virtualbox.org

Host: Windows 7 Ultimate 32-bit
VirtualBox 4.2
Guest: FreeBSD 8.3 (pfSense) (command line only, no GUI)

During boot up and operation the guest frequently freezes. Hitting any key (even Shift) will unfreeze.
Have tried disable/enable many VB options and config changes to no avail.

I see many posts here and internet at large that people have with VirtualBox freezing across a wide array of hosts and guests OS’s.

Have run this on Microsoft Virtual PC for many months without issue. But freezes in VirtalBox. Would really like to switch over to VirtualBox but this is a major show stopper.

I'm having a similar issue; just noted today after upgrading to 4.2.0 r80737.

Host OS is Windows 7 Professional SP1, running 64-bit on an HP s5780t with an Intel Core i5-2400S at 2.50 GHz.

Guest OS: FreeBSD 9.0-RELEASE-p3 #1: Friday July 13 16:43:43 CDT 2012 i386 GENERIC

I will add that I've been using VirtualBox over a year without issue, using FreeBSD 8 and now v9. I didn't even seem to have this issue with vBox 4.2.0 r7xxxx --- at least I don't think so. EDIT: not sure that's right now; I looked at my downloads folder where I've kept all my dloaded vBox installers and the last one was 4.1.2 as noted in my final post, below this.[/edit]

I did have a problem with Windows Update causing a BSOD when it installed 17 updates automatically on Wednesday, just after I'd upgraded 4.1 > 4.2 vBox, and I used system restore to roll it back; I got past the BSOD/Windows Update issue by installing the updates a couple at a time and Windows now reports it's up to date. After this I installed vBox 4.2.0 for the second time.

Previous to today, I'd not tested 4.2.0 at all except to to view a development site running vBulletin on Apache 2.2.

Today I attempted a very simple PHP script:
This immediately caused the lockup; CPU in Windows shows flat 25% because vBox is limited to 1 CPU, and the process list shows VirtualBox.exe using 25% CPU.

Using a remote terminal, I'm ultimately disconnected from the guest; using the vBox terminal I note the behavior described, that pushing the enter key a second or third time causes the simple script to finish execution.

I've tried a simpler (yet!) PHP script; I'm now going to roll vBox back to a 4.1 and see if I still have problems. I need this dev box working ASAP

I've just uninstalled 4.2.0 and returned to my previous version (4.1.20). I have a perfectly fine system now, which might suggest there's an issue within 4.2 that caused this problem.

For the record, I wish to reiterate that I've run FreeBSD under VirtualBox for over a year at this company, and it's allowed me to do some great things. I certainly have nothing against vBox, I just wanted someone else to know about this (and, of course, I'd like new versions to work properly if possible).

Just wanted to confirm that I have had the exact same experience with pfSense 2.0.2 and pfSense 2.1 on VirtualBox 4.2.x. The guest will appear to hang however simply interacting with the console (basically pressing any key) will cause it to continue working again. I've rolled backed to 4.1.24 and it is working perfectly.