virtualbox.org

Hi all ~

Installed a fresh Virtual Box 4.1.18 r78361 and am running Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32-bit (i386)--have to run that version, including 32-bit, for the toolchain I'm using, unfortunately I can't upgrade to 12.04 or use AMD64!)--I have set my RAM to 2048MB and video RAM to 128MB. My host is Mac OS X Lion 10.7.4, on a Mac mini Intel Core i5 2.3Ghz, with 8GB system memory.

Symptom is: I start up a terminal window (ctrl-alt t) and it takes about 8 seconds before the window even appears, then another 12 seconds before it produces a command line prompt. Ouch. Additionally, all characters typed in on the command line are extremely delayed, by seconds. Essentially unusable.

I've even tried installing an AMD64 version of Ubuntu 10.04 and it's actually worse startup performance for a terminal window than the 32-bit. Though as mentioned, I have to run 32-bit--don't ask--it's a long story! On an old Dell laptop with 1 GB of system memory total, a native install of Lubuntu 12.04 starts up a terminal window in less than 1000 ms! It's blinding fast, on hardware that is 8 years old!

I've also tried reducing the video memory to 32 MB (although the printouts below are for the 128MB versions) and that seems to help some--why would that be the case? The initial startup time is still about 12 seconds for the first terminal, but then it comes up quite quickly after that. I don't necessarily need 128MB for video RAM, but not sure if that's the only thing I can do to speed up performance or if there are other things?

UPDATE: Even though subsequent terminal windows come up quickly, there is still 'lag' in characters appearing in terminal window when I type. Annoying at least, productivity draining at worst.

What can I do to further improve? Ideas?

Here is the output of the 'lspci' command:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 440FX - 82441FX PMC [Natoma] (rev 02)
00:01.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82371SB PIIX3 ISA [Natoma/Triton II]
00:01.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01)
00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Graphics Adapter
00:03.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82540EM Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)
00:04.0 System peripheral: InnoTek Systemberatung GmbH VirtualBox Guest Service
00:05.0 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801AA AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 01)
00:06.0 USB Controller: Apple Computer Inc. KeyLargo/Intrepid USB
00:07.0 Bridge: Intel Corporation 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 08)
00:0d.0 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801HBM/HEM (ICH8M/ICH8M-E) SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02)

And here is the output of the 'VBoxManage showvminfo 06cd4e3e-5c56-48bf-811c-3694fb3b1b04 --details' command, run on my host:

Name: Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386
Guest OS: Ubuntu
UUID: 06cd4e3e-5c56-48bf-811c-3694fb3b1b04
Config file: /Users/brad/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386/Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386.vbox
Snapshot folder: /Users/brad/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386/Snapshots
Log folder: /Users/brad/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386/Logs
Hardware UUID: 06cd4e3e-5c56-48bf-811c-3694fb3b1b04
Memory size: 2048MB
Page Fusion: off
VRAM size: 128MB
CPU exec cap: 100%
HPET: off
Chipset: piix3
Firmware: BIOS
Number of CPUs: 1
Synthetic Cpu: off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode: message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI: on
IOAPIC: off
PAE: on
Time offset: 0 ms
RTC: UTC
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: off
Nested Paging: on
Large Pages: on
VT-x VPID: on
State: running (since 2012-08-02T12:23:39.495000000)
Monitor count: 1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Storage Controller Name (0): IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (0): PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Port Count (0): 2
Storage Controller Bootable (0): on
Storage Controller Name (1): SATA Controller
Storage Controller Type (1): IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1): 30
Storage Controller Port Count (1): 1
Storage Controller Bootable (1): on
IDE Controller (1, 0): Empty (ejected)
SATA Controller (0, 0): /Users/brad/VirtualBox VMs/Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386/Ubuntu 10.04 Lucid Lynx i386.vdi (UUID: 9eb7f143-e611-4c06-87f7-7a90ab4a44fb)
NIC 1: MAC: 0800272E5222, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny
NIC 1 Settings: MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, receive: 64)
NIC 2: disabled
NIC 3: disabled
NIC 4: disabled
NIC 5: disabled
NIC 6: disabled
NIC 7: disabled
NIC 8: disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1: disabled
UART 2: disabled
Audio: enabled (Driver: CoreAudio, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode: Bidirectional
Video mode: 1440x1050x32
VRDE: disabled
USB: enabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Shared folders: <none>

VRDE Connection: not active
Clients so far: 0

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size: 0 MB
OS type: Linux26
Additions run level: 2
Additions version: 4.1.18r78361


Guest Facilities:

Facility "VirtualBox Base Driver": active/running (last update: 2012/08/02 12:24:06 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox System Service": active/running (last update: 2012/08/02 12:24:10 UTC)
Facility "Seamless Mode": active/running (last update: 2012/08/02 12:24:06 UTC)
Facility "Graphics Mode": active/running (last update: 2012/08/02 12:24:06 UTC)

I also have the same problem of ubuntu running crippling slow in Virtualbox although I am using OS X Mountain Lion.

Just curious, if you SSH into the guest form the host's terminal what is the response time like?