VERR_VMX_MSR_VMXON_DISABLED when starting an image from Oracle virtual box

Question

I'm getting this error while loading a Puppet image from a Oracle virtual box. How can I fix it?

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine learn-puppet-centos-6.4-pe-3.1.0.

VT-x is disabled in the BIOS. (VERR_VMX_MSR_VMXON_DISABLED).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6}

In addition, I see that the acellerate-tab in Virtual Box is disabled.

score 104 · Answer 1 · edited Dec 24 '22 at 21:54

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I believe VirtualBox is throwing this error for a number of reasons. Very annoying that it's one error for so many things but, I guess it's the same requirement it's just that the root cause is different.

Potential gotchas:

You haven't enabled VT-x in VirtualBox and it's required for the VM.

To enable: open vbox, click the VM, click Settings..., System->Acceleration->VT-x check box.

You haven't enabled VT-x in BIOS and it's required.

Check your motherboard manual but you basically want to enter your BIOS just after the machine turns on (usually DEL key, F2, F12 etc) and find "Advanced" tag, enter "CPU configuration", then enable "Intel Virtualization Technology".

Your processor doesn't support VT-x (eg a Core i3).

In this case your BIOS and VirtualBox shouldn't allow you to try and enable VT-x (but if they do, you'll likely get a crash in the VM).

Your trying to install or boot a 64 bit guest OS.

I think 64 bit OS requires true CPU pass-through which requires VT-x. (A VM expert can comment on this point).

You are trying to allocate >3GB of RAM to the VM.

Similar to the previous point, this requires: (a) a 64 bit host system; and (b) true hardware pass-through ie VT-x.

So for my little mess around machine that I'm resurrecting that has 8GB RAM but only a ye-olde Core i3, I'm having success if I install: 32 bit version of linux, allocating 2.5GB RAM.

Oh, and wherever I say "VT-x" above, that obviously applies equally to AMD's "AMD-V" virtualization tech.

edited Dec 24 '22 at 21:54

starball

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answered Oct 07 '14 at 01:35

cynod

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Quite a compilation of various reasons I've met for this error, thank you. – LAFK 4Monica_banAI_modStrike Oct 11 '14 at 12:16
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Thanks. For me it was because I have added 4 GB. When lowering, the error disappeared. – marlar Oct 26 '14 at 10:07
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For me, I needed to switch from 64bit to 32bit in my virtualbox settings. Then, the error message disappeared. – wesk Jan 14 '15 at 10:21
I have a 64-bit Windows 8 machine and virtualbox does not give any 64-bit OS versions to choose from. Any ideas? – arun Jan 18 '15 at 22:04
@arun - check points 1, 2 and 3 above. In addition to the host OS requiring 64 bit support, your processor and BIOS need to be correctly configured. – cynod Apr 29 '15 at 21:51
1a. You have enabled VT-x in the Settings, but it is not available. Try whether you can disable it. – Svante Jul 20 '15 at 11:07
This also can happen because of to little RAM set for VM – Andrey Nikishaev Sep 13 '15 at 16:56
I had the same problem. I tried to install 64 bit version, when I changed to 32 bit version the problem solved. – japetko Sep 15 '15 at 08:46

score 31 · Answer 2 · answered Jan 09 '14 at 06:48

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That's pretty simple problem to fix as you can see in the error message

You don't have to go with the previous version of virtual box, rather try this

go to your BIOS setting...

inside the virtualization tab enable the virtualiation techniuqe

restart your PC and you will have your Virtual Box up and running.

answered Jan 09 '14 at 06:48

veer7

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I went into BIOS (by pressing F2 on start-up), but there is no option named `virtualization` or even anything related. Apparently this is not an option that all laptops have? Mine is a Lenovo Ideapad 64-bit Windows 8 intel i7-dual core laptop. – arun Jan 18 '15 at 22:07

score 19 · Answer 3 · answered Jul 01 '14 at 19:53

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When I try to set Base Memory around 4000MB (my pc have 8GB) I get the same error 'VT-x is disabled in the BIOS'. But when I reduce Base Memory to 2500MB it works and error is solved.

answered Jul 01 '14 at 19:53

Petofi

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score 15 · Answer 4 · answered Jan 28 '14 at 14:18

There is an option in the Virtual Box itself. If you look in the Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager. Select the Virtual Box you want to start. Go to System, the second from above item in the right pane. In System go to the third tab called acceleration. In that tab the first check box is called something like: 'VT-x/AMD-V' (I have the Dutch version, so I don't know the exact string) UNCHECK And then start. That worked for me.

I also got this problem after an upgrade. And I did not have the problem before. But I fail to see the exact connection between the update and the check/unchecking of that option.

By the way, I have no idea where the hell that 'virtualization tab' should be in my 'BIOS'. Maybe I was looking in my PC's BIOS not the System page here which is the BIOS of the VM Machine maybe and that is what you meant Veer7? If it was, it was pretty unclear you meant this. Maybe it's because I have OVM in Dutch not English. But there was nothing called BIOS in the Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager I could find.

Your method may work on a 32-bit version, but the 64-bit architecture demands the presence of VT-x/AMD-V. The virtualization option has to be enabled in the System-BIOS for it to work correctly. Not very sure where you would find that on a Dutch BIOS ;) — Umar Ahmad, May 04 '14 at 13:13
This is the correct solution on Ubuntu 14.04 for all types of hosts (Winblows, Linux, etc). Apparently, the "VT-x/AMD-V" option is being inadvertently switched on during the upgrade. — Luís de Sousa, Jul 29 '14 at 18:36

score 12 · Answer 5 · edited Apr 20 '14 at 23:39

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I had the same problem. I enabled vtx in bios and it didn't worked. After a doublecheck in the bios I recogniced that the bios said that you have to poweroff (and realy power off) the computer. After that it worked. Heavy Pitfall :)

edited Apr 20 '14 at 23:39

Matt

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answered Mar 25 '14 at 14:36

sighter

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I'am pretty sure there is a difference between a real shutdown/poweroff and a reboot, somethere at the mainboard level. – sighter May 03 '14 at 13:10
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This worked for me. I enabled Virtualisation in the bios, but VirtualBox kept telling me that it wasn't enabled. One full and complete shutdown then switch on again worked. – Jimbo Jul 06 '14 at 19:03

score 10 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:40

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Just try adjusting ( decrease ) your allotted RAM for the virtual machine in Motherboard in settings. The amount of RAM free in your system at that time might be less than the amount you have allotted for the virtual machine. This worked for me.

answered Dec 15 '14 at 12:40

Chinni

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Did the trick here! - I had allocated alot of ram to a VM (amongst other things) and then this error occured - thanks ChiCha – VisualBean Apr 23 '15 at 08:04

score 7 · Answer 7 · answered Dec 23 '14 at 18:34

I have "Intel Virtualization" set to enabled in my BIOS, and I still get this error.

It turns out the problem is that I had Hyper-V enabled in "Windows Features", and apparently VirtualBox and Hyper-V don't play nicely together.

I went to Control Panel -> Windows Features and unchecked Hyper-V. After a reboot, Hyper-V was gone, and I was now able to run my 64-bit VMs again in VirtualBox.

score 2 · Answer 8 · answered Dec 18 '13 at 01:15

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Which version VirtualBox do you use? I found the same problem and when use update latest version on my X64 win7 machine VirtualBox-4.3.4-91027-Win But I uninstall it and back to VirtualBox-4.2.18-88781-Win

It works well, try it until Oracle fix it.

answered Dec 18 '13 at 01:15

Evan Lin

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score 1 · Answer 9 · answered Nov 09 '14 at 23:25

That error message also appeared into my VM. First of all, I tried to disable the option "Enable VT-x/AMD-V" (you can find it opening the settings of your VM: Settings->System->Acceleration), there was a warning saying that "Invalid settings detected (you accept the changes and the box was selected again).

Then I read this posts and I tried to enable the Virtualiation Techniuqe (used when you want to enable various VM in your computer (by default is set as Disabled because you don't need that property working.

score 1 · Answer 10 · answered Dec 12 '16 at 07:54

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If you start a 64 bit virtual machine on a 32 bit host machine you will get this error.

answered Dec 12 '16 at 07:54

Arun Killu

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score 0 · Answer 11 · answered Oct 23 '14 at 04:05

It happened to me too, and After reading all solutions, I've deleted the created drive and started all over.

The first case (the one that didn't worked) was windows 7 64 bit.

After trying the config as Win 7 32 bit that error didn't appeared again.

Hope this helps someone.

score 0 · Answer 12 · answered Nov 10 '15 at 18:56

I upgraded to Windows 10 x64 (from Windows 7 x64), had a VirtualBox Windows 10 x64 VM, but got the VT-x error. My BIOS was enabled, settings - everything in this post was addressed, but still got the VT-x error.

What fixed it for me was to go to Lenovo and install the latest BIOS for my W550s ThinkPad. Once the upgrade was installed, VirtualBox gave me the x64 options again with no more VT-x errors.

If you are running a W550s, the BIOS version I installed was from September 2015, "BIOS Update Utility" n11uj05w.exe, version 1.10 from the Lenovo website.

score 0 · Answer 13 · answered Aug 05 '20 at 19:48

Recently I had this same problem on windows 10 - after installing Hyper-V & other windows features like:

Windows Projected File System, Windows Sandbox, Windows Subsystem for Linux, Work Folders Client,

And it stopped working for me;(

Step uninstall Hyper-V -check if ti stared to work for you - no in my case
Step uninstall other windows features mentioned above! - I worked for me;)

VERR_VMX_MSR_VMXON_DISABLED when starting an image from Oracle virtual box

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