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Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze posted: Sep 9, 2004 9:04 PM

Click to view a.lewis's profile Novice
a.lewis
7 posts since
Sep 9, 2004
I've been using VMware on a Linux (RH7.2) laptop for years now, with a Win2k raw disk guest. Until recently I used V3.0, but then I upgraded gcc (and associated system libraries) and it broke (wouldn't boot) so I had to upgrade to V4.5.2 build-8848. Since then I've had several, intermittent "deep freezes" a week - whole system, guest and host, locks up and the only remedy I've found so far is to powercycle the hardware.

Has anyone seen this/got a fix? I can supply logs, if necessary (two today, one from suspend restore, and another from cold start a few minutes later.)

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

1. Sep 9, 2004 10:17 PM in response to: a.lewis
Click to view Daryll's profile Master
Daryll
2,346 posts since
Jul 10, 2003
In a situation like that, I would:

-Take note of the date/time where the latest lockup happened.

-Boot up, get into the VMware LOG FILE for that VM, and grab the text of that.

-Boot the VM, and see if there are any errors with the right date/time in the System Event or Application Event log (that's in the GUEST OS)

-Quit out of VMware, and go see if there are any failures in any of your error files in Linux. Let's start with /var/log/messages that'll show most of the critical stuff if it happened on the Linux side.

Remember to look for stuff that matches up with the date/time of the latest event.

-Daryll

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

2. Sep 12, 2004 6:06 PM in response to: Daryll
Click to view a.lewis's profile Novice
a.lewis
7 posts since
Sep 9, 2004
Starting from the last and working back:

/var/log/messages shows nothing. Messages from the system startup hours before and then the next messages are from the restart.

System and Event logs show nothing for the relevant times, just startup messages after the reboots.

The tail of vmware.log for 4 of the last freezes is shown below:

Sep 13 09:59:20: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 13 10:25:30: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 13 10:28:09: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 13 10:28:15: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 13 10:35:37: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 13 10:35:37: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 13 10:37:42: vcpu-0| SOUND: ignoring attempt by guest to specify fragment size
Sep 13 10:37:42: vmx| SOUND: starting channel DAC2 - stereo sampleRate: 22049 sampleSize: 16
Sep 13 10:38:40: vcpu-0| SOUND: ignoring attempt by guest to specify fragment size
Sep 13 10:38:40: vmx| SOUND: starting channel DAC2 - stereo sampleRate: 22049 sampleSize: 16

Sep 10 15:18:32: vcpu-0| Guest: Win32 Toolbox: Version: $Name: build-1455 $
Sep 10 15:18:32: vcpu-0| TOOLS setting the tools version to '4'
Sep 10 15:18:32: vcpu-0| DISKLIB-DDB : "toolsVersion" = "4" (was "5184")
Sep 10 15:18:33: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 3, conflict: guest application toolbox tried to register, but it is still registered on channel 2
Sep 10 15:18:33: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 3 reinitialized.
Sep 10 15:18:33: vcpu-0| GuestRpc: Channel 3 reinitialized.
Sep 10 15:18:38: vcpu-0| SOUND: ignoring attempt by guest to specify fragment size
Sep 10 15:18:38: vmx| SOUND: starting channel DAC2 - stereo sampleRate: 22049 sampleSize: 16
Sep 10 15:18:43: vcpu-0| SOUND: ignoring attempt by guest to specify fragment size
Sep 10 15:18:43: vmx| SOUND: starting channel DAC2 - stereo sampleRate: 22049 sampleSize: 16

Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x4
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x6
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x8
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0xa
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x1e
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x20
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x22
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to access unimplemented ac97 register 0x24
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to write 0x8000 to address 0xa
Sep 10 13:42:41: vcpu-0| ES1371IOCodec: attempting to write 0x200 to address 0x20

Sep 10 08:58:42: vcpu-0| TOOLS setting the tools version to '5184'
Sep 10 08:58:42: vcpu-0| TOOLS unified loop capability requested by 'toolbox'; now sending options via TCLO
Sep 10 08:58:52: mks| MKS lock got type None
Sep 10 11:39:24: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 10 11:42:51: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 10 13:08:05: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 10 13:10:15: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 10 13:13:45: mks| MKS lost grab
Sep 10 13:19:16: vcpu-0| SOUND: ignoring attempt by guest to specify fragment size
Sep 10 13:19:16: vmx| SOUND: starting channel DAC2 - stereo sampleRate: 22049 sampleSize: 16

Sound keeps getting mentioned...

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

3. Sep 14, 2004 8:21 AM in response to: a.lewis
Click to view Daryll's profile Master
Daryll
2,346 posts since
Jul 10, 2003
Hey there,

That SOUND line showed up as the very last line in the log file in three of the freezes?

Hmm have you tried running without a virtual sound card for about a week to see if that gets rid of that problem?

If that works, I'm sort of at a loss. I would think that if there were a serious driver or some other related issue about the virtual sound card that it would show up in the guest's logs somewhere. But you looked everywhere already and didn't see anything. Hmmnmm, anyone else seen this symptom?

-Daryll

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

4. Sep 14, 2004 10:47 PM in response to: Daryll
Click to view a.lewis's profile Novice
a.lewis
7 posts since
Sep 9, 2004
Yes, SOUND was the last line three times, and that ac97 referred to in the other log is related to the sound chipset. I'm currently running with the sound device disconnected, and no freezes so far (two days and counting since I disconnected it.)

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

5. Dec 8, 2004 8:00 AM in response to: a.lewis
Click to view nde's profile Lurker
nde
1 posts since
Dec 8, 2004
Same thing is happening to me. I'm running RedHat Enterprise Linux 3.0 (Update 3) as my host and WinXP as my guest. I'm able to remotely log into my machine and kill vmware which unfreezes the host.

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

6. Jan 13, 2005 11:56 AM in response to: a.lewis
Click to view septo's profile Lurker
septo
2 posts since
Jan 13, 2005
I am having suimilar issues where VMware will lock, and I cant even putty into the box at that point, I have to hard reboot. Anybody have any input on this?

cat /var/log/messages | grep vmware
Jan 9 09:07:12 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(20466) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().
Jan 9 10:23:32 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(20466) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().
Jan 9 10:47:55 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(20466) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().
Jan 9 10:56:35 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(20466) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().
Jan 9 16:52:30 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(20466) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().
Jan 9 17:04:51 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(6258) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().
Jan 10 09:00:29 localhost kernel: application bug: vmware(6717) has SIGCHLD set to SIG_IGN but calls wait().

(clipped for brevity)

I don't know for sure, but I believe those event correlate with the times the app locks. I am running Vmware 4.5 on Rhel3 U3 2.4.21-20.0.1.ELsmp. I have rhel3 & windows 2003 ruinning as guests.

Thanks.

-Chris

Message was edited by: septo

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

7. Feb 18, 2005 7:37 AM in response to: a.lewis
Click to view maheroux@tcpcom.net's profile Novice
maheroux@tcpc…
12 posts since
Feb 2, 2005
I have a Linux Fedora Core 2 running with Windows 2003 Server as guest.

The time on my guest windows go one or the other, too fast or too slow.

ALSO, sometimes, for a reason I don't know yet, the Linux host and the guest FREEZE.

It's a production environment, it can run for 7 days and freeze. Right now, I don't have any log because when my guest restarted, new log were generated.

Anyone knows what could be the problem, it seems to be a processor clock??? Is there any option I could set in the VMWARE bios when the guest start?

Regards,
Marc-Andre Heroux
VAN & Internet (telecom) Specialist
(450) 649-4556
(514) 957-3555

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

8. Feb 18, 2005 7:57 AM in response to: a.lewis
Click to view maheroux@tcpcom.net's profile Novice
maheroux@tcpc…
12 posts since
Feb 2, 2005
Hi,

I am having the same issue of deep freezing!

I also have the same sound card error of access unimplemented ac97.

Did you get rid of your freeze by disconnecting the sound card device?

Thanks for your reply,

Marc-Andre from Montreal

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

9. Apr 20, 2005 2:37 PM in response to: septo
Click to view jbeiter's profile Novice
jbeiter
34 posts since
Nov 5, 2004
I'm having the exact same issue on AS3 (same kernel). I can reproduce it by moving the mouse cursor between the Host and Guest (W2K) window.

I worked with VMWare support for almost 3 months, looking at log files, turning off sound, acceleration, various other config issues. I was convinced it was my graphics card (ATI) but I bought an NVidia and it still crashes.

I just upgraded to VMware 5.0.0... still crashes.

I'm considering trying a new version of Redhat but I'm dubious since other linux users are reporting this bug.

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

10. Apr 20, 2005 2:40 PM in response to: jbeiter
Click to view jbeiter's profile Novice
jbeiter
34 posts since
Nov 5, 2004
oh for those of you suffering in this, if you turn off the automatic mouse grabbing it seems to reduce the frequency of crashes. You have to click on the VM to get the mouse on it and use CTRL-ALT to get to the host.

It will still lock up though.

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

11. Apr 21, 2005 7:08 AM in response to: jbeiter
Click to view maheroux@tcpcom.net's profile Novice
maheroux@tcpc…
12 posts since
Feb 2, 2005
Hello jbeiter,

Do you think it can be in relation with the hardware type we are using?

Regards, Marc

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

12. Apr 21, 2005 1:56 PM in response to: maheroux@tcpc…
Click to view jbeiter's profile Novice
jbeiter
34 posts since
Nov 5, 2004
Marc,

It could be. I'm using a Dell Optiplex GX280. I've seen (unrelated) issues between Dells and this version of Redhat before.

I'm running the same OS (Redhat AS3 U3) and tested VMWare at home and was not able to get it to crash. I'm using a home-grown (NewEgg Do-it-yourself) PC at home.

This is a real pain. Locked up twice today. One time I was even in "full screen" mode so the mouse wouldn't accidently hit the host and it locked.

Are you useing Dell as well?

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

13. Apr 22, 2005 8:10 AM in response to: jbeiter
Click to view maheroux@tcpcom.net's profile Novice
maheroux@tcpc…
12 posts since
Feb 2, 2005
I am using VMWare over Fedora core 2. I do not have brand name hardware, it is two machine running as cluster.

So, on the master I have VMWare running a Windows 2003 server and when the master fail, the slave take over and start VMWare with the correct Data.

In a normal situation, the slave should take over once a year for a specific hardware problem but right now, every two weeks, it take over because VMWare Workstation freeze the master, it is terrible!!!

It is hard for me to say what exactly freeze in VMWare, I remember once I clicked on the guest and got the deep freeze!

I am glad to see that on some workstation, you been unable to redo the deep freeze so I hope my new cluster I am building will work without problem!!!

Keep in touch, Marc

Re: Linux host/Win2k guest intermittent deep freeze

14. Apr 22, 2005 8:14 AM in response to: jbeiter
Click to view maheroux@tcpcom.net's profile Novice
maheroux@tcpc…
12 posts since
Feb 2, 2005
Sometimes your VMWare freeze and there's no relation with the mouse because you were in full screen mode, I'm I right?
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