TOPIC: VIRTUALIZATION
VirtualBox memory allocation error: Solving Linux Mint host issues after LLM usage
22nd March 2025It happened to me today when I tried starting up Windows virtual machines in VirtualBox on my main Linux Mint workstation as a host after a long layover for these. They failed to start, only for these messages to appear:
Out of memory condition when allocating memory with low physical backing. (VERR_NO_LOW_MEMORY).
Result Code:
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {6ac83d89-6ee7-4e33-8ae6-b257b2e81be8}
Since the messages are cryptic in the circumstances, I had to seek out their meaning. The system has plenty of memory, so it could be that. Various suggestions came my way like installing the VirtualBox Extension Pack or reinstalling VirtualBox Extensions in the affected VM. The first had no effect, while the second was impossible.
However, there was one more suggestion: fragmentation of memory, much like file fragmentation on a disk drive. Thus, I opted for a reboot, which sorted out things, making it look as if that were the problem. If it comes up again, I might try compacting the memory with the following command, leaving for a while to complete due to any temporary system slowdown:
echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/compact_memory
Because there had been some on-machine usage of an LLM, I now reckon that caused the malaise. These can be as heavy on memory as they are on processors, so fragmentation can result. That is yet another likely lesson learned from experimenting with this much-hyped technology.
Upheaval and miniaturisation
4th March 2025The ongoing AI boom got me refreshing my computer assets. One was a hefty upgrade to my main workstation, still powered by Linux. Along the way, I learned a few lessons:
- Processing with LLM's only works on a graphics card when everything can remain within its onboard memory. It is all too easy to revert to system memory and CPU usage, given the amount of memory you get on consumer graphics cards. That applies even with the latest and greatest from Nvidia, when the main use case is for gaming. Things become prohibitively expensive when you go on from there.
- Even with water cooling, keeping a top of the range CPU cool and its fans running quietly remains a challenge, more so than when I last went for a major upgrade. It takes time for things to settle down.
- My Iiyama monitor now feels flaky with input from the latest technology. This is enough to make me look for a replacement, and it is waking up from dormancy that is the real issue. While it was always slow, plugging out from mains electricity and then back in again is a hack that is needed all too often.
- KVM switches may need upgrading to work with the latest graphical input. The monitor may have been a culprit with the problems that I was getting, yet things were smoother once I replaced the unit that I had been using with another that is more modern.
- AMD Ryzen 9 chips now have onboard graphics, a boon when things are not proceeding too well with a dedicated graphics card. Even though this was not the case when the last major upgrade happened, there were no issues like what I faced this time around.
- Having LED's on a motherboard to tell what might be stopping system startup is invaluable. This helped in July 2021 and averted confusion this time around as well. While only four of them were on offer, knowing which of CPU, DRAM, GPU or system boot needs attention is a big help.
- Optical drives are not needed any longer. Booting off a USB drive was enough to get Linux Mint installed, once I got the image loaded on there properly. Rufus got used, and I needed to select the low-level writing option before things proceeded as I had hoped.
Just like 2021, the 2025 upgrade cycle needed a few weeks for everything to settle down. The previous cycle was more challenging, and this was not just because of an accompanying heatwave. The latest one was not so bedevilled.
Given the above, one might be tempted to go for a less arduous path, like my acquisition of an iMac last year for another place that I own. After all, a Mac Mini packs in quite a lot of power, and it is not the only miniature option. Now that I have one, I have moved image processing off the workstation and onto it. The images are stored on the Linux machine and edited on the Mac, which has plenty of memory and storage of its own. There is also an M4 chip, so processing power is not lacking either.
It could have been used for work affairs, yet I acquired a Geekom A8 for just that. Though seeking work as I write this, my being an incorporated freelancer means that having a dedicated machine that uses my main monitor has its advantages. Virtualisation can allow drift from business affairs to business matters, that is not so easy when a separate machine is involved. There is no shortage of power either with an AMD Ryzen 9 8945HS and Radeon 780M Graphics on board. Add in 32 GB of memory and 2 TB of storage and all is commodious. It can be surprising what a small package can do.
The Iiyama's travails also pop up with these smaller machines, less so on the Geekom than with the Mac. The latter needs the HDMI cable to be removed and reinserted after a delay to sort out things. Maybe that new monitor may not be such an off the wall idea after all.
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Protocol error
19th April 2009These days, my virtualisation needs are being well served by VirtualBox 2.2. Though it may be the closed source variant, I have no complaints about it. Along with a number of Windows VM's, I also have one running Ubuntu 9.04 and, for the first time, I seem to have VirtualBox's Guest Additions playing with a Linux guest as they should. Even the Shared Folders functionality is working.
However, I did get one problem when I tried out the last feature for the first time. The procedure is to issue a command like the following in a terminal session after creating the requisite directory in the file system and adding a host directory as a shared folder:
sudo mount -t vboxsf Music /mnt/host_music/
Above, Music is the name of the folder in the VirtualBox manager and /mnt/host_music in the directory in the guest file system. However, this returned the message at the head of this post at that first attempt:
/sbin/mount.vboxsf: mounting failed with the error: Protocol error
The solution thankfully turns out to be an easy one: reinstalling the Guest Additions, which certainly did the trick for me. The cause would appear to have been an update to Ubuntu, and 9.04 is understandably in a state of flux at the moment (I suspect kernel upgrades because of my previous experiences). Regardless of this, it is good to know that it's a problem with a simple fix, and I am seeing the niceties of a larger virtual screen system together with automatic grabbing and releasing of the mouse cursor too. While there may be a chance to explore the availability of these sorts of features to other Linux guests, I have other things that I should be doing and there's sunshine outside to be enjoyed.