VirtualBox is one of the worst programs ever

[u/Humbleham1]

I have had trouble with VirtualBox bugs for years. To start with, my computer would crash after going to sleep. It would wake on its own with a black screen and only a reboot would get it working again. I traced the problem to a VirtualBox driver. Then some months ago my computer stopped recognizing USB storage devices. I used an external USB drive for storing images and virtual disks, so I updated VirtualBox. Problem solved. But now VMs freeze after only running for minutes with my Windows VM having perhaps the shortest runtime (Linux VMs are not much better). I'm forced to power off the VM in many cases or even kill the hypervisor process. I updated today to version 7.2.16, but the problem still occurs. I've even uninstalled it completely and reinstalled it.

OS: Windows 10

CPU: AMD Ryzen

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[u/United_Federation]

I have Linux vms on a Linux host that have 1000s of hours of uptime. No troubles

[u/FluffyComplaint10]

Never had a problem, used on win 7, win 10. Works fine for me. Maybe your hardware an issue.

[u/Rayj002025]

Been using it for years on Win 10 and now 11. The only issues I've had were configuration related. Other then that, it runs like a charm. BTW, I only use Ubuntu VM's.

[u/DaveX64]

A couple of things I've found running VB as Windows 10 host with Linux guests:

• Every time I install an updated version of VB, I have to do a 'network reset'...in Windows 10 go in Settings, Network & Internet, at the bottom is 'Network Reset', click it and reboot (all programs closed, of course). I've found a lot of my crashing problems went away after that.
• When you're initially setting up a Linux guest, for Display driver, choose 'VBoxSVGA' rather than 'VMSVGA'. I had no end of problems with VMSVGA, they all went away after I switched to VBoxSVGA. It will say 'Invalid Settings' when you choose it, ignore it. It doesn't allow as much ram for graphics but it's a lot more stable.
• Make sure Hyper-V is turned off in Windows 'Programs & Features', 'Windows Features On or Off'.

Hope this helps :)

[u/Humbleham1 → u/DaveX64]

I do need WSL, so I'm sticking with Hyper-V and trying to convert my VDIs.

[u/DaveX64 → u/Humbleham1]

VirtualBox and Hyper-V don't work together, that would be your problem.

[u/djamp42]

VirtualBox on Ubuntu Works really really well IMO. I never have issues with the VMs i run.

[u/Humbleham1 → u/djamp42]

Eventually, I'll make the switch from Windows, but there's too much that I depend on Windows for for now.

[u/SurePea1760]

I like it, and have used it for years. And its free. Sure VMware or parallels might be better. But for a free app its great

[u/Face_Plant_Some_More]

And? I mean if you are looking to vent, congratulations I guess. If you are actually looking for assistance, well, you have not really given us much to work with.

[u/BranchLatter4294]

I've had VMs running for days. It's never been an issue.

[u/LeslieH8]

Interesting, and I won't deny that it's all going wrong for you, but my VirtualBox list of VMs for this computer (I use multiple VM managers, and that's only counting Windows - Linux has more - I just find different VMs better with different VM managers) are:

Windows XP Pro SP3

Windows 7 Pro SP1

DOS 6.22 (I added CD-ROM and mouse drivers to it for reasons)

Linux Mint (two versions for reasons)

FreeDOS 1.3

OS/2

Haiku

Windows 95

Windows 98

Windows 98 SE

Windows 3.11

TrueNAS Core

FreeBSD

MacOS X 12 Monterey

Nyarch Linux

pfSense VM (VERY useful for having a 'router' to control VM machines that are only intended to work together)

Windows Server 2012 R2 (a VM for our Finance server)

Windows Server 2003 (a VM for our Active Directory server)

Another Windows 7 (a VM client for our Finance server)

Yes, I'm not using Windows 10 VMs or Windows 11 VMs, so maybe that's complicating things for you, but I can confirm that I am not having any trouble with VirtualBox. I also concede that some of those OSes aren't technically supported on VB, but they work, so I'm not going to rock the boat. I have some Windows programs that don't have newer (and compatible with newer OSes) drivers for some important devices that I use for work, so it's VMs and passthrough.

That said, you're clearly having issues, so maybe migrate to another VM host program?

[u/ExplodedPenisDiagram]

KVM/QEMU via libvirt is a wildly superior hypervisor and orchestrator.

[u/Humbleham1 → u/ExplodedPenisDiagram]

I do have it on a Linux laptop, but I'm stuck with Windows on my desktop for the time being.

[u/Stray_Neutrino]

Never had problems with VB and Windows 10. Been using it without issue on the Host side for three years, running a mix of Windows and Linux guests.
Most problems can be attributed to running old versions and not uninstalling cleanly, reinstalling cleanly, and not deactivating Hyper-V correctly (Bios and OS)

Recently upgraded to an AMD CPU and GPU (from a ROG laptop I bought in 2015) and continue running without issue.

The only issues I ever encountered were usually Guest-side; nearly 100% issues were Audio driver related.

[u/Humbleham1 → u/Stray_Neutrino]

I missed the part where VirtualBox couldn't run alongside Hyper-V without problems or glossed over it. I don't want to give up WSL, so I uninstalled VirtualBox.

[u/RMS65STC]

I use VBox frequently, but avoid the "additions".

[u/Majestic-Tear1512]

Same issue. VirtualBox used to work great on Ubuntu host but last few years it’s very slow. So I went to the KVM camp and it’s blazing fast. Had to do all kinds of tweaks to get a similar virtualbox experience but it works now.

[u/A1mixer]

Use proxmox

[u/Humbleham1 → u/A1mixer]

As soon as I get a dedicated server for a Type 1 hypervisor.

[u/Yucky-Not-Ready]

been using it forever with mostly very good results but i did have some mac crashes lately after an apple update where my bridge network for an old XP machine would crash.

[u/Next-Investigator897]

Yes. I upgraded to latest version recently. I found my debian vm froze and powered off and on.

[u/Appropriate-Tennis78]

I use vbox for over 15years and never had this issues

[u/benz738]

Check if your bios is configured properly?

[u/TodayOk8894]

Yes...all was fine..now I can't use add on addition.....can't even capture a mouse...

[u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW]

Not even close. Only good free virtual machine software for Windows.

[u/HanHeld → u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW]

Before Windows 11 I would agree -personally I feel like choosing between running Virtualbox at full speed or being able to use WSL2 normally is some sort of devil's choice -and WSL2 wins, honestly.

[u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW → u/HanHeld]

What the hell is WSL2

[u/HanHeld → u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW]

IYKYK

[u/Justin_Passing_7465 → u/Windows-XP-Home-NEW]

"Windows Subsystem for Linux"(2). It is running a copy of Linux under a Microsoft Hyper-V hypervisor. But unlike running an arbitrary OS image, this one is provided by Microsoft.

[u/hker168]

Buy VMware workstation pro

[u/35nick35 → u/hker168]

You don't even need to buy it, it's been free for a while now. I've found VMWare to be way less brittle, more stable, and easier to use than VirtualBox ever was.

[u/GoD0nkeys → u/hker168]

Yep. Works great for years now.

[u/FBSD_Virtual_machine]

I dont like virtual box myself. To each their own bur I really like bhyve in freebsd. It runs in the kernel and it doesn't have the stupid gui. Write the script and place the run command in your menu. It can't be beat in my opinion.