Manual power off required - why?

[Christopher]

I run an old SUSE Linux 9.2 (Kernel 2.6.8-24) running as the guest OS in a Ubuntu 10.04 64bit host. I know this is a very old distro - but this is not what the question is about:

When turning off the virtual machine, the virtualbox window does not close, instead I have to manually power off the virtual machine. It always hangs at the line 'the system will be halted immediately'. I had the same setup with VMware Player where it took around one sec after this message until the machine was powered off automatically. Now with VBox it seems not to work anymore... I already tried different boot options like acpi=force or apm=power-off with no success.

Does anybody know what to do to fix this problem?

Thanks a lot
Chris

[Sasquatch]

Check the log when the VM 'hangs'. I bet it doesn't get a request to power off. Your favourite search engine should have the answer to that, or just get a newer SuSE version.

[Christopher]

Hi Sasquatch

First of all, thanks for replying. But still I have to say that your answer is neither helpful nor respectful. Of course I did google for answers and try out different things, I would not register and post on a forum before doing that.

I bet it doesn't get a request to power off.

No, I can't see such a request. But this is no big surprise, the question is why I can't see it. As I mentioned, the machine powers off automatically in VMware Player and also on a real physical computer, even without tweaking around with boot options.

or just get a newer SuSE version.

This is not what the discussion is about and therefore an unnecessary comment, I thought I could avoid such comments by mentioning it in the first post...

So, if anyone *knows* something about this problem, I'm grateful for any help.

Chris

[Perryg]

From the host terminal type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use "" if the name has a space in it.

[Sasquatch]

No, I can't see such a request. But this is no big surprise, the question is why I can't see it.

Because the Guest OS never sends such a request. Something in the ACPI is not working properly there. That's what I was suggesting with the search statement. There is something that it doesn't like or do when it's in VB, but does in VMWare (or they monitor something and terminate the instance) or when it's installed native.

[Perryg]

I read a lot about the older versions of SUSE and that it may not even have the acpi kernel, which could also be a problem.
Out of curiosity what happens if you click the machine tab and then acpi shutdown?

[Christopher]

From the host terminal type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here.

Code: Select all

Oracle VM VirtualBox Command Line Management Interface Version 3.2.6
(C) 2005-2010 Oracle Corporation
All rights reserved.

Name:            SuSE_9-2
Guest OS:        openSUSE
UUID:            5c67ff8f-4648-4cc9-8ef6-35f9cf1e44dd
Config file:     /home/chris/.VirtualBox/Machines/SuSE_9-2/SuSE_9-2.xml
Hardware UUID:   5c67ff8f-4648-4cc9-8ef6-35f9cf1e44dd
Memory size:     2048MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       16MB
HPET:            off
Number of CPUs:  1
Synthetic Cpu:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): HardDisk
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             on
Time offset:     0 ms
RTC:             local time
Hardw. virt.ext: off
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
Nested Paging:   on
Large Pages:     off
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           powered off (since 2010-07-28T05:48:01.000000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address: 
Teleporter Password: 
Storage Controller Name (0):            SCSI Controller
Storage Controller Type (0):            LsiLogic
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  16
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      16
Storage Controller Name (1):            IDE-Controller
Storage Controller Type (1):            PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      2
SCSI Controller (0, 0): /home/chris/.VirtualBox/Machines/SuSE_9-2/Snapshots/{3038b2b8-fec8-4657-87c5-e6385ad03a1a}.vdi (UUID: 3038b2b8-fec8-4657-87c5-e6385ad03a1a)
SCSI Controller (1, 0): /home/chris/.VirtualBox/Machines/SuSE_9-2/Snapshots/{53484d8f-c5f3-458a-97eb-e56ffaa075f1}.vdi (UUID: 53484d8f-c5f3-458a-97eb-e56ffaa075f1)
IDE-Controller (0, 0): Empty
NIC 1:           MAC: 0800278C8FBC, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'eth0', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: Am79C970A, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
Audio:           disabled
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
VRDP:            disabled
USB:             enabled

USB Device Filters:  <none>

Shared folders:  <none>

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB

Snapshots:

   Name: setup (UUID: e36255fc-65ce-4be2-8b2c-c5552f6a7a44) *

Out of curiosity what happens if you click the machine tab and then acpi shutdown?

The behaviour is excactly the same as shutting down the machine from inside: It shuts down normally to the output 'the system will be halted immediately', then nothing more happens and it has to be powered off manually to close the window.

[fixedwheel]

Code: Select all

Storage Controller Name (0):            SCSI Controller
Storage Controller Type (0):            LsiLogic

ahh... i have CentOS 4 (2.6.9) guests and the one with LSI SCSI doesn't power off too, but instead doing this silently it repeatedly prints trace data to console... later when i'm @home i can post a screenshot
the CentOS 4 one running on IDE closes normal as expected.

Out of curiosity what happens if you click the machine tab and then acpi shutdown?

The behaviour is excactly the same as shutting down the machine from inside: It shuts down normally to the output 'the system will be halted immediately', then nothing more happens and it has to be powered off manually to close the window.

when the guest doesn't use ACPI you get a VBox error message, or the option isn't available (in: "close" the machine)

[fixedwheel]

ahh... i have CentOS 4 (2.6.9) guests and the one with LSI SCSI doesn't power off too,

screenshot

[Christopher]

the one with LSI SCSI doesn't power off too,

Thanks for this hint, fixedwheel! I changed from SCSI to IDE and since then it shuts down correctly. While I still don't understand the reason, this solved my problem. I don't see any drawbacks in using IDE...

Thanks again
Chris