GuruMeditation -2301 (VERR_REM_VIRTUAL_CPU_ERROR) after 5.1.x update (Raw Mode)

[boxer01]

I have a computer with Windows 8.1 x64 as a host and Windows 7 x86 as a guest. After updating from 5.0.24 to 5.1 I see guru meditation message early during the boot process of the guest. If I start guest Windows in safe mode, there is no such problem. So I could update guest additions to the current version. Same problem appears with 5.1.1, 5.1.2 and 5.1.3. Going back to the 5.0.24 or currently to the 5.0.26 solves the problem.

I have equal computer with Vista x86 host and XP x86 as a guest. I see the same issues after update to the 5.1.x here. On the other computers (Windows 10 x64 guest and host on the first one and Windows 8.1 x64 guest and host on the second one) everything works fine.

There are two differences between the working and not working combinations. First and probably the most important one: the computer with issues has no hardware virtualization, because processor has no virtualization support. So we can only use software layer here. The other one: we emulate different OS as a host OS and in one case even different bit case (x64 host with x86 guest.) I attach all the images and logs, which was created by Vbox. I hope it would help to find the case of the problem.

[boxer01]

screenshot win8.1x64 host, win7 x32 guest

[boxer01]

logs win8.1x64 host, win7 x32 guest

[boxer01]

logs win8.1x64 host, win7 x32 guest with 5.1.2

[boxer01]

logs and pictures vista x86 host, win XP x86 guest with 5.1.2

[boxer01]

logs and pictures vista x86 host, win XP x86 guest with 5.1.3

[boxer01]

crash log vista x86 host, win XP x86 guest with 5.1.2

[boxer01]

crash log vista x86 host, win XP x86 guest with 5.1.3

[boxer01]

crash log vista x86 host, win XP x86 guest with 5.1.3

[boxer01]

The #15669 looks like the same issue for me.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please could you attach VBox.log files from VBox 5.0.24 as well?

[boxer01]

Replying to frank:

Please could you attach VBox.log files from VBox 5.0.24 as well?

OK, I already updated from 5.0.24 to 5.0.26 and this version works. But I think you just need some logs from working version, so it isn’t important if it 24 or 26. The logs are from the same host guest combination (W 8.1 / W 7).

BTW, the #15694 is connected to this issue, I think so. If I save the state with 5.0.26, update and start with 5.1.2, then the state restores without any problem. But after that I nearly immediately get a BSOD from guest Windows.

[boxer01]

logs win8.1x64 host, win7 x32 guest on 5.0.26

[R_mano]

I have the same problem with host Linux 16.04 (xenial), VirtualBox 5.1.6, and windows 7 guest (32 bit). I'll attach the logs from the failed boot asap.

[R_mano]

Here it is: last log, and next-to-last with .png (I do not have a PNG for the last, don't know why).

[boxer01]

Ticket #16165 has the same issues

[R_mano]

Still here, 5.1.14. Should be a hw-related thing, because at home 5.1.14 works ok.

Info available on request, the machine is a HP Compaq Elite 8100.

Attaching new log.

[R_mano]

5.1.14 crash

[R_mano]

Notice that my processor is an i-5 on both machines; I went through the HP Bios (horrible) on the one faulting, and found no mention of VT-x.

Is there any workaround available?

[Frank Mehnert]

Could you retry with VBox 5.1.16? There were a couple of fixes which could be related to your problem.

[boxer01]

I tested this with current 5.1.18 and this guru meditation is still here. I attached the fresh logs from the VM. There are no problems with 5.0.36. If it’s important: the BSOD because of ICH9 bug in 5.1.16 happened before the guru meditation. So one have had to change the setting to the PIIX3 to get guru meditation.

I saw some changes in Git because of some register problems between 5.1.14 and 5.1.16, but this wasn’t an issue we are dealing with here. My host is Windows 8.1 x64, guest is Windows 7 x86. Hope this could help.

[boxer01]

logs win8.1x64 host, win7 x86 guest with 5.1.18

[Frank Mehnert]

boxer01, thanks for the additional logs. You say that you can also reproduce this Guru with VBox 5.1.18 if you are using the PIIX3 chipset, is that correct? Could you attach a VBox.log file of such a VM session as well? Thank you!

[boxer01]

I’ve done the test you asked me to do and attached the logs. I don‘t know if you understood my explanations from previous comment correctly, so I do it once again with a little bit more detail. So after installing 5.1.16 and starting the VM I got a BSOD in the guest. I thought that guru meditation was fixed, but later I could see that I was wrong.

After BSOD in the guest guest OS restarts automatically and tries to go into recovery, there are two choices here, normal start and the recovery mode. But recovery also fails because of the BSOD. It loads everything till CLASSPNP.SYS, tries to start and fails here once again. So now the VM is in the infinity loop of the recovery mode until one downgrade to the working version. Lucky for me somebody else already got some problems with a new version and this ticket (#16541) suggested the change of the chipset as a temporary solution for the problem.

If you take a look at the changelog, you will see, that there are some changes in the 5.1.16 because of some problems in the ICH9 code. And there are more changes in the 5.1.18 code to solve the problems caused by previous changes. So after I change the chipset, the BSOD was away, but now I could get through to the old good guru meditation. Looks like it was here all the time, we just simply got one more issue earlier with chipset with x86 guests in the 5.1.16. I hope now is everything clear.

One more interesting thing. After changing the chipset and starting VM I got a guru as usual on 5.1.18. So I boot the guest in the safe mode, which was always possible. This time OS saw the hardware changes and asked me to reboot the system to apply the driver changes. This time the VM was simply blown away with exception, so I only saw the manager on the screen. Next boot in the safe mode went without any problems.

[boxer01]

Logs win8.1x64 host, win7 x86 guest with 5.1.18 & PIIX3 chipset

[Frank Mehnert]

I completely understood that you got a BSOD with 5.1.16 and that this BSOD went away with 5.1.18 (there was an appropriate fix for the ICH9 chipset in 5.1.16, only raw mode affected) but now you get a Guru Meditation with 5.1.18.

Regarding the BSOD: It's a good idea to disable the Windows automatic reboot feature (Settings / Control Panel / System and Security / System / Advanced System Settings / Startup and Recovery). Of course this works only once you are able to fully boot your guest.

From your above description I also understood that this Guru is a 5.1.x regression as you don't have any problems with 5.0.36. Thanks for the additional logs.

[boxer01]

I’m glad that you understood me completely from the very beginning, I just wanted to avoid any misunderstandings and also to be clear. I red in the change log, that only the x86 raw mode clients were affected. In spite of the fact that my virtual HDD is a normal file and not a raw mode device, the 5.1.18 ICH9 bug fix also helped in my case.

I know about the control panel setting. One can also do this by pressing F8 at the very beginning of the boot process and selecting the item with disabling reboot in case of error. But same thing here – one needs a VM, which didn’t crash previously.

As already mentioned I can start a guest OS in safe mode without any problems. So the triggered instruction must be in some driver or service which is only loaded in the normal start scenario.

At the end I like to mention, that this guru meditation is here from 5.1.0, not just 5.1.18. As long as 5.0 is also supported, it isn’t a big problem for me. But I don’t know how long the 5.0 branch will be supported and I don’t like the idea of having to choose between the unsupported version and a movement to another product, if this meditation will be still here after the end of the 5.0 support.

[R_mano]

Just a comment --- I still have the guru meditation with 5.1.22 on my Dell machine (not on others). I tried to change the chipset.

I have to revert to 5.0.

Just as a reminder, host is Ubuntu 16.04, client is a Win7 32bit.

The symptoms are exactly the same as the ones reported above by myself, but if any developer want me to run some test, I am available.

[Frank Mehnert]

R_mano, I would like to see a VBox.log file of such a VM session. I assume that VT-x is not available on your host for some reason.

[Frank Mehnert]

To state it clear: All VBox.log files I saw in this ticket have VT-x disabled. Enable VT-x in your BIOS or disable Hyper-V if you are on Windows.

[boxer01]

Sorry, but I have to correct you. In my own case, I simply can‘t turn the VT-x on, because my processor has none (T3400), it was simply castrated by Intel for some marketing reasons. So I can’t turn anything in my BIOS, because it also has no such option. My only choice in Vbox was and is a raw mode, which is still broken in the 5.1 version. Right now I only can use 5.0 version, but it looks like that the support of this one would be probably dropped soon.

The other person here has more modern processor (i7-3xxx), but something is wrong with the HP BIOS, so he can’t turn the VT-x on, even if his processor has this feature for sure. So he has to use the raw mode either.

One of the tickets, which I referenced here, and which is closed as a duplicate of my ticket, has this problem because of an old Atom processor, which also has no VT-x at all.

At the end we all only can hope, that this bug in raw mode would be corrected soon. Of course, I can’t make any pressure here, only humbly hope for the patch. But anyway I would like to know, if this has any priority, or should we already loose any hopes?

[boxer01]

Here is a log from 5.1.20. Strange thing happened: I think after guest restart from the safe mode I got no guru exception, but simply exception so Vbox with manager was away after pressing OK button. Go figure!

[boxer01]

Here is a log from 5.1.22.

[boxer01]

I just have tested the new 5.1.24 and it finally works! Thank you very much everybody who made it happens. I‘m so happy, after the year of waiting it works with new version. I don’t know which changeset corrected this situation, probably it were the SSE2 changes, but now I can start my VM in the raw mode. So this ticket and every ticket which is referenced here can be closed for good. I don’t know what is about the tickets with guru meditation after the antivirus program installation, hopefully this works too now.

[ariafan]

My problem (#16165) is not solved.

[boxer01]

Today I needed some testing under Windows XP, so I took my old XP VM and immediately got this guru issue. The current 5.2.3 beta (19405) was replaced by 5.2.2, then 5.1.30 and then with last 5.0.40. With the last one the guru meditation disappeared. So the issue gone in my Windows 7 VM, but still present in the XP guest under Windows 8 x 64 host.

Remembering, that somebody filed the ticket about antivirus software causing guru meditation I used the current situation and made some tests. And in my case this was really the culprit! As soon as I uninstall my AV in the guest (ESET NOD32, there was an old 8 version there, but update to the current 10.1 make no difference), the problem with 5.1 and 5.2 disappears and I could use my XP VM with them. As soon as one install AV once again, directly in the moment where installer tries to start the AV, I got the guru mediation. This also explains, why I can start the VM in safe mode: there are no AV drivers in this case, which probably cause the guru on the boot of VM.

Hope this would be helpful for other people with same problems. I know that this is somehow a problem to use VM without a decent AV, but at least you would know the cause of the guru meditation.

[boxer01]

Logs from the VM with guru meditation

[boxer01]

Logs from home folder after guru meditation

[boxer01]

Looks like the raw mode would be removed completely in the version 6.1 by the end of the year 2019. So everybody with the issues like this would leave with them forever, just because their hardware is somehow old and doesn’t support some hardware virtualization.

[aeichner]

Correct, raw got dropped and we won't do any non critical fixes to the last supported version, closing this ticket.