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VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 23. May 2019, 23:48
by k5nwa
I just upgraded Win10 to 1903 release and afterwards, VirtualBox gets an error and will not run. VirtualBox 6.0.8 r13050

The error is;
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Linux Mint 19.1.

WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is FALSE! Make sure you have enabled the 'Windows Hypervisor Platform' feature. (VERR_NEM_NOT_AVAILABLE).

VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}
The Windows Hypervisor Platform was turned off before, after turning it on and re-booting I get the same error, I also tried removing and re-installing VirtualBox with no difference.

Thanks
Cecil

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 24. May 2019, 00:34
by socratis
I was hoping that this was not going to be reported, but hey...

Let's start with the basics and make sure that we're completely clean. The following procedure is the best we know so far to clean your system and install VirtualBox properly. Follow it exactly.
  1. Uninstall VirtualBox. Your VMs are going to be untouched. Reboot.
  2. You may want to clean up your registry and/or filesystem at this point. CCleaner is a freeware utility that could help you. Mind the installation, it comes with "offers" from 3rd parties, known as "bundleware". Also, check out Device Cleanup program that helps you to remove any unused devices from your computer, mainly multiple "Host-Only Adapter #n".
  3. Download (if you haven't already) the latest VirtualBox and its matching ExtPack. Store them in a common location, i.e. not on "Desktop", or "Documents", but to "Public/Downloads" for example.
  4. Uninstall (don't simply disable) all 3rd party antivirus. If you're afraid about your computer being vulnerable, pull the Ethernet plug, disconnect your WiFi, don't go browsing around.
  5. Locate the downloaded file in Windows Explorer. Right-click on the installer and select "Run-as-Administrator", even if you are the administrator. At the end of the installation, choose to "Start Oracle VM VirtualBox". Do not worry if your VMs do not show up.
  6. If you're going to install the ExtPack, go to File » Preferences » Extensions. Click on the icon with the orange, down-pointing arrow on the right. Select the ExtPack from the previous steps.
  7. Quit VirtualBox. Re-start VirtualBox as you would normally, i.e. from the Desktop shortcut or the Start menu.
  8. Update the Guest Additions (GAs) in your guest(s), if the GAs are available for a specific guest.
If you can't get any VM up and running, we need to see a complete VBox.log, from a complete VM run, where the problem occurs:
  • Start the VM from cold-boot (not from a paused or saved state) / Observe problem / Shutdown the VM (force close it if you have to).
  • With the VM completely shut down (not paused or saved), right-click on the VM in the VirtualBox Manager and select "Show Log".
  • Save only the first "VBox.log", ZIP it and attach it to your response. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.
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Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 24. May 2019, 20:13
by k5nwa
Originally I had done steps 1-4 as I normally do when encountering problems after a system issue, and that did not work, so I just tried steps 1-8 could not do step 8 as the VM will not start. Attached is the log file.

Some interesting side issues, vmWare is also having similar issues in that it thinks the PC is not compatible with Virtualization,so I suspect there is an issue with the new update to Windows 1903 that came out earlier this week, I tried enabling Windows Hypervisor Platform something I have never needed before still the errors are the same.

Thanks

Cecil

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 00:44
by socratis
k5nwa wrote:The Windows Hypervisor Platform was turned off before, after turning it on and re-booting I get the same error
There is a chance that Microsoft added more "features" that require/enable Hyper-V. Look in the "Control Panel" » "Programs and Features" » "Turn Windows features on or off", and make sure that the none of the following are active:
  • Application Guard
  • Credential Guard
  • Device Guard
  • <any> * Guard
  • Containers
  • Hyper-V
  • Virtual Machine Platform
  • Windows Hypervisor Platform
  • Windows Sandbox
This is my list so far. Can you try and search to see if there's anything that might be requesting Hyper-V?

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 01:55
by k5nwa
All those features are not active, I checked before after seeing another post on Hyper-V acting up, after turning some of them off I re-booted the PC. It made no difference, the error message from VirtualBox says to make sure Windows Hypervisor Platform is enabled, I tried it both ways on and off and still get the same error.

Both VirtualBox and VMware think that the machine is not capable of running a virtual session, the PC is a i7 CPU with 24GB RAM and ran fine prior to the 1903 Windows update. No changes to the Bios have been made and I checked to make sure that the Virtual Capability of the CPU is turned on, same as before the upgrade which is enabled. As far as needing Hyper-V I have never had it enabled or used before the upgrade on this and several other PCs. Hyper-V it is a horrible Virtual Emulator slow and lacking features.

Below is the initial message that Virtual Box gives when trying to run a previously running VM, I tried several VMs and they respond the same;
Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Linux Mint 19.1.

WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is FALSE! Make sure you have enabled the 'Windows Hypervisor Platform' feature. (VERR_NEM_NOT_AVAILABLE).

VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole {872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed}

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 02:49
by socratis
I guess that Microsoft changed the Hyper-V API and anything that relies on it needs to adjust. Patience until the next revision, or until a test build addresses the situation. Actually, come to think about it, why don't you try a test build and see what happens?

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 04:12
by k5nwa
Well this is one of those situations where one scratches their head and say "What the heck?" :?:

There is a feature in the BIOS it's VT-d and it is normally turned off on a recommendation of Microsoft because it crashes the OS, so I went and turned it on and true to it's word Windows crashed while booting so I had to power off the machine. I then proceeded to turn VT-d off like they recommended and re-booted. This time Windows came up fine, here where things go sideways, I went into VirtualBox and checked the settings and the error that is there since the upgrade to the effect that the machine does not support virtualization was gone, so I told it to start the VM and it worked just fine, I tried all the VMs and all of them worked, even VMware worked fine. The thing is since the upgrade I had powered off the machine several times and it would not work, the only thing that was different was that I turned VT-d on then later I turned it back off.

Strange things going on, tomorrow I will reset all the BIOS settings to it's default settings and then fix a few of the settings as needed just in case something else is flaky.

Thanks

Cecil

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 06:50
by socratis
So, wait a minute... this whole time you had VT-x disabled in the BIOS? Why? Why did you switch it off in a working system?

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 20:19
by k5nwa
My PC and several others had a problem in that for several iterations the Windows upgrades would not install, they would crash without any errors, after consulting with Microsoft they said to turn off the VT-d feature, and afterwards the upgrades installed with no errors. Its not just the upgrades the installed Windows crashes if it is turned off, so I've had it off for over a year in the meantime VirtualBox and VMware run just file, maybe a little slower than they would otherwise but they ran fine that is until the 1903 upgrade, but it turns out that the upgrade itself is not the problem but the installing it cause some problems that resetting the Bios Setting fixed.

It is all working fine now with VT-d turned off, there is another setting to allow the Virtualization features and that is turned on but VT-d must be turned off for Windows to run. It could be an issue with the motherboard as another PC has no way to turn off the feature and it works fine but it uses a different CPU.

i7-930 through i7-960 on various Asus motherboards have the problem, a HP8300 with i7-2400 CPU does not have that problem, I don't know if the problem is the motherboards or the CPU but the i7-9xx CPUs can not have that feature turned on. Due to illness and not being able to work I can't afford to replace the PCs so I have to do with VT-d being turned off. The VMs run fast enough for my use in any case.

As far as the list of features in your list they are all off, although some are missing, and running that command says that the variable does not exist, I will shortly create it in the environment variables and see what happens after I turn VT-d back on.

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 25. May 2019, 20:50
by k5nwa
After setting that setting "hypervisorlaunchtype" to OFF and changing the VT-d setting to ON Windows crashed during boot, and after turning the VT-d feature OFF Windows was damaged and I had to run repair several times before Windows would boot. On an interesting side note Linux Mint 19.1 boots just fine with VT-d ON or OFF so it's a Windows 10 issue.

I'm not too worried since VirtualBox works now and I can do software testing in Linux and Xp through Win7 now so I'm happy, maybe its not as fast as it could be but it's fast enough.

Thanks

Cecil

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 26. May 2019, 01:58
by BillG
I was not aware that VT-d had any effect on VirtualBox. I have never made any change to the VT-d settings on any machine running VirtualBox. VT-x is a different matter. You will have trouble with any 64-bit Windows OS without it.

I certainly have not had any problems with Windows 10 guests on my Windows 10 host running version 1903.

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 28. May 2019, 03:23
by socratis
BillG wrote:I was not aware that VT-d had any effect on VirtualBox
It doesn't. The only way that VT-d might be useful and/or required, is if you want to perform PCI passthrough. Not likely what the OP was talking about. Not likely at all...

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 1. Jun 2019, 21:36
by caspertone2003n
My case: W10x64, updated to 1903
VBox updated from 6.0.6 to 6.0.8

I activated Windows Sandbox just to try; not working (did not investigate why)
Unchecked Windows Sandbox

tested virtual machines, same failure as OP.

Checked:
howak wrote:none of them should be active
Application Guard
Credential Guard
Device Guard
<any> * Guard
Containers
Hyper-V
Virtual Machine Platform
Windows Hypervisor Platform
Windows Sandbox
and run this comment in Cmd with Administrator privilege

set hypervisorlaunchtype off
restart your computer
reboots between checks....

Finally, all come to normality, just after cleaning registry with CClean.

Just my 2 cents...
CT

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 3. Jun 2019, 06:29
by socratis
caspertone2003n wrote:Finally, all come to normality, just after cleaning registry with CClean.
Did you happen to note the entries that were cleaned? Did you make a backup of the deleted keys/values?

Re: VirtualBox fails after Windows 10 1903 upgrade

Posted: 4. Jun 2019, 04:09
by Born2Excite
Hey guys, I noticed a big change in Hyper-V Requirements as reported by systeminfo.exe BEFORE and AFTER enabling the Windows Sandbox feature. Enabling Windows Sandbox caused a change in Hyper-V which persisted even after removing the Windows Sandbox feature which seems to be at the root cause of VirtualBox failure to load Virtual Machines. My findings are below, what do you think?

AFTER updating Windows 10 to 1903
Oracle VM VirtualBox worked as normal with no problems. Virtual machine loaded successfully.

AFTER adding the Windows Sandbox feature
Oracle VM VirtualBox failed to load Virtual Machine.
Error: Failed to open session…
(VERR_NEM_MISSING_KERNEL_API).
VT-x is not available (VERR_VMX_NO_VMX).
Subsequently
REMOVED the Windows Sandbox feature
Oracle VM VirtualBox again failed to load Virtual Machine, outputting the same error message as noted above.

TEST
Run systeminfo.exe from the command prompt:

BEFORE adding Windows Sandbox feature
Hyper-V Requirements:
VM Monitor Mode Extensions: Yes
Virtualization Enabled In Firmware: Yes
Second Level Address Translation: Yes
Data Execution Prevention Available: Yes

AFTER adding Windows Sandbox feature
Hyper-V Requirements:
A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed

AFTER removing the Windows Sandbox feature
Hyper-V Requirements:
A hypervisor has been detected. Features required for Hyper-V will not be displayed