VirtualBox freezes my entire system (host + guest) - Arch64 (VirtualBox 3.1.2-2 - Kernel 2.6.32)

[DavidR]

I have a major issue with VirtualBox, with Windows hosts on a Linux installation, everything works okay for minutes to hours at a time, but my entire system randomly freezes. It doesn't matter what the processor load is or whether I am doing any work in the virtual machine, it just happens.

Once the system freezes this strange noise starts coming from the speakers of my computer. It doesn't matter whether I have any music playing or not, it just happens.

I tried disabling AMD-V, using nohz=off, deleting and rebuilding the kernel modules many times, switching from PulseAudio to OSS, disabling sound for the guests, Windows xp 32 bit, Windows 7 32 bit, Windows 7 64-bit, guest additions on and off, using the opensourse radeonhd instead of the ati driver, increasing the number of virtual processors available to the guest, and it still reliably happens all the time. My system becomes unusable and I have to reset the entire computer.

I am not using any USB devices. I am using NAT and do occassionally transfer files over the network. But it still happens even when I am not connected to the file server on my network.

I have this issue documented at a post in the arch forum but no one was able to help. So, I am pretty convinced that it must be an issue with VirtualBox. Here's the post there in case that helps: ​http://bbs.archlinux.org/viewtopic.php?id=88680

Here's my system information: Kernel: 2.6.32-ARCH #1 SMP PREEMPT Architecture: Arch Linux 64-bit Processor: AMD Phenom II x4 955 Memory: Corsair 4GB @ 1066 - passed memtest, no issues. My system never freezes unless virtualbox is open. Motherboard: MSI 790GX Video: Onboard Radeon HD 3300

If you need any more information then please ask.

[DavidR]

vbox.log

[DavidR]

Same behavior, different log.

[Technologov]

In your ArchLinux post, you say that it also happens with VMware.

Your case looks hard one. Let's divide between the meat and the flies around it.

First we need to understand if there is some hardware issue or software issue.

1. I recommend you to take and install popular *additional* Linux distro on your Host. (RHEL5/openSUSE/Ubuntu), preferably with older kernel as those are more tested. In fact you can use LiveCD as Host OS.

2. I would try to unload unnecessary drivers (LKMs) from your current Host OS (archlinux). For short-time testing I also recommend unloading Audio drivers. (rmmod)

3. Give us a list of your active drivers (LKMs), by doing:

# lsmod | sort > /tmp/my-loaded-drivers.txt

And upload this file as attachment...

4. In the meantime (testing period of 1 week) just use safe settings. (Audio = Null, Network = NAT) I also suggest running with AMD-V off most of the time...

-Technologov, 19.1.2010

[DavidR]

Yes, but VMWare restarts my computer, and doesn't freeze it. I will be uploading the list of drivers now and download a 64-bit LiveCD of another distro.

[DavidR]

Removed vm drivers, the same issue occurs. Unfortunately, I only have one HDD and am using dm_crypt, so I can't really resize my partitions. I will install another distro and test VirtualBox there, and then I will report back here.

[DavidR]

Switched to Ununtu, and the problem disappeared using 2.6.31-14-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP, so it definitely is a software problem. However, since I don't have kernel 2.6.32 on Ubuntu and am unable to use another distro with that kernel or reinstall Arch at the moment I recommend that you close this ticket.

I think that this needs to be reported in Arch, where they closed my bug report. I will go back there and write what happened.

Thanks!