virtualbox.org

A few days ago I installed Virtual Box and Windows 10 onto my iMac computer, and it seemed to be going OK until just now. I was asked by Windows to allow a restart so that some updates could complete, and when that started it again seemed to be going OK. But then I received the message in the attached screenshot.

I have also attached the requested log, but I don't know how to get the image file. [Sorry, I can't attach the log file - error message says its too big. Is 442 kB.]

I have no idea what to do now, so all help would be appreciated. Thanks in advance.

Annie

PS I have to go to work very soon, so won't be able to look at any replies until about 9 or so hours from now.

Annie wrote:I have also attached the requested log, but I don't know how to get the image file. [Sorry, I can't attach the log file - error message says its too big. Is 442 kB.]

Use you favourite archiving tool to create a .zip, .rar, .tgz file and attach that.

-Andy.

Thanks, Andy.
.zip file is attached.

VBox.log wrote:

00:00:03.416635 Host RAM: 4096MB (4.0GB) total, 1563MB available
00:00:03.969748   RamSize   <integer> = 0x0000000080000000 (2 147 483 648, 2 048 MB)
00:00:03.970085   VRamSize  <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)

OS X can be a bit strange when it comes to reporting memory but it looks like you have allocated memory to the guest that you don't have available on the host. Your options are: a) allocate less memory to the guest, b) close some applications on the host, or c) buy some more memory for the host.

VBox.log wrote:

00:00:03.970084   VMSVGA3dEnabled  <integer> = 0x0000000000000000 (0)
00:00:03.970084   VMSVGAEnabled    <integer> = 0x0000000000000001 (1)

The default settings in VirtualBox 6.0.x are to use the new VBoxSVGA vGPU for Windows guests. There have proven to be some issues so the suggestion for now is to switch it back to the old VBoxVGA vGPU. You should probably also enable 2D and 3D acceleration.

VBox.log wrote:

00:47:56.987153 !! VCPU0: Guru Meditation -1607 (VERR_PGM_HANDLER_NOT_FOUND)

Here we find the symptom for your crash! I would start by fixing the issues above and see if the situation improves.

-Andy.

Thank you, Andy. But as I am a complete newbie with all this, I need to ask two things before I can confidently fix the issues you've identified. Sorry.

1) Does 'VRamSize 128 MB' mean that I can allocate much much less memory to the Guest than it has now? For example would 500 MB be OK?

2) I have no idea what that Guru Meditation thing is about! Can you explain a bit, please?

Regards,
Annie

You have two RAM settings in the VM "recipe". One is normal RAM for the simulated CPU to use, the other is VRAM (Video RAM aka Graphics RAM) for the simulated GPU to use. These are independant settings, but both are taken from normal RAM of the host OS, so you must have enough free RAM available on the host to satify RAM+VRAM. The VM will have lots of other minor calls on RAM, but those should account for the bulk.

A typical rule of thumb is that you try to avoid the sum of those two numbers being much greater than half of the AVAILABLE (as distinct from 'installed') RAM on the host. You are trying to achieve a balance: plenty of RAM for the VM while leaving plenty for the host, whose needs don't disappear when a VM is running.

A "Guru Meditation" is a fatal error message report that VirtualBox generates. In this case the crash was in the PaGed Memory manager (hence VERR_PGM_HANDLER_xxxx), confirming that errors in your RAM allocation are almost certainly the source of the problem.

OK, I've left the Vram at 128 and set the Motherboard memory at 500MB and done the other two things suggested by Andy.

If I now click on Start within VideoBox, should I expect my virtual Windows 10 machine to start up and be usable?

500 MB is nothing for a Win10 VM, it does have a minimum requirement of 2048 MB (2 GB). What you don't have is enough RAM on your computer! At 4096 MB, you will be having a problem running a Win10 VM. Change the RAM back to 2048 (the minimum), reboot your computer and run absolutely nothing except VirtualBox and the Win10 VM.

If it fails, open up "VBox.log" and read it. We taught you what to look for. There's no need to ask every time. Now you should know better...

Oh, and to answer your question? You're one click away from finding out! Push that "Start" button and see what happens. It's much easier rather than waiting for an answer from another user in a query you made to the forums...

Hi socratis,

I'm really pleased that I didn't just press that start button, as then I wouldn't have received your useful telling off!

I actually didn't know that the minimum RAM requirement for Windows 10 was 2GB. From the other replies I thought that reducing the RAM allocation in the VM for was a true option.

But now I realise that buying extra memory for my Mac is in fact the only sensible thing to do if I want to be able to use this VM without any problems.

So thanks.

Annie

Annie,

Here are the requirements, according to Microsoft: How to Find Windows 10 Computer Specifications & Systems Requirements. In that article you'll see that the 64-bit version has a min. RAM required of 2 GB.

You could try to install the 32-bit one, which has a requirement of 1 GB. That would be a lot easier on your host...

Annie wrote:But now I realise that buying extra memory for my Mac is in fact the only sensible thing to do

That's true for more that one reasons!