How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

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mintyfreshuser

How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by mintyfreshuser »

Hi all.

I have a virtualized version of Windows 10 installed on my computer. It works, but things like the mouse cursor within this virtualized version of Windows 10 still lag and I would like to fix this.

The distro of Linux Mint that I'm using is Linux 18.3 Sylvia and the desktop environment is Cinnamon 3.6.6 and I'm running VirtualBox Graphical User Interface Version 5.1.32 r120294 (Qt5.5.1) by Oracle.

With that said, how can I make VirtualBox not lag? I have 16 gigabytes of ram installed and right now I've already allocated about 10 gigabytes of ram to this virtualized version of Windows 10, but it still lags. I have the video memory set to the highest level, too.

Thank you.
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Cosmo.
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Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by Cosmo. »

What exactly do you mean with "lag"?

Do you have the guest additions installed inside of the virtual machine?
Did you try to activate 3D and 2D acceleration in the VM settings for this guest?
mintyfreshuser

Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by mintyfreshuser »

Cosmo. wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:41 pm Did you try to activate 3D and 2D acceleration in the VM settings for this guest?
I only had 3D acceleration enabled, but I've since enabled 2D acceleration. There still seems to be as much lag with 2D acceleration enabled though.
Cosmo. wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:41 pm Do you have the guest additions installed inside of the virtual machine?
I think so, but I'm not sure.
Cosmo. wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:41 pm What exactly do you mean with "lag"?
By "lag" I'm mostly referring to how the mouse cursor arrow moves significantly slower than it should when I move it around the screen. The mouse cursor arrow cannot keep up with me and it appears to drag along the screen as I move my mouse. In other words, there's a delay between when I move my mouse and where the cursor is on the screen. On the other hand, if there were no lag, there would be no delay/lag.
Cosmo.
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Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by Cosmo. »

mintyfreshuser wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 6:23 pm
Cosmo. wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:41 pm Do you have the guest additions installed inside of the virtual machine?
I think so, but I'm not sure.
In this case I doubt, that you have it; otherwise you would know, that you have installed them.

But better than guessing is to check this. In the running guest press host-n. This opens a window, where you get some information, besides them the installed version of the guest additions.
mintyfreshuser

Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by mintyfreshuser »

Cosmo. wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:33 am
mintyfreshuser wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 6:23 pm
Cosmo. wrote: Tue Feb 13, 2018 4:41 pm Do you have the guest additions installed inside of the virtual machine?
I think so, but I'm not sure.
In this case I doubt, that you have it; otherwise you would know, that you have installed them.

But better than guessing is to check this. In the running guest press host-n. This opens a window, where you get some information, besides them the installed version of the guest additions.
Hi. I opened up VirtualBox again and pressed host-n and the window you mentioned came up. The window showed this information about guest additions:

"Guest Additons: Not Detected
Guest OS Type: Windows 10 (64-bit)"

So you are right about guest additions not being installed on this virtual machine. What is the significance of "guest additions" though? If you have a "guest addition" installed on a virtual machine, does that make it so the virtual machine doesn't lag?

The window that showed up when I pressed host-n also showed this:
"Unrestricted execution: Inactive"

With that said, I wonder if "unrestricted execution" being "inactive" could have something to do with there being lag.
Cosmo.
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Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by Cosmo. »

The guest additions provide 2 kind of things: Specific drivers for the virtualized hardware, which VB uses and additional features (also this is at the end done by drivers).

Regarding to your problem you can compare it with the graphic card in your host (especially Windows): If there exist no specific driver, even the strongest graphics card will not work properly.

So install them. Open from the VB devices menu in the running machine the last option for the guest additions. We well be asked, if you want to install them, accept it. Afterwards you will be asked to reboot the guest; do it.
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smurphos
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Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by smurphos »

mintyfreshuser wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:14 am "Unrestricted execution: Inactive"

With that said, I wonder if "unrestricted execution" being "inactive" could have something to do with there being lag.
Yep that won't help. In the VBox settings for that Virtual Machine under System / Processor check if the slider for Execution Cap is all the way up. Not 100% sure if that is causing that message but would seem likely.

Do install the Guest Additions - they are essential for decent Virtual machine performance.

Do reduce the amount of memory assigned. If you starve the host of memory things will go pearshaped. 2 to 3GB should be sufficient for most Virtual machines.
For custom Nemo actions, useful scripts for the Cinnamon desktop, and Cinnamox themes visit my Github pages.
mintyfreshuser

Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by mintyfreshuser »

Cosmo. wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 6:15 pm The guest additions provide 2 kind of things: Specific drivers for the virtualized hardware, which VB uses and additional features (also this is at the end done by drivers).

Regarding to your problem you can compare it with the graphic card in your host (especially Windows): If there exist no specific driver, even the strongest graphics card will not work properly.

So install them. Open from the VB devices menu in the running machine the last option for the guest additions. We well be asked, if you want to install them, accept it. Afterwards you will be asked to reboot the guest; do it.
Thank you. Installing the guest additions definitely helped to reduce the lag.
mintyfreshuser

Re: How to Make VirtualBox Not Lag?

Post by mintyfreshuser »

smurphos wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:56 am
mintyfreshuser wrote: Wed Feb 14, 2018 11:14 am "Unrestricted execution: Inactive"

With that said, I wonder if "unrestricted execution" being "inactive" could have something to do with there being lag.
Yep that won't help. In the VBox settings for that Virtual Machine under System / Processor check if the slider for Execution Cap is all the way up. Not 100% sure if that is causing that message but would seem likely.
You were right about the slider being all the way up.
smurphos wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:56 am Do install the Guest Additions - they are essential for decent Virtual machine performance.
You're right. Now it doesn't seem to lag any more.

smurphos wrote: Thu Feb 15, 2018 1:56 am Do reduce the amount of memory assigned. If you starve the host of memory things will go pearshaped. 2 to 3GB should be sufficient for most Virtual machines.
This might explain why I was having problems with Linux Mint even outside of VirtualBox the other day.

Thanks for your help!
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