virtualbox.org

I'm having a weird problem with VirtualBox 2. I'm trying to use it to
break my one server into two parts (the native server and a virtual
machine) and split services across the two. I'm using bridged HIF
networking, so the setup should look like two different machines.

The problem I'm seeing is that the virtual machine works fine for a
while (2-3 minutes), and then it becomes unresponsive. The VM's CPU
usage goes way down and the VM doesn't reliably talk to the network or
through VRDP. In the end I have to do a "VBoxManage controlvm testvbox1
poweroff" to get rid of the VM.

The weird thing is the problem only occurs the first time I run the VM
after I reboot the physical machine. After I see the problem and stop
the VM, I can restart it and it works fine from then on -- until I reboot the host again.

Any suggestions?



My setup:

- VirtualBox 2.0
- A generic Pentium 4 box
- Ubuntu Hardy Server as both the host and guest
- No X servers on either the host or guest
- Bridged HIF networking (both the host and guest are using static IPs)
- I'm launching the virtual machine with "VBoxManage startvm
testvbox1 -type vrdp".


More details:

- I've tried "nohz=off" on both the host and guest and it doesn't help.

- When I see the problem, the CPU usage drops from 0.3% to 2% cpu load
for the idle VM to not showing up in "top" most refreshes. So, the VM
is definitely doing less.

- The problem happens whenever I run the VM the first time after boot.
Whether I run it as part of the boot scripts or wait a few minutes and
run it by hand makes no difference. The second run always works
right.

- The problem happens whether I run the headless frontend or the
standard GUI frontend.

- This is weird: During the 2-3 minutes of "good" time before the VM
goes all wonky, I ssh (with X forwarding) from my laptop into the VM
and run a xterm so I can type commands to the VM and see what's going
on. When the VM start misbehaving, I can still type commands to the
VM, but the output stalls. For example, I type "ps ax" and hit enter
it will print a few lines of result and then stop. If I then move the
mouse into and out of the xterm, it will print a few more lines.
It seems like the focus events that the laptop's X server sends to
the VM cause it to wake up and do work. It's like the VM is dropping
interrupts or something.

- A VRDP connection works fine for the "good" 2-3 minutes, but completely
locks up when the VM goes wonky.

- Network connections to the host work fine through all of this.

- This happens with VirtualBox 2.0.0 and 2.0.2

- Thanks for reading all this. I'd be grateful for any help you guys
could offer.

Until I saw your post I thought I was the only one having this issue. I didn't do an extensive testing as you've done but I can confirm this also happens with Hardy desktop without using the VRDP functionality. I'm using host interface network and DHCP in Windows XP inside the VM. Also P4, but, of course, using an X Server.

Regards,
Mauro.

Guys, can you do us a favour and if as it seems you have a repeatable test case, can you please use the public Bugtracker to raise a ticket on this issue. You will first need to register for a wiki user account (this is different to a forum account sorry) and then you can logon to the wiki and raise the ticket.

You'll need to attach the VBox.log for the slow and fast start cases. The more info that you provide, the better.

I appreciate your help, TerryE. Thank you!

I've attached a bunch of VBox.logs and descriptions of how I got them.

Later today, I'll try switching back to the VB 1.6.6 and see what happens there.

Can you think of any other information I should collect and share?

No, one of Sun guys should post and get back to you. I don't know the timescales.

I downgraded from VB 2.0.2 to VB 1.6.6 and I can't reproduce the problem any more. So, apparently the bug was just recently introduced.

I am experiencing similar problem here with the new version 2.0.2. I am using ubuntu 8.04 kernel 2.6.24-21-generic for hostin a Vista machine (I just don't want to reinstall everytime each software under windows so in future I will be able to move VM to new hardware).

I installed yesterday version 2.0.2 upon update notification given by the 2.0.0. version. I installed and yesterday worked perfectly But today since rebooting I am experiencing very slow processing in the guest. It works as when I installed a VM with NO ACPI and switched to ACPI management. Very slow processing.
If you know dos-like windows-boot-up-screen when it detects unclean shutdowns, I can tell that that screen is showing at a very slow rate. It shows two lines per second taking a very (and strange) time to fill the screen.

I tried re-installing version 2.0.2 but same behaviour.
I reinstaleld version 2.0.0 and now for it works perfectly.

Thanks, Angelo

Just to summarize what was decided in Trac:

There is a bug in 2.X under Linux that causes VMs to lock up exactly five minutes after the host boots. There's a fix commited in SVN and it'll make it into VBox 2.1.

The best work around for now is to make sure you don't start any VM until five minutes after the host boots.

I had the exact same problems on kubuntu 7.10 and VirtualBox 2.0.2. This did not happen with VirtualBox 2.0.0. So I reverted to that version.

I have an Athlon 64 2X 6000+and 2GB ram, with 700MB assigned to a virtual windows XP Pro install.

I mentioned on the Discuss VirtualBox 2.0.2 Release topic that I noticed a very significant slowdown, this bug might be responsible in a way for this behaviour as well.

EDIT: I just booted my 2.0.0 install, and did this right after booting. The same behaviour suddenly appears, with the machine getting really slow and locking up. Strange that I never noticed this before.