RHEL5 on amd64 processor freeze with virtual Box 2.0 => Fixed in 2.0.2

[GabrielVlasiu]

RHEL5 freezes with VBoxManage startvm OSName. Nothing is written in logs, only a hard reset works. Same if guest is started from VirtualBox GUI. The guest OS does not matter since it does not reach the point to start.

# cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor       : 0
vendor_id       : AuthenticAMD
cpu family      : 15
model           : 35
model name      : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4400+
stepping        : 2
cpu MHz         : 1000.000
cache size      : 1024 KB
physical id     : 0
siblings        : 2
core id         : 0
cpu cores       : 2
fpu             : yes
fpu_exception   : yes
cpuid level     : 1
wp              : yes
flags           : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni lahf_lm cmp_legacy
bogomips        : 2009.75
TLB size        : 1024 4K pages
clflush size    : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes   : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp

Old versions of VirtualBox works just fine. I made a picture to show the OOPS from console screen.

[GabrielVlasiu]

Screenshoot of console

[Frank Mehnert]

Which kernel are you using? What was the last version of VBox which worked for you? 1.6.4?

[Frank Mehnert]

And what host kernel are you using (uname -a)?

[GabrielVlasiu]

Replying to frank:

And what host kernel are you using (uname -a)?

Ah..., sorry about this.

Kernel is Linux xyz 2.6.18-92.1.10.el5_2g #1 SMP Mon Aug 4 22:00:55 EEST 2008 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Yes, last working version was 1.6.4. I did not test 1.6.6.

[Frank Mehnert]

Ok, thanks for the update. I guess you will be more successful with 1.6.6 then which is only a maintenance release fixing some annoying bugs of 1.6.4. With 2.0.0 we changed more inclusive the kernel interface. Of course we are willing to debug your problem.

[GabrielVlasiu]

Replying to frank:

Ok, thanks for the update.

You're welcome.

I guess you will be more successful with 1.6.6 then which is only a maintenance release fixing some annoying bugs of 1.6.4. With 2.0.0 we changed more inclusive the kernel interface. Of course we are willing to debug your problem.

The whole idea was running an 64 bit os (trying to switch from vmware). On my laptop (intel) VirtualBox 2.0 work just fine.

Anyway, thank you. I hope this bug will be fixed soon.

Gabriel

[bird]

I think I've found and fixed the problem. Two glitches in timer-r0drv-linux.c(pp). It will be shipped with 2.0.2. If you're really eager to try 2.0, it will be in the OSE tree later today (src/VBox/Runtime/r0drv/linux/timer-r0drv-linux.cpp).

[Frank Mehnert]

I will attach the updated vboxdrv kernel module sources to make testing easier for you. You should replace the files of your package (should reside in /usr/share/virtualbox/src with the files from the archive. Then recompile your kernel modules

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

and again to start a VM.

[GabrielVlasiu]

Replying to frank:

I will attach the updated vboxdrv kernel module sources to make testing easier for you. You should replace the files of your package (should reside in /usr/share/virtualbox/src with the files from the archive. Then recompile your kernel modules

/etc/init.d/vboxdrv setup

and again to start a VM.

OK. Work OK now. Thank you.