| 1 | <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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| 2 | <!DOCTYPE chapter PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.4//EN"
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| 3 | "http://www.oasis-open.org/docbook/xml/4.4/docbookx.dtd">
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| 4 | <chapter id="KnownIssues">
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| 5 | <title>Known limitations</title>
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| 6 |
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| 7 | <para>This sections describes known problems with VirtualBox
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| 8 | $VBOX_VERSION_STRING. Unless marked otherwise, these issues are planned to
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| 9 | be fixed in later releases.</para>
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| 10 |
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| 11 | <itemizedlist>
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| 12 | <listitem>
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| 13 | <para>The following <emphasis role="bold">Guest SMP (multiprocessor)
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| 14 | limitations</emphasis> exist:<itemizedlist>
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| 15 | <listitem>
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| 16 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Poor performance</emphasis> with
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| 17 | 32-bit guests on AMD CPUs. This affects mainly Windows and Solaris
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| 18 | guests, but possibly also some Linux kernel revisions. Partially
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| 19 | solved in 3.0.6 for 32 bits Windows NT, 2000, XP and 2003 guests.
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| 20 | Requires 3.0.6 or higher Guest Additions to be installed.</para>
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| 21 | </listitem>
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| 22 |
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| 23 | <listitem>
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| 24 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Poor performance</emphasis> with
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| 25 | 32-bit guests on certain Intel CPU models that do not include
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| 26 | virtual APIC hardware optimization support. This affects mainly
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| 27 | Windows and Solaris guests, but possibly also some Linux kernel
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| 28 | revisions. Partially solved in 3.0.12 for 32 bits Windows NT,
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| 29 | 2000, XP and 2003 guests. Requires 3.0.12 or higher Guest
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| 30 | Additions to be installed.</para>
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| 31 | </listitem>
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| 32 |
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| 33 | </itemizedlist></para>
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| 34 | </listitem>
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| 35 |
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| 36 | <listitem>
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| 37 | <para><emphasis role="bold">64-bit guests on some 32-bit host systems
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| 38 | with VT-x</emphasis> can cause instabilities to your system. If you
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| 39 | experience this, do not attempt to execute 64-bit guests. Refer to the
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| 40 | VirtualBox user forum for additional information.</para>
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| 41 | </listitem>
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| 42 |
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| 43 | <listitem>
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| 44 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Direct 3D support in Windows
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| 45 | guests.</emphasis> For this to work, the Guest Additions must be
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| 46 | installed in Windows "safe mode". Press F8 when the Windows guest is
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| 47 | booting and select "Safe mode", then install the Guest Additions.
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| 48 | Otherwise Windows' file protection mechanism will interfere with the
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| 49 | replacement DLLs installed by VirtualBox and keep restoring the original
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| 50 | Windows system DLLs.</para>
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| 51 | </listitem>
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| 52 |
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| 53 | <listitem>
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| 54 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Guest multi-monitor support.</emphasis> This
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| 55 | feature is currently only supported with Windows guests.</para>
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| 56 | </listitem>
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| 57 |
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| 58 | <listitem>
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| 59 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Deleting the only snapshot with a running VM
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| 60 | is not implemented.</emphasis> Trying to perform this operation will
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| 61 | result in an error message. This feature will be added in one of the
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| 62 | next maintenance releases. It is possible to delete the only snapshot
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| 63 | when the VM is not running, e.g. in "poweroff" or "saved" state.</para>
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| 64 | </listitem>
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| 65 |
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| 66 | <listitem>
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| 67 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Disabled host I/O caches.</emphasis>
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| 68 | Disabling the host I/O cache (see <xref linkend="iocaching" />) will
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| 69 | yield poor performance with VHD and sparse VMDK files as these do not
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| 70 | currently support asynchronous I/O. This does not apply to VDI files and
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| 71 | raw disk/partition VMDK files, which do support async I/O. This
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| 72 | restriction will be lifted in a future maintenance update.</para>
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| 73 | </listitem>
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| 74 |
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| 75 | <listitem>
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| 76 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Compacting virtual disk images is limited to
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| 77 | VDI files.</emphasis> The <code>VBoxManage modifyhd --compact</code>
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| 78 | command is currently only implemented for VDI files. At the moment the
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| 79 | only way to optimize the size of a virtual disk images in other formats
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| 80 | (VMDK, VHD) is to clone the image and then use the cloned image in the
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| 81 | VM configuration.</para>
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| 82 | </listitem>
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| 83 |
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| 84 | <listitem>
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| 85 | <para><emphasis role="bold">OVF import/export:</emphasis><itemizedlist>
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| 86 | <listitem>
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| 87 | <para>When importing an OVF that was previously exported by
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| 88 | VirtualBox 3.2 or higher which contains a complete VirtualBox machine
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| 89 | configuration in the <vbox:Machine> element, some of the
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| 90 | import customizations that can be specified (in either the GUI or
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| 91 | on the VBoxManage command line) are presently ignored. In
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| 92 | particular, customizations of the imported storage configuration
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| 93 | are ignored. This will be fixed in the next release.</para>
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| 94 | </listitem>
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| 95 |
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| 96 | <listitem>
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| 97 | <para>OVF localization (multiple languages in one OVF file) is not
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| 98 | yet supported.</para>
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| 99 | </listitem>
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| 100 |
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| 101 | <listitem>
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| 102 | <para>Some OVF sections like StartupSection,
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| 103 | DeploymentOptionSection and InstallSection are ignored.</para>
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| 104 | </listitem>
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| 105 |
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| 106 | <listitem>
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| 107 | <para>OVF environment documents, including their property sections
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| 108 | and appliance configuration with ISO images, are not yet
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| 109 | supported.</para>
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| 110 | </listitem>
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| 111 |
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| 112 | <listitem>
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| 113 | <para>OVA archives (TAR containers) are not yet supported.</para>
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| 114 | </listitem>
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| 115 |
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| 116 | <listitem>
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| 117 | <para>Remote files via HTTP or other mechanisms are not yet
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| 118 | supported.</para>
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| 119 | </listitem>
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| 120 | </itemizedlist></para>
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| 121 | </listitem>
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| 122 |
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| 123 | <listitem>
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| 124 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Seamless mode</emphasis> does not work
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| 125 | correctly with Linux guests that have 3D effects enabled (such as with
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| 126 | compiz-enabled window managers).</para>
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| 127 | </listitem>
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| 128 |
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| 129 | <listitem>
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| 130 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Mac OS X hosts.</emphasis> The following
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| 131 | restrictions apply (all of which will be resolved in future
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| 132 | versions):<itemizedlist>
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| 133 | <listitem>
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| 134 | <para>The numlock emulation has not yet been implemented.</para>
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| 135 | </listitem>
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| 136 |
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| 137 | <listitem>
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| 138 | <para>The CPU frequency metric is not supported.</para>
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| 139 | </listitem>
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| 140 |
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| 141 | <listitem>
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| 142 | <para>3D OpenGL acceleration, in particular with Linux guests that
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| 143 | have 3D effects enabled (such as with compiz-enabled window
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| 144 | managers).</para>
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| 145 | </listitem>
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| 146 |
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| 147 | <listitem>
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| 148 | <para>Memory ballooning is not supported.</para>
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| 149 | </listitem>
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| 150 | </itemizedlist></para>
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| 151 | </listitem>
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| 152 |
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| 153 | <listitem>
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| 154 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Mac OS X Server guests.</emphasis>
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| 155 | <itemizedlist>
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| 156 | <listitem>
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| 157 | <para>Mac OS X Server guests can only run on a certain host
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| 158 | hardware. For details about license and host hardware limitations,
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| 159 | please see <xref linkend="intro-macosxguests" />.</para>
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| 160 | </listitem>
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| 161 |
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| 162 | <listitem>
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| 163 | <para>VirtualBox does not provide Guest Additions for Mac OS X
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| 164 | Server at this time.</para>
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| 165 | </listitem>
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| 166 |
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| 167 | <listitem>
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| 168 | <para>The graphics resolution currently defaults to 1024x768 as
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| 169 | Mac OS X Server falls back to the built-in EFI display support.
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| 170 | See <xref linkend="efividmode" /> for more information on how to
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| 171 | change EFI video modes.</para>
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| 172 | </listitem>
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| 173 |
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| 174 | <listitem>
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| 175 | <para>Even when idle, Mac OS X Server guests currently burn 100%
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| 176 | CPU. This is a power management issue that will be addressed in a
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| 177 | future release.</para>
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| 178 | </listitem>
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| 179 |
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| 180 | <listitem>
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| 181 | <para>Mac OS X Server guests only work with one CPU assigned to
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| 182 | the VM. Support for SMP will be provided in a future
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| 183 | release.</para>
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| 184 | </listitem>
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| 185 |
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| 186 | <listitem>
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| 187 | <para>Depending on your system and version of Mac OS X Server, you
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| 188 | might experience guest hangs after some time. This can be fixed by
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| 189 | turning off energy saving (set timeout to "Never") in the system
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| 190 | preferences.</para>
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| 191 | </listitem>
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| 192 |
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| 193 | <listitem>
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| 194 | <para>By default, the VirtualBox EFI enables debug output of the
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| 195 | Mac OS X Server kernel to help you diagnose boot problems. Note
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| 196 | that there is a lot of output and not all errors are fatal (they
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| 197 | would also show on your physical Mac). You can turn off these
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| 198 | messages by issuing this command:<screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" "VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" " "</screen>To
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| 199 | revert to the previous behavior, use:<screen>VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" "VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" ""</screen></para>
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| 200 | </listitem>
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| 201 | </itemizedlist></para>
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| 202 | </listitem>
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| 203 |
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| 204 | <listitem>
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| 205 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Solaris hosts.</emphasis> The following
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| 206 | restrictions apply for OpenSolaris and Solaris 10:<itemizedlist>
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| 207 | <listitem>
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| 208 | <para>There is no support for USB devices connected to Solaris 10 hosts.</para>
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| 209 | </listitem>
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| 210 |
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| 211 | <listitem>
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| 212 | <para>USB support on OpenSolaris hosts requires version snv_124 or
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| 213 | higher. Webcams and other isochronous devices are known to have
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| 214 | poor performance.</para>
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| 215 | </listitem>
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| 216 |
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| 217 | <listitem>
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| 218 | <para>No ACPI information (battery status, power source) is
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| 219 | reported to the guest.</para>
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| 220 | </listitem>
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| 221 |
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| 222 | <listitem>
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| 223 | <para>No support for using wireless adapters with bridged
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| 224 | networking.</para>
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| 225 | </listitem>
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| 226 | </itemizedlist></para>
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| 227 | </listitem>
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| 228 |
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| 229 | <listitem>
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| 230 | <para><emphasis role="bold">Guest Additions for OS/2.</emphasis> Shared
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| 231 | folders are not yet supported with OS/2 guests. In addition, seamless
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| 232 | windows and automatic guest resizing will probably never be implemented
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| 233 | due to inherent limitations of the OS/2 graphics system.</para>
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| 234 | </listitem>
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| 235 | </itemizedlist>
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| 236 | </chapter>
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