VirtualBox Linux guest install hangs on Acer 4530

[Dragonmaster Lou]

I've been trying off and on for the past couple of years to get VirtualBox working on my Acer Aspire 4530 laptop. Digging around the web and these forums, I've noticed that apparently this particular laptop doesn't always get along with VirtualBox for whatever reason (though VMWare Player seems to work okay on it -- go figure). Anyway, here's the specs on my machine:

Host Memory: 3.00 GB
Host OS: Windows 7 64-bit (Version 6.1, build 7601: Service Pack 1)

I've most recently been trying to install Linux Mint 16, both 32-bit and 64-bit versions (seeing if it made a difference).

Let's start with the 32-bit version's difficulties. The live CD starts to boot, but hangs during the boot process. The Win7 host keeps chugging along (I currently have the VM running in the background as I type this). I've tried it with both AMD-V/VT-x and Nested Paging enabled and disabled and get the same results. Here are the rest of the 32-bit guest OS settings:

Base Memory: 1024 MB
Chipset: PIIX3
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Enable I/O APIC: Enabled
Enable EFI: Disabled
Hardware clock in UTC: Enabled
Processor: 1 CPU
Execution Cap: 100%
Enable PAE/NX: Disabled
Enable VT-x/AMD-V: Tried with both enabled and disabled
Enable Nested Paging: Tried with both enabled and disabled
Video Memory: 12 MB
Monitor Count: 1
Enable 3d Accel: Disabled
Enable 2d Accel: Disabled
IDE Controller has a CD-ROM with the Linux Mint live CD mounted
SATA controller has one dynamic VDI, 8GB to start
Audio: disabled
Network: Adapter 1 enabled, NAT
Serial Ports: disabled
USB: Enabled

The Vbox log should be attached as VBox-linux-mint-32bit.log

When I tried the 64-bit live CD, at first I'd get a total host OS system hang requiring a hard reboot. I then tried it after upgrading my BIOS (based on posts I've seen here and elsewhere), and it resulted in a host OS BSOD.

The 64-bit guest settings are identical (except for always having VT-x/AMD-V enabled), and the log should be attached to this message as VBox-linux-mint-64bit.log.

Hopefully someone here can help me find some magic incantation to figure out what's going wrong here.

Thanks.

[mpack]

00:00:01.571939 Host RAM: 2814MB total, 1270MB available
...
00:00:02.248290 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000040000000 (1 073 741 824, 1 024 MB)
00:00:02.249408 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000000c00000 (12 582 912, 12 MB)

This leaves almost nothing for the host, or for other incidentals in VirtualBox. Generally you want to use no more than half the available host RAM. I wouldn't attempt to run a 64bit OS on this PC.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Thanks for the tip. I'll try reducing the RAM usage when I get home tonight. Anyway, I'm fine with running a 32-bit guest OS on this machine as I don't really need to do anything that requires 64-bits on it. In fact, I'd prefer running 32-bits as it would be somewhat more memory efficient (smaller pointers and such -- especially since I won't be using more than 4GB of RAM, obviously).

A couple more data points came up last night.

First, while again trying to boot up the 32-bit release of Mint, I accidentally stumbled upon the boot menu by hitting a key while it was booting (there was no "hit key for menu" option on the boot screen and this was the first time I tried to install this particular distro -- most others I've installed in recent memory have a boot menu come up by default, so I felt like a moron for not trying that before). I used the menu option to boot to CLI-only "safe mode" (or whatever their term for it was), and it said that the kernel needed PAE enabled and halted booting at that point.

Enabling PAE allowed the system to boot, both in "safe" and regular mode, albeit with VT-x/AMD-V turned off. However, it seemed to be running intolerably slow. We're talking a couple of minutes to bring up a terminal in the GUI and never mind how long it took just to bring up the installer.

On a lark, I tried rebooting with VT-x/AMD-V turned on, and even the 32-bit OS resulted in the same blue screen as 64-bit.

I'll give lowering the RAM usage a try when I get home tonight, though. Maybe that will allow things to run a bit quicker with VT-x turned off if VirtualBox is struggling to do its own thing due to RAM shortages. Ideally, I'd like to use VT-x, if possible, though, as it should theoretically allow for better performance, correct?

[Perryg]

Your are better off leaving VT-x enabled and installing the guest additions ( in the guest ) and enabeling 3D acceleration in the display section of the guest settings. Without the additions the guest will be using software rendering and will be painfully slow. Also keep in mind that 512MB RAM is the minimum for Mint and there will be swapping so keep an eye on the memory usage.

Mint ( i686 ) still needs pae enabled.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

I'm definitely going to install the extensions in the guest, once I can get the guest up and running. My main problem is that I can't use VT-x without blue screening the host OS.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Finally got it working by setting the VM's RAM to 512MB and by using the XFCE-based version of Mint to be a little bit lighter on resources.

VT-x still blue screens, but at least the VM is usable now. Interestingly enough, apparently Mint is VirtualBox-aware and automatically installs its version of the VB extensions.

Thanks for the help, everyone, although if any of you know how to get VT-x working without it bluescreening the laptop, that would be great. It works acceptably well now, but faster is better.

[noteirak]

Interestingly enough, apparently Mint is VirtualBox-aware and automatically installs its version of the VB extensions.

Make sure you remove it and install the version taht comes with your Virtualbox install. Missmatch guest additions will cause you obscure issues and you'll never know why.

[Dragonmaster Lou]

Interestingly enough, apparently Mint is VirtualBox-aware and automatically installs its version of the VB extensions.

Make sure you remove it and install the version taht comes with your Virtualbox install. Missmatch guest additions will cause you obscure issues and you'll never know why.

That's curious, as VirtualBox itself says to use the ones that ship with your distro instead of the ones provided with VB.

[noteirak]

Yes, the ones from the host!

[Dragonmaster Lou]

I must've misunderstood when I read it. It was pretty late a night when I finally got it up and running. Doh!