[Solved] Win 7 host, Centos 6.9 guest - failing with kernels greater than 2.6.32-696.10.1.el6.i686

[DavidJames]

Virtual Box: 5.2.8-121009

Host: Lenovo B50-50 laptop running 64-bit Windows 7 Professional, 4 GB memory

Guest: Centos 6.9 32-bit plus Guest additions, 1024 MB memory

I had an installtion with kernel 2.6.32-696.10.1.el6.i686

I did a yum update on that which (amongst other things) upgraded the kernel to 2.6.32-696.23.1.el6.i686.

That version of the kernel errors when booting (see attached PNG screen shot). Also attached zipped VBox.log and VBoxHardening.log

I've now tried various kernels, with the following results:
2.6.32-696.10.1.el6.i686 works ok
2.6.32-696.13.2-el6.i686 hangs after certmonger [OK]
2.6.32-696.16.1.el6.i686 hangs after certmonger [OK]
2.6.32-696.18.7.el6.i686 not ok
2.6.32-696.20.1.el6.i686 not ok
2.6.32-696.23.1.el6.i686 not ok

.18.7, .20.1, and .23.1 all fail to boot with a screen shotsimilar to the one I have attached (which is from 23.1, as are the log files).

Any suggestions as to what the problem might be gratefully received - I'd like to get .23.1 working as it seems to be the most recent version for Centos 6.9 32-bit

[socratis]

00:00:01.296546 WARNING! 64-bit guest type selected but the host CPU does NOT support HW virtualization.
00:00:01.425910 HM: HMR3Init: Falling back to raw-mode: VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes

That seems to be the source of your problems. Your i3-5005U CPU supports VT-x, so it's a matter of you enabling it in the BIOS and making sure that nothing else is "stealing" it. See "I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests".

[DavidJames]

Thank you!

Setting "Enable Intel Virtualisation" to "Enabled" in the BIOS fixed the problem.

I don't pretend to understand what is going on here as it is a 32-bit guest I'm trying to run, and the behaviour has changed as the kernel in the guest has updated, but it's working now, so I'm happy.

[socratis]

as it is a 32-bit guest I'm trying to run

The "raw mode" that could run 32-bit and 1-CPU-only guests without VT-x/AMD-V, is being phased out by VirtualBox. More than 99% of the computers in the last 8 years have had VT-x/AMD-V capabilities. VirtualBox has been patient enough, but it's got to take advantage of the newer (we're talking 8 years) hardware, no? You got to draw the line at some point...

Glad you got it going. Marking as [Solved].