infinite resolution switching loop - WinXP Guest on WinXP x64 or Ubuntu 9.10 AMD64 Host

[uboot]

I faced this bug with VirtualBox 2.x and it is still there with 3.x. I'm running a WinXP Pro Guest under both - WinXP x64 and Ubuntu 9.10 AMD64.

Certain applications like Internet Explorer (e.g. when opening an xps document) and FritzBox USB-over-LAN (.NET application) put VirtualBox into some endless resolution switching loop - it permanently switches the screen resolution of the Guest, causing screen flickering and window resizing and it is very hard to get control over the virtual machine.

Enabling/Disabling 2D/3D acceleration, Automatic Window Resize, Seamless or Fullscreen mode does not help.

Guest Tools are up to date.

The only thing that ends this killing the application inside the Guest OS via Alt-F4.

[uboot]

had to zip the vbox.log file due to upload size limitations

[sunlover]

Could you please attach a XPS document, which causes the problem?

[uboot]

opening this file in internet explorer (v8.0.6001.18702) triggers the res switch loop

[sunlover]

Thanks for the file.

We could not reproduce the problem with 2 different XP guests. Looks like some system component or a setting or an application in your guest leads to the problem. Do you have any idea what it could be? Some graphics application/drivers? Screen magnifier software, etc?

[uboot]

I do not have any special drivers / applications.

Just plain Windows XP x64 Professional with Intel Graphics Driver, dual monitor setup (laptop+external TFT, switching to single monitor setup does not resolve the issue).

Host machine is a Thinkpad X61, Core2Duo, 8GB RAM.

I tried my another host machine (AMD Athlon X2 5600+, Windows 7 x64) and the issue is there, too.

And I have another WinXP Pro Guest that does _not_ have this issue.

The bad WinXP VM is on a vmdk disk and was converted from a VMWare VM, but I definitely deinstalled all VMWare stuff, drivers, hidden devices, etc.

The good WinXP VM is on a vdi disk and was created from scratch.

Both machines have SP3, ACPI enabled and IOAPIC disabled.

The XML files for both machines are equivalent.

Both VMs have the same DEP settings, same paging file size, same HAL (ACPI-PC), same graphics adapter (Virtual Box). All devices in device manager are the same (including hidden / Non-PnP devices) and except Cisco VPN and McAffee stuff which is on the bad VM only.

So, I don't have any idea how to track this down further :(

[sunlover]

I could build a special version of Windows guest additions with debug logging. Please send me email ( sunlover at sun dot com ) if you would like to try the test build. I'll reply and send you download link and instructions.

[uboot]

This issue is still present with 3.1.4 and 3.1.6

[David Deaven]

I can confirm that the issue exists in VB 3.2.6 r632112.

Host OS:

• OpenSuSE 11.3 (kernel 2.6.27.45-0.1-default #1 SMP)
• X11: xorg-x11-7.4-8.20.1

Display:

• Occurs with 1920x1200 notebook LCD and 1600x1200 external LCD monitor

Virtual machine:

• 1Gb, 2 processors
• VT-x enabled
• Nested paging enabled
• 32Mb display memory
• 2D/3D acceleration enabled or disabled, no difference
• Remote display: disabled

Guest OS:

• Windows XP sp3
• Guest additions installed

My reasonably reproducible scenario seems to implicate Microsoft office 2010 - it is tripped when I open Powerpoint approximately 20% of the time. The VB window in the host OS goes into an endless loop of resizing. When the resize loop occurs, the following block is repeated in the log:

00:33:42.914 Guest Log: VBoxDisp[0]: VBVA enabled
00:33:42.914 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=ad9e5000 w=1600 h=1200 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1900
00:33:42.934 2D is supported!
00:33:42.943 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=ad9e5000 w=1600 h=1200 bpp=32 cbLine=0x1900
00:33:45.287 Guest Log: VBoxDisp[0]: VBVA enabled
00:33:45.287 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=ad9e5000 w=640 h=480 bpp=16 cbLine=0x500
00:33:45.292 2D is supported!
00:33:45.302 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=ad9e5000 w=640 h=480 bpp=16 cbLine=0x500
00:33:45.936 Guest Log: VBoxDisp[0]: VBVA enabled
00:33:45.936 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=ad9e5000 w=640 h=480 bpp=32 cbLine=0xA00
00:33:45.937 2D is supported!
00:33:45.939 Display::handleDisplayResize(): uScreenId = 0, pvVRAM=ad9e5000 w=640 h=480 bpp=32 cbLine=0xA00

Looks like perhaps the resize logic is causing changes of resolution, bpp separately, moving through {1600x1200@32bpp, 640x480@16bpp, and 640x480@32bpp}.

I can stop the cycle if I (patiently) move the mouse to where the powerpoint window flashes up and close it during the few 100ms it is rendered and visible.

[sunlover]

We could not reproduce the problem here. If anyone can provide the VM disk image, which shows the problem, please send me an email to Vitali dot Pelenjow at oracle dot com. I'll reply and send upload instructions. Thanks.

[David Deaven]

Confirmed a few more items:

VM # processors does not matter - 1 or 2 (but installed Windows XP with 2, so I think that gives me a different XP kernel) Powerpoint is involved almost 100% of the time. Sometimes just clicking a control in powerpoint to reconfigure the "ribbon" UI at the top of the app is enough to break the cycle (difficult to do as the screen is constantly flipping between resolutions).

Confirmed to exist on vbox 3.2.8 release, same hardware/host OS as described above.

[aog2000a]

Hi, being hit by this bug using Powerpoint on a Windows XP guest running in a Debian Host with Virtualbox 4.1... The issue manifests itself just after starting Powerpoint, however Powerpoint did run fine for some time after installation (1 month ago), and --besides updating the Host OS on a daily basis (Debian testing)-- nothing was changed in the Virtualbox configuration. Possibly some software updates were performed in the Windows guest.

The good thing is that i have two identical VB/WinXP installations in my desktop and my laptop (both Debian testing) and the desktop works fine. Also comparing the VB logfiles i don't see any indication or clear difference, besides my desktop running the nouveau driver on NVidia, my laptop having intel.

Feel free to request more input.

[aog2000a]

BTW, up to now i've seen the problem appear only under Powerpoint but not Word/Excel (MS Office 2010)

[aog2000a]

Extra info: in my case the Guest OS is Win XP w/latest SP & patches.

Graphics hardware:

intel(0): Integrated Graphics Chipset: Intel(R) GM45

When the issue triggers then the following message dialog is displayed (one extra dialog appears each second!):

---

The virtual machine window is optimized to work in 32 bit color mode but the virtual display is currently set to 16 bit. Please open the display properties dialog of the guest OS and select a 32 bit color mode, if it is available, for best possible performance of the virtual video subsystem.

---

This is not true, Xorg.0.log shows

intel(0): Depth 24, (--) framebuffer bpp 32 Depth 24 pixmap format is 32 bpp

This message is also displayed sometimes when running the VM, but only once and the seize flipping doesn't happen, so the message is in this case harmless.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.