Of Concern? Guest aborts during Windows Update - Solved

[markfilipak2]

Perry, you knock me out. You're the greatest! Good news... sort'a. I just tried to install WindowsXP-KB932716-v2-x86-ENU.exe and the guest aborted. Now I have a fresh log to show you.

VBox.log

(47.98 KiB) Downloaded 6 times

What do you make of it? - Mark.

[Perryg]

00:00:01.597 Host RAM: 1022MB RAM, available: 585MB
00:00:02.691 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000018000000 (402 653 184, 384 MB)
00:00:02.692 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000002000000 (33 554 432, 32 MB)

RAM Available = 585 -assigned 384 - vRAM 32 = 169
Subtract the host side RAM of about 60MB and the fact that during guest heavy activity like upgrading the host actually uses more, I think you see the issue. Hopefully your new machine has more RAM.

[markfilipak2]

RAM Available = 585 -assigned 384 - vRAM 32 = 169
Subtract the host side RAM of about 60MB...

host side RAM? What do you mean?

...and the fact that during guest heavy activity like upgrading the host actually uses more...

What's the problem? The host is using 437 MB (= 1022 - 585 MB). The guest OS has the RAM I gave it (384 MB). I didn't know about VRAM (32 MB). That leaves 169 MB (= 1022 - 437 - 384 - 32 MB). All the activity is in the guest, isn't it? You say that guest-heavy activity causes the host to use more? Really? How much more? And why wouldn't that extra memory usage be in the log? HELP!

I succeeded by not even running VBMgr in the host. But while I was in the guest, I saw that there were temporary folders in C:\ from previous aborts. I suppose those didn't complete (though Windows Update thinks that they did!!!!) Oh, my! Isn't the hypervisor using host swap? Isn't the guest using guest swap? HELP! I've fallen and I can't figure out how to get up. - Mark.

[markfilipak2]

David Cutler designed RSX-11-M for the PDP-11 supporting 24, multitasked terminals in 16 KB of memory and you're telling me that 190 MB of memory is not enough slack space for VirtualBox? (What's wrong with this picture?) ...How am I ever going to get a bulletproof solution for my neighbor's kids? - Mark.

[Perryg]

Nope no swap for you. Hypervisors can not use it. It must be contiguous memory. Plus swap is where the memory manager puts things that are not in actual use in an attempt to free up memory. It isn't spare memory.

There is host side overhead and has to be. That is where the hook/xpcom is to be able to communicate with the actual hardware. Usually around 60MB but can go up during heavy load.

[Perryg]

You know if you want to run 8 bit processes and no graphics you too can get it down to 16K but I doubt your neighbours kids will want to use it. Come on be reasonable. You should know that as software progresses it always uses more memory.

[markfilipak2]

You know if you want to run 8 bit processes and no graphics you too can get it down to 16K but I doubt your neighbours kids will want to use it.

Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha.... Good!