Raw VMDK with SATA causes errors under Linux => Fixed in SVN

[Christian Holler]

Hello,

I'm running VirtualBox 2.1.0 on a 64-bit Linux Host, with a 32-bit Linux Guest (Livecd, Kernel 2.6.24-gentoo-r3). Since the upgrade to VirtualBox 2.1.0, I get massive errors when issuing high I/O load to the raw VMDK image which is attached via SATA (write through). I experienced this problem first when I used rsync to copy a whole filesystem from the VDI image to the VMDK. This only seems to happen with VMDK, as I have done the same thing with the VDI image and there everything is fine. The errors caused in the linux kernel log can be seen in the attached logfile.

The said errors render the machine unusable, as the rsync process gets stuck in I/O and cannot be terminated anymore, other apps start blocking then as well.

I didn't experience any such problems with VirtualBox 2.0.6, so I guess the problem must be one of the most recent changes in the VMDK system. If you need any further information, feel free to reply with what you need.

[Christian Holler]

Kernel Log containing SATA errors

[aeichner]

Can you please attach the VBox.log? You can find it in ~/.VirtualBox/Machines/<VM name>/Logs Thank you.

[Christian Holler]

VBox.log

[Christian Holler]

Attached the requested file, didn't attach it in the first place because I saw nothing special/suspicious there. Good luck :)

[aeichner]

Can you try if the errors disappear after you did the following please?

VBoxManage setextradata "Your VM" "VBoxInternal/Devices/ahci/0/Config/UseAsyncInterfaceIfAvailable" 0

[aeichner]

This will be fixed in the next maintanence release. Thanks for the report.