host Fedora 20 guest Fedora 20 VINF_EM_TRIPLE_FAULT crash at startup

[pascalc]

Hi, I just installed VirtualBox 4.3.8, and I have the same issues that I had with 4.3.6. The host is a Fedora 20 with kernel 3.13.4-200.fc20.x86_64; same for the guest.

If I disable nested paging, the guest is ok, though I must retry several times just after disabling nested paging (the VM freezes); After that, the VM works flawless (but it is slow)

It is the same for 2 other guests (64 bits) : Centos 5.7 and Ubuntu 13.10.

ArchLinux (i686) is working flawless, with or without nested paging.

Regards,

[pascalc]

vbox.log

[pascalc]

BTW, the host and the guest are Fedora 20 64 bits...

Another information; on the same laptop (proc i5 4200U Haswell), the same Fedora 20 (64 bit) guest works well on a W8.1 host (VirtualBox 4.3.6), with or without nested paging.

Regards,

[pascalc]

Ubuntu 13.10 boot ok

[pascalc]

Ubuntu 13.10 fault (same parameters)

[pascalc]

crash occured just after unity desktop login

[pascalc]

Hi,

I tried different settings for the VM (Ubuntu 13.10), see attachments.

With 2 vcpu, the VM always crashes with VINF_EM_TRIPLE_FAULT, just after grub stage.

With 1 vcpu or 2 vpcu with hotplug enabled, the VM randomly boots correctly, and then works flawlessly. When a crash occurs, it is randomly at any stage of the boot. The VM boots successfuly ~ 2 times for 5 retries.

I now have a 3.13.5-200.fc20.x86_64 kernel on the host. No virtualbox errors in syslog.

[ 3970.304142] vboxdrv: Found 4 processor cores.
[ 3970.304564] vboxdrv: fAsync=0 offMin=0x24f offMax=0x1309
[ 3970.304646] vboxdrv: TSC mode is 'synchronous', kernel timer mode is 'normal'.
[ 3970.304648] vboxdrv: Successfully loaded version 4.3.8 (interface 0x001a0007).
[ 3970.328191] vboxpci: IOMMU not found (not registered)

It is definitely a 64 bits guest issue: I reinstalled a 32 bits Fedora 20 guest instead of the 64 bits one on the same vdi, and the VM now works perfectly.

Regards,

[pascalc]

Ok, the i686 VMs are unable to run 3D; glxgears crashes immediatly in a i686 VM, and moreover aborts the VM (status aborted under VirtualBox manager); fine. My 2 x86_64 VMs are able to run glxgears; but only for the 2 or 3 times about 10 retries where they are able to run correctly...

BTW, Fedora 20 (x86_64) guest under a 64 bits W8.1 host is unable to run glxgears; the VM doesn't crash, but is unable to show glxgears output ?

Regards,

[pascalc]

Trying to revert to VirtualBox 4.2.22 does not improve the X86_64 VMs crash issue, albeit I have no more VINF_EM_TRIPLE_FAULT with nested paging enable. The VMs don't boot instead crashing.

Edit: I tried to set cpu affinity for VirtualBox, and yes, this improves the VMs behaviour; not perfect for Centos 5.7 VM, but definitely better for Ubuntu 13.10 VM.

# taskset -cp 0,2 <pid>
on the main virtualbox process.

Regards,

[pascalc]

Hi,

final thoughts on this issue: all VMs (i686 and X86_64) are working with the 2 real cores of intel i5-4200U cpu. I made a mistake, assuming: 0=real 1=thread 2=real 3= thread, but the two real cores are 0 and 1.

So "taskset -c 0,1 /bin/VirtualBox" is a good workaround (for *this* cpu).

I don't know how VB detects "real" cores, but it seems that it doesn't work well for *this* cpu...

I must also enable NX in the bios, because the taskset by itself is not sufficient to avoid crashes (BTW, NX enabled without taskset doesn't avoid crashes)

Regards,

[Ramshankar Venkataraman]

Would you be willing to try a test build to narrow down the problem?

I presume you would require a test build for linux 64-bit host?

[pascalc]

Replying to ramshankar:

Would you be willing to try a test build to narrow down the problem?

Yes

I presume you would require a test build for linux 64-bit host?

And yes. Fedora 20 x86_64; I'm not sure about the libc that is required, though...

PS: thanks for your reply

Edit: I can also try with svn ( already tried)

svn co ​http://www.virtualbox.org/svn/vbox/trunk vbox

[Ramshankar Venkataraman]

Here is a test build (trunk) with explicit TLB flushing switched on:

https://www.virtualbox.org/download/testcase/VirtualBox-4.3.53-92738-Linux_amd64.run (link expires in ~14 days)

[pascalc]

This VINF_EM_TRIPLE_FAULT occured with no taskset and with NX disabled in the Bios.

However, I have no crash without taskset and NX enabled (~20 retries).

The system is not exactly the same, as some Fedora updates were applied (and it would be difficult to revert updates)

[Ramshankar Venkataraman]

Are you talking of Fedora guest updates or the host? I'm not so concerned about updates to the host Fedora.

[pascalc]

Fedora host updates; anyway, Ubuntu 13.10 guest also crashes with NX disabled in the host Bios...

Yes, I understand that it is difficult for you ( VB maintainers) to do such a cross platforms support.

I'll try to revert to VB 4.3.8 and do the same tests with the same host software.

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.