Opened 8 years ago
Last modified 8 years ago
#16291 new defect
Guest SuSe 13.2 freezes on Host Windows 7 when more than 1 processor (core2 quad) is assigned
| Reported by: | neumannd | Owned by: | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Component: | other | Version: | VirtualBox 5.1.10 |
| Keywords: | core2quad freeze hang | Cc: | |
| Guest type: | Linux | Host type: | Windows |
Description
This issue is similar to that in ticket 7619. However, the issue occurs with a recent VirtualBox version.
When more than 1 processor is assigned to the Guest (Open SuSe 13.2, XFCE Desktop) it freezes after some time and does not react anymore (commonly after below 1 hour). VirtualBox itself still runs. Pausing the VM or Saving it to the Disk (and resuming) works fine but the Guest is still frozen. The Host is Windows 7 SP1.
When I assign 1 processor it works fine (I worked for 2 month with this 1-processor-setup and experienced some performance problems recently, which is way I came back testing a >1 processor setup. But this is not the topic of this ticket).
3D acceleration is not enabled. The issue seems to be correlating with the usage of Mozilla Firefox and/or Thunderbird - but not exclusively. The freezes occured also without Firefox running (but less ofter).
The host computer has a Core2 Quad Q9400 Processor. It does not support hyper-threading. I could assign up 8 cores in the settings dialog. I mention this because I found some discussion on whether cores or virtual processes are assigned. Idependent whether the processor supports hyper-threading or not, there should be only 4 cores available.
Currently, I am using VirtualBox v5.1.10 but the issue occured also in v5.1.6 and v5.1.8.
Since the number of Core2 processors is declining this issue probably has a quite low priority.
Attachments (3)
Change History (8)
by , 8 years ago
| Attachment: | VBox_freezeA.log added |
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by , 8 years ago
| Attachment: | VBoxHardening_freezeB.log added |
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Hardening Log file (relating to VBox_freezeB.log)
comment:1 by , 8 years ago
I could also provide the log files after "Saving to Disk" and "Resuming" of the froozen Guest.
comment:2 by , 8 years ago
Does this also happen if you change the paravirt VM settings from "default" to "none"? Also, any chance to get the content of the guest kernel log file when the guest froze? Try
VBoxManage debugvm openSUSE_13.2_xfce osdetect VBoxManage debugvm openSUSE_13.2_xfce osdmesg
Do you get any useful result?
comment:3 by , 8 years ago
Thanks for the fast reply.
Does this also happen if you change the paravirt VM settings from "default" to "none"?
Yes, that seems to solve the issue. I worked on the guest system for 3 hours without any freezes. I had also the subjective feeling that the guest was a bit faster. In addition changing the paravirt VM settings to "none", I made some further changes in the settings:
Enable PAE/NX: NOT checked
Enable nested paging: NOT checked
CPU Execution cap: 90%
I am not sure if solely the paravirtualization option solved it or a combination of several options. From my point of view, the issue is solved. But the actual cause for the freezing might be of interest for you, Frank?
On Friday, Checking and unchecking "Enable PAE/NX" and "Enable nested paging" had not effect on the freezes (it froze in each case). Thus, probably the paravirtualization setting solved the issue. In order to test, whether this is acutally the case, I set all these 4 settings back the values from last week. Unfortunately, I could not reproduce the freezing of the guest but the performance was worse in the latter test.
VBoxManage debugvm openSUSE_13.2_xfce osdetect
VBoxManage debugvm openSUSE_13.2_xfce osdmesg
Since the guest did not freeze, I was not able to extract the Kernel log when it froze.
If it would be useful for you to get a kernel log when the guest freezes, I will work with last weeks settings a see whether I get the guest freezing again (but only if it might be useful for you).
comment:4 by , 8 years ago
freezing
The freezing was reproduced with the following settings:
- paravirt VM: default
- Enable PAE/NX: checked and unchecked
- Enable nested paging: checked and unchecked
- CPU Execution cap: 100%
- number of CPUs: 2
The commands
VBoxManage.exe debugvm openSUSE_13.2_xfce osdetect VBoxManage.exe debugvm openSUSE_13.2_xfce osdmesg
both return no relevant information after the guest froze:
VBoxManage.exe: error: Code E_FAIL (0x80004005) - Unspecified error (extended info not available) VBoxManage.exe: error: Context: "LockMachine(pArgs->session, LockType_Shared)" at line 798 of file VBoxManageDebugVM.cpp
My installed OpenSuse uses Journal instead of classical log files. The command
journalctl -a
prints out no information on the reason for the freeze.
no freezing
Up till now, the guest did not freeze with these settings:
- paravirt VM: none
- Enable PAE/NX: unchecked
- Enable nested paging: unchecked
- CPU Execution cap: 90%
- number of CPUs: 2
comment:5 by , 8 years ago
The issue seems to be solved by setting paravirt VM to none. My current stable configuration is:
Processor Tab:
- Processor(s): 2 CPUs
- Execution Cap: 100%
- Disable PAE/NX
Acceleration Tab:
- Paravirtualization Interface: none
- Enable VT-x/AMD-V
- Disable Nested Paging
Thank you, frank, for the reply. Sorry for opening this ticket for a false defect.


Log file of one freeze event