VirtualBox causes a restart of host-system (Linux and Windows)

[Nils]

1. Host: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32bit or Windows7 64bit (same problem)
   

1.2 Guest: Ubuntu 10.04 LTS 32bit - minimal virtual server
2.1 Guest: try to install Ubuntu, start a ubuntu-10.10-alternate-i386.iso

Guest 1.2 running normal.
Starting of guest 2.1 via "VBoxHeadless --startvm test &".
Look on guest 2.1 "rdesktop -a 16 guest(1.2)_ip".
When I try to "install ubuntu" the Host 1. restart!

[Sander van Leeuwen]

No VBox.log -> nothing we can say or do.

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

I can provide more information on this bug, as this happens on my Fedora 12 system (but not with the default kernel). This is a regression from 3.2.8.

My affected system is a Fedora 12 x86_64 system with a CPU that has *no* support for hardware virtualization. Therefore, I run 32-bit guests only. I also run self-compiled kernels from vanilla source from kernel.org. The kernels on which I noticed the issue are 2.6.36-rc6 and 2.6.36-rc8.

After installing VirtualBox 3.2.10 on the affected host, I noticed that my Windows XP-SP2 guest caused a host reboot after a minute or so. WinXP manages to show the desktop, and I move the mouse around, and the host reboots. I thought that this might be a regression on Guest Additions, so I uninstalled them in the short time window before the host reboot, only to find that another guest, a CentOS 5.5-based distro (Elastix 1.6) also caused a host reboot. Unlike the WinXP guest, the CentOS 5.5 distro runs a 2.6.18-based kernel with no Guest Additions installed. Both of these reboots happened with the -rc kernels. When I rebooted the host with the updated stock Fedora 12 kernel (2.6.32.21-168.fc12.x86_64), the host reboot did not happen.

Ubuntu-10.10 uses the 2.6.35-22-generic kernel, so this problem is not limited to the 2.6.36-rcX kernels, since a 2.6.35 kernel is affected too.

Another data point: this issue only appears when VirtualBox is *not* using hardware virtualization on a x86_64. As I write this, my work machine (x86_64 with hardware virtualization) is running a 2.6.36-rc8 kernel on the host and Ubuntu-10.10 on a 32-bit guest, with no issues whatsoever. I also ran the Elastix (CentOS-5.5 compatible) distro, also with no issues.

Something that might be useful: when booting Elastix, you can watch the kernel booting, up until the point when the console shows the message: "Starting udev...". After a second or so, the host reboots. With the Elastix 32-bit installation, this is 100% reproducible.

I tried to examine the VirtualBox log, but there is no suspicious message there. No guru meditation or anything. Just a truncated boot process.

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

I suggest changing the "Component" classification to "VMM/RAW", as this seems to be an issue with software virtualization.

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

Bug #7540 might be related, but my affected computer does not display any BIOS option to enable hardware virtualization, so I cannot enable it at will.

[Frank Mehnert]

Thanks for the additional information but please, could you attach a VBox.log of such a VM which rebooted the host anyway? It will show us more of the configuration of your VM. Thank you!

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

Log of session that eventually rebooted host. Kernel is 2.6.36.

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

Kernel configuration used to compile crashing kernel

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

Kernel configuration used to compile non-crashing kernel

[Alex Villacís Lasso]

I have discovered that the host reboot is sensitive to the kernel configuration. I have attached two kernel configurations. The first, "config-original.config", was the one I used for compiling the 2.6.36 vanilla kernel that reboots a while after starting VirtualBox. The second, "config-nocrash.config", is the result of running "make oldconfig" on the kernel configuration found in the Fedora 14 LiveCD for x86_64, but copied into the 2.6.36 vanilla kernel tree, and used for compilation. This one does NOT crash on running my virtual machines. Other than realizing this difference, I have not analyzed in detail the nature of the change that makes one stable and not the other.

[Frank Mehnert]

This bug will be most probably fixed in the next maintenance release. You could also install a ​test build of the upcoming release to verify that your problem is indeed fixed.

[aispobla]

Ubuntu 10.10

[aispobla]

I have the same problem, after of update kernel of 2.6.35 at 2.6.36. Use ArchLinux 64 with VirtualBox-ose, but is the same problem, when start virtualbox, the system reboot after of one minut or two. I haven't hardware virtualization.

[airstep]

Faulted when check disk's on system Win2003 startup. Also randomly fault on system work, often when run debug mode in Visual Studio.

[airstep]

ArchLinux. Some detailed crash log.

[airstep]

Downgrade to kernel26 2.6.35.8-1 helps a lot. Now virtualbox-ose 3.2.10-3 works good. So this bug depends on kernel issue.

[aispobla]

Replying to airstep:

Downgrade to kernel26 2.6.35.8-1 helps a lot. Now virtualbox-ose 3.2.10-3 works good. So this bug depends on kernel issue.

In ArchLinux 64 also work fine in my PC with kernel 2.6.38.8-1. Nothing problem with kernel 2.6.35.8-1.

[airstep]

Replying to aispobla:

In ArchLinux 64 also work fine in my PC with kernel 2.6.38.8-1. Nothing problem with kernel 2.6.35.8-1.

There is some mistake in your's post. Latest git kernel version in development is 2.6.37-rc4 for today...

[aispobla]

Replying to airstep:

Replying to aispobla:

In ArchLinux 64 also work fine in my PC with kernel 2.6.38.8-1. Nothing problem with kernel 2.6.35.8-1.

There is some mistake in your's post. Latest git kernel version in development is 2.6.37-rc4 for today...

Yes, I'm sorry... I wanted say kernel 2.6.35.8-1! I'm sorry also by my english...

[airstep]

Seems this issue was fixed with VirtualBox 3.2.12 version. Thanks.

[Frank Mehnert]

The original reporter mentioned Windows 7 as well. fry@linux, still reproducible with VBox 3.2.12 on Windows 7?

[Frank Mehnert]

Oh, and thanks for the feedback airstep!