use the 64-bit version of Windows then?

[mrle]

Sure, it would work, but I can't reinstall this system now. And 1800 MB per VM is more than enough for my needs.

I was just trying to find out what's the maximum memory a VM can handle, since there is no mention of any memory limitations in the User Manual.