Windows guest freezes with black screen

Windows guest freezes with black screen

[Harald Braumann]

Hi,

quite often my Windows guest freezes. The window is just black
and it uses 100% CPU. I don't think it's a guest problem, because
I have kernel debugging enabled and a debugger running in another
VM is connected through a serial line. It doesn't show any problems
and when the guest freezes the debugger connection is dead as well.

Host
----
OS: Debian Unstable
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2
Kernel: Linux 2.6.33
Arch: amd64
KVM version: 0.12.3
Command line: 
kvm \
  -monitor unix:/tmp/.kvm-1000/kvm.LuHAkMFOVV/monitor,server,nowait \
  -pidfile /tmp/.kvm-1000/kvm.LuHAkMFOVV/pid \
  -daemonize \
  -serial unix:/tmp/.kvm-1000/kvm.LuHAkMFOVV/console,server,nowait \
  -drive file=hdd.vdi,if=virtio,boot=on \
  -boot c \
  -m 1024M \
  -sdl \
  -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:57 \
  -net user \
  -usbdevice tablet \
  -vga vmware \
  -serial unix:/tmp/kvm-ttyS

Guest:
------
OS: Windows XP SP3
Arch: 32bit
Video: SVGA-II (vmware video driver)

Cheers,
harry

Re: Windows guest freezes with black screen

[Brian Jackson]

On Tuesday 02 March 2010 10:33:19 am Harald Braumann wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> quite often my Windows guest freezes. The window is just black
> and it uses 100% CPU. I don't think it's a guest problem, because
> I have kernel debugging enabled and a debugger running in another
> VM is connected through a serial line. It doesn't show any problems
> and when the guest freezes the debugger connection is dead as well.
> 
> Host
> ----
> OS: Debian Unstable
> CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2
> Kernel: Linux 2.6.33
> Arch: amd64
> KVM version: 0.12.3
> Command line:
> kvm \
>   -monitor unix:/tmp/.kvm-1000/kvm.LuHAkMFOVV/monitor,server,nowait \
>   -pidfile /tmp/.kvm-1000/kvm.LuHAkMFOVV/pid \
>   -daemonize \
>   -serial unix:/tmp/.kvm-1000/kvm.LuHAkMFOVV/console,server,nowait \
>   -drive file=hdd.vdi,if=virtio,boot=on \
>   -boot c \
>   -m 1024M \
>   -sdl \
>   -net nic,model=virtio,macaddr=52:54:00:12:34:57 \
>   -net user \
>   -usbdevice tablet \
>   -vga vmware \
>   -serial unix:/tmp/kvm-ttyS
> 
> Guest:
> ------
> OS: Windows XP SP3
> Arch: 32bit
> Video: SVGA-II (vmware video driver)


Have you tried to reproduce without vmware vga? That support was developed 
against the linux drivers (and possibly some loose specifications) and has had 
known issues in the past. It would at least be a data point of where to look.


> 
> Cheers,
> harry
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Re: Windows guest freezes with black screen

[Harald Braumann]

On Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 10:55:45AM -0600, Brian Jackson wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 March 2010 10:33:19 am Harald Braumann wrote:
> > quite often my Windows guest freezes. The window is just black
> > and it uses 100% CPU.
>
> Have you tried to reproduce without vmware vga? That support was developed 
> against the linux drivers (and possibly some loose specifications) and has had 
> known issues in the past. It would at least be a data point of where to look.

OK, I now run with `-vga std'. I'll let you know, how that works out.

Cherrs,
harry

Re: Windows guest freezes with black screen

[Harald Braumann]

On Tue, Mar 02, 2010 at 10:55:45AM -0600, Brian Jackson wrote:
> On Tuesday 02 March 2010 10:33:19 am Harald Braumann wrote:
> > 
> > quite often my Windows guest freezes. The window is just black
> > and it uses 100% CPU.
> 
> Have you tried to reproduce without vmware vga? That support was developed 
> against the linux drivers (and possibly some loose specifications) and has had 
> known issues in the past. It would at least be a data point of where to look.

So far no freezes with `-vga std'. So there is a very high probability that
vmware is the culprit. Anyway, std works much better. Vmware had a lot of
graphic glitches, like sometimes the screen wouldnt be updated and I had to
move windows so they would be redrawn.

Cheers,
harry