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I'm on Ubuntu-14.04 64-bit (with all the latest updates) and have a Windows-7 VM on Oracle VirtualBox 4.3.30 which I used regularly (almost everyday) in full-screen mode without any problems.

But as of this morning (IRAN time-zone: GMT +3:30), which I installed a few updates related to Qt, switching to the VM makes my system freeze!

I haven't figured out the exact steps to reproduce the incident; sometimes it freezes instantly when you switch from host to the VM, while other times it takes a few switches back and forth. Sometimes it freezes the whole system making everything unresponsive, leaving me no choice but to shut-off power of the machine, yet other times it just sticks inside the VM but I can switch to a virtual-console (Alt+Ctrl+F2) and issue sudo service lightdm restart instead of a whole system reboot.

It appears that the issue is related to the full-screen mode, and I'm unable to reproduce the failure in windowed-view.

Any help?

UPDATE

The system fan was working hard and the CPU load showed that a process is fully consuming one of the cores, so I checked it out via top and strangely I'm seeing two instaces of compiz which one of them is chocking the system!

top-list

FINAL

I'm voting to close this question since it was fixed in the next update of VirtualBox and it can't be reproduced anymore. Anyone experiencing this problem on the latest version should probably ask a new question or file a bug.

Seyed Mohammad
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  • In your bios is hardware virtualisation enabled ? – Mark Kirby Aug 05 '15 at 07:39
  • If the hardware virtualisation not enabled here have a look at this thread http://askubuntu.com/questions/256792/how-do-i-enable-hardware-virtualization-technology-vt-x-for-use-in-virtualbox check whether this helps. – BDRSuite Aug 05 '15 at 07:45
  • @markkirby Yes, my CPU is a 1st generation Intel Core i7, and Intel virtualization tech is enabled in the BIOS. – Seyed Mohammad Aug 05 '15 at 07:56
  • OK, no worries, that is just the most common reason vb guest crashes host, that second compiz entry looks like the issue, perhaps overheating the cpu, hard for me to advise when I can't test for myself, but here is what I would try for troubleshooting, after reboot is second compiz still there ? If yes, check if it is there with both VB on and off, reboot in between tests, so we can see if this is a VB issue or a system issue, let me know did VB call the extra compiz instance or is it started by the system (ie there when VB is off from boot) – Mark Kirby Aug 05 '15 at 08:05
  • @markkirby After a clean boot, there is only one instance of compiz. Running VB itself doesn't invoke another instance. Even starting up the Win-7 VM in windowed-mode didn't invoke another compiz. But then I tried switching to full-screen mode and the system froze! I didn't had a chance to check the processes list. – Seyed Mohammad Aug 05 '15 at 08:38
  • I found this question that sounds like yours on superuser, check it out, could provide a solution, has two confirmed working answers http://superuser.com/questions/818289/windows-7-host-virtualbox-full-screen-crash, don't know about that second compiz instance then, just keep an eye out for it – Mark Kirby Aug 05 '15 at 08:42
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    @markkirby I doubt that question is related to my issue. That question is for VB-4.3.16 and on a Windows host. Also, the mini-toolbar is disabled in my situation and still the problem exists. Like I said, I'm a regular VB user (almost everyday in full-screen mode) and I had no issues with this VM until this morning. – Seyed Mohammad Aug 05 '15 at 08:50
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    Yeah, im just having a hard time finding any crashes like yours, where it worked fine but suddenly, so all I can do is feed you what I find, just keep looking out for that extra compiz instance, if it comes up again kill it in system monitor and see it helps temporally, until you reboot. Might be a good idea to also post on VB forum https://forums.virtualbox.org/ – Mark Kirby Aug 05 '15 at 09:00
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    Have you check out https://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch12.html? And Qt changelogs? – Braiam Feb 05 '16 at 14:39
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    @Braiam I don't know what part of that large chapter is directly related to this question, but the problem is solved in updated versions of VirtualBox. – Seyed Mohammad Feb 05 '16 at 19:05
  • Close as "unreproducible" then? – Braiam Feb 05 '16 at 19:06
  • @Braiam How about close as fixed or solved?! Your choice. – Seyed Mohammad Feb 05 '16 at 19:17
  • Are you sure that other users will have the same issue? I mean, they will have the latest version of Virtualbox anyways, no? – Braiam Feb 05 '16 at 19:19
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    @Braiam Well clearly I can't be sure about others. But I think it's fine to close this and advise everyone to install the latest updates. – Seyed Mohammad Feb 05 '16 at 19:27
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    Sure, you can close vote the question yourself. Just click the "close" link besides "edit", select "off topic" and then "not reproducible". – Braiam Feb 05 '16 at 19:32

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