Stuck while installing Ubuntu on Virtualbox: Freeing initrd memory

[ayyypaaa]

I have been trying to install Ubuntu 22.04.3 on Virtualbox 7.0 and I am facing the following issue:


So I tried to install Ubuntu 20.04.6 after that and faced the same error (but a different memory size):


Earlier I has installed Ubuntu 20.04 on Virtualbox on my Lenovo ideapad and it worked fine but I am facing the above error while installation on my new Asus TUF laptop. It would be great if anyone can guide me through this.

[MAFoElffen]

Usually if the system is getting "Freeing _____ memory" errors and VirtualBox is not starting its a low memory error.

First question would be, what is the HOST OS ad release version?
Second would be how much memory does the system have?
How much memory is being allocated to the Guest VM?
How long has the Host been online? (Since the last boot...)
What else is running at the time?

Here is why I am asking theses types of questions... When VirualBox starts a VM Guest, the way is does that, it doesn't just need the ampunt of memory allocate to the VM, the "block" of memory is required to be contiguous (no gaps or fragmentation).

The longer the host runs, the more of a chance that things running in memory are not in a contiguous blocks...

[mdalacu]

Exactly the same error on win11 host with wsl2. Theoretically it should work, slow but it should.
I have allocated 2vcpu and 16GB ram.
I have tried 20.04, 22.04, 23.04 of Ubuntu. After line Freeing initrd memory ...nothing.
Did you found any solution for this?

[MAFoElffen]

Found this in passing.

VirtualBox allocates memory in lazy mode, which means that RAM is dynamically allocated by the host as the guest uses an increasing quantity of memory. To get around that, try this command:

VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" "VBoxInternal/RamPreAlloc" 1

That command forces VirtualBox to "grab" all of the guest's memory at startup that is possible. This will attempt to allocate the entire guest memory from the host. If that memory isn't really free, then the guest will not start at all.

That command is per VM, you must use the name of the VM in that command.

[SeijiSensei]

Are you running VirtualBox on a Linux machine? I'd use KVM instead.

https://www.tecmint.com/install-kvm-on-ubuntu/

[ilovenewjeans]

im also having the exact same problem on the same laptop, i have tried everything but it still doesnt work

[MAFoElffen]

And is it capable of running KVM? That has been my Virtual Host preference for over a decade now.

[mdalacu]

Hi @MAFoElffen,

VBoxManage setextradata "VM name" "VBoxInternal/RamPreAlloc" 1

With this setting the VM fails to start at all .. :/

Attemted illegal operation in simplified memory management mode. (VERR_PGM_NOT_SUPPORTED_FOR_NEM_MODE).
Result Code:
E_FAIL (0X80004005)
Component:
ConsoleWrap
Interface:
IConsole {6ac83d89-6ee7-4e33-8ae6-b257b2e81be8}

Any more ideas? Thanks

[ilovenewjeans]

i think so yea, it has a ryzen 9 7940hs and 16gb of ddr5 ram

[MAFoElffen]

Please post the results of this within CODE Tags:

grep . /proc/meminfo