VirtualBox triggers a kernel panic in macOS 10.13.1 public beta 1

[Matt L.]

Using the first public beta of 10.13.1, a kernel panic and system crash occurs as soon as you start VirtualBox. This happens with both VirtualBox 5.1.28 and the 5.2 release candidate.

I found workaround that works for me:

1. Run "VBoxManage list vms” to list your VM’s along with their display names and kids
2. Run your VM in headless mode by running “VBoxManage startvm your-vm-name —type headless” where your-vm-name is the name listed in step 1.
3. Run virtualbox to bring up its UI
4. Select the running VM in VirtualBox and click “Show”. At this point the UI for your running VM should appear.

After that the virtual machine (Windows 10) ran as expected and I was able to shut it down in the normal way from its UI.

[Socratis]

​According to the OP, the crash happens with beta2 as well. "VBoxManage --type gui" causes a crash, while "VBoxManage --type headless" and "VBoxManage --type separate" do not.

Matt L. if you could attach a crash log from your system, that would really help.

[Matt L.]

FWIW, I'm seeing the crashes on a 2016 MacBook Pro Retina with Touch Bar, 2.7 GHz quad-core i7, 16 GB of memory, Radeon Pro 455 @ 2 GB video memory + Intel HD Graphics 530, 512 GB SSD.

[Matt L.]

Kernel panic log #1

[Matt L.]

Kernel panic log #2

[compumate]

My most recent panic log

[compumate]

Unlike Matt L. my system still crashes if I attempt his workaround using Terminal.

[Socratis]

I just noticed in the logs that both of you are running a really similar service, FileShield. 'Matt L.' is using Avast and I see the "com.avast.FileShield (3.0.0)" kext loaded, while 'compumate' is using AVG, and I see the "com.avg.FileShield (3.0.0)" kext loaded. They look quite similar and I'm wondering if it's the same kext, simply re-branded.

Could you both or either of you uninstall your antivirus and try it again, after first re-installing VirtualBox?

[compumate]

I spotted that was the only other kext and I've already tried that - it's in my posts on the forum. Removing it made no difference - although you're probably right re their similarity as Avast do now own AVG. The only thing I didn't do was remove and reinstall VB (when I removed AVG) - do you think that would make enough of a difference. If the developers have replicated the problem - what AV are they using? Steve

[Socratis]

To tell you the truth I don't know of that many people that use antivirus on a Mac, unless they're forced to, due to corporate policy. I really doubt that the developers are using any antivirus at all. These things are more of a nuisance than a helper. Can you please name one virus that they've stopped successfully?

[compumate]

That's a bit like saying I don't need an airbag in my car because its a new model and nobody has had a crash in one. Yes, Macs are less prone to viruses but they are not immune. Malware is prevalent on the web and MacDefender is one such that I recall from the past (harvested bank details and the like) - although Apple released a patch it was dealt with by (some) antivirus products at the time.

[compumate]

That was slightly off topic - any progress from anyone? Need any more logs?

[Socratis]

I don't think that more logs are needed, at least from your side. On the other hand do not expect a quick fix for a beta OSX version, especially when issues that are present in the previous stable version (10.13) have not been yet addressed. I don't think that 10.13 is in the list of officially supported hosts. EDIT: I actually double-checked and it's not.

And since they're that close to releasing 5.2.0 their attention is focused on fixing bugs for that version and supported hosts/guests. That should be their priority, don't you think?

[compumate]

OK, fair enough, thanks Socratis, I was only asking. I'll monitor this page and look forward to a future release of both VB and macOS that play nicely together.

[Matt L.]

Maybe the issue will get more attention when 10.13.1 is out of beta and is the official current macOS High Sierra release, assuming Apple hasn't fixed the issue from their end by that time. Hard to believe that they'd let VBox 5.2 cause a hard crash of a current non-beta macOS release for very long.

In the meantime, at least the headless workaround continues for function for most people I've heard from who've tried it.

[Matt L.]

Replying to socratis:

Could you both or either of you uninstall your antivirus and try it again, after first re-installing VirtualBox?

Uninstalled Avast. Reinstalled VBox 5.1.28. Still crashes.

[Stach]

So version 5.1.30 was just released and I of course had to try it with my fingers crossed, but as you may have guessed, it still causes a reboot.

[Socratis]

10.13.1 b2 is out. It already fixed an issue where the 3D accelerated window contents were independently moving from the surrounding frame. Can you please upgrade OSX to 10.13.1b2 and see if that gets resolved as well?

[Stach]

Replying to socratis:

10.13.1 b2 is out. It already fixed an issue where the 3D accelerated window contents were independently moving from the surrounding frame. Can you please upgrade OSX to 10.13.1b2 and see if that gets resolved as well?

My system is already on beta 2 of 10.13.1 so unfortunately, that didn't fix it either.

[compumate]

Replying to Stach:

Replying to socratis:

10.13.1 b2 is out. It already fixed an issue where the 3D accelerated window contents were independently moving from the surrounding frame. Can you please upgrade OSX to 10.13.1b2 and see if that gets resolved as well?

My system is already on beta 2 of 10.13.1 so unfortunately, that didn't fix it either.

I concur; 10.13.1b2 hasn't changed anything...

[Socratis]

Hey, I tried, it was a noble thought. Maybe in beta3? Or in 10.13.2? ;-)

PS. Please quote whatever is necessary from the previous message. After 3-4 messages of constant quoting the quoted quote, the whole thing becomes difficult to read, not to mention redundant. In most of the cases you do *not* need to quote the previous message verbatim.

[Matt L.]

Huzzah! The combination of the just-released macOS High Sierra Version 10.13.1 Beta (17B42a) plus VirtualBox 5.2.0 runs correctly without crashing.

Well, mostly. Windows Explorer crashes when you shut down the VM, but since I'm shutting down the VM I don't really care about that.

[hms]

I'm seeing the same problem there too:

• 2017 Macbook pro
• 10.13.1 Beta (17B35a)
• Windows 10 guest

Fresh VirtualBox and guest Windows 10 install and it fail with both 5.1.30 and 5.2

Hard crashes my computer with an CPU panic when starting the windows guest. Since this happens every time, I can attach any log files if you point me at the files you want.

H

[Matt L.]

10.13.1 Beta 1 (17B35a) crashes for me too. But 10.13.1 Beta (17B42a) does not. Note the difference in both the name and build number of the macOS release. Build 17B42a just showed up as downloadable for me late last night.

[Stach]

I agree, with 10.13.1 Beta (17B42a) and VB 5.2, I can now run my Windows VM again!

[Socratis]

@hms
Can you also try with the 17B42a build?

[compumate]

I'm still not seeing 17B42a available to me, so can't yet confirm anything. Once I can get it I'll retest and confirm.

[l'combo]

I can confirm that 10.13.1 Beta (17B42a) works fine again for me.

I have also just installed 10.13.1 Beta (17B45a) and it also looks to be working fine.

VB Version 5.2.0 r118431 (Qt5.6.3)

[compumate]

OK, now installed 17B45a and, whilst guests now launch, they run very slowly (this is on 5.2, with Extension pack installed).Anyone else see this?

[Socratis]

@compumate
That might be a whole different problem. Remember the title of the ticket ;). You're not having that problem anymore.

What you're seeing might be something totally unrelated, like a Windows update.

[compumate]

I predicted to myself that you would say that. I agree, it may very well be something completely unrelated - but my reasoning was thus... No Windows updates or any other changes to the VM as it's running without a network - it just runs a windows application for me not available on the Mac! The second VM (Windows XP) is connected to the network and is also running VERY slowly. Also VM's created for testing during the panic issue also now run - very slowly! However, the only reason I posted the question here was because I wondered if anyone that had the kernel panic issue, now resolved with 17B45a, also now found their VMs running VERY slowly? I figured it seemed logical that those that had the kernel panic issue would likely be watching this ticket - so it was a good place to see if others found the same after the kernel panic was fixed. If others did see the issue it would indicate that Apple may very well have introduced another problem... On the other hand if others found their VMs were fine it's logical to assume it's my system at fault. The latter seems most likely at this point as no-one has posted "me too"... Thank you all, at least I can now access my VMs. S

[compumate]

FWIW - Just to update; it was getting so difficult to do anything I thought I'd try rolling back to v5.1.28 and now my VM's have sprung back to life! Once I've caught up on work deferred whilst my VMs have been unusable I'll retry updating to 5.2.

[compumate]

Final update. Having caught up with work I today upgraded back to 5.2 and all seems fine. No idea why the guests ran so slow previously but downgrading and then upgrading has returned things to normal. Let’s hope Apple can refrain from breaking things again. Thanks all for your help. S