How do I resolve slow and choppy performance in virtualbox?

Question

Ubuntu runs very slowly inside of VirtualBox.

How do I run Ubuntu with unity or enabled transparency smoothly with VirtualBox?

Answer 1

Graphic/performance fix for Ubuntu was tested with Ubuntu 13.04, 12.10, and 12.04. Part of this solution applies where aero / transperancy is used including d3d games.

RAM requirements

Recommended graphic memory or virtual ram for aero based operating systems is 256 MB min.ram -768 MB for 13.04

Virtual machine settings

1. enable 3d support in virtualbox 3d settings

2. terminal commands:

   /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p 
   

   (Not software rendered:no, unity 3d support:No)

   uname -r
   sudo apt-get install linux-headers-$(uname -r)
   sudo apt-get autoremove
   sudo apt-get install build-essential
   

   now insert vitualbox guest iso from devices and to install manually follow

   cd /media
   ls
   cd username
   ls
   cd VBOX*
   ls
   sudo ./VBoxLinuxAdditions.run
   
   sudo gedit /etc/modules
   

   add "vboxvideo" in the next line after lp means loop>lp>vboxvideo like this click save and file quit

3. restart the machine

4. now open the terminal to checkunity 3d is enabled or not

   /usr/lib/nux/unity_support_test -p
   

5. after this shut down the machine lets increase the virtual ram

6. close virtual machine and virtual box

7. follow this path C:\Users\Username\VirtualBox VMs\ubuntu 13.04

8. now look for ".vbox" extension file and open it with temporarily with wordpad

9. look for the following lines and replace these in following manner

   Display VRAMSize="128" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="true" accelerate2DVideo="false"/>
   

   to

   Display VRAMSize="256" monitorCount="1" accelerate3D="true" accelerate2DVideo="false"/>
   

10. now you can set 256 mb virtual memory for this operating system.

11. any OS can be provided with desired vram this way

Reference and sources::

babarehner @ e-wrench.com and youtube

sanct on http://ubuntuforums.org/forum.php

rpxmac on forums.virtualbox.org

Related questions on Ask Ubuntu

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Answer 2

Make sure you enable 3D support on Virtualbox, and on guest Ubuntu virtualbox setting. Also give your virualbox enough RAM and cpu cores. Having dedicated VGA will help virtualbox performance as well. How to fix slow performance ubuntu 13.04 running in virtualbox