Opened 5 years ago
Closed 5 years ago
#19188 closed defect (fixed)
Mac OSX 10.15.2 guest freezes on startup
| Reported by: | Daniel Bonner | Owned by: | |
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| Component: | other | Version: | VirtualBox 6.1.0 |
| Keywords: | Mac OSX Catalina 10.15.2 guest | Cc: | |
| Guest type: | other | Host type: | Mac OS X |
Description
Mac OSX 10.15.2 as a guest freezes when you try to start it or complete an upgrade from a previous version (combo update or app store update) using VirtualBox 6.1.0 or 6.1.1. Mac OSX 10.15.1 works well as a guest with VirtualBox 6.1.0 (release build) or 6.1.1 (development build). Would it be possible to implement compatibility for Mac OSX 10.15.2 guests in VirtualBox? Many thanks, Dan
Attachments (6)
Change History (16)
comment:1 by , 5 years ago
comment:2 by , 5 years ago
We need at least a VBox.log from the affected VM to start looking into this issue.
by , 5 years ago
| Attachment: | Screenshot 2020-01-25 at 14.29.32.png added |
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by , 5 years ago
| Attachment: | VBoxSVC.log added |
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by , 5 years ago
| Attachment: | VBoxSVC.log.1 added |
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by , 5 years ago
| Attachment: | runMacOSVirtualbox.log added |
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comment:3 by , 5 years ago
I attached a number of logs and screenshots. This bug is fully reproducible for me using this script: https://github.com/AlexanderWillner/runMacOSinVirtualBox I attempt a clean install with the script, and end up with the result described in this bug. My related report in Github: https://github.com/AlexanderWillner/runMacOSinVirtualBox/issues/95
comment:4 by , 5 years ago
We need a VBox.log of the affected VM. You attached the VBoxSVC.log which is of no use for this particular issue unfortunately. The VBox.log can be usually found in ~/VirtualBoxVMs/<VM name>/Logs.
comment:5 by , 5 years ago
This appears to be reproducible in all versions of VirtualBox on all macOS 10.15.2 guests. A workaround involves using the "boot.efi" file from an earlier version of macOS.
by , 5 years ago
| Attachment: | VBoxLogs.zip added |
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comment:6 by , 5 years ago
Attached VBog.log files for the affected VM.
comment:8 by , 5 years ago
The source of the boot hangs has been identified, although fixing it correctly isn't entirely trivial. It's triggered by a very, very old problem in VirtualBox. Apple switches to 32-bit mode (i.e. out of long mode) with junk in the high byte of RDI register and expects that when it switches back to long mode, the junk will be zeroed out because the EDI register was written in 32-bit mode. That is relying on processor behavior which is not documented, or rather behavior that is explicitly undocumented. Neither Intel nor AMD say what should happen in this case, although the behavior of actual CPUs appears to be consistent.
At any rate it will be fixed for the next maintenance release.
comment:9 by , 5 years ago
Was able to update to 10.15.3 with 6.1.4. It seems they solved the problem.
comment:10 by , 5 years ago
| Resolution: | → fixed |
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| Status: | new → closed |
Indeed, this was fixed for 6.1.4, thanks for confirming!


VirtualBox 6.1.2 does not solve the problem.