Using Virtualbox seems to slow down the system [Solved]

[linuxforever]

Is your inxi after, before, or during the running virtualbox machine?

The inxi was AFTER running the virtualbox machine.

[Stevo]

Is your inxi after, before, or during the running virtualbox machine?

The inxi was AFTER running the virtualbox machine.

To be clear, it was while the Windows guest in VBox was running, not after running it and then shutting it down?
How much RAM did you allocate to the Windows VM when you set it up?

[linuxforever]

To be clear, it was while the Windows guest in VBox was running, not after running it and then shutting it down?
How much RAM did you allocate to the Windows VM when you set it up?
[/quote]

Is was AFTER shutting down Windows and Virtualbox.
4Go are allocated to the Windows VM.

[dreamer]

Code: Select all

CPU:       Topology: Quad Core model: Intel Core i5-3470 bits: 64 type: MCP arch: Ivy Bridge 
           family: 6 model-id: 3A (58) stepping: 9 microcode: 21 L2 cache: 6144 KiB 
           flags: avx lm nx pae sse sse2 sse3 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 vmx bogomips: 25543 
           Speed: 3498 MHz min/max: 1600/3600 MHz Core speeds (MHz): 1: 2789 2: 2533 3: 3295 
           4: 2140 
           Vulnerabilities: Type: itlb_multihit status: KVM: VMX disabled 
           Type: l1tf mitigation: PTE Inversion; VMX: conditional cache flushes, SMT disabled 
           Type: mds mitigation: Clear CPU buffers; SMT disabled 
           Type: meltdown mitigation: PTI 
           Type: spec_store_bypass 
           mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via prctl and seccomp 
           Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer sanitization 
           Type: spectre_v2 mitigation: Full generic retpoline, IBPB: conditional, IBRS_FW, 
           STIBP: disabled, RSB filling 
           Type: srbds status: Vulnerable: No microcode 
           Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected 
Graphics:  Device-1: Intel Xeon E3-1200 v2/3rd Gen Core processor Graphics vendor: Dell 
           driver: i915 v: kernel bus ID: 00:02.0 chip ID: 8086:0152 
           Display: x11 server: X.Org 1.20.8 driver: modesetting unloaded: fbdev,vesa 
           resolution: 1920x1080~60Hz, 1680x1050~60Hz, 1920x1080~60Hz 
           OpenGL: renderer: Mesa DRI Intel Ivybridge Desktop v: 4.2 Mesa 18.3.6 compat-v: 3.0 
           direct render: Yes 

I don't like it (because I own one of these myself), but I don't think your CPU properly supports virtualization. It's the Ivy Bridge Core i7 that has hyperthreading, vtx and kvm support or whatever the Intel virtualization technologies are called. I don't know if virtualization features are standard in 2021, but in 2012-2013 I don't think they were.

Since Windows has special requirements, have you tried running MX in VirtualBox and what is performance and compositing like with MX? I have a newer PC with virtualization support, but I still didn't get a good Windows experience in VirtualBox.

[linuxforever]

I don't like it (because I own one of these myself), but I don't think your CPU properly supports virtualization. It's the Ivy Bridge Core i7 that has hyperthreading, vtx and kvm support or whatever the Intel virtualization technologies are called. I don't know if virtualization features are standard in 2021, but in 2012-2013 I don't think they were.

Since Windows has special requirements, have you tried running MX in VirtualBox and what is performance and compositing like with MX? I have a newer PC with virtualization support, but I still didn't get a good Windows experience in VirtualBox.
[/quote]

Thanks for pointing this out. If that is the case I think I will have to switch back to Windows - with a heavy heart, after more than 10 years happy with Linux - because I need a totally reactive and responsive OS for one specific activity. Unresponsiveness or delays will be catastrophic.

[linuxforever]

I would check your bios settings to make sure virtualization is enabled. on a lot of machines, its disabled by default.

Thanks, I checked the BIOS, Virtualization is enabled.

[PhantomTramp]

https://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/sha ... debook.pdf

I could be wrong but could it be that your drives are running at half speed? I think page 31 of this document says that the motherboard is capable of SATA @ 6 Gb/s though your drives are showing 3 Gb/s. The HDP725025GLA380 is a 3 Gb/s drive and the WD1002FBYS-02A6B0 is an awesome drive but alas runs @ 3Gb/s unless someone has a better thought..

The Tramp

[linuxforever]

https://i.dell.com/sites/doccontent/sha ... debook.pdf

I could be wrong but could it be that your drives are running at half speed? I think page 31 of this document says that the motherboard is capable of SATA @ 6 Gb/s though your drives are showing 3 Gb/s. The HDP725025GLA380 is a 3 Gb/s drive and the WD1002FBYS-02A6B0 is an awesome drive but alas runs @ 3Gb/s unless someone has a better thought..

The Tramp

Thanks for this hint. Any idea on how I can check/change the speed?

[PhantomTramp]

If the HDP725025GLA380 and the WD1002FBYS-02A6B0 are truly 3 Gb/s drives, there is no way I know how to get that end of the bus (the drive ends) to run faster. If it were me, and the PC was mission critical, I'd look for some decent SSDs to replace the old spinners and THAT might not solve the problem: I can't see YOUR virtual setup from here and I also can't see which SATA connectors are blue (6Gb/s) on the motherboard.

If you go back to Windows, It will run faster with only one O.S. But you may someday be running Windows 11 and there is hardware obsolecence built into that upgrade, or so I have heard.

The Tramp

[CharlesV]

Verify your hard drives are running ahci mode and not raid mode. Many machines are setup initially out of the mfg running raid mode. If the machine is not in ahci mode, you should change it, it will make a big difference.