3D acceleration causes Linux guest freezes

[Pablo Sanchez]

Hi,

Checking the forums, there seems to be several people reporting instances of their Windows 11 Guests freezing. I have a situation with Linux Guests. Below are some details in case you need a test case.

I'm experiencing frequent freezes when 3D acceleration is enabled on Linux Guests. There is no issue with a Windows 10 Guest.

The current work-around is to disable 3D acceleration.

I captured a core dump of the frozen Guest using vboxmanage debugvm dumpvmcore. If there is any value, I can upload it to my G Drive. It is 460 MB.

Environment

Guest

I have tried to create a minimal test case using openSUSE MicroOS (immutable O/S).

Below are some of the highlight settings of the Guest. However I suspect VBox.log may only be needed.

• Download latest MicroOS - ​https://get.opensuse.org/microos/#download
• Set up a new Guest VM:
  • Base memory: 3072 MB (4096 crashes)
  • Processor: 1
  • Storage:
    • controller > Use Host I/O Cache
    • 30 GB vdi > Solid-state Drive (assuming you're using an SSD)
      • Current allocation is 8.02 GB
  • Display:
    • Video Memory: 128 MB
    • Graphics controller:
      • VMSVGA
      • Enable 3D Acceleration
• Using the MicroOS ISO, create a new Guest
  • Selected local TZ rather than UTC.
  • Select KDE desktop
• On first boot, the Guest will set up bootstrap apps.
• Use discover to install the Brave browser. Discover is KDE's flatpak manager. By default, it lives in the systray. Its icon is a blue shopping bag. :)
• I did some minor KDE tweaking (e.g. focus-follows-mouse, etc.) If required, I could upload a tar-ball of the test user's $HOME.

Test Case

Using the test case below, the Guest may take upwards of a few hours to freeze. Sometimes it freezes in a few minutes.

I run it in a Virtual Desktop and periodically check.

• Run two instances of Brave
• In each, go to web pages that auto-refresh periodically. For example:
  • ​https://edition.cnn.com
  • ​https://www.theweathernetwork.com/fr/weather/ile-de-france/paris

Host

• openSUSE Tumbleweed - rolling distro
• Regularly kept up to date.
• As of this writing, kernel 6.1.8-1
• Using Prime offloading
  • iGPU - Intel UHD Graphics
  • dGPU - Nvidia GeForce RTX 2060 Max-Q

[Pablo Sanchez]

VBox.log

[Pablo Sanchez]

I don't think it's material but in VBox.log I changed my domain to exmaple.org

[Pablo Sanchez]

On first-boot, I also added the following packages:

• virtualbox-guest-tools
• virtualbox-kmp-default

[Pablo Sanchez]

Correction: I was mistaken, W10 only works with 3D acceleration disabled.

[smartysmart34]

I can confirm this Bug. I am running two Suse Tumbleweed guests (no clones, separately installed with different software packages) on a Tumbleweed Host. As soon as 3dacceleration is enabled, they randomly freeze. Sometimes after a couple of minutes, sometimes after 6 hours. But eventually they freeze. Fun Fact though: I use one instance as a work environment in which I happen to have Video-Calls. The following happened three times by now: During a Video Call the instance froze. The GUI / xsession froze, nothing could be clicked anymore, the instance could not be shut down via ACPI (through the menu). So it seemed as if it froze entirely. But the Audio of the call was still working. So I could hear people talk and they could hear me.

[stalbert]

I'm seeing a *similar* but not exactly the same issue when running a Fedora Rawhide guest on a Fedora 37 host. The difference is that I'm not seeing the guest hang, but the VirtualBoxVM process in the host actually crashes. The crash goes away if I disable 3D acceleration. The stacktrace, interestingly, seems to be all in libvulkan code:

Core was generated by `/usr/lib64/virtualbox/VirtualBoxVM --comment Fedora Rawhide --startvm 003456ee-'.
Program terminated with signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault.
#0  0x00007fd37de97c04 in lp_setup_end_query ()
   from /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
[Current thread is 1 (Thread 0x7fd37d1ff6c0 (LWP 191251))]
(gdb) bt
#0  0x00007fd37de97c04 in lp_setup_end_query () at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#1  0x00007fd37de85dec in llvmpipe_end_query () at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#2  0x00007fd37dc697cd in lvp_execute_cmd_buffer ()
    at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#3  0x00007fd37dc6b0f5 in lvp_execute_cmds () at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#4  0x00007fd37dc5d406 in lvp_queue_submit () at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#5  0x00007fd37dcead56 in vk_queue_submit_final ()
    at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#6  0x00007fd37dceafd8 in vk_queue_submit_thread_func ()
    at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#7  0x00007fd37dcdcf4b in impl_thrd_routine () at /usr/lib64/libvulkan_lvp.so
#8  0x00007fd3f50f712d in start_thread () at /lib64/libc.so.6
#9  0x00007fd3f5178bc0 in clone3 () at /lib64/libc.so.6

[boxer01]

Is this issue still present in the current version?

[Pablo Sanchez]

Hi, I haven't tested with the latest (7.0.18) but I have tested with later versions from the original post and I still had issues.

Let me know if you'd like me to test with the current version or a test version.

Thx!

[boxer01]

I added your ticket to the list of the graphic issues in my graphics ticket #21515, months ago. Just so you know. ;-)

You can test this with the latest version, hopefully your issue was solved. They solved some 3D acceleration troubles in the past 2 years, but some of them are still here. This is definitely not the highest priority here.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Hi, Thank you for adding my ticket to your ticket and driving a resolution. Also, for letting me know that there may be some progress.

Unfortunately, with 7.0.18 r162988, VMSVGA + 3D acceleration and did not work.

I manually installed the VBox Guest Additions.

It was worth a try. :)

[boxer01]

Maybe the same thing with 7.0.20?

[boxer01]

Current test version 7.0.21-164265 has some changes in 3D acceleration and these changes could be tested.

What about the new 7.1 beta?

And try to use different graphic adapter in the settings of the VM.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Hi! I was on vacation so I couldn't do the last suggestion. I'll try the 7.1 beta by early next week.

Yah, I've tried the different graphic adapter permutations before.

Thank you for the nudge. I appreciate it! :)

[Pablo Sanchez]

Hi,

I tested with 7.1 beta and it seems to work. \o/ However, VBox is chewing up a CPU:

100% utilization. It does not seem to be related to the display adapter.

I'm still on openSUSE Tumbleweed. The latest drop: 20240810. Kernel 6.10.3-1-default.

[boxer01]

Replying to Pablo Sanchez:

Hi,

I tested with 7.1 beta and it seems to work. \o/ However, VBox is chewing up a CPU:

100% utilization. It does not seem to be related to the display adapter.

I'm still on openSUSE Tumbleweed. The latest drop: 20240810. Kernel 6.10.3-1-default.

So, could this ticket be closed? As of the CPU usage - try the 7.1 release and/or the new test build (7.0.21-164815) or development snapshot (7.1.1-164842).

[Pablo Sanchez]

Sure, let's close it.

Perhaps I need to clean my glasses but I don't see how to close the ticket. :[