Linux slow on VirtualBox

[Dragon7]

Linux running really slow on VirtualBox even distros like Lucid Puppy 5.1 takes 21:58 min to just boot up and when typing in the console it take about 10 seconds for the letters to appear.

I have tried Debian, OpenSUSE 11.3, DamnSmalLinux(DSL) and a few others an still very slow some so slow I couldn’t wait for them to boot but if I try to run widows XP it loads fine with no lag also if I boot directly off of Linux everything runs as it normally should, this problem only exists inside of virtualbox

Is there a setting in VirtualBox I’m missing or something?

Host:
1.7GHz CPU
1GB DDR400
Windows XP

Guest:
512MB RAM
IDE 20GB vdi

[Sasquatch]

Windows 7 as Host and just 1 GB of RAM? And you dare to give half of it to a VM? You have quite some guts there. It's no wonder the Linux systems run so slow, the hard drive is going crazy swapping memory used by W7 back and forth between RAM and pagefile. And I'm pretty sure you didn't install the actual Linux, but run the live environment instead. That on it's own is already slower than an installed Linux.

[Dragon7]

Windows 7 as Host and just 1 GB of RAM? And you dare to give half of it to a VM? You have quite some guts there. It's no wonder the Linux systems run so slow, the hard drive is going crazy swapping memory used by W7 back and forth between RAM and pagefile. And I'm pretty sure you didn't install the actual Linux, but run the live environment instead. That on it's own is already slower than an installed Linux.

The pc I’m using as a host is running XP (My pc runs Windows 7).

The distro I’m trying to use “Lucid Puppy” is a Live CD(130MB) with an option to install to hard disk so 512MB should be enough and XP runs very happy under the exact same virtual machine if I change the virtual Hard drive to one that has XP installed.

I’ve also tried Damn Small Linux(DSL) which has the Recommended Specs of a Pentium 200MHz
and 64MB ram on a VM that has 128MB ram and still really slow so I don’t think that’s the problem

But thanks for the quick reply

[Perryg]

I have to agree with Sas on this. If you install the guest instead of running it as a live CD it will boot faster. 1 Gig on an XP machine is adequate for XP but throw in the VirtualBox program and then the added weight of the second OS and you are going to swap a lot. Pull up the task manager while this is all going on and you will see that everything is maxed out.

[Dragon7]

Ok, I think I’ll look into getting another ram stick for that pc but I still think it’s strange that the with an XP vm it runs fine but with a very small Linux distro its so much slower (XP is up in about 5min Linux puppy about 22min).

[Perryg]

I understand but was it an installed Linux or from the live CD
Did you open the task manager on the xp host and monitor what was going on?
For XP to take 4 minutes tells me it is starved for memory too. All of my XP guests boot in 20 seconds or less.

[Dragon7]

Hi, I think this is the fastest Linux boot yet 13 minutes!
I checked the “Enable PAE/EX” checkbox under the processor tab (maybe helped?).

Lucid Puppy is supposed to be built for older slower computers (on some forms I’ve read of it being allot faster than win 98) so it should boot and run faster than XP but it is the opposite by allot 1 min vs 13 min is a big difference, that’s why I was wondering if it’s not maybe a setting or something wrong that the Linux kernel does not like.

#Windwos Xp sp3 VM stats###################

Before: 104MB in page file
After: 320MB in page file

Boot time: 1:11

CPU went high a few times; hit 100% once or twice for a second. After boot idled under 10%

#Lucid Puppy 5.1 VM stats (Live CD)##########

Before: 117MB in page file
After: 420MB in page file

Boot time: 13:07

CPU at 100% for most of the time. After boot idled around 50%

###########################################

Thanks

[Sasquatch]

Which shows what we've been saying all this time, you run a LIVE environment, not an INSTALLED one for Linux. We don't care if it's made for a 486 PC from 20 years ago, it's what is happening now that's important. Unlike your XP VM, the live CD loads everything in RAM, so if the disc is 150 MB on it's own, it can take more than 200 MB when it's running.

Your RAM doesn't get allocated in one go. The allocation grows according to use (but doesn't go down). If XP has a top usage of 200 MB, it might have 250 MB allocated. If the Linux VM tops at 350 MB, 400 will be allocated. That's a huge difference in pagefile usage. I'm really curious in the amount of RAM you have left when you start the VM.

[stefan.becker]

Buy RAM. MS says, that Windows 7 needs at a minimum 1 GB for itsself.

[Dragon7]

Buy RAM. MS says, that Windows 7 needs at a minimum 1 GB for itsself.

This is on an XP computer im "playing with"
My computer is running 7 and has 4GB of ram.

[Dragon7]

Which shows what we've been saying all this time, you run a LIVE environment, not an INSTALLED one for Linux. We don't care if it's made for a 486 PC from 20 years ago, it's what is happening now that's important. Unlike your XP VM, the live CD loads everything in RAM, so if the disc is 150 MB on it's own, it can take more than 200 MB when it's running.

Your RAM doesn't get allocated in one go. The allocation grows according to use (but doesn't go down). If XP has a top usage of 200 MB, it might have 250 MB allocated. If the Linux VM tops at 350 MB, 400 will be allocated. That's a huge difference in pagefile usage. I'm really curious in the amount of RAM you have left when you start the VM.

Aamount of RAM left when you start the VM
Task manager says : 363956(k)
so 363MB ram availible with other things running in the background

Once Debian finishes downloading im going to install it with LXDE it should run faster than XP right?

Also i am thinking about getting more ram

[stefan.becker]

Yes, it will boot in 18 minutes instead of 20.

Buy more RAM. Dont post again if you have not more RAM, because there is nothing other that could help.

[Sasquatch]

At the very least install it to hard drive and then compare it with Windows.

[Dragon7]

I lent 2x1GB DDR 400 = 2GB DDR 400 from a friend and tried it out on the computer, It did not help everything still loaded just as slow so I put my 2x512MB = 1GB back in.

I formatted the machine and installed openSUSE as the host operating system and then tried to create a guest Linux vm(installed not live) and had the same problem but funny enough I can run 3 xp vm(JUST AS A TEST) at the same time with very little lag.

Well I suppose I have Linux and xp running at the same time now at least.
My guess is that VirtualBox + Linux guest do not like my motherboard or CPU.

Thanks for trying to help though.

[Sasquatch]

You have one weird system. I have no problems running multiple VMs, Linux or Windows or mixed, at the same time on my hardware. And it's just a dual core non-AMD-V host to boot. I do have 3 GB of RAM, but that doesn't matter much.

Just for reference, you DID detach the ISO after you installed the Guest OS, right? Else it will boot the live environment again.