Win7 guest powers off randomly

[marmel]

host: Debian 7.3 x64 with kernel 3.10.27, vbox 4.2.22
guest: Win7 Pro x64 with 4.2.22 GA

Without any interaction in the guest, it just powers off. The log shows, "Guest requests the VM to be turned off". This is a lie. Today's log shows this happened after ~27 minutes. The uptime varies wildly. Sometimes the guest runs for days before this wrongful shutdown occurs.

My other guest OS's do not exhibit this behavior. Ever. Debian and XP guest instances will run indefinitely.

I've seen bug reports claiming this specific issue was addressed, and the fix should be in 4.1.x + vbox versions. I have experienced this on 4.1.28, and now 4.2.22.

All the basics are covered for troubleshooting. The guest doesn't have the ability to suspend/hibernate. All power options are configured for the typical "always-on" setup with nary a screensaver enabled.

This has become quite frustrating over the past year as I rely on this guest for an increasing workload. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I'll get a bug report submitted promptly.

[Perryg]

The log shows, "Guest requests the VM to be turned off". This is a lie.

How do you know this is a lie?

Code: Select all

00:27:33.531870 Guest requests the VM to be turned off
00:27:33.531897 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'POWERING_OFF'.

You realize that this did not say the operator requested the shut down, right? Have you looked at the guests events to see what might be triggering this?

[marmel]

Indeed. Should have included this info. Attached from the event log.

Every occurance of this unrequested shutdown from vbox is accompanied by a corresponding event in Windows.

vbox-win7-poweroff-bug.png (30.29 KiB) Viewed 5061 times

[Perryg]

Every occurance of this unrequested shutdown from vbox

Here again you are assuming VirtualBox is shutting the guest down, when in fact it is the Windows guest that is shutting down albeit hard .

You need to see what these errors are and why they are occuring. From the looks of it the error has to do with the kernel, but that is just too basic to be able to figure what the cause is.

[marmel]

You need to see what these errors are and why they are occuring.

Of course. But, after a year or so of this issue, I am asking for help on a forum. I should have reported this sooner, but:

a) I am a very patient person.
b) Prior to my software development career, I was a long-time system administrator of primarily Windows clients. I've long suspected there may be some ACPI event from the guest triggering this shutdown. I'm still hoping so, hence my post here today.
c) As a developer, I'm all too aware that sofware will exhibit varying behavior with such an enourmous combinations of base installations. I've held out hope that this would be addressed upstream in the normal course of development.

Perhaps you are not familiar with windows event log system messages? The kernel logs all power events including shutdown and startup. See attached.

STR for today's unexpected shutdown of Virutualbox guest:

1) Boot Win7 guest OS.
2) Wait. Do not interact with guest.
3) Observe guest is shutdown unexpectedly.

The impetus for posting here is primarily due to the fact that I've run out of ideas for how to pursue any further troubleshooting within the guest. There are exactly zero other issues either experienced, or silently logged from any applications therein or by the OS itself. This is the sole problem I have with this VM, and with Virtualbox as a whole. I would be very happy to discover this was an issue within the guest, and not the fault of Virtualbox itself.

As mentioned previously, the guest OS, whether under heavy use or with no applications running, sometimes persists for weeks. As you can see by the event count, for every occurance of this issue, two events are logged. This has occurred 47 times in about a year's time, averaging less than once per week.

vbox-win7-poweroff-bug2.png (16.95 KiB) Viewed 5059 times

[Perryg]

You can pretty much discount a power loss as the culprit. The host would have rebooted as well. So that leaves just about anything else that has or could cause Windows to crash. You need information and then post it so anyone can see if they can help.

Do you see anything in problem reports?
Are mini dumps created?
Try setting Windows to not reboot on BSOD then see if it captures the event that causes this.
Disable 3D acceleration and see if it stops the cycle.
Do the hosts syslogs show anything around the time when this occurs.

FYI I am not saying that the cause is all Windows. I am however saying that there is just nothing posted so far that shows what the real issue is. Your VirtualBox logs are showing a happy VBox with no errors, so what ever it is, it is not being generated solely by VirtualBox.

[marmel]

Thank you for your prompt replies!

You can pretty much discount a power loss as the culprit.

The guest will interpret a forced poweroff from Virtualbox as "power loss". You can verify that on a running Windows guest by selecting the Virtualbox option: Machine > Close > Power off the machine.
Its obviously not a real loss of AC power. The system is on a UPS, and I'm often sitting at it interacting with the host when this occurs.

So that leaves just about anything else that has or could cause Windows to crash. You need information and then post it so anyone can see if they can help.

Right. The crux is the dearth of problems within the Guest. There is just this one. I have no other software crashing. It's mostly just Visual Studio, Netbeans, and MySQL tools. Runs like a champ all day every day. Except when I stop to eat a sandwich. Then it sometimes disappears. And, takes all of my open workspaces with it!

Do you see anything in problem reports?

The guest thinks everything is hunky dory. There are no other application or system events occuring at the time of these shutdowns. As far as Windows (and I) are concerned they truly are unexpected.

Are mini dumps created?

I've enabled mini dumps. I'll update this thread if one is created.

Try setting Windows to not reboot on BSOD then see if it captures the event that causes this.

Automatic Restart on System Failure is disabled. If it was a BSOD, I would have the stop error.

Disable 3D acceleration and see if it stops the cycle.

3D acceleration has never been enabled.

Do the hosts syslogs show anything around the time when this occurs.

Debian and the host kernel are blissfully unaware of any goings on within Virtualbox guests. As you mention...

I am however saying that there is just nothing posted so far that shows what the real issue is. Your VirtualBox logs are showing a happy VBox with no errors, so what ever it is, it is not being generated solely by VirtualBox.

This is the rub then, eh. Much as Virtualbox thinks everything is just swell, so does the guest operating system.

[Perryg]

Yeah but I can't get past the part where it reports the guest has requested a power down in the VBox log. That and the error that something went wrong in the guests event log which triggered the request.

Post the results of the following

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VBoxManage showvminfo <uuid|name> --details

[marmel]

The guest does not even have a bugcheck on the event. It is not a BSOD, hence the error code 0 leading to the generic kernel event log entry. The entry would contain the stop error, and corresponding description, if it existed.

Code: Select all

- <EventData>
  <Data Name="BugcheckCode">0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BugcheckParameter1">0x0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BugcheckParameter2">0x0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BugcheckParameter3">0x0</Data> 
  <Data Name="BugcheckParameter4">0x0</Data> 
  <Data Name="SleepInProgress">false</Data> 
  <Data Name="PowerButtonTimestamp">0</Data> 
  </EventData>

I've got the VM running, waiting for the next occurance as I'm not working today. The fun part of diagnosing intermittent issues is that it may run all week without a problem. Here's the output you requested:

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$ VBoxManage showvminfo 7bae63a6-4b31-487d-90d7-83ae864748c7 --details
Name:            Win7 Pro Development + VPN
Groups:          /
Guest OS:        Windows 7 (64 bit)
UUID:            7bae63a6-4b31-487d-90d7-83ae864748c7
Config file:     /media/Data/Virtual/Win7 Pro Development + VPN/Win7 Pro Development + VPN.vbox
Snapshot folder: /media/Data/Virtual/Win7 Pro Development + VPN/Snapshots
Log folder:      /media/Data/Virtual/Win7 Pro Development + VPN/Logs
Hardware UUID:   7bae63a6-4b31-487d-90d7-83ae864748c7
Memory size:     4096MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       128MB
CPU exec cap:    100%
HPET:            off
Chipset:         ich9
Firmware:        BIOS
Number of CPUs:  2
Synthetic Cpu:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): HardDisk
Boot Device (2): Not Assigned
Boot Device (3): Not Assigned
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             off
Time offset:     0ms
RTC:             local time
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: on
Nested Paging:   on
Large Pages:     off
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           running (since 2014-01-25T21:56:09.959000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address: 
Teleporter Password: 
Tracing Enabled: off
Allow Tracing to Access VM: off
Tracing Configuration: 
Autostart Enabled: off
Autostart Delay: 0
Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE Controller
Storage Controller Type (0):            ICH6
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      2
Storage Controller Bootable (0):        on
Storage Controller Name (1):            SATA Controller
Storage Controller Type (1):            IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  30
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      1
Storage Controller Bootable (1):        on
IDE Controller (0, 0): /opt/VirtualBox/additions/VBoxGuestAdditions.iso (UUID: 29b72279-38c5-465c-a671-baecfafb9cff)
SATA Controller (0, 0): /media/virtual/Virtual-Disks/Win7-Pro-Dev-VPN.vdi (UUID: 63946dc9-ad9d-42b2-a645-7d9b2cbd5e21)
NIC 1:           MAC: 0800278BD49A, Attachment: Bridged Interface 'eth0', Cable connected: on, Trace: off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Promisc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
NIC 9:           disabled
NIC 10:           disabled
NIC 11:           disabled
NIC 12:           disabled
NIC 13:           disabled
NIC 14:           disabled
NIC 15:           disabled
NIC 16:           disabled
NIC 17:           disabled
NIC 18:           disabled
NIC 19:           disabled
NIC 20:           disabled
NIC 21:           disabled
NIC 22:           disabled
NIC 23:           disabled
NIC 24:           disabled
NIC 25:           disabled
NIC 26:           disabled
NIC 27:           disabled
NIC 28:           disabled
NIC 29:           disabled
NIC 30:           disabled
NIC 31:           disabled
NIC 32:           disabled
NIC 33:           disabled
NIC 34:           disabled
NIC 35:           disabled
NIC 36:           disabled
Pointing Device: PS/2 Mouse
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
LPT 1:           disabled
LPT 2:           disabled
Audio:           disabled
Clipboard Mode:  Bidirectional
Drag'n'drop Mode:  disabled
Video mode:      2560x1440x32
VRDE:            disabled
USB:             disabled
EHCI:            disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Bandwidth groups:  <none>

Shared folders:  

Name: 'development-host', Host path: '/home/marc/development' (machine mapping), writable
Name: 'downloads-host', Host path: '/home/marc/downloads' (machine mapping), writable

VRDE Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     0

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB
OS type:                             Windows7_64
Additions run level:                 3
Additions version:                   4.2.22 r91556


Guest Facilities:

Facility "VirtualBox Base Driver": active/running (last update: 2014/01/25 20:08:35 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox System Service": active/running (last update: 2014/01/25 20:08:37 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox Desktop Integration": active/running (last update: 2014/01/25 20:08:39 UTC)
Facility "Seamless Mode": active/running (last update: 2014/01/25 20:08:35 UTC)
Facility "Graphics Mode": active/running (last update: 2014/01/25 20:08:35 UTC)

[Perryg]

Just noticed the install folder /opt.
Are you running the tarball from VirtualBox and compiling yourself?

[marmel]

Yes, it's the generic tarball. I need to keep the same version with the same GA's for various hosts.

On this system, I let dkms handle the module compilation.

They're bit-identical to the modules produced by building manually.

Code: Select all

$ lsmod | grep vb
vboxpci                19094  0 
vboxnetadp             25443  0 
vboxnetflt             23697  1 
vboxdrv               217331  5 vboxnetadp,vboxnetflt,vboxpci

[Perryg]

That's fine but I would like to see a few things.

the configure.log in the top level build folder
Also do you pack this and install or create the symlinks? If pack and install post the /var/log/vbox-install.log

[socratis]

Runs like a champ all day every day. Except when I stop to eat a sandwich. Then it sometimes disappears.

Do you mean this literally or figuratively? That it, does it happen when you leave your guest idle for some time? Enough for a screen-saver, power state or something related to that that it maybe causing a "virtual" lost power? Somehow? Maybe the host screensaver or the host power management?

[marmel]

That it, does it happen when you leave your guest idle for some time? Enough for a screen-saver, power state or something related to that that it maybe causing a "virtual" lost power? Somehow? Maybe the host screensaver or the host power management?

Both literally and figuratively. I don't eat many sandwiches, but mean to imply the guest is idle when the issue occurs. I've always hoped it was something so simple as power management on the guest, but just don't know what else I could possibly disable.

Here are the conditions under which this issue occurs and/or more details:

* Guest is idle. I've not had it go away while I'm interacting with it.
* Host can be either idle or in-use. I can look and see the guest instance in my window list one moment, the next moment it has shut down. As mentioned this can be after days idle, or 27 minutes (today's case). Currently, the guest has been happily idling since I started posting today, and the host has been idled at times with host screenlock, etc.
* It happened today even after a fresh boot of host (new kernel). Initially I'd suspected the host suspend may play a role. Seems to not affect the guest. I pause the guest before I suspend the host. This is all irrelevant though as it can occur before any host power management events.

[marmel]

Also do you pack this and install or create the symlinks? If pack and install post the /var/log/vbox-install.log

I don't build distro-specific debs from source. I use the precompiled binaries (e.g. VirtualBox-4.2.22-91556-Linux_amd64.run). That's why it's installed to /opt, and not managed by APT.

the configure.log in the top level build folder

I don't build or configure. Here's the primary service log FWIW:

VBoxSVC.log

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