12.04's current virtualbox 4.1.12 crashes (reboots) 32-bit host on running 64-bit guests, please upgrade to 4.1.18+

[Paul Sokolovsky]

When running 64-bit guests in 32-bit Ubuntu 12.04, the host with high probably goes into abrupt reboot sooner or later. There's upstream bug for this:

https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/10528

It reports that the issue was fixed in Virtualbox 4.1.18 . Please consider upgrade for the package in 12.04. Please also consider this as high priority, because abrupt reboots diminishes user experience largely. Thanks.

[Impact]
This bug could cause a loss of user data: in fact, a crashed session means that all unsaved documents are lost.

Also, this bug could be a serious security issue: in fact, it can be used for Denial Of Service attacks: if a server has at least one unprotected virtual machine (i.e. for test purposes), a malware could try to launch a 64 bit code to be able to crash not only the virtual machine (a crash on a test virtual machine does no harm), but the whole server. This kind of attack could also be unintentional.

[Development Fix]
Fixed in Quantal/Raring since 4.1.18-dfsg-1.

[Stable Fix]
Is being fixed in 4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3 upload to precise-proposed.

[Regression Potential]
This is fixed in newer Ubuntu and upstream releases and I didn't see any regressions reported. The patch is very small (adds only 4 lines of code) so shouldn't cause any harm at all.

[Paul Sokolovsky (pfalcon)]

Debian bug: http://bugs.debian.org/cgi-bin/bugreport.cgi?bug=655202

[Logan Rosen (logan)]

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, I am closing it because the bug has been fixed in the latest version of Ubuntu - Quantal Quetzal.

This is a significant bug in Ubuntu. If you need a fix for the bug in previous versions of Ubuntu, please do steps 1 and 2 of the SRU Procedure [1] to bring the need to a developer's attention.

[1]: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/StableReleaseUpdates#Procedure

[Brian Murray (brian-murray)]

Hello Paul, or anyone else affected,

Accepted virtualbox into precise-proposed. The package will build now and be available at http://launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/virtualbox/4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3 in a few hours, and then in the -proposed repository.

Please help us by testing this new package. See https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Testing/EnableProposed for documentation how to enable and use -proposed. Your feedback will aid us getting this update out to other Ubuntu users.

If this package fixes the bug for you, please add a comment to this bug, mentioning the version of the package you tested, and change the tag from verification-needed to verification-done. If it does not fix the bug for you, please add a comment stating that, and change the tag to verification-failed. In either case, details of your testing will help us make a better decision.

Further information regarding the verification process can be found at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/QATeam/PerformingSRUVerification . Thank you in advance!

[Felix Geyer (debfx)]

I can't reproduce the original problem described in this bug on precise.
However I have tested that you can boot 64bit VMs on a 32bit host system with the package from precise-proposed.

@SRU team:
If this is not enough, please let me know and I'll upload a new SRU that contains only the fix for bug #1081307

[Launchpad Janitor (janitor)]

This bug was fixed in the package virtualbox - 4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3

---------------
virtualbox (4.1.12-dfsg-2ubuntu0.3) precise-proposed; urgency=low

  [ Felix Geyer ]
  * Fix build errors with kernel 3.5. (LP: #1081307)
    - Add 39-kernel-35.patch
  * Fix crash when running 64-bit guests on a 32-bit host system.
    (LP: #1071344)
    - Add 40-fix-crash-64bit-guests.patch
  * Fix broken DNS in guests when the NetworkManager dnsmasq resolver
    is used on the host. (LP: #1031217)
    - Add 38-fix-nat-local-dns-resolver.patch

  [ Dmitry Shachnev ]
  * Fix the changelog, refresh patches and re-upload to precise-proposed.
 -- Felix Geyer <email address hidden> Sun, 31 Mar 2013 19:01:17 +0200

[Scott Kitterman (kitterman)]

The verification of this Stable Release Update has completed successfully and the package has now been released to -updates. Subsequently, the Ubuntu Stable Release Updates Team is being unsubscribed and will not receive messages about this bug report. In the event that you encounter a regression using the package from -updates please report a new bug using ubuntu-bug and tag the bug report regression-update so we can easily find any regresssions.

[angros47 (angros47)]

It works now. Thank you very much!