iTunes hangs on Win 8.1 Guest on Ubuntu 12.04

[Scentless]

Hello,

I have an issue w/ iTunes hanging on a Windows 8.1 Guest running on a Ubuntu 12.04 LTS host. I'm running a fully patched copy of Win 8.1 (as of today, 4/27/14). My iTunes is set to open to the library, which has no problem. When I click to go to the Store, CPU utilization goes to 100%, and it hangs with a blank pane on the right hand side. I have to close it. It will eventually close "gracefully" after a few minutes after clicking the X. If I leave it long enough, Windows will say that there was a problem and it has to close.

Within the Win 8.1 guest, I've tried disabling Microsoft Defender and Firewall and reinstalling iTunes to no avail. This system also has a native copy of Win 8.1 OEM that I can dual-boot to. iTunes goes to the store, no problem. I've tried some advice off of the iTunes forums, dealing w/ fudging with the LSP (Layered Service Provider) and netsh winsock reset, and these steps don't help.

The *only* thing I've found to make this work is to: Remove VirtualBox Guest Additions tools. It's a repeatable experiment. If I reinstall Guest Additions, iTunes will freeze. If I remove it, iTunes can go to the store.

Version info:
Ubuntu 12.04 LTS 64-bit (fully patched as of today)
Windows 8.1 32-bit (fully patched as of today)
iTunes version 11.1.5.5
VirtualBox version: 4.3.10 r93012
GuestAdditions version: 4.3.10

Anyone have any ideas? Has anyone reported this bug? I'd like to continue to use GuestAdditions, but will probably will not be able to, if it breaks iTunes... (Yes, I know iTunes is a POS, but I still have a working iPod...)


Thanks.

[RayC]

I have the same issue using VirtualBox 4.3.18, but only if I have 3D enabled. If I disable 3D in (Settings -> Display -> Video, uncheck Enable 3D Acceleration) then it works fine. If 3D is enabled then iTunes works fine browsing music but freezes if I try to access the iTunes store. I have also noticed the progress indicator moves VERY quickly if I have 3D enabled, whereas at moves at a normal pace if 3D is disabled.

This has been a problem I've had for any number of releases - basically as long as I've been running Windows 8 as a guest. I assumed eventually some bug would get fixed in 3D support that would make it work.

Anyway, I am curious if disabling 3D causes it to work for you.

I suppose a ticket should probably be filed.