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VirtualBox can't use all cores on Macbook Pro
Posted: 6. May 2018, 08:48
by XGhosT192
Good afternoon.
I install VirtualBox on Macbook Pro 2016 (13" retina).
CPU is 2.7 GHz Intel Core i5, 2 core / 4 logical cores.
Activity Monitor can see all (4) core

- cpu activity.png (28.98 KiB) Viewed 2141 times
Code: Select all
bash-3.2$ sysctl -n hw.ncpu
4
bash-3.2$ sysctl -n hw.physicalcpu
2
bash-3.2$ sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu
4
But VirtualBox can not see more than 2 core!
How i can fix this?
And VirtualBox can see on my hardware all of logical cores
Re: VirtualBox can't use all cores on Macbook Pro
Posted: 6. May 2018, 09:04
by socratis
VirtualBox cares about
physical processors (cores),
not logical ones (threads). So, the number to look at would be:
XGhosT192 wrote:Code: Select all
bash-3.2$ sysctl -n hw.physicalcpu
2
not
XGhosT192 wrote:Code: Select all
bash-3.2$ sysctl -n hw.logicalcpu
4
If you want a more detailed analysis, we're going to need a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run:
- Gathering the necessary information:
- Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state).
- Observe the error, i.e. check out the Activity Monitor in the host, in parallel with the Task Manager in the guest.
- Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
- With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
- Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.
Re: VirtualBox can't use all cores on Macbook Pro
Posted: 6. May 2018, 09:11
by XGhosT192
Thanks a lot.
I collect logs of VM (in attach).
Host OS is Mac OS High Sierra, guest os is Cent OS 7.
VirtualBox give me a warning about incorrect CPU number

- CO-VBox-CPU.png (78.53 KiB) Viewed 2132 times
And tis is what i see in guest OS (4CPU) and Host OS via Activity monitor.

- CentOS-4-cpu.png (45.2 KiB) Viewed 2132 times
But i think some cores in guest os are malfunction...
P.S.
socratis wrote:VirtualBox cares about physical processors (cores), not logical ones (threads). So, the number to look at would be:
Hmm... on another platform (AMD APU) i have also 2 phisical cores and 4 logical.
But VirtualBox see all of them.
Re: VirtualBox can't use all cores on Macbook Pro
Posted: 6. May 2018, 09:54
by XGhosT192
And another strange thing is 100% disk busy on Linux under mac os

- disk busy.png (28.95 KiB) Viewed 2131 times
Re: VirtualBox can't use all cores on Macbook Pro
Posted: 6. May 2018, 10:04
by socratis
00:00:02.325720 CPUM: Logical host processors: 4 present, 4 max, 4 online, online mask: 000000000000000f
00:00:02.325724 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2
00:00:02.233851 NumCPUs <integer> = 0x0000000000000004 (4)
00:00:02.326043 Full Name: "Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5257U CPU @ 2.70GHz"
As I mentioned, you have assigned all your CPUs to the VM. The host is going to run low on resources, since VirtualBox cares about
physical processors (cores),
not logical ones (threads). See "
CPU Cores versus threads" and "
Why is it a bad idea to allocate as many VCPUs as there are physical CPUs?".
Also, take a look at Intel's specifications about your
i5-5257U CPU. Click on the "?" next to the "Cores" and the "Threads"...
- A Core is a hardware term that describes the number of independent central processing units in a single computing component (die or chip).
- A Thread, or thread of execution (or logical CPU), is a software term for the basic ordered sequence of instructions that can be passed through or processed by a single CPU core.
Source: http://ark.intel.com
XGhosT192 wrote:Hmm... on another platform (AMD APU) i have also 2 phisical cores and 4 logical. But VirtualBox see all of them.
I need to see a VBox.log from that, I can't be making assumptions, it's dangerous to assume without knowing what the heck I'm talking about...
