fc7 image panics on newer versions of VirtualBox

[Jeff Frontz]

I have a Fedora Core 7 image that was working fine on VirtualBox 2.x and 3.2. I've recently exported the image and am running it on 4.0.8 and 4.2.4 -- where I now get kernel panics (about once every three days when running under heavy load). There's nothing that appears in the virtual box logs; it's strictly in the /var/log/messages on the guest. While I can't say confidently that the panic is always the same place, my recollection is that it's very similar (backtrace at the bottom).

contents of /var/log/messages from latest panic:

Dec 12 08:13:35 jhf-fc7 kernel: BUG: unable to handle kernel paging request at virtual address 69762055
Dec 12 08:13:35 jhf-fc7 kernel: printing eip:
Dec 12 08:13:35 jhf-fc7 kernel: c0470184
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: *pde = 00000000
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: Oops: 0000 [#1]
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: SMP 
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: Modules linked in: vboxsf(U) autofs4 hidp fuse rfcomm l2cap bluetooth sunrpc nf_conntrack_netbios_ns nf_conntrack_ipv4 xt_state nf_conntrack nfnetlink ipt_REJECT iptable_filter ip_tables xt_tcpudp ip6t_REJECT ip6table_filter ip6_tables x_tables ipv6 dm_multipath video output sbs battery snd_intel8x0 snd_ac97_codec ac97_bus snd_seq_dummy snd_seq_oss snd_seq_midi_event snd_seq snd_seq_device snd_pcm_oss snd_mixer_oss parport_pc parport snd_pcm floppy pcspkr i2c_piix4 ac snd_timer snd i2c_core button soundcore snd_page_alloc pcnet32 vboxguest(U) mii sg sr_mod cdrom dm_snapshot dm_zero dm_mirror dm_mod ata_piix ata_generic libata sd_mod scsi_mod ext3 jbd mbcache ehci_hcd ohci_hcd uhci_hcd
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: CPU: 0
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: EIP: 0060:[<c0470184>] Not tainted VLI
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: EFLAGS: 00210206 (2.6.23.17-88.fc7 #1)
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: EIP is at find_vma+0x2d/0x53
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: eax: 69762065 ebx: 05106000 ecx: 6976204d edx: e10935d8
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: esi: f18848c0 edi: dd659ed8 ebp: f18848c0 esp: dd659e84
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: ds: 007b es: 007b fs: 00d8 gs: 0033 ss: 0068
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: Process niWrapperServer (pid: 13106, ti=dd659000 task=c976cc20 task.ti=dd659000)
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: Stack: 051067cc 05106000 c0470774 051067cc 05106000 dd659ed8 c0445554 00000000 
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: 49aa7e22 00200246 005e0030 00000000 f18848f8 f18848f8 051067cc dd659ed8 
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: 00000001 f18848f8 c04464b1 00000001 dd659f64 c04f59f8 00000000 000007cc 
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: Call Trace:
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c0470774>] find_extend_vma+0x12/0x49
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c0445554>] get_futex_key+0x6e/0x122
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c04464b1>] futex_wake+0x28/0xb0
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c04f59f8>] copy_to_user+0x34/0x48
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c04465b8>] do_futex+0x7f/0x959
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c0446f8f>] sys_futex+0xfd/0x110
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c0407f7d>] do_syscall_trace+0xd7/0xde
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: [<c040518a>] syscall_call+0x7/0xb
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: =======================
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: Code: c6 31 c0 85 f6 53 89 d3 74 44 eb 04 89 ca eb 39 8b 46 08 85 c0 74 0a 39 50 08 76 05 39 50 04 76 2d 8b 46 04 31 d2 eb 17 8d 48 e8 <39> 59 08 76 0c 39 59 04 76 d7 8b 40 08 89 ca eb 03 8b 40 04 85 
Dec 12 08:13:36 jhf-fc7 kernel: EIP: [<c0470184>] find_vma+0x2d/0x53 SS:ESP 0068:dd659e84

[Jeff Frontz]

Note: the kernel for fc7 is 2.6.23.17-88.fc7

[Frank Mehnert]

Which VirtualBox Guest Additions do you have installed? To me this looks like some guest kernel memory corruption.

[Jeff Frontz]

Replying to frank:

Which VirtualBox Guest Additions do you have installed? To me this looks like some guest kernel memory corruption.

I didn't realize that the Guest Additions weren't upward compatible. After reading your comment, I updated to the latest ones and things are a lot more stable.

[Frank Mehnert]

Well, newer VBox versions should also run with older VBox Additions but newer Additions do also fix bugs in older Additions :) Pleas reopen if you still see these oopses with the new Additions installed.