[vbox-dev] VMLite XP Mode for VirtualBox released

[Huihong Luo]

thanks for the clarification, we can remove that option.

--- On Sun, 1/17/10, Alexey Eremenko <al4321 at gmail.com> wrote:


From: Alexey Eremenko <al4321 at gmail.com>
Subject: Re: [vbox-dev] VMLite XP Mode for VirtualBox released
To: vbox-dev at virtualbox.org
Date: Sunday, January 17, 2010, 12:53 PM


> NOTE: The physical ACPI power supply allow PC to hard shutdown if the
> power button is being pressed for 5 seconds exactly for this reason.
>
> Unless smart mechanism can be developed for VMs, I recommend removing
> this option as from the GUI as dangerous. (either remove this option,
> or after 2 clicks allow user to choose.. "ask" for action)
>

11.e. There is some misunderstanding regarding the ACPI part, and why
I recommend to remove this feature from the GUI.

This feature, when used in automated way like in VMlite is dangerous
and confusing.

This ACPI signal is supposed to shutdown the VM, but it won't work in
case guest application stucked guest OS or in case guest OS does not
support ACPI.

When the user tries to close a VM by clicking "X" button, VMlite won't
respond at all, and user will think that VMlite is broken, while in
fact VMlite send ACPI powerdown signal to the VM, but it is not
processed by the guest.

The standard expectation of any GUI user is that "X" button closes the
current window, but this is not the case with ACPI under many
situations.

The automatic poweroff or hibernation (save state) are fine, because
they close the current window under all reasonable situations, while
ACPI powerdown signal fails under the following conditions:

-VM under heavy load
-Low-level application stucks in the VM (happens when debugging
software in VM or when Gaming)
-Unsupported Guest OS
-Incorrectly configured guest OS (Windows XP with Standard PC HAL)

This will confuse users. It is OK in VirtualBox implementation,
however, because if the VM does not respond, next time user clicks "X"
button, user can choose a different action.

-- 
-Alexey Eromenko "Technologov"

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