Random crashes - WinXP 32bit guest since 4.2.6

[agodfrin]

A week ago, I upgraded to the latest 4.2.6 build (4.2.6 r82870) and ever since my WinXP client has been crashing randomly. I never had any such problems with the previous version I was running (4.2.1). The crashes are all for divide by zero exceptions.

I have seen notes about crashes related to 3D acceleration, but I am not using that (it is set off).

I have not found any specific pattern related to the crashes, except that they may be related to the host going to sleep. I keep my VM up all the time, and I noticed it disappears after my host wakes up again - but not every time.

One thing I did not do is to re-install the guest additions for 4.2.6. Is that something important to do ?

Albert

[mpack]

I don't feel that updating the GAs is required unless the changelog mentions a specific bug that affects me, though in your case I suggest it would do no harm to find out if your problem relates to this.

Please clarify what is crashing. Are you talking about a guest application or DLL, and if so which?

[noteirak]

One thing I did not do is to re-install the guest additions for 4.2.6. Is that something important to do ?

The guest additions should definitly match the Virtualbox version - if they don't, there is always the possiblity of an incompatiblity.
You should do that first and post back on the status.

[agodfrin]

Please clarify what is crashing. Are you talking about a guest application or DLL, and if so which?

The entire guest VM crashes with the following exception:

Code: Select all

Process:         VirtualBoxVM [761]
Path:            /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBoxVM
Identifier:      VirtualBoxVM
Version:         ???
Code Type:       X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:  VBoxSVC [455]
User ID:         501

Date/Time:       2013-01-21 09:42:50.758 +0100
OS Version:      Mac OS X 10.8.2 (12C60)
Report Version:  10
Sleep/Wake UUID: 4A9C1B48-8C82-42F5-9A1E-ED813B03CA08

Crashed Thread:  4  TIMER

Exception Type:  EXC_ARITHMETIC (SIGFPE)
Exception Codes: EXC_I386_DIV (divide by zero)

I have installed the guest additions for 4.2.6 and will see what happens.

Albert

[tsuna]

I have this problem too, I filed a bug #11425 in Trac.

[RichardBarran]

Also tickets #11351 and #11420.

Relieved to see I'm not the only person suffering from this very annoying bug!

[agodfrin]

I am actually getting the crashes with all of my VMs, including one running Debian and others running Oracle Enterprise Linux. Seeing other comments, I am sure the problem has nothing to do with specific client OS's.

The last comment on ticket https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/11351 hints that the problem happens when switching networks:

However, I've noticed that it only happens after I've awoken the computer in a different network. That is:

Bring up Ubuntu 10.10 in a VM
Close laptop
Open laptop in a different network attaching to a new WiFi - VM is still running.
Close laptop
Open laptop in the original network - VM gone.

As long as I wake up the laptop in the network in which I original attached the VM, it's still there and runs fine.

I am going to revert back to an older version of Virtualbox.

Albert

[agodfrin]

I just upgraded to the lastest version (4.2.10 r84104) and I am no longer getting the crashes.

It seems to be the fix to bug 11444 (https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/11444) that did it.

Albert