Running Parallels with Sun's Virtual Box

[Karl Wyer]

Hi Folks,

I run a number of VM's on my iMac using Parallels' Desktop for Mac and Sun's Virtual Box.

When running both if I close a Parallel's VM (shutdown or suspend) I get a hard crash on my Mac. This is a power off/on crash of the Mac. If I close Sun's VM first, then it all works fine.

Is this a known issue? Any idea which product is causing it?

Naturally it is a major pain to crash the Mac with everything running on it, and yes, I could just run one or the other VM environments.

Here are some snippets of the error log, I can post full logs if required.

Wed Apr 15 10:44:06 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00193CE7): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0x53a600 cpus_to_respond=0x2"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5b4eb8c8 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x5b4eb8fc 0x1335e4 0x0)


Fri Apr 10 08:30:46 2009
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x00193CE7): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0x53a600 cpus_to_respond=0x1"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x5c12f4b8 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x5c12f4ec 0x1335e4 0x0)


Tue Mar 31 08:06:07 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00193CE7): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0x53a600 cpus_to_respond=0x2"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x48a3b4b8 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x48a3b4ec 0x1335e4 0x0)
0x48a3b508 : 0x193ce7 (0x46126c 0x53a600 0x2 0x194406)
0x48a3b578 : 0x194e7b (0x53a600 0x3bd12000 0x0 0x0)
0x48a3bab8 : 0x7fb221 (0x673a000 0x48a3bb54 0xd8d5700 0x1)
Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000(5.3.6)@0x7c4000->0x87bfff


Fri Mar 27 21:48:09 2009
panic(cpu 0 caller 0x00193CE7): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0x53a600 cpus_to_respond=0x2"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 0), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x4896f828 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x4896f85c 0x1335e4 0x0)
0

Fri Mar 27 09:36:18 2009
panic(cpu 1 caller 0x00193CE7): "pmap_flush_tlbs() timeout: " "cpu(s) failing to respond to interrupts, pmap=0x53a600 cpus_to_respond=0x1"@/SourceCache/xnu/xnu-1228.9.59/osfmk/i386/pmap.c:4582
Backtrace (CPU 1), Frame : Return Address (4 potential args on stack)
0x4826f4b8 : 0x12b4f3 (0x45b13c 0x4826f4ec 0x1335e4 0x0)
0x4826f508 : 0x193ce7 (0x46126c 0x53a600 0x1 0x194406)
0x4826fa48 : 0x7edec1 (0x6578000 0xeff1300 0x740040 0x3a0)
0x4826fab8 : 0x7ef221 (0x6578000 0x4826fb54 0xeff1300 0x1)
Backtrace continues...
Kernel loadable modules in backtrace (with dependencies):
com.apple.ATIRadeonX2000(5.3.6)@0x7b8000->0x86ffff
dependency: com.apple.iokit.IONDRVSupport(1.7.1)@0x7aa000


Mac OS version:
9G55

Kernel version:
Darwin Kernel Version 9.6.0: Mon Nov 24 17:37:00 PST 2008; root:xnu-1228.9.59~1/RELEASE_I386
System model name: iMac7,1 (Mac-F42386C8)


Parallels is Build 4.0.3810
VirtualBox is build 2.2.0 (and some crashes on earlier versions).

 

[Karl Wyer]

A similar thread on Sun's Virtual Box forum.

 

[Flagg]

Karl Wyer,

It is not recommended nor supported to have other virtualization software running at the same time with Parallels Desktop, as this is bound to cause unexpected behaviour. Using them alternately should work.

 

[Karl Wyer]

Thanks for the response, though I'd question your 'bound to' comment. Why can't it co-exist with other VM software? They both run fine together, just when I close one it blows up. This seems to suggest that it's an issue with freeing resources rather than something fundamental?

I also don't like the idea of being locked into one vendor whilst running a VM. All VMs have their own strengths and weaknesses, hence my need to run the right VM for a specific task.

 

[Flagg]

Karl Wyer,

We understand, of course. You can run any other virtualization software while Parallels Desktop is not running, it will not interfere, but it is fundamentally impossible to guarantee the stability of a system with two hypervisors running at the same time.