= Investigating audio problems =

== Collecting information from the host ==

As always when it comes to diagnosing problems with !VirtualBox the appropriate VBox.log is useful to have. To gather more verbose information about the actual audio state, please do the following:

'''Tip of the day''': Best is to copy & paste the following commands to avoid typing errors.

 * Shut down all VM instances and !VirtualBox programs, including VBoxSVC.[[br]][[br]]
    1. On '''Windows''', run
{{{
setx VBOX_RELEASE_LOG "drv_host_audio.e.l.l2.l3.f+drv_audio.e.l.l2.l3.f+audio_mixer.e.l.l2.l3.f+dev_hda_codec.e.l.l2.l3.f+dev_hda.e.l.l2.l3.f+dev_ac97.e.l.l2.l3.f" /M
}}} 
       on an Administrator command prompt to set this on a system-wide level (required).[[br]][[br]]
    2. On POSIX-enabled hosts like '''Linux, Unix or OS X (MacOS)''', open or run a terminal as '''root''' and run
{{{
export VBOX_RELEASE_LOG=drv_host_audio.e.l.l2.l3.f+drv_audio.e.l.l2.l3.f+audio_mixer.e.l.l2.l3.f+dev_hda_codec.e.l.l2.l3.f+dev_hda.e.l.l2.l3.f+dev_ac97.e.l.l2.l3.f
}}}
  
  * Close the Administrator / root terminal
  * Open a new terminal as '''regular user'''[[br]][[br]]
     1. On '''Windows''', verify that the changes were applied correctly be running
{{{
echo %VBOX_RELEASE_LOG%
}}}
     2. On POSIX-enabled hosts like '''Linux, Unix or OS X (MacOS)''' verify that the changes were applied correctly be running
{{{
env | grep VBOX_RELEASE_LOG
}}}
  * Start the !VirtualBox Manager and start the VM you want to diagnose audio for.
  * Perform and reproduce the audio operation.


== Ok, all done! What now? ==

Please collect the VBox.log from the host, pack it (ZIP, RAR) into an archive and submit that archive as part of a new or existing bug report at our [https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Bugtracker public bug tracker].

'''Note:''' Without the log file we cannot diagnose your issue, so please make sure to always attach that. Thank you.