path: root/doc/manual/en_US/user_KnownIssues.xml

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<chapter id="KnownIssues">

  <title>Known Limitations</title>

  <sect1 id="ExperimentalFeatures">

    <title>Experimental Features</title>

    <para>
      Some &product-name; features are labeled as experimental. Such
      features are provided on an "as-is" basis and are not formally
      supported. However, feedback and suggestions about such features
      are welcome. A comprehensive list of experimental features is as
      follows:
    </para>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Hardware 3D acceleration support for Windows, Linux, and
          Oracle Solaris guests
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Hardware 2D video playback acceleration support for Windows
          guests
        </para>
      </listitem>

<!--   <listitem>
        <para>
          PCI passthrough (Linux hosts only)
        </para>
      </listitem>-->

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Mac OS X guests (Mac OS X hosts only)
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          ICH9 chipset emulation
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          EFI firmware
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Host CD/DVD drive passthrough
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Support of iSCSI using internal networking
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Using &product-name; and Hyper-V on the same host
        </para>
      </listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

  </sect1>

  <sect1 id="KnownProblems">

    <title>Known Issues</title>

    <para>
      The following section describes known problems with this release
      of &product-name;. Unless marked otherwise, these issues are
      planned to be fixed in later releases.
    </para>

    <itemizedlist>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Poor performance when using &product-name; and
          <emphasis role="bold">Hyper-V</emphasis> on the same host. To
          fix this, certain Windows features like "Hyper-V Platform",
          "Virtual Machine Platform" and "Windows Hypervisor Platform"
          must be turned off, followed by a host reboot.
        </para>

        <para>
          Additionally, the Microsoft Device Guard and Credential Guard
          hardware readiness tool might have to be used in order to turn
          off more features. For example, by running the following
          command:
        </para>

<screen>.\DG_Readiness_Tool_vX.X.ps1 -Disable -AutoReboot</screen>

        <note>
          <para>
            Disabling Device Guard and Credential Guard features will
            have an impact on the overall security of the host. Please
            contact your Administrator beforehand regarding this.
          </para>
        </note>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          The following <emphasis role="bold">Guest SMP (multiprocessor)
          limitations</emphasis> exist:
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              <emphasis role="bold">Poor performance</emphasis> with
              32-bit guests on AMD CPUs. This affects mainly Windows and
              Oracle Solaris guests, but possibly also some Linux kernel
              revisions. Partially solved for 32-bit Windows NT, 2000,
              XP, and 2003 guests. Requires the Guest Additions to be
              installed.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              <emphasis role="bold">Poor performance</emphasis> with
              32-bit guests on certain Intel CPU models that do not
              include virtual APIC hardware optimization support. This
              affects mainly Windows and Oracle Solaris guests, but
              possibly also some Linux kernel revisions. Partially
              solved for 32-bit Windows NT, 2000, XP, and 2003 guests.
              Requires the Guest Additions to be installed.
            </para>
          </listitem>

        </itemizedlist>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">NX (no execute, data execution
          prevention)</emphasis> only works for guests running on 64-bit
          hosts and requires that hardware virtualization be enabled.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">Guest control.</emphasis> On Windows
          guests, a process started using the guest control execute
          support will not be able to display a graphical user interface
          <emphasis>unless</emphasis> the user account under which it is
          running is currently logged in and has a desktop session.
        </para>

        <para>
          Also, to use accounts without or with an empty password, the
          guest's group policy must be changed. To do so, open the group
          policy editor on the command line by typing
          <command>gpedit.msc</command>, open the key <literal>Computer
          Configuration\Windows Settings\Security Settings\Local
          Policies\Security Options</literal> and change the value of
          <literal>Accounts: Limit local account use of blank passwords
          to console logon only</literal> to Disabled.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">Compacting virtual disk images is
          limited to VDI files.</emphasis> The <command>VBoxManage
          modifymedium --compact</command> command is currently only
          implemented for VDI files. At the moment the only way to
          optimize the size of a virtual disk images in other formats,
          such as VMDK or VHD, is to clone the image and then use the
          cloned image in the VM configuration.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">OVF import/export:</emphasis>
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              OVF localization, with multiple languages in a single OVF
              file, is not yet supported.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Some OVF sections like StartupSection,
              DeploymentOptionSection, and InstallSection are ignored.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              OVF environment documents, including their property
              sections and appliance configuration with ISO images, are
              not yet supported.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Remote files using HTTP or other mechanisms are not yet
              supported.
            </para>
          </listitem>

        </itemizedlist>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Neither <emphasis role="bold">scale mode</emphasis> nor
          <emphasis role="bold">seamless mode</emphasis> work correctly
          with guests using OpenGL 3D features, such as with
          Compiz-enabled window managers.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          The RDP server in the &product-name; extension pack supports
          only audio streams in format 22.05kHz stereo 16-bit. If the
          RDP client requests any other audio format there will be no
          audio.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Preserving the aspect ratio in scale mode works only on
          Windows hosts and on Mac OS X hosts.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          On <emphasis role="bold">Mac OS X hosts,</emphasis> the
          following features are not yet implemented:
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Numlock emulation
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              CPU frequency metric
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Memory ballooning
            </para>
          </listitem>

        </itemizedlist>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">Mac OS X guests:</emphasis>
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Mac OS X guests can only run on a certain host hardware.
              For details about license and host hardware limitations.
              See <xref linkend="intro-macosxguests" /> and check the
              Apple software license conditions.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              &product-name; does not provide Guest Additions for Mac OS
              X at this time.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              The graphics resolution currently defaults to 1024x768 as
              Mac OS X falls back to the built-in EFI display support.
              See <xref linkend="efividmode" /> for more information on
              how to change EFI video modes.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Mac OS X guests only work with one CPU assigned to the VM.
              Support for SMP will be provided in a future release.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Depending on your system and version of Mac OS X, you
              might experience guest hangs after some time. This can be
              fixed by turning off energy saving. Set the timeout to
              "Never" in the system preferences.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              By default, the &product-name; EFI enables debug output of
              the Mac OS X kernel to help you diagnose boot problems.
              Note that there is a lot of output and not all errors are
              fatal. They would also show when using a physical Apple
              Macintosh computer. You can turn off these messages by
              using the following command:
            </para>

<screen>$ VBoxManage setextradata <replaceable>VM-name</replaceable> "VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" "  "</screen>

            <para>
              To revert to the previous behavior, use the following
              command:
            </para>

<screen>$ VBoxManage setextradata <replaceable>VM-name</replaceable> "VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs" ""</screen>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              It is currently not possible to start a Mac OS X guest in
              safe mode by specifying the <option>-x</option> option in
              <literal>VBoxInternal2/EfiBootArgs</literal> extradata.
            </para>
          </listitem>

        </itemizedlist>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">Oracle Solaris hosts:</emphasis>
        </para>

        <itemizedlist>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              USB support on Oracle Solaris hosts requires Oracle
              Solaris 11 version snv_124 or later. Webcams and other
              isochronous devices are known to have poor performance.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Host Webcam passthrough is restricted to 640x480 frames at
              20 frames per second due to limitations in the Oracle
              Solaris V4L2 API. This may be addressed in a future Oracle
              Solaris release.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              No ACPI information, such as battery status or power
              source, is reported to the guest.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              No support for using wireless adapters with bridged
              networking.
            </para>
          </listitem>

          <listitem>
            <para>
              Crossbow-based bridged networking on Oracle Solaris 11
              hosts does not work directly with aggregate links.
              However, you can use <command>dladm</command> to manually
              create a VNIC over the aggregate link and use that with a
              VM. This limitation does not exist in Oracle Solaris 11u1
              build 17 and later.
            </para>
          </listitem>

        </itemizedlist>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Neither virtio nor Intel PRO/1000 drivers for
          <emphasis role="bold">Windows XP guests</emphasis> support
          segmentation offloading. Therefore Windows XP guests have
          slower transmission rates comparing to other guest types.
          Refer to MS Knowledge base article 842264 for additional
          information.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          <emphasis role="bold">Guest Additions for OS/2.</emphasis>
          Seamless windows and automatic guest resizing will probably
          never be implemented due to inherent limitations of the OS/2
          graphics system.
        </para>
      </listitem>

      <listitem>
        <para>
          Some guest operating systems predating ATAPI CD-ROMs may
          exhibit long delays or entirely fail to boot in certain
          configurations. This is most likely to happen when an
          IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM exists alone on a primary or secondary IDE
          channel.
        </para>

        <para>
          Affected operating systems are MS OS/2 1.21: fails to boot
          with an error message referencing COUNTRY.SYS and MS OS/2 1.3:
          long boot delays. To avoid such problems, disable the emulated
          IDE/ATAPI CD-ROM. The guest OS cannot use this device, anyway.
        </para>
      </listitem>

    </itemizedlist>

  </sect1>

</chapter>