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I have a Windows machine with an Intel CPU (VMX Enabled on boot menu). I am running Ubuntu Guest on top of it using VirtualBox. I am running qemu on top of it to run another Guest OS, using kvm (the -enable-kvm option).

I get the following error on trying to insert kvm-intel module:

FATAL: Error inserting kvm_intel (/lib/modules/2.6.20-ARCH/kernel/drivers/kvm/kvm-intel.ko): Operation not supported

I have checked for vmx flag in the guest OS and I dont see that either

$ grep vmx /proc/cpuinfo
$

Is there anyway to enable kvm support in the guest Ubuntu operating system so that I can run kvm-enabled qemu on top of the Ubuntu guest machine?

Jeremy Fox
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Shehbaz Jaffer
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1 Answers1

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T̶h̶e̶ ̶v̶m̶x̶-̶f̶e̶a̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ ̶i̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶t̶ ̶p̶a̶s̶s̶e̶d̶ ̶b̶y̶ ̶v̶i̶r̶t̶u̶a̶l̶b̶o̶x̶.̶ ̶A̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶m̶s̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶V̶i̶r̶t̶u̶a̶l̶B̶o̶x̶ ̶t̶e̶a̶m̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶m̶s̶e̶l̶v̶e̶s̶ ̶d̶o̶n̶'̶t̶ ̶s̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶a̶t̶ ̶i̶t̶ ̶n̶e̶e̶d̶s̶ ̶t̶o̶ ̶b̶e̶ ̶i̶m̶p̶l̶e̶m̶e̶n̶t̶e̶d̶ ̶a̶n̶y̶t̶i̶m̶e̶ ̶s̶o̶o̶n̶.̶ ̶S̶e̶e̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶c̶o̶m̶m̶e̶n̶t̶s̶ ̶a̶t̶ ̶ ̶h̶t̶t̶p̶s̶:̶/̶/̶w̶w̶w̶.̶v̶i̶r̶t̶u̶a̶l̶b̶o̶x̶.̶o̶r̶g̶/̶t̶i̶c̶k̶e̶t̶/̶4̶0̶3̶2̶ ̶ ̶

T̶h̶i̶s̶ ̶t̶i̶c̶k̶e̶t̶ ̶h̶a̶s̶ ̶b̶e̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶r̶e̶ ̶f̶o̶r̶ ̶5̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶(̶6̶ ̶y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶ ̶n̶o̶w̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶c̶o̶u̶n̶t̶i̶n̶g̶.̶.̶)̶.̶

Since version 6.0, nested virtualization is now supported (currently for AMD cpus only!)

https://blogs.oracle.com/virtualization/oracle-vm-virtualbox-60-now-available

c33s
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Isa A
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  • Hi Isa, thankyou for your reply. Is it possible to have vmx-feature enabled for other open source hypervisors? I saw VMWare ESX supports this but there is a license issue. – Shehbaz Jaffer Feb 21 '14 at 04:24
  • AFAIK, no, there's not (yet) any open-source hypervisor that can support nested virtualization with hvm enabled. You can still search for yourself though. There isn't that many Open Source hypervisors, is it? – Isa A Feb 21 '14 at 04:57
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    using VMWare Player now on a laptop with i5 processor. For anyone who wants this configuration, please note that you have to enable both VMX and EPT to enable nested virtualization. @Isa Beehyve is one, that supports Nested Virtualization, But im not sure if its better than VMWare Player. Thanks. – Shehbaz Jaffer Feb 21 '14 at 11:19
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    > Since 6.0.0 was released on 2018-12-18, a huge new feature became a reality; nested virtualization! https://forums.virtualbox.org/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=90831 – c33s Oct 02 '19 at 03:59
  • Hey, it seems like there's been a change since then. Great! – Isa A Sep 29 '20 at 11:07