VirtualBox 3.2.10 & Ubuntu 10.10

[noorez]

Hi,

I just downloaded the new virtual box release and the new ubuntu 10.10 release. I created a virtual machine for the new ubuntu release and attempted to run it however the machine unexpectedly aborts (when selecting the option to either try or install ubuntu). No log file is generated for this.

I had a similar problem in the previous version of virtual box. If I am running Snow Leopard with the 64bit kernel extensions enabled, the machine crashes and when I run snow leopard without the 64bit kernel extensions, everything works fine.

Any ideas about why this is happening?

NOTE: if you would like to try this make sure that 64bit kernel extensions are enabled. I'm not sure about the new line of mac books with the new intel i5/i7 cores but by default the older macs boot without these extensions. To boot with these extensions, restart your computer and hold down '6' and '4' until the login screen.

[twasson]

Just a confirmation that I'm seeing the same thing. This is particularly annoying given that Apple is switching over to 64 bit mode as the default boot kernel, as is the case in the current line of Mac Pros (which is what I'm running VBox on as a host). It's now necessary to explicitly choose _not_ to boot into 64 bit, by (I think) holding down "3" and "2" during boot.

Anyway, two points: first, the problem goes away if I disable VT-x/AMD-V in the VM's configuration. Of course, this means that it's dog slow and that I can't boot a 64bit OS (at least, according to the error VirtualBox gives me when I try).

Second, a significant portion of the time when I try to configure the VM's settings, the virtual machines all become inaccessible and the settings dialogue says "Invalid settings detected". According to Console.app, this coincides with a crash of VBoxSVC (which I guess is providing back-end config info for the VMs, which is why that goes away upon the crash). No idea what a workaround for this is, and it's left VBox basically useless for me.

I'd be willing to try any ideas / workarounds that someone can think of. Thanks for any help!

[delaroca]

Just a confirmation that I'm seeing the same thing. This is particularly annoying given that Apple is switching over to 64 bit mode as the default boot kernel, as is the case in the current line of Mac Pros (which is what I'm running VBox on as a host). It's now necessary to explicitly choose _not_ to boot into 64 bit, by (I think) holding down "3" and "2" during boot.

This may be related. I upgraded to this new version now and now most of the time when shutting down / restarting an existing Ubuntu 9.10 virtual machine it aborts... it starts and runs fine, but invariably when shutting down VirtualBox leaves my Ubuntu 9.10 in "aborted" state.

[noorez]

This is the same problem that I am having. However, I have not found a fix for it other then not booting into 32-bit kernel mode.

[mrobbeloth]

I'm using VB 3.2.8. I can confirm that it is aborting regardless of which guest OS is being used. The only workaround is to not use the 64-bit kernel extensions (sudo vim /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and remove x86_64 from the kernel flags). A shame really as it provides a nice speedup for many 64-bit applications.

[twasson]

The only workaround is to not use the 64-bit kernel extensions (sudo vim /Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.Boot.plist and remove x86_64 from the kernel flags).

Interestingly enough, I don't have that in my Mac Pro's kernel flags. Maybe it's implicit with this machine, since it defaults to the 64 bit kernel instead of the 32 bit one. Go figure. Hence, I can't test this workaround... doh.