Virtualbox lagging questions ??

Hi I wondered what I could do to speed up virtualbox as it lags when you surf the internet. It does not lag much but the scrolling is annoying and takes longer to my mind.

So I have 460 GB hard disc laptop. I split that in half for the use of windows and Ubuntu. I installed Ubuntu alongside windows with 230 GB for each operating system on a multiboot. I have succesfully installed zorin OS 9 core into VB. I set VB to a fixed disc of 30 GB to make it faster. I have allocated 2GB of ram but could do more, I ticked Intel VT-x or AMD-V which is enabled already actually. My processor is an Intel® Core™ i3-2330M CPU @ 2.20GHz × 4 which I think is triple core but not quad core; although I am sketchy with knowledge here. In terms of CPU I am not sure if I have multiple cpu's with the existence of the two operating systems ? I installed the latest virtualbox in Ubuntu 14.04 Lts. I have only used 47 GB of my laptop hard disc from Ubuntu before the install of VB. So VB is sharing my main hard disc with 190 GB free space on Ubuntu.

So if I am getting a lag on the internet connection when scrolling (which has 9 MB per second download speed) is this purely a memory issue ? Should I raise the memory to 5 GB or more ?

Hi,

as per your other post, I don't do VB but you can start here:

http://serverfault.com/questions/495914 ... n-in-guest

You have not told us how much memory you have! If you use more RAM than is needed for VB you could cripple the proper running of your machine. You stated your processor as x4 - this mans it is quad core - but again you can't use all of your 'real' multiprocessors or your OS would crash. Also try using less Graphics Memory in your Virtual Machine. Is your network settings in VB 'promiscuous'?

Hi they look like good ideas swarfendor. Which options in settings do I use to change the memory used on the graphics card ? I have 5.6 GiB of memory it turns out - sorry. Promiscuous is set to "deny" so that is not being used. I am not 100 % sure my guest additions installed from the normal install guest additions placed in the "device menu". Instead the iso for guest additions appeared to be on my desktop in zorin. So I opened it and ran it from there. Terminal commands came up and seemed to install it. However it did not finish with a command saying - "installed" more like "complete" or something. If I do need guest additions then can I type in a terminal command in Ubuntu which confirms its correctly installed inside virtualbox. I wonder if the VB guest additions is related to me not see a graphics card name in the settings somewhere which is why I ask about all this. Which section of settings would I see my graphics card without me appearing to thick here !?

Edit : Regarding guest additions I just found the below Virtualbox manual but fear I should of installed DKMS first ? I am not sure what it means when it talks about it "manually doing something each time" if DKMS is not installed "first".

So I need to know where my Zorin install is up to with VB additions so far with perhaps a terminal command as mentioned 2 check ? See below from the Virtual box guide as a reminder -

4.2.2. Guest Additions for Linux

Like the Windows Guest Additions, the VirtualBox Guest Additions for Linux are a set of device drivers and system applications which may be installed in the guest operating system.

The following Linux distributions are officially supported:

Oracle Linux as of version 5 including UEK kernels;

Fedora as of Fedora Core 4;

Redhat Enterprise Linux as of version 3;

SUSE and openSUSE Linux as of version 9;

Ubuntu as of version 5.10.

Many other distributions are known to work with the Guest Additions.

The version of the Linux kernel supplied by default in SUSE and openSUSE 10.2, Ubuntu 6.10 (all versions) and Ubuntu 6.06 (server edition) contains a bug which can cause it to crash during startup when it is run in a virtual machine. The Guest Additions work in those distributions.

Note that some Linux distributions already come with all or part of the VirtualBox Guest Additions. You may choose to keep the distribution's version of the Guest Additions but these are often not up to date and limited in functionality, so we recommend replacing them with the Guest Additions that come with VirtualBox. The VirtualBox Linux Guest Additions installer tries to detect existing installation and replace them but depending on how the distribution integrates the Guest Additions, this may require some manual interaction. It is highly recommended to take a snapshot of the virtual machine before replacing pre-installed Guest Additions.

4.2.2.1. Installing the Linux Guest Additions

The VirtualBox Guest Additions for Linux are provided on the same virtual CD-ROM file as the Guest Additions for Windows described above. They also come with an installation program guiding you through the setup process, although, due to the significant differences between Linux distributions, installation may be slightly more complex.

Installation generally involves the following steps:

Before installing the Guest Additions, you will have to prepare your guest system for building external kernel modules. This works similarly as described in Section 2.3.2, “The VirtualBox kernel module”, except that this step must now be performed in your Linux guest instead of on a Linux host system, as described there.

Again, as with Linux hosts, we recommend using DKMS if it is available for the guest system. If it is not installed, use this command for Ubuntu/Debian systems:

sudo apt-get install dkms
or for Fedora systems:

yum install dkms
Be sure to install DKMS before installing the Linux Guest Additions. If DKMS is not available or not installed, the guest kernel modules will need to be recreated manually whenever the guest kernel is updated using the command

/etc/init.d/vboxadd setup
as root.

Insert the VBoxGuestAdditions.iso CD file into your Linux guest's virtual CD-ROM drive, exactly the same way as described for a Windows guest in Section 4.2.1.1, “Installation”.

Change to the directory where your CD-ROM drive is mounted and execute as root:

sh ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
For your convenience, we provide the following step-by-step instructions for freshly installed copies of recent versions of the most popular Linux distributions. After these preparational steps, you can execute the VirtualBox Guest Additions installer as described above.

4.2.2.1.1. Ubuntu

In order to fully update your guest system, open a terminal and run

apt-get update
as root followed by

apt-get upgrade
Install DKMS using

apt-get install dkms
Reboot your guest system in order to activate the updates and then proceed as described above.

Thanks hope were getting there anyway.

OK, dkms is a package needed for networking and any other essential stuff and it is not present by default in Zorin - this relates to the kernel being used. My advice would be to visit the VB website directly and choose the correct VB edition and add-ons from there - NOT from the Ubuntu Repos.

The Graphics card memory usage is in Computer Settings of VB where you can choose how much disc space to use, whether Virtual Disk or one of the 3 other 'virtual options'. By default, VB usually allocates Graphics and Memory Automatically to a 'safe' level - remember you are accessing real resources to 'power' your virtual machine - so you should not exceed half of your graphics memory or your RAM.

Hope this helps!

See topic: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=7879

High Swarfender. As mentioned I am not sure if my additons is yet installed but there is a possibility it is. This presents more questions.

1) Will I now not be able to install the new guest additions you talked about for Zorin if something is already installed potentially. (hence the need to know which terminal command to check this maybe ?). And are you meaning I am looking for the latest VB guest additions for Ubuntu or for Zorin itself ? I thought it was for the host system so it could run the guest system. Otherwise I'd perhaps be looking for a Virtualbox guest additions for Zorin on the virtualbox website which I can't see being correct. Not that this is what you are saying in your last post its just me being confused easily.

2) Do I have to uninstall virtualbox and start again ( which I don't mind doing)
3) How do I prove virtualbox guest additions is installed anyway ? Can I use a terminal command for example ?

Also in connection with the above I am getting greyed out uneditable sections in my virtualbox system settings. So I cannot change memory. Equally this is the same in many other parts of the settings now. It happens even before I boot up Zorin in virtualbox too. This all happened after I attempted to install the guest additions which I have explained above. I wondered if this was a good thing as perhaps the my main op (Ubuntu) had taken over the guest with its peripheries, thus greying out the settings, and not then allowing editing.

If I uninstall virtualbox perhaps you might give me some wise pointers before I go wrong again potentially. Please note I did use a guide to install virtualbox from wikihow or something similar but that is likely little help with the Zorin and guest additions methods. My install may have guest additions but as you mentioned the wrong one ? If it did not install I may still be okay to proceed.

The greyed out system settings are concerning for any other implementations I needed to make for graphics, memory etc.

Also were you referring to the the guest additions being the problem for the memory, graphics and sluggish issues as well ?

Cheers, thank you.


Thanks.

Hi, did you read my viewtopic? Basically, you should go to VB website and look at the various packages that match your current GNU/Linux distro, together with the additions package, and always go for one indicated as stable (not beta packaged)
You will always get some lag as it is running in only a part of your physical RAM and part of your Graphics RAM - a lot will depend on how much RAM you have and how many multi-cores your processor has - mine is an AMD 6 Core Processor so I can use 2 of these if I want. Don't expect breathtaking speed unless you have a top-end machine!