6 ms·

VirtualBox broken on Ivy Bridge Macbooks after 10.8.2 and Firmware Update

122 points by roachsocal 14y ago

fjcero 14y ago
We will have a hard time coming https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965
zrail 14y ago
This is another benefit of still being on Lion. I didn't have to deal with weird homebrew issues and now I don't have to deal with this. I have not upgraded to Mountain Lion on any of my machines, and the way things are going I'm probably not going to until forced.
- elithrar 14y ago
  > I didn't have to deal with weird homebrew issues... Just out of curiosity: which weird issues? The only "issues" I had involved installing XQuartz, and chowning /usr/local/ back to me[1] [1]: http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/27985816073/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-riding-a-mountain-lion http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/27985816073/the-hitchhiker...
  - zrail 14y ago
    I don't actually know any details. All I know is that when several of my coworkers upgraded to 10.8 components of their homebrew setup stopped working. It may have been related to ruby.
    - troels 14y ago
      If I remember correctly, I had to reinstall xcode to get it working again
      - hboon 14y ago
        And install command line tools within Xcode.
igorgue 14y ago
Basically: Oracle: We reported the bug a long time ago and still Apple released the update. Apple: ... Me: How the fuck am I going to work tomorrow? Maybe going full Vagrant wasn't a good idea after all :(
- webjprgm 14y ago
  Is there a discussion with details on the issue? Parallels and VMWare release new versions all the time for compatibility issues, they just fix them before the update comes so their new version is ready. Should VirtualBox just fix the bug on their side, or is this really an Apple issue?
  - igorgue 14y ago
    I'm not sure who to blame, these are the details everyone is posting so far: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 It seems like the VirtualBox community was talking about this problem for a long time already, since early september.
- nettdata 14y ago
  Just revert back to the backup you took right before you did the upgrade. You DID do a backup, didn't you? You HAVE tested that your backups are working, by doing a complete recovery with them, right? Right? ;) My personal philosophy is to be cutting edge on my personal/hobby gear (like the last gen MB Pro I keep for, ah, movies and such), but not to do ANY same-day updates on anything even remotely required for work. That shit stays behind the times but reliable for paying the bills. After I've seen the upgrades working in the wild for a week or two, and I have verified that all the stuff I need actually works like I need it to, THEN I'll do the upgrade on my work box. After backing it up, of course. Hell, I even have a text file with search phrases and forum URLs for the software I need to have working to make it easy and ensure I don't miss anything. Call me crazy, but I've learned that lesson the hard way.
  - EchoAbstract 14y ago
    This seems to be based on an upgrade to the EFI firmware, in addition to the 10.8.2 update. While I've got verified backups for the OS, I'm not in the habit of regularly backing up the EFI firmware, nor do I know how I would restore it on my MBP. Anyone got advice for backing up firmware on laptops to allow for roll-backs on breaking changes?
jeffh 14y ago
And somehow VMware Fusion doesn't have any problems after the same update ... sometimes you do get what you pay for (then again, I remember when an earlier Fusion update bricked itself, so YMMV).
- vosper 14y ago
  The other thing you get with Fusion (and Parallels, but not Virtual Box) is decent performance; in my office we're all running Ubuntu in Fusion on OSX - we were running Virtual Box until we realised our unit tests ran in half the time under Fusion. But that's pretty much what I'd expect from two companies in the business of virtualisation, versus one behemoth who really doesn't care - particularly if they're not making a significant slice of revenue (or any?) from it.
  - caycep 14y ago
    Hm - is this just for Mac OS X or is this true for the windows version of virtualbox as well? I was trying to find the difference between virtualbox and vmware player on the windows side. Can't really decide between parallels and fusion though...I need to run some opengl stuff which isn't too complicated, but I'd rather it be solid. But I do like to use virtualbox to test some python/django/nginx builds so better ubuntu and networking support would be nice.
    - webjprgm 14y ago
      > Can't really decide between parallels and fusion though In case you haven't seen it, MacObserver did a comparison of Parallels to Fusion to VirtualBox recently (on the Mac): http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/benchmarking-parallels-fusion-and-virtualbox-against-boot-camp http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/benchmarking-parallel... Their conclusion is that Parallels 8 is a bit faster than VMWare Fusion 5 and both are much faster than VirtualBox. VirtualBox doesn't have nearly the 3D support of the others, so depending on what OpenGL stuff you try to run it might not work. > Hm - is this just for Mac OS X or is this true for the windows version of virtualbox as well? You mean is Parallels and Fusion more performant than VirtualBox? I'd be willing to bet that the commercial products in this arena are easily faster. As for me, I have no real need for Windows, I just like to keep the ability to run Windows apps on rare occasion, so I've stopped paying for VMWare Fusion updates and plan to just use VirtualBox since I don't need the speed. It was Steam on the Mac that put an end to my need for really good Windows virtualization.
room606 14y ago
Can anyone confirm this update does not break VirtualBox on the mid 2011 Macbook Air i7? I rely on Vagrant and am not feeling confident enough to update since the issue appears to be related to VT-x on the CPU
- 0x0 14y ago
  For what it's worth, I just updated to 4.1.22 on such a machine and a snapshotted VM resumed without any trouble. Edit: And then also to 4.2.0 without trouble.
pmjordan 14y ago
Has anyone installed the relevant firmware update https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1590 https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1590 for 2010 MacBook Airs? I'd like to know if that introduces the same bug.
- sounds 14y ago
  https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 indicates that it's the Ivy Bridge skus, so I think your 2010 Air is ok. Caveat emptor: I do NOT own a 2010 MacBook Air.
roachsocal 14y ago
The (annoying, but working) workaround is the following: I imported my Vagrant-managed Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS VM into a trial copy of Parallels Desktop 8. I then logged into the VM manually using the Parallels VM window using the default Vagrant user / password (vagrant/vagrant) and changed the password for my custom Vagrantfile dev login. Then in Parallels I switched the networking on the VM to Bridge Mode (so I can access it via IP address on my local network). Remarkably everything in the VM worked and I'm back to coding. Would like to see a quick fix for VirtualBox so I can get back to my Vagrant awesomeness.
lstoll 14y ago
I recently had an immediate need to use Fusion in a Vagrant-style environment, so I hacked 'Tenderloin' together from an old version of Vagrant: https://github.com/lstoll/tenderloin https://github.com/lstoll/tenderloin . It can work with Vagrant boxes, and handles the base functionality I needed. Now that VirtualBox no longer works on my machine, turns out this this was a pretty lucky move. If you're in the same boat as me, it might be worth giving a go.
qq66 14y ago
It seems as though it will take a few more of these before Apple users learn what Windows users learned awhile ago -- there's rarely any good reason to upgrade any software, particularly your operating system, immediately upon release.
GraffitiTim 14y ago
From vbox forums, someone at Oracle: "That said, I believe we're now far enough along to say that there will highly likely be at least a test build pretty soon. Certainly sooner than in two weeks..." https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=236591#p236591 https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=236591#p236591

122 points by roachsocal 14y ago

We will have a hard time coming https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965

zrail 14y ago

This is another benefit of still being on Lion. I didn't have to deal with weird homebrew issues and now I don't have to deal with this. I have not upgraded to Mountain Lion on any of my machines, and the way things are going I'm probably not going to until forced.

elithrar 14y ago
> I didn't have to deal with weird homebrew issues... Just out of curiosity: which weird issues? The only "issues" I had involved installing XQuartz, and chowning /usr/local/ back to me[1] [1]: http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/27985816073/the-hitchhikers-guide-to-riding-a-mountain-lion http://robots.thoughtbot.com/post/27985816073/the-hitchhiker...
- zrail 14y ago
  I don't actually know any details. All I know is that when several of my coworkers upgraded to 10.8 components of their homebrew setup stopped working. It may have been related to ruby.
  - troels 14y ago
    If I remember correctly, I had to reinstall xcode to get it working again
    - hboon 14y ago
      And install command line tools within Xcode.

igorgue 14y ago

Basically: Oracle: We reported the bug a long time ago and still Apple released the update. Apple: ... Me: How the fuck am I going to work tomorrow? Maybe going full Vagrant wasn't a good idea after all :(

webjprgm 14y ago
Is there a discussion with details on the issue? Parallels and VMWare release new versions all the time for compatibility issues, they just fix them before the update comes so their new version is ready. Should VirtualBox just fix the bug on their side, or is this really an Apple issue?
- igorgue 14y ago
  I'm not sure who to blame, these are the details everyone is posting so far: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 It seems like the VirtualBox community was talking about this problem for a long time already, since early september.
nettdata 14y ago
Just revert back to the backup you took right before you did the upgrade. You DID do a backup, didn't you? You HAVE tested that your backups are working, by doing a complete recovery with them, right? Right? ;) My personal philosophy is to be cutting edge on my personal/hobby gear (like the last gen MB Pro I keep for, ah, movies and such), but not to do ANY same-day updates on anything even remotely required for work. That shit stays behind the times but reliable for paying the bills. After I've seen the upgrades working in the wild for a week or two, and I have verified that all the stuff I need actually works like I need it to, THEN I'll do the upgrade on my work box. After backing it up, of course. Hell, I even have a text file with search phrases and forum URLs for the software I need to have working to make it easy and ensure I don't miss anything. Call me crazy, but I've learned that lesson the hard way.
- EchoAbstract 14y ago
  This seems to be based on an upgrade to the EFI firmware, in addition to the 10.8.2 update. While I've got verified backups for the OS, I'm not in the habit of regularly backing up the EFI firmware, nor do I know how I would restore it on my MBP. Anyone got advice for backing up firmware on laptops to allow for roll-backs on breaking changes?

jeffh 14y ago

And somehow VMware Fusion doesn't have any problems after the same update ... sometimes you do get what you pay for (then again, I remember when an earlier Fusion update bricked itself, so YMMV).

vosper 14y ago
The other thing you get with Fusion (and Parallels, but not Virtual Box) is decent performance; in my office we're all running Ubuntu in Fusion on OSX - we were running Virtual Box until we realised our unit tests ran in half the time under Fusion. But that's pretty much what I'd expect from two companies in the business of virtualisation, versus one behemoth who really doesn't care - particularly if they're not making a significant slice of revenue (or any?) from it.
- caycep 14y ago
  Hm - is this just for Mac OS X or is this true for the windows version of virtualbox as well? I was trying to find the difference between virtualbox and vmware player on the windows side. Can't really decide between parallels and fusion though...I need to run some opengl stuff which isn't too complicated, but I'd rather it be solid. But I do like to use virtualbox to test some python/django/nginx builds so better ubuntu and networking support would be nice.
  - webjprgm 14y ago
    > Can't really decide between parallels and fusion though In case you haven't seen it, MacObserver did a comparison of Parallels to Fusion to VirtualBox recently (on the Mac): http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/benchmarking-parallels-fusion-and-virtualbox-against-boot-camp http://www.macobserver.com/tmo/article/benchmarking-parallel... Their conclusion is that Parallels 8 is a bit faster than VMWare Fusion 5 and both are much faster than VirtualBox. VirtualBox doesn't have nearly the 3D support of the others, so depending on what OpenGL stuff you try to run it might not work. > Hm - is this just for Mac OS X or is this true for the windows version of virtualbox as well? You mean is Parallels and Fusion more performant than VirtualBox? I'd be willing to bet that the commercial products in this arena are easily faster. As for me, I have no real need for Windows, I just like to keep the ability to run Windows apps on rare occasion, so I've stopped paying for VMWare Fusion updates and plan to just use VirtualBox since I don't need the speed. It was Steam on the Mac that put an end to my need for really good Windows virtualization.

room606 14y ago

Can anyone confirm this update does not break VirtualBox on the mid 2011 Macbook Air i7? I rely on Vagrant and am not feeling confident enough to update since the issue appears to be related to VT-x on the CPU

0x0 14y ago
For what it's worth, I just updated to 4.1.22 on such a machine and a snapshotted VM resumed without any trouble. Edit: And then also to 4.2.0 without trouble.

pmjordan 14y ago

Has anyone installed the relevant firmware update https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1590 https://support.apple.com/kb/DL1590 for 2010 MacBook Airs? I'd like to know if that introduces the same bug.

sounds 14y ago
https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10965 indicates that it's the Ivy Bridge skus, so I think your 2010 Air is ok. Caveat emptor: I do NOT own a 2010 MacBook Air.

roachsocal 14y ago

The (annoying, but working) workaround is the following: I imported my Vagrant-managed Ubuntu 10.04.4 LTS VM into a trial copy of Parallels Desktop 8. I then logged into the VM manually using the Parallels VM window using the default Vagrant user / password (vagrant/vagrant) and changed the password for my custom Vagrantfile dev login. Then in Parallels I switched the networking on the VM to Bridge Mode (so I can access it via IP address on my local network). Remarkably everything in the VM worked and I'm back to coding. Would like to see a quick fix for VirtualBox so I can get back to my Vagrant awesomeness.

lstoll 14y ago

I recently had an immediate need to use Fusion in a Vagrant-style environment, so I hacked 'Tenderloin' together from an old version of Vagrant: https://github.com/lstoll/tenderloin https://github.com/lstoll/tenderloin . It can work with Vagrant boxes, and handles the base functionality I needed. Now that VirtualBox no longer works on my machine, turns out this this was a pretty lucky move. If you're in the same boat as me, it might be worth giving a go.

qq66 14y ago

It seems as though it will take a few more of these before Apple users learn what Windows users learned awhile ago -- there's rarely any good reason to upgrade any software, particularly your operating system, immediately upon release.

GraffitiTim 14y ago

From vbox forums, someone at Oracle: "That said, I believe we're now far enough along to say that there will highly likely be at least a test build pretty soon. Certainly sooner than in two weeks..." https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=236591#p236591 https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?p=236591#p236591