[SOLVED] Ubuntu 14.04 guest became very slow

[AALLeeXX]

Hello everybody,

I was using Ubunutu 14.04.4 64 bits in VBox on MacOSX host pretty smoothly, but yesterday after I restarted it, it became very slow. Dragging a window does not follow the mouse, typing chars is slow, text cursor move slowly... In between I had an automatic update of Ubuntu - not sure this is related...

In the VM settings I could enable the 3D acceleration but not the 2D acceleration. If I tick the 2D acceleration, it shows an error (invalid parameter detected) without further details.

As far as I know the Guest additions are properly installed - glxinfo looks good.

Code: Select all

alex@ALeX-VirtualBox:~$ glxinfo |grep GL
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, 
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, 
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
GLX version: 1.3
GLX extensions:
    GLX_ARB_get_proc_address, GLX_ARB_multisample, 
    GLX_EXT_texture_from_pixmap, GLX_SGIX_fbconfig
OpenGL vendor string: Humper
OpenGL renderer string: Chromium
OpenGL version string: 2.1 Chromium 1.9
OpenGL shading language version string: 1.20

Then, I'm not sure whether it's related or not, but in the Ubuntu System settings / Software & Updates / Additional Drivers shows 2 InnoTek devices (VB Graphics Adapter and VB Guest Service) which both show "This device is not working". I cannot enable them : "Do not use this device" is selected and when I change to "Using.." or "Continue using..." they automatically revert to "Do not use..." when I apply the or close the dialog.

About my configuration:
The VM runs Linux in 3200x1800 with 8GB of RAM with 2 i7 cores, Graphic memory is set to the maximum 128MB.
The host is Mac OS X ElCaptain 10.11.5 with 24GB of RAM

Is there something wrong with that ? Any hints ?
Thanks,

Alex

[socratis]

In between I had an automatic update of Ubuntu

My gut feeling is that when your guest got updated, you hadn't installed DKMS and the VirtualBox Guest Addition (GAs) modules did not get updated properly.

So, suggestion #1 is to try and re-install the GAs uninstall the GAs, install DKMS, then install the GAs.

If that doesn't work, please read: Minimum information needed for assistance. As far as the "VBox.log.zip" goes, here's what you do:

1. Start the VM. Not from a saved or suspended state. Clean start.
2. Take the steps required to generate/observe the error.
3. Record the error message. EXACTLY. Post a screenshot if you have to.
4. Shut down the VM (if it hasn't aborted by itself). Not suspended, not paused. Shut down. If you can't shut it down by normal means, close the VM window and select "Power off".
5. Right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager.
6. Select "Show Log..."
7. Save it (just the first log, VBox.log), ZIP it and attach it in your response (see the "Upload attachment" at the bottom of the form).

If I tick the 2D acceleration, it shows an error (invalid parameter detected) without further details.

If you hover over the triangle you'll see the explanation in a popup tooltip.

[AALLeeXX]

Thank you for your quick reply !
Your feeling was more than perfect and your suggestion #1 worked perfectly !
I'm just a bit surprised as I checked dkms was properly installed too, but I might got it wrong somehow with successive updates ...
At least the recovery procedure is pretty simple - thank you for highlighting it, I'll remember it.

About the 2D acceleration, thanks too for the tips here. It seems it is supported for Windows guests only and is not necessary for Linux guests.

Thanks again for your help and useful tips
Alexandre