virtualbox kernel panic

[laprjns]

How much memory do you have?
BTW this might be easier on the Salix irc channel

[mimosa]

1GB, I generally give my VMs half - and that used to work.

I'll try going onto irc now, though I'll have to quickly refresh my memory as to how it works. Also patchy wireless, but should be OK if my daughter isn't downloading anything.

[laprjns]

1G should be enough. That's what I do, allocate 1/2 memory to the virtual machine. I'm guessing that you may have a problem in the high end of the memory address.. Have you tried running a memory test?

[thenktor]

The GUI works but booting from CD ends in kernel panic. I tried the other (huger) kernel Salix suggests, to no avail. One of the CDs I tried was the same Ratpoison 13.37 disk I used to install the Salix I'm using as I write, so it's not a bad burn.

Is this your problem:
http://www.salixos.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=16&t=2522

[mimosa]

@laprnjs Just swapped the memory over with another machine, and that didn't help. But it could still be something with the motherboard.

@Thenktor It's similar, not the same messages though. Also, it worked (some time ago on a different Salix install) then stopped working; if I broke something (as I assumed at the time), it won't have been VirtualBox itself. And the recommendation on the Salix forums is to install by executing that .run file, after first installing the kernel source. So presumably it works for everyone else! I should say I've tried Salix Openbox, Salix Ratpoison, Windows XP, and probably some others back when the problem first occurred under Xmonad (I think).

I'll try installing virtualbox on another machine running Salix to exclude hardware problems as the cause, and then post again either way.

EDIT
In fact I gave the inside of my box a dusting (and its borrowed memory an extra polish) and tried installing VirtualBox afresh inside Salix Openbox as host, and all now seems to be well. When the guest machine's finished installing, I'll test from the host where I had the trouble originally reported above, to see if the cause was dusty, greasy hardware, or incorrect installation of virtualisation software. For the record, here is what I did just now that definitely works:

Code: Select all

root[pandora]# installpkg kernel-source-2.6.37.6_smp-noarch-2.txz
root[pandora]# chmod +x VirtualBox-4.1.6-74727-Linux_x86.run
root[pandora]# ./VirtualBox-4.1.6-74727-Linux_x86.run

Those files were copied from my Salix Ratpoison partition to save on downloading time, so they are actually the very same ones.

[gapan]

Try passing "acpi=off" to the kernel before booting in VBox.

[mimosa]

I did try "noacpi", is that the same?

Anyway, I seem to have fixed it one way or another (see my edit above); it only remains to test it from where it was before to see whether it was a problem with the virtualbox installation or the hardware. I'll post again when I have - though I suppose it doesn't really matter: for anyone reading this post, doing what I did as described above works (though there are some other things like the "Additions" that most people will want). Obviously, install the kernel sources with slapt-get.

[gapan]

Is there a "noacpi" option? I thought that it was only a parameter (like "pci=noacpi").

[mimosa]

Well, the instructions for the CD I'm using to test virtualbox (Salix Openbox) invite me to type

hugesmp.s noacpi

at the boot prompt as an example.

I've now tested virtualbox on the other partition and it still doesn't work, so it looks like I made some mistake in installing it, rather than there having been hardware trouble; or maybe I broke something it depends on. In fact that seems most likely, because I had the same trouble before after using it for a while, and that can't have been because of faulty installation.

[thenktor]

Is there a "noacpi" option? I thought that it was only a parameter (like "pci=noacpi").

AFAIK there is acpi=off and noapic (which of course is not the same). But there is no noapci option.