Program Error Message On Install Of Guest

[PJB]

Good Afternoon Everyone!
First, I'd like to mention that I spent hours looking at this forum before deciding which emulator to use after Parallels v3 had to be euthanized when I upgraded (finally) to Snow Leopard. I learned so much here, that Virtual Box was an easy choice. Thanks to you all for the time to post all this great information for everyone to use. Hopefully, someday I can contribute a tip or two.

The background information on my system is: MacBook Pro Model 3,1 2.2ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 2 gb RAM. OS X 10.6.8
Partitioned into two volumes (Vol One: 98gb 47.45 available. Vol Two: 21gb 12.4 available with WinXP on it) Both volumes are bootable.
Virtual Box is on Volume One & the Windows XP vdi is on Volume two. I like to keep Windows well quarantined & away from my important stuff.
I was booted to Volume One for the installation. XP would not install from my 'superdrive' so I was using an external USB CD/DVD drive.
I used the default configuration suggested by the manual for the virtual machine: File Type = VDI Size = Dynamically Allocated Max 10gb

Installing the program was amazingly simple, as was setting up the virtual machine. I had the User Guide & this forum open in the background for quick reference. I started to install Windows XP Pro 32 bit. but, as sometimes happens with something I use for the first time, I ran into a glitch:

On the first attempt, a screen popped up & said that a Critical Error has occurred & the machine has been stopped. It suggested I come here (I thought that was cool- Instant direction to get help!) I searched around for a few hours & found no answer. (At least not one that I recognize. I am by no means a software expert, that's for sure! I did learn a lot more good stuff I'll use later, so it was time very well spent.)
I shut everything down, re-booted OS X & repaired disk permissions on both volumes, just in case.

The second time I tried to install Windows XP Pro, the installer complained that it already existed. I tried booting it & it failed. I re-started everything, as I did last time. I tried the installation again. When it complained, I told it to nuke the existing XP installation & start over. This time I got well into it- the Windows GUI was in use & the progress bar was so close to full, it said 5 seconds remaining. Installer was setting up the start menu items & the same Critical Error message popped up.

The message suggested attaching vbox.log & vbox.png to this plea for help. I could only add the most recent logs for the final crash, as this posting gave me an error message about the extensions 1,2,3 etc for the priors. I hope these are helpful.
I am certainly lost as to what went wrong & what to do to correct it. Do any of you have any suggestions for me? I sure do appreciate any help! (As will others, I'm sure!)
Thanks Again,
Paul

[Perryg]

Code: Select all

00:00:11.305 Installed Extension Packs:
00:00:11.305   None installed!

How to install Extension Pack

You problem appears to be lack of available memory. The assigned RAM + the vRAM = 553,648,128 and the amount available is 567MB. Nothing is left for the host part of VirtualBox. Free up some memory or decrease the assigned memory to the guest.

Code: Select all

00:00:11.304 Host RAM: 2048MB RAM, available: 567MB
00:00:11.391   RamSize         <integer> = 0x0000000020000000 (536870912)
00:00:11.392   VRamSize         <integer> = 0x0000000001000000 (16777216)

[stefan.becker]

XP with less than 512 MB makes no sense. May work, but for what?

[PJB]

Thank you for your answers! I appreciate the time to reply.
For some crazy reason, Windows is working, but Kinda-Sorta. It sometimes says that it was "Aborted" and sometimes "Stopped". When it says "Stopped" the guest will run. If VB says it is "Aborted" it won't. A Re-start of VB usually clears that up.

I am not sure how to proceed. When I go into the control panel at "System" and see the slider called "Base Memory", am I decreasing that or increasing it? Is that the memory for the guest or for the host? Or- did I mis understand and should I be doing something all together different?

What's a good amount to set the RAM for Guest & for Host?

If it helps, I only use Windows XP for the occasional document I can't open in OS X & for older programs that I had before I switched to a Mac. No big time video games. Another thing I do in WIndows is OCR with Paperport.

Thanks Again,
Paul

[Perryg]

You have enough base memory *if* you don't have anything running on the host when you open the guest. Look at the information I posted above and you can see what is happening. You *must* have more available memory than what you apply to the guest. If that means decreasing the memory to the guest then that is all you have unless you add more memory to the host.

[PJB]

Thanks Perryg!

I think I understand:
My computer has 2gb RAM installed. There was only 567mb total available. 553.7mb was being used by the guest, leaving only 13.3mb for the host to work with.

I just looked at Activity Monitor. At this moment, the only programs I have (intentionally) open are Activity Monitor & Camino. Normal background processes are running. Free RAM is 670mb Active is 676mb Wired is 180mb Inactive is 513 (must be from several programs used since my last re-boot yesterday evening). Page Ins are 377.4mb Page outs are 288kb. Swaps Used is 5.7mb & VM Size is 118gb

Assuming the CPU activity was at similar intensity when the problem with XP installation was encountered & the log files generated, my curiosity wonders why the inactive RAM wasn't handed over to the host? Perhaps re-booting OS X would have freed that inactive RAM? I never tried that, so I don't know if it works. (Guess what I'm doing next?)

Thank you again for your help & advice. I like learning new stuff. Now, I'm very interested in memory & how it's used, swapped & distributed. See what you started?
Paul