warpdrive does not work

[bzipitidoo]

I have not been able to get the guest machine to change the speed of its timekeeping. Successfully set up a virtual machine, installed an OS and the guest additions. The commands all seem to work, do not return any error messages, or any indication of success either, yet the passing of time does not change in the guest. Only thing I have seen is the guest time go out of sync. I tried with the guest additions that come with Lubuntu 14, which is an older version, and with the guest additions from the virtual CD. Both versions seem to function. But there is no change in speed.

In the host I have tried:
virtualbox --warp-pct 400
VBoxManage setextradata "Lubuntu14.04.5" "VBoxInternal/Devices/VMMDev/0/Config/GetHostTimeDisabled" 1
VBoxManage setextradata "Lubuntu14.04.5" "VBoxInternal/TM/TSCTiedToExecution" 1
VBoxManage setextradata "Lubuntu14.04.5" "VBoxInternal/TM/WarpDrivePercentage" 400

and in the guest:
service ntp stop



Host:
u@c17:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 17.04
Release: 17.04
Codename: zesty
u@c17:~$ uname -a
Linux c17 4.11.0 #2 SMP Sat Jun 10 15:44:29 CDT 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
u@c17:~$ virtualbox -?
Oracle VM VirtualBox Manager 5.1.22_Ubuntu

Guest:
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ lsb_release -a
No LSB modules are available.
Distributor ID: Ubuntu
Description: Ubuntu 14.04.5 LTS
Release: 14.04
Codename: trusty
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ uname -a
Linux v-VirtualBox 4.4.0-83-generic #106~14.04.1-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jun 26 18:10:19 UTC 2017 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ service vboxadd status
The VirtualBox Additions are currently running.
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ service vboxadd-service status
Checking for VBoxService ...running
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ service vboxadd-x11 status
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ VBoxService -V
VBoxService: error: Insufficient privileges to start VBoxService! Please start with Administrator/root privileges!
v@v-VirtualBox:~$ sudo VBoxService -V
[sudo] password for v:
5.1.22r115126

[scottgus1]

I don't see anywhere in the manual the command:

virtualbox --warp-pct 400

Nor can I find the possible source for a typo:

vboxmanage --warp-pct 400

Where does that command come from?

[Perryg]

Part of the VirtualBox start options and not used all that much. I am not sure it is even supported in the actual code any longer.

Here is a snippet of virtualbox --help

Code: Select all

Expert options:
  --disable-patm             disable code patching (ignored by AMD-V/VT-x)
  --disable-csam             disable code scanning (ignored by AMD-V/VT-x)
  --recompile-supervisor     recompiled execution of supervisor code (*)
  --recompile-user           recompiled execution of user code (*)
  --recompile-all            recompiled execution of all code, with disabled
                             code patching and scanning
  --execute-all-in-iem       For debugging the interpreted execution mode.
  --warp-pct <pct>           time warp factor, 100% (= 1.0) = normal speed
  (*) For AMD-V/VT-x setups the effect is --recompile-all.

It might help to know exactly what the OP is trying to do and why.

[Perryg]

Yup still there, but does not mean it is not bit rot or dead code. I don't have time at the moment to go into the actual code to find out.

Code: Select all

perry@perry-main /trunk $ grep -r warp-pct *
Binary file out/linux.amd64/release/obj/VirtualBox/src/main.o matches
Binary file out/linux.amd64/release/obj/VirtualBox/src/globals/VBoxGlobal.o matches
Binary file out/linux.amd64/release/obj/VirtualBox/VirtualBox.so matches
Binary file out/linux.amd64/release/obj/Installer/linux/archive/VirtualBox.so matches
Binary file out/linux.amd64/release/bin/VirtualBox.so matches
src/VBox/Frontends/VirtualBox/src/globals/VBoxGlobal.cpp:        else if (!::strcmp(arg, "--warp-pct"))
src/VBox/Frontends/VirtualBox/src/main.cpp:            "  --warp-pct <pct>           time warp factor, 100%% (= 1.0) = normal speed\n"
perry@perry-main /trunk $ 

[bzipitidoo]

I'm trying to make time run faster. I want to see xclock in the guest ticking off 4 seconds for every 1 second that passes on the host.

Point of all this is to fool games into running faster. Arcade games often use the system clock to pace things. I want PacMan running around the screen at 4x or more speed. I want health to regenerate faster in games that do that. I don't care about dropping more frames.

And, I want to test timed events, like that the screen lock and screen saver engages after 20 minutes, without having to wait 20 actual minutes.

[Perryg]

That's all I got. I don't have the time right now to dissect the actual code to see if it will do this for you. You can ask the DEVs on IRC or the DEVs mailing list.

[ml_gl]

I have exactly the same problem. The warpdrivepercentage setting seems not working completely. I used this instructions from "9.14. Fine-tuning timers and time synchronization chapter" from the VirtualBox manual.
I tried on Linux host (Fedora25) and Windows 7 host. Guest system is Fedora 26. Using VirtualBox version 5.1.26 r117224 for both hosts.

Edit:
I checked older version of VirtualBox. Latest 5.0 build also didn't work. But in latest 4.3 build warpdrivepercentage seems to work fine.