Ranorex freezes on VM : General Questions

[acost]

Using VirtualBox with Windows XP SP3 and Ranorex 3.1.1

I created a test suite that works fine on a standard install of XP but as soon as I move it to a VM it develops a problem.

It runs fine sometimes, other times the test runner randomly freezes and doesn't give me an error report or log. To stop the test runner I have to then go into Ranorex Studio and manually terminate the test - i'm sure I don't have to tell you how annoying this is.

Are there any problems currently with Ranorex and virtual machines? Or anything that might cause the test runner to freeze?

[Support Team]

Hi,

please have a look at following chapter of our user guide:
http://www.ranorex.com/support/user-gui ... norex.html

Regards,
Tobias
Ranorex Support Team

[acost]

I'm not really sure how anything on that page will help me. Ranorex test runner is not timing out; it's actually freezing completely.

I did a re-run with a much higher timout and it froze again while looking for an on-screen object (the object was visible).

Doesn't make any sense...

Edit: Installing Windows updates on my VM to see if that will help - might take a while on my connection

[Support Team]

Hi,

install the windows update and inform us about your success.
Also install the VMWare tool if you haven't done already.

Regards
Tobias
Ranorex Support Team

[acost]

Well, I installed the updates but the problem still persists.

I ran the test suite again and when it froze, I broke the debugging in Ranorex Studio and stepped into the next part of the test. It continued for a little while on auto-pilot afterwards before I had to repeat the process.

The interesting thing is, when I broke the debugging, it had stopped inside one of my unexpected dialog watcher threads...

All this code and these tests ran PERFECTLY on my host machine before i ported it to the VM.

[acost]

I moved to VMware Workstation from VirtualBox and noticed a huge improvement.

I will be running a very long test tonight to see if I've managed to stamp out the bug and will get back to you tomorrow with the test results.

[acost]

Okay, besides my poor exception handling, the test ran without a hitch as far as I know.

It seems moving to VMware solved the issue..