JFYI: VirtualBox stable/unstable setteings (3.0.51.r22902)
Mario Lobo
lobo at bsd.com.br
Thu Dec 31 15:11:58 UTC 2009
On Wednesday 23 December 2009 02:29:33 Daichi GOTO wrote:
> In a month, I have been tried to investigate FreeBSD system
> stable/unstable situations and factors around VirtualBox
> bacause frequently my VirtualBox let FreeBSD freeze, panic
> and fatal trap.
>
> I guess my report is not strict comprehensive, but it's useful
> and helpful for everyone who wants to use VirtualBox on FreeBSD.
>
> Tested environment:
> host os: FreeBSD 9-current amd64 (among 12/2009)
> virtualbox: virtualbox-3.0.51.r22902_3
> cpu: Intel Core2 Quad Q9550
> mem: 8GB
> video: GeForce 9800 GT
>
> Kernel settings:
> - Vimage lets FreeBSD freeze within VirtualBox bridge
> networking feature.
>
> VirtualBox settings:
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> | | effects on the host os stability|
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> | ACPI | NO |
> | IO APIC | NO |
> | PAE/NX | (not checked) |
> | Core numbers | YES (*1) |
> | VT-x/AMD-V | NO |
> | nested paging | (not checked) |
> | 3D acceleration | (not checked) |
> | IDE controller type | NO |
> | Additional controller | NO |
> | CD/DVD drive host | NO |
> | CD/DVD drive image file | NO |
> | FDD drive host | (not checked) |
> | FDD drive image file | (not checked) |
> | Audio | (not checked) |
> | Network adapter type | NO |
> | Network NAT | NO |
> | Network bridge | NO |
> | Network inner network | (not checked) |
> | Network host only | (not checked) |
> | Serial port | (not checked) |
> | share folder | (not checked) |
> | Guest OS sort | NO |
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
> (*1) Multicore attached virtual environment easily and frequently
> lets FreeBSD freeze.
>
> Hardware health:
> - Weakened PC power unit or less-power power unit leads PC
> very unstable condition. If you encounter non-reproducible
> error or panic, you should better to check your PC power unit.
>
> - Unstable memory leads FreeBSD system panic and fatal trap.
> If you encounter "segmentaion fault", "panic" or "fatal trap"
> error, shutdown system and check your PC memory health with
> memtest86+. (Ubuntu install CD has memtest86+ feature.
> Using Ubuntu as memetest86+ checker is reasonable way).
> If you have luck, updating BIOS and set DRAM settings for
> stable resolves this issue.
>
> - Hard Disk should be health. Check your disk status by
> smartmontools (sysutils/smartmontools).
>
> Driver:
> - NVIDIA driver (x11/nvidia-driver, nvidia-driver-195.22) leads
> FreeBSD freeze non-reproducibly. If you use both
> NVIDIA driver and VirtualBox along with non-reproducible
> FreeBSD freeze, use nv driver instead.
>
>
> Recap points:
> - Check your PC health first, especially for Power unit,
> memory and Hard disk.
> - Remove Vimage if you want to use bridge networking feature
> of VirtualBox.
> - Use nv driver instead of nvidia-driver if you have FreeBSD
> non-reproducible freeze problem with nvidia-driver.
>
What I have found out in all the time I've been testing is that, at least on
my system here, the problem with VBox/Nvidia IS definitely with OpenGL.
If I leave the KDE composite option as XRENDER, I can open up to 6 VMs without
any freeze. All of them with 2 CPUs, 3D accel enabled an all. But all I need
to do to freeze the machine is to start ANY OpenGL app and let it run for
about a minute. It can even be one of the GL screensavers. It is a guarantied
freeze !
I have tried all sorts of combinations: nvidia.ko last, vboxdrv.ko last, no
linux.ko, with powerd, no powerd, etc..., etc... No matter what, if it
involves OpenGL, bang !! if it doesn't, it's OK.
What I also noticed, monitoring my machine from another terminal on the LAN
(systat -vm 1) is 200K in page faults at the freezing moment and free memory
on gkrellm is practically zero, no matter if I have 1 or 6 VMs running. I
can't say if it is KDE, Vbox or nvidia because not even ping from the remote
terminal works.
Other than that, It works great.
Machine:
OS: FreeBSD 8.0-STABLE #0 r198930M: Sat Dec 12 12:49:49 BRT 2009
MB: AOD790GX/128M
VB: nvidia0: <GeForce 9800 GT> on vgapci0
RAM: 8 G
CPU: Phenom 955 black
(II) Module nvidia: vendor="NVIDIA Corporation"
compiled for 4.0.2, module version = 1.0.0
Module class: X.Org Video Driver
(II) NVIDIA dlloader X Driver 195.22 Mon Nov 30 14:03:12 posix/SystemV/PST
2009
(II) NVIDIA Unified Driver for all Supported NVIDIA GPUs
X: X.Org X Server 1.6.1
KDE: 4.3.4
--
Mario Lobo
http://www.mallavoodoo.com.br
FreeBSD since version 2.2.8 [not Pro-Audio.... YET!!] (99,7% winfoes FREE)
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