VBoxManage hangs after calling futex(..., FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, ...)

[Petar Bogdanovic]

Hi,

since I upgraded from 3.0.12 to 3.1.0..

VBoxManage startvm {id} --type {headless,sdl}

..sometimes hangs. It just affects the startvm subcommand while showvminfo, controlvm (and probably others) are pretty reliable.

When the system is idle, it rarely happens but when it's under heavy load (e.g. compiling something), then it will almost certainly hang.

A short strace revealed the following:

(...)
write(1, "Remote session has been successf"..., 45Remote session has been successfully opened.
) = 45
write(9, "8", 1)                        = 1
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414255}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414282}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414309}, NULL) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1261672393, 414336878}) = 0
futex(0x96098e0, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 33, {29, 999972122}) = 0
futex(0x9609bac, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
write(9, "8", 1)                        = 1
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414553}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414581}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414608}, NULL) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1261672393, 414635799}) = 0
futex(0x96098e0, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 35, {29, 999972201}) = 0
futex(0x9609bac, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
write(9, "8", 1)                        = 1
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414822}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414850}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 414878}, NULL) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1261672393, 414905386}) = 0
futex(0x96098e0, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 37, {29, 999972614}) = 0
futex(0x9609bac, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
write(9, "8", 1)                        = 1
gettimeofday({1261672393, 415100}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 415129}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 415155}, NULL) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1261672393, 415182796}) = 0
futex(0x96098e0, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 39, {29, 999972204}) = 0
futex(0x9609bac, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 415335}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 415364}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 415391}, NULL) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1261672393, 415419418}) = 0
futex(0x9609c38, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 37, {1047991, 607971582}) = 0
futex(0x9609d4c, FUTEX_WAKE_PRIVATE, 1) = 0
futex(0x9609e10, FUTEX_CMP_REQUEUE_PRIVATE, 1, 2147483647, 0x960a284, 12) = 1
sched_yield()                           = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 416255}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 416284}, NULL) = 0
gettimeofday({1261672393, 416311}, NULL) = 0
clock_gettime(CLOCK_REALTIME, {1261672393, 416339089}) = 0
futex(0x9609c38, FUTEX_WAIT_PRIVATE, 39, {1047991, 606971911}
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ stops and waits here

When using..

/usr/lib/virtualbox/VBox{Headless,SDL} --startvm {id}

..directly, everything works fine.

I tried to start VBoxSVC before running VBoxManage but that didn't help. Same applies to removing --auto-shutdown or lowering --pipe.

Any ideas what else I could try?

Thanks