virtualbox.org

I'm trying to use VirtualBox on my Windows 7 64-bit Toshiba which, unfortunately, has Hardware Virtualization disabled and no BIOS option to enable it.

However, I have been told that as long as I don't need to run 64-bit OSes, I can use VirtualBox without a problem as has been done for years. This appears not to be the case for me, however, because no matter which OS I try, I always get the same VERR_SVM_DISABLED error. Searching the internet and forums for this error tells me it is because I need to have virtualization enabled, but why if I have been previously told I do not? I've tried several operating systems including Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, none of which work. I have made sure they are 32-bit and single-core/single-processor. Preferably I want to run Linux Mint 32-bit.

Does anyone know why VirtualBox is trying to use Hardware Virtualization when it doesn't need it? My Acceleration tab in the System settings is disabled. I would post a screenshot but I'm not allowed to post images or URLs yet.

Attach VBox.log. There should be a line indicating why hardware virtualization gets forced.

Sorry for the late response, I was away for the weekend. I've attached the log file to this post.

I tested the same VM on a 32-bit Vista w/o HV and everything worked perfectly, no idea why it isn't working on this 64-bit Windows 7.

This is indeed a bug. Hardware virtualization isn't required (presumably), but launching the VM fails early because you have hardware virtualization in your CPU but disabled. That's not supposed to happen.

You could try enabling hardware virtualization on your system, otherwise you can wait for the next VirtualBox update.

Do you know if/when this will be patched in the source? I should be able to build VirtualBox from source with the patch, right? Thanks for your time.

LB wrote:Do you know if/when this will be patched in the source? I should be able to build VirtualBox from source with the patch, right? Thanks for your time.

It already is, but unless you're already set up to build VirtualBox, it will be massively higher effort than enabling SVM on your system.

I've done some research and found that for my specific model of computer, Toshiba has intentionally disabled hardware-assisted virtualization and made it impossible to enable. So, building manually is my only option besides using a different computer.

I've got all the prerequisites but apparently I can't have VC++2008 installed at the same time as VC++2010 and VC++2012, since the configure script is only finding VC++2008. I don't know the right place to ask for help with building, but thanks for answering my queries so far. Wish me luck figuring this out!

EDIT: I'm making progress, I just had to comment out some code in configure.vbs so it would go straight to finding VC++2010 first. The configuration script finishes successfully for me, now I am just resolving errors when I run kmk after running env.bat

LB wrote:I've done some research and found that for my specific model of computer, Toshiba has intentionally disabled hardware-assisted virtualization and made it impossible to enable. So, building manually is my only option besides using a different computer.

Yay for Toshiba.

Could you please try 4.3.2? This particular problem should be fixed.

Yes! It is fixed and working for me just fine. Thank you very much :)

Reinstall the last version that worked, probably 4.2. Then uncheck the box that says something like, "Use vt-x if operating system supports." That is under one of the "systems" settings. Then uninstall 4.2 and reinstall latest version, 4.3.4. That worked for me.