virtualbox.org

Hi forum,
I'm experiencing frequent crashes of virtual box running on a 8GB RAM Gigabyte Board, Core2Duo (3GHz) and Windows Server 2008R2. The hardware run stable when VMWare ESXi 4 was installed (for months without problems). 2008R2 is newly installed and has no other jobs but running six VMs in Virtual Box. Main memory is at 6GB for the VMs in sum. Now yesterday and today the VMs crashed again (all together).

The MS error window says for each VM (translated from german):
"The command in 0x72356514 points at memory 0xffffffff. The action read couldn't be processed in memory. Click Ok..."

Virtual Box Manager reports more detailed (e.g. for one of the crashed machines):
Problem signature:
Problem event name: APPCRASH
Application name: VirtualBox.exe
Application version: 4.2.6.0
Application time stamp: 50d1c5bb
Error module name: QtCoreVBox4.dll
Error module version: 4.7.3.0
Error module time stamp: 50085af7
Exception code: c0000005
Exception offset: 0000000000106514
OS version: 6.1.7601.2.1.0.272.7
Area ID: 1031
additional information 1: 9e19
additional information 2: 9e19e8e437f72c3ce3c1e6fc4a20a3b7
additional information 1: c052
additional information 1: c052586f985bdf506eeebca41722b762

I noticed these crashes also in earlier VBox versions. Hoped with each update they will be gone.
The VMs are started and their windows are minimized. Could it be a stable improvement if I start them somehow headless?

Thanks!

Please read Minimum information needed for assistance.

And just a guess : do you have page fusion enabled?

Could it be a stable improvement if I start them somehow headless?

Yes, that is the whole point of headless - you don't need the GUI or use the console. So that would definitely help.

Hello noteirak,

I only configured what is possible via GUI, so I did not know about page fusion at all (what's changed now ). Showvminfo says indeed that it is disabled...
Sorry if I missed some basic information. Didn't know what could be interesting for you.
Guests: all 32Bit: 3 Windows XP guests, 3 Linux (2x Debian Lenny, 1x Eisfair). Except Eisfair all have the VMGuest installed. VBox is 4.2.6 but the problem occured with three earlier 4.x versions as well.
One interesting point: I installed VBoxTray and run my VMs in there. Only let the VirtualBox GUI open to have an overview over the VMs. That one crashed within half a day while the VMs are still untouched running. I don't know if this shows up a tendence but since I don't miss the VM's window (on the server) that could be a good workaround.

jussi wrote:I only configured what is possible via GUI, so I did not know about page fusion at all (what's changed now ). Showvminfo says indeed that it is disabled...
Sorry if I missed some basic information. Didn't know what could be interesting for you.

oh it's not basic info, there is a bug with windows hosts and windows guests with Page fusion (it doesn't work & crash the VMs) and it looked like it, so was worth a shot but this is not the one.

jussi wrote:Guests: all 32Bit: 3 Windows XP guests, 3 Linux (2x Debian Lenny, 1x Eisfair). Except Eisfair all have the VMGuest installed. VBox is 4.2.6 but the problem occured with three earlier 4.x versions as well.
One interesting point: I installed VBoxTray and run my VMs in there. Only let the VirtualBox GUI open to have an overview over the VMs. That one crashed within half a day while the VMs are still untouched running. I don't know if this shows up a tendence but since I don't miss the VM's window (on the server) that could be a good workaround.

My adivce would be to use vboxheadless to start your VMs and see if you still have the crash. If you don't, it was definitly VboxTray doing funny things. And since you're not using the console of the VM, running headless can only improve performance and saves you worries anyway!