Video performance of Linux guest is very poor

[mscarton]

This is a reply / continuance of a similarly named topic, but it referred to a Windows guest whereas I am running a Linux guest.

viewtopic.php?f=8&t=52804

This problem still exists...
-- latest VirtualBox release, just installed yesterday
-- newest MacBook Pro 15" with 16GB RAM, quad core, retina display, 750GB SSD drive
-- Host OS: Mountain Lion at latest patch level
-- Guest OS: Oracle Enterprise Linux 6.3 with latest updates, Oracle 11 SE database, WebLogic SE application server, ATG Web Commerce application, Endeca Search Engine

Moving windows around on the guest gnome desktop is still a jerky, slow process. It makes trying to develop in this environment very trying.

Other than the issue with the display, this is an awesome setup. I boot my system in 10 to 15 seconds, including guest OS running WebLogic AS and Oracle SE database. Up and running. My coworkers running this same guest on the best Windoze systems available take well over two minutes to get to the same state. My application runs at least twice as fast for all operations. So if it weren't for the display issue, this would be the premo development environment for eCommerce.

This Apple setup may sound expensive. I think that I paid around $3,500 for it. But the predecessor system from Dell with equivalent setup cost me $8500 (M6600 workstation). Granted, it had 2 SSD's instead of one, but this one is faster, 1/4 the weight, and has a much more beautiful display. Plus having MacOS as the host means that I don't have to carry a second netbook for all of the back office administerivia. (The Dell ran RedHat Linux.)

Is there no hope for VirtualBox on the latest, greatest MacOS systems? I believe that it's now been well over a year since this problem was reported.

Thanks!
Mark

[noteirak]

The very first step : read this topic and provide the VM log file AND the configuration output from vboxmanage in a zip attachment.

[loukingjr]

The 15" Retina display has a resolution of 2880x1800 @ 220 ppi. That is a lot of video to move around. Plus for some reason the Mac version of VirtualBox seems to require a lot more video ram assigned to a guest than the other versions. One thing you could try is change the resolution on your MBP to something less when running a guest. (1920x1200 or 1680x1080 etc.) should help with the speed. Linux runs very quickly on my 27" iMac.

edit: just a comparison... my 27" display has a resolution of 2560x1440 @ 109 ppi. So basically a 15" retina display is trying to move a lot more into than my 27" iMac.

[bikochan]

It may or may not be the case for you but when I changed my old MBP for the new Retina one,
I found my imported Linux VM became much slower, especially the video part.
Then I just changed its video memory settings from the original 8M to 32M and now everything is fine.
This makes sense since displaying 2560x1600 in 32bit color doesn't fit in 8M or video RAM.

My 2 cents.

[loukingjr]

It may or may not be the case for you but when I changed my old MBP for the new Retina one,
I found my imported Linux VM became much slower, especially the video part.
Then I just changed its video memory settings from the original 8M to 32M and now everything is fine.
This makes sense since displaying 2560x1600 in 32bit color doesn't fit in 8M or video RAM.

My 2 cents.

I'm not sure why the default video memory ram is set to 8MB since most modern DEs require much more than that unless you are running on a 640x480 screen.
Certainly Canonical recommends a minimum of 128MB video ram for Unity. I'm not sure why the requirement would go down for a VM. Yes, 8MB would be too small for almost anything much less a Retina display.

[mscarton]

It may or may not be the case for you but when I changed my old MBP for the new Retina one,
I found my imported Linux VM became much slower, especially the video part.
Then I just changed its video memory settings from the original 8M to 32M and now everything is fine.

I was running with 64MB. I bumped it up to 128MB, but that doesn't seem to have made a difference. I appreciate the input, though. It was certainly worth a try.

[mscarton]

The 15" Retina display has a resolution of 2880x1800 @ 220 ppi. That is a lot of video to move around. Plus for some reason the Mac version of VirtualBox seems to require a lot more video ram assigned to a guest than the other versions. One thing you could try is change the resolution on your MBP to something less when running a guest. (1920x1200 or 1680x1080 etc.) should help with the speed. Linux runs very quickly on my 27" iMac.

edit: just a comparison... my 27" display has a resolution of 2560x1440 @ 109 ppi. So basically a 15" retina display is trying to move a lot more into than my 27" iMac.

Well, I'm hesitant to reduce the resolution of my retina display. I paid a lot for this hardware and I love it. I hate to neuter it when running a VM, particularly since I do so most of the time.

But your suggestion prompted me to try a somewhat related experiment. I run with a second monitor, which is a snappy 1920x1080 IPS ViewSonic (VP2365-LED). So I moved the console window for my OEL virtual machine over to that monitor and off of my retina display. Guess what. The video performance is great on that monitor. I can drag and drop windows without any latency or delay.

So it seems obvious to me that the problem is likely the retina display resolution. Any chance that a better driver in the guest might cure this? Does anyone know what the native driver is for the new MacBook's?

[loukingjr]

The 15" Retina display has a resolution of 2880x1800 @ 220 ppi. That is a lot of video to move around. Plus for some reason the Mac version of VirtualBox seems to require a lot more video ram assigned to a guest than the other versions. One thing you could try is change the resolution on your MBP to something less when running a guest. (1920x1200 or 1680x1080 etc.) should help with the speed. Linux runs very quickly on my 27" iMac.

edit: just a comparison... my 27" display has a resolution of 2560x1440 @ 109 ppi. So basically a 15" retina display is trying to move a lot more into than my 27" iMac.

Well, I'm hesitant to reduce the resolution of my retina display. I paid a lot for this hardware and I love it. I hate to neuter it when running a VM, particularly since I do so most of the time.

But your suggestion prompted me to try a somewhat related experiment. I run with a second monitor, which is a snappy 1920x1080 IPS ViewSonic (VP2365-LED). So I moved the console window for my OEL virtual machine over to that monitor and off of my retina display. Guess what. The video performance is great on that monitor. I can drag and drop windows without any latency or delay.

So it seems obvious to me that the problem is likely the retina display resolution. Any chance that a better driver in the guest might cure this? Does anyone know what the native driver is for the new MacBook's?

I think you found the only solution to the problem. It's not just the resolution but the 220 PPI density. As far as drivers, guests have to use the VirtualBox video driver. So unless Oracle decides to write a video driver specifically for Retina displays you are kind of stuck with what you have.