VMware Server 1.0.5 build-80187 + host: ubuntu 6.06; Guest Windows XP freezing.

["razi garbie" <r.garbie () gmail com>]

Hi list,

Some of you might advice me to post on the vmware forums, i've already
done this and havent gotten any answers for a few days, the same goes
for vmware "support" ticket...

Im running several guests on my Ubuntu 6.06 machine and everyone is
working smoothly except Windows XP Pro.

The problem that im encountering is that XP freezes when i do minor
stuff, such as firing up a browser. Sometimes it comes back to life
after 10 minutes and sometimes it just stays in the freezed state. At
first i thought it was the host messing stuff up, but ssh to the host.

Im confident somethings up with the virtual CPU, due to the logs:

-- snip:
Jul 30 09:43:34: vcpu-0| VMSAMPLE32: cs=0x8, eip=0xf76bf062
Jul 30 09:43:35: vcpu-0| VMSAMPLE32: cs=0x8, eip=0xf76bf062
Jul 30 09:43:36: vcpu-0| VMSAMPLE32: cs=0x8, eip=0x806e2f45
Jul 30 09:43:37: vcpu-0| VMSAMPLE32: cs=0x8, eip=0xf76bf062
Jul 30 09:43:38: vcpu-0| VMSAMPLE32: cs=0x8, eip=0x806e2f33
Jul 30 09:43:39: vcpu-0| VMSAMPLE32: cs=0x8, eip=0xf76bf062
-- snip:
(as you can see on the timestamps this message gets written in the log
every second, twice a second if i use 2 VCPUs.)

I only get this output in the vmware.log for XP and no other guest.

Host information:
Ubuntu 6.06, kernel: 2.6.15-51-server, 400GB HDD, 4GB RAM, Intel(R)
Core(TM)2 Quad CPU Q6600 @ 2.40GHz


XP Guest Information:
Windows Pro XP, SP2, 20GB HDD, 1GB RAM, 1 Virtual CPU. (Vmware Tools installed)

Troubleshooting ive done:

Changed the RAM: 256MB, 512MB, 1GB, 2GB
Switched between 1-2 V CPUs
Disabled/Enabled CD-ROM drive and floppy drive
Disabled/Enabled memory page trimming
Disabled/Enabled acceleration

I've monitored CPU and memory usage on the host, during bootup both
CPU and mem are 100%, while XP is runnig CPU drops to 10-15% and mem
to 30%. And stays stable.
When i open up a browser (ive tried a few; opera, firefox, ie)
everything go smooth for a few seconds and then all of sudden CPU and
mem drops to 0% and its freezed.

I've also built vmware 1.0.6 and the end result is the same, i've been
thinking of testing 2.0 _beta_ (budget is too thin for ESX), whats
your thoughts on that in a production environment?

Any hits and/or help that leads to solving this is much appriciated!

-- 
R. Garbie