VBox Memory Leak in Windows XP SP2 (NAT/networking related)

[mdmadph]

Like ​Ticket #2242, I'm actually getting this exact same problem in Win XP. I start up Virtualbox, start working with a VM, and eventually all RAM is used up and my other programs (just Firefox for development) are moving sluggish because they've all been moved to virtual RAM.

I look at my available physical memory and it's hovering near 30MB, even though the Virtualbox VM is set to use only 512 MB, and before starting the VM I had over 1.5GB free.

What's weird is that the Virtualbox process is only using about 80MB, according to the Windows Task Manager. There's nothing to show in the task list what is using all the RAM, but in the "performance" tab of the Task Manager there is almost no physical memory free at all.

This happened with both an Ubuntu VM and an OpenSolaris one, as the two log files I've included will hopefully show.

[mdmadph]

One Instance of an Ubuntu VM using all RAM on a WinXPSP2 host

[mdmadph]

One Instance of OpenSolaris beginning to use all available RAM

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Define 'eventually' (hours, days?). Did you try the fix in #2212?

[mdmadph]

Eventually depends on how much I do in the VM, I think -- in this instance, I tried updating the Ubuntu VM, took about 20 minutes when I noticed all my host RAM was gone.

Trying the fix at ​#2212 now.

[mdmadph]

Seems to have fixed it! Still need to check after doing a full restart, but it doesn't look too bad.

Where is the RAM being used by the VirtualBox VM's reported, though? There's no indication of it in the Task Manager in Windows -- there's just that much available RAM missing.

[mdmadph]

UPDATE: Hasn't pegged out all of my RAM, but there's still far more being used than what needs to be -- with 512MB allotted to the one VM I have running, there's almost 1GB unaccounted for, though at least none of my other apps are being moved into virtual memory yet.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Try again with 2.0.4 please.

[austozi]

VirtualBox version: 2.1.0
Host OS: Windows XP SP3 (32-bit)
Guest OS: Ubuntu 8.10 (32-bit)
CPU: AMD Turion 64
Host memory: 1GB
Of which allocated to guest OS: 256MB

I have a similar problem.

The host OS locks up when there's an active download in the guest OS. Application window switching in the host takes up to 5 minutes to respond. I had my Task Manager up to monitor memory usage. Funny enough memory usage associated with VirtualBox seems to be stable throughout (of course Task Manager itself becomes somewhat sluggish also when this happens so I'm not sure if this observation is relevant). Terminating the VirtualBox process in Task Manager (which takes up to a minute to complete) makes the problem go away immediately. The problem is reproducible without fail, but has only been tested with one guest OS so far.

The problem doesn't seem to happen unless there's an active download in the guest OS, which I hope may offer a hint to the root of the problem.

[austozi]

Also a little clarification.

No problem with general web surfing, even small downloads. The problem happens with large downloads (e.g. install mysql-gui-tools-common in Ubuntu terminal, or Ubuntu system update).

Guest OS network adapter: PCnet-FastIII (NAT).

[Sander van Leeuwen]

austozi: how long does it usually take to show up?

[austozi]

Previously, the host first became sluggish and locked up gradually. It would become apparent about a minute into the download, which I believe is why small downloads weren't affected because they would have completed way before that. I have no way of testing that again now. Let me explain.

I deleted the guest OS (entire virtual disk), hoping to reinstall it and see if the problem would go away. But I have not been able to reinstall it since. Now the host OS hangs up before the reinstallation is able to complete. This happens well into the installation. My best guess is it must be close to the end of the installation when it happens, which is like 15-30 minutes from the start of the installation.

I have tried the reinstallation 3 times now. It's happened every time. I took a look at the Performance tab in Task Manager when this last happened. Memory was normal but CPU usage peaked out.

I didn't have this problem during the previous installation of my Ubuntu guest OS (which has now been deleted). The only difference between the previous installation and these reinstallations (that I'm aware of) is that I installed the guest additions pack when I logged on to the previous Ubuntu VM for the first time. I don't know if this should affect the behavior of VirtualBox, because I assume the additions are a per-VM setting?

Hope this is enough information to help you troubleshoot. Thanks.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please could you re-test if 2.1.4 changed anything?

[Frank Mehnert]

No response, closing. Before reopening, please make sure that you check VirtualBox 2.2.2.