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