1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
|
<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?>
<!DOCTYPE topic PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Topic//EN" "topic.dtd">
<topic xml:lang="en-us" id="ts_categorize-isolate">
<title>Categorizing and Isolating Problems</title>
<body>
<p>
More often than not, a virtualized guest behaves like a physical
system. Any problems that a physical machine would encounter, a
virtual machine will encounter as well. If, for example,
Internet connectivity is lost due to external issues, virtual
machines will be affected just as much as physical ones.
</p>
<p>
If a true <ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> problem is encountered, it helps to
categorize and isolate the problem first. Here are some of the
questions that should be answered before reporting a problem:
</p>
<ul>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem specific to a certain guest OS? Or a specific
release of a guest OS? Especially with Linux guest related
problems, the issue may be specific to a certain
distribution and version of Linux.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem specific to a certain host OS? Problems are
usually not host OS specific, because most of the
<ph conkeyref="vbox-conkeyref-phrases/product-name"/> code base is shared across all supported
platforms, but especially in the areas of networking and USB
support, there are significant differences between host
platforms. Some GUI related issues are also host specific.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem specific to certain host hardware? This
category of issues is typically related to the host CPU.
Because of significant differences between VT-x and AMD-V,
problems may be specific to one or the other technology. The
exact CPU model may also make a difference because different
CPUs support different features, which may affect certain
aspects of guest CPU operation.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem specific to guest SMP? That is, is it related
to the number of virtual CPUs (VCPUs) in the guest? Using
more than one CPU usually significantly affects the internal
operation of a guest OS.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem specific to the Guest Additions? In some
cases, this is obvious, such as a shared folders problem. In
other cases such as display problems, it may be less
obvious. If the problem is Guest Additions specific, is it
also specific to a certain version of the Guest Additions?
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem specific to a certain environment? Some
problems are related to a particular environment external to
the VM. This usually involves network setup. Certain
configurations of external servers such as DHCP or PXE may
expose problems which do not occur with other, similar
servers.
</p>
</li>
<li>
<p>
Is the problem a regression? Knowing that an issue is a
regression usually makes it significantly easier to find the
solution. In this case, it is crucial to know which version
is affected and which is not.
</p>
</li>
</ul>
</body>
</topic>
|
