virtualbox.org

I'm running Windows 10 LTSC guest on Elementary OS 5.0 host (all 64bit). I simply cannot get useful audio.

I known there are sensible people here about others asking for help when they fiddle with the settings and what not. If you fall on that category, move to the next topic please, because I'm all dirty of fiddling with settings.

I have no preference of settings. But I do need audio input to be somewhat consistent.

The virtual machine is assigned 2 cores (half the host) and 3GB of RAM out of 8GB on the host. Performance wise I have no complaints; apart from audio of course.

Against all advise found in here, I did try pretty much every configuration for audio settings in the VM settings.
For the audio controller: Intel HD Audio is the only audio controller that works, everything else does nothing.
For the audio host driver:
Pulse Audio Host Driver gives me audio input and output, stutters like crazy and is essentially unusable. (I know this is load dependent as in some occasions you can get clear audio output/input, like ~30% of the time.
ALSA Audio Driver gives audio output, but no input (the microphone shows as available with no indication of an issue, just no audio input)

Every other configuration just gives no audio interface whatsoever.
When I say no input, I mean no input, its not low or delayed, is none.
The host has no issue with audio, being input or output, that I can report.
Virtual Box Guest Additions is installed, and has been updated and tested to not be working, just now before submitting this post.

Virtual Box Version 6.0.14 r133895 (Qt5.9.5)

I had never heard of the LTSC distributions of Windows. Learned something new there.

pedro2555 wrote:virtual machine is assigned 2 cores (half the host)

The log says:

00:00:01.865426 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2

Virtualbox does not benefit from hyperthreading, so you really have all the cores available for the guest. This is not necessarily a problem, just be aware that if the guest goes full-throttle down the trench to keep the fighters off its tail, the host's services or host/guest synchronization (sound?) may suffer.

You have a forked host OS and a non-main-stream guest OS. Would you care to do a more standardized test? Put regular Ubuntu on the host PC and get a Windows 10 ISO (or make one with the MS media Creation Tool) from Microsoft.com. Use the default parameters the New Guest Wizard puts for a Windows 10 guest, don't change anything except two guest cores and 3-4GB memory. See what you get re sound.

scottgus1 wrote:I had never heard of the LTSC distributions of Windows. Learned something new there.

pedro2555 wrote:virtual machine is assigned 2 cores (half the host)

The log says:

00:00:01.865426 CPUM: Physical host cores: 2

Virtualbox does not benefit from hyperthreading, so you really have all the cores available for the guest. This is not necessarily a problem, just be aware that if the guest goes full-throttle down the trench to keep the fighters off its tail, the host's services or host/guest synchronization (sound?) may suffer.

You have a forked host OS and a non-main-stream guest OS. Would you care to do a more standardized test? Put regular Ubuntu on the host PC and get a Windows 10 ISO (or make one with the MS media Creation Tool) from Microsoft.com. Use the default parameters the New Guest Wizard puts for a Windows 10 guest, don't change anything except two guest cores and 3-4GB memory. See what you get re sound.

Thanks for your answer.

LTSC stands Long Term Support Channel, it is one of the enterprise editions of Windows 10.

As for the cores, I have no idea what you are talking about. I know what hyper threading is, I couldn't care less about it. I moved the slider on the VM settings. It starts at 1, goes up to 4, and I have set at 2. (in the VM settings window, System menu, Processor tab, Processor(s) slider). The host CPU is a Dual-Core Intel® Core™ i7-6500U CPU @ 2.50GHz. Not sure how relevant this is.

As for the more standardized test you're asking for. Its not really a question if I'm willing to. Its more of a question of what are we testing exactly? I would not be surprised if it worked in the scenario you propose, in fact I would be surprised if it didn't. But we've replaced the whole software stack, the only thing we've eliminated at that point really is the hardware which I doubt is the issue. Still the best I get to know by then is what I already know, something is wrong the this installation. (Maybe someone who has a non forked/more standard OS can confirm it is working for them and we will be done with it). Not running away from it, but I'm sure you would give me its an expensive test to do.

If it helps the OS is Elementary OS 5.1 Hera, based on Ubuntu 18.04.3 LTS with Linux 5.3.8-050308-generic. What I could do is update the kernel, which I've only been delaying because VirtualBox always breaks. That would be faster than trying another OS. There are some hardware whoppsis, all related to NVidia, audio works fine everywhere (even multiple outputs which used to be a pain point).

Appreciate your help but at this stage installing a new host OS is not an option. I would need a more targeted test.

Moved to VMWare problem completly gone. A bit sad.