Can't get VMs in VirtualBox to boot. Hang on "Switching to clocksource tsc"

[Dainis Berzins]

I'm having issues with VirtualBox when booting Linux distros on newly created VMs. While I suspect it may be a BIOS issue, I'd like to share in case the collective wisdom can guide me forward.

I created a VirtualBox jail using the template. It worked a dream and I tip my hat to the creators!

I can create virtual machines through the web gui, such as a "Other Linux 64-bit" machine for a CentOS 7 installation. I add the appropriate iso image on the CD/DVD virtual drive (CentOS-7-x86_64-Minimal.iso in my case). I start the VM and connect to it using TightVNC. The install starts, but almost always hangs within 5 seconds. If I remove the "quiet" from the kernel line in the install, I can see that the last message is "Switching to clocksource tsc". Screenshot attached.

I get the same issue with other distros (ubuntu-15.10-server-amd64.iso, debian-live-8.2.0-amd64-xfce-desktop.iso) and CentOS versions (CentOS-6.7-i386-minimal.iso). I have only tried Linux distros. Might not be limited to Linux, though.

I have checked that Hyperthreading is enabled in BIOS. I have also set BIOS to use Legacy, not UEFI BIOS as this has been noted as a potential issue for Linux installs.

I tried many, many different kernel commands (clocksource=hpet, noapci, intel_pstate=disable etc.). But the commands that were used on a successful boot, did not work on a new VM and they did not enable me to restart the VMs where CentOS had been successfully installed.

I have explored creating VMs with more RAM (up to 4096 GB), tried various System parameter settings (Nested paging enabled/disabled etc.) in the hope that I find a mismatch in settings that, once corrected, the VMs would successfully boot, but no joy.

The strange part is that I have managed to get two VMs to successfully boot and to complete the CentOS7 minimal installs, also installing GNOME GUI and Crashplan. (Details here if you're interested. Post #10). Rebooting the CentOS server within the VM worked fine, but as soon as I try to restart the VM it will not restart, hanging on the same "Switching to clocksource tsc" message. The VM settings and BIOS were unchanged. (I know because I gave up repeatedly restarting at 3 AM and just clicked "start" the next morning and was surprised to see it booting). If I had to guess, my VMs are successfully booting the image in 1% of cases.

I have noticed that the clock frequency on the line before the "Switching to clocksource tsc" ("Refined TSC clocksource calibration: 3356.699 GHz" in the attached example) is different every time. I assume this is because the frequency is being modified in line with performance needs of my FreeNAS server. Could it be that the VMs are only booting when a clock frequency is matching an expected value? That's how it feels.

I have contacted Asus for support to see what BIOS settings should allow Linux to be installed. So far all I get is "We do not support Linux OS...". I am pushing back, but I'm not holding my breath.

I asked in the VirtualBox forums. The bottom line there: "Since you are running *BSD you would get better help from them since this is their build and not ours". So no help there either.

I know VirtualBox is for advanced users and I'm not stupid enough to call myself that. ;) But getting this to work does appear to be the only way to get Crashplan to work. If I can't create any Linux installs in a VirtualBox, then I am left with solutions that run in FreeNAS jails or FreeNAS plugins, which is a far more limited set of options.

Is anyone else experiencing something similar when booting VMs in VirtualBox on FreeNAS? Any ideas what could be causing such behaviour?

 

[dlavigne]

Did you find a solution for this?

 

[Dainis Berzins]

Nope. Still searching for a solution. ASUS just tell me that "no particular BIOS settings are needed to install Linux". Given that I'm trying to install CentOS in a VirtualBox that is within a FreeBSD instance that is a jail within a FreeNAS install, I can hardly argue that it's a clean Linux install on their HW that is not working. There could be plenty of other factors that could be causing this issue.

The only guidance that I got from the CentOS community was to create the VM from a RedHat 64-bit template, not "Other Linux 64-bit". 2 out of 3 VMs that I created in this way did boot and install, but none of them rebooted and the 3rd VM did not boot, hanging at the same "clocksource" message. So using the RedHat template did not solve the issue.

This would seem to be a signficant issue for FreeNAS as VirtualBox is now the only way to install a non-FreeBSD jail on a FreeNAS install. And VirtualBox say "ask the FreeNAS community as it's 'their build'". So here I am, but still looking for guidance. Hoping the FreeNAS gurus will come through. Lots of smart people here.

 

[Dainis Berzins]

Update from the battlefield. I have tried creating a new VirtualBox jail from scratch. This did not solve any issues. But I did try installing FreeDOS v1.1 in a VM (accidentally using the RedHat 64-bit template, by the way) and this does start up successfully each time. So I'm now experiementing with various Linux distro iso's to see if some work while others don't.

@dlavigne , do you have similar issues? What's your experience? Anyone else struggling with this?

 

[Dainis Berzins]

Interesting - FreeBSD-10.2-RELEASE-amd64-bootonly.iso in a FreeBSD 64-bit template VM installed and boots consistently.

So I can get FreeDOS and FreeBSD to install and boot. Why not Ubuntu, CentOS and Fedora?

 

[dlavigne]

Were you able to figure out why?

 

[Dainis Berzins]

I have tried installing Ubuntu on a USB drive in place of FreeNAS i.e. to test without VirtualBox on FreeNAS. I can get Ubuntu to install and it seems more stable. I still see some errors and it generally runs far too slow, but I'm sure that's because I have misconfigured it. That said, it does seem to boot consistently, something I could not achieve on FreeNAS.

My guess is that it was something in my hardware / BIOS that was causing issues, but I could not see what it was through the use of VirtualBox. I would love to stay on FreeNAS, but as it stands right now, Crashplan will not work on FreeNAS in anything but a Linux VirtualBox and I can't get VirtualBox to run so I have to choose between backups with an Ubuntu solution or FreeNAS and no backups. I've searched for alternatives, but they all seem either too complex or not meeting my needs). So I choose Ubuntu and backups because I value my data.

So my guess is that the issue is related to how virtualbox on FreeNAS works on my specific hardware, given that I can get Ubuntu to run stably on the same hardware without FreeNAS / VirtualBox.

I really enjoyed FreeNAS. I wish I did not have to depart this way, but my skills were not enough to resolve this. Sorry I can't give you any good news on this issue.