VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
anand ekbote
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Joined: 16. May 2012, 04:23

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by anand ekbote »

I got the same error when i tried to install windows 2008 server 64bit on Lenovo W520. To fix it I have enable the Virtual memory option in Bios and it fixed the issue.
Vikas Nalwar
Posts: 1
Joined: 2. Jun 2012, 16:18

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by Vikas Nalwar »

Reduce the amount of RAM you are allocating to less than half of the available memory. Typically use 2GB. This VT-x error is thrown because the VM is not to be used in production and hence enforces this limitation.
mpack
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by mpack »

The error has nothing to do with the amount of memory allocated to the VM. VT-x is required to run a 64 bit guest - period. Reducing memory allocation to 2GB will NOT allow a 64bit guest to run.

The error message simply means that VT-x is not available. That could have any of several causes: your CPU may not support VT-x, it may not be enabled in the host BIOS, or some other VM platform or debugger is already using it.
gbw
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by gbw »

I got to this thread because I was getting the same error message, "VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR." Actually in my case, too much allocated RAM is exactly what it had to do with. Increasing the amount of RAM dedicated to the VM past half my machine (in my case 8gb) caused this error to be thrown, reducing it to less than exactly half and it ran without issue.
mpack
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by mpack »

If you can provide evidence to reproduce the problem then you should report it as a bug on the BugTracker site, because it means that you are getting the wrong error message.

"VT-x locked" is unambiguous, and has nothing to do with memory allocated to the guest, misleading anecdotes notwithstanding. The error means that VT-x is enabled in the VM settings, but not available. Period. The error will remain until the VT-x option is turned off, or made available somehow (e.g. by shutting down whatever other software was using VT-x).
VJX369
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Joined: 28. Jun 2012, 19:05

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by VJX369 »

michaln wrote:
bird2010 wrote:Instead of being mean, why don't you give us the SOLUTION to this problem? I have tried everything suggested and I still can't get it to work. Instead of reading mean posts, I would rather read posts with SOLUTIONS. Thanks.
Well, the solution is right there in Perryg's reply (second post in the thread). Get hardware virtualization working. Without that, 64-bit guest's aren't going to run. If you have a system which doesn't support hardware virtualization or hardware virtualization can't be enabled for whatever reason, 64-bit guest's aren't going to run.

In my opinion, giving completely misleading answers is worse than giving no answers. If that makes me an ass, I can live with that.
the solution which Perryg and Michaln are suggesting is perfect and it worked out for me.All you need to do is goto your host(PC) Bios Setup and then into configuration and enable the Hardware virtualization option. then the Virtual box will start without any error.
gbw
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Joined: 28. Jun 2012, 15:33

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by gbw »

Will do. For other people that may come across this post... I actually just downloaded the "Database App Development VM" from: Oracle's Pre-Built Developer VMs (for Oracle VM VirtualBox) and upped the RAM from the default of 1GB to 4GB. My machine has 8GB installed, but reports 7.89GB available. So it will throw the error if I set the RAM to 4096MB, but runs perfectly fine if I go down to 3584MB.

Exact error message:

Code: Select all

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Oracle Developer Days.

VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR. (VERR_VMX_MSR_LOCKED_OR_DISABLED).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {1968b7d3-e3bf-4ceb-99e0-cb7c913317bb}
Perryg
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by Perryg »

gbw wrote:Will do. For other people that may come across this post... I actually just downloaded the "Database App Development VM" from: Oracle's Pre-Built Developer VMs (for Oracle VM VirtualBox) and upped the RAM from the default of 1GB to 4GB. My machine has 8GB installed, but reports 7.89GB available. So it will throw the error if I set the RAM to 4096MB, but runs perfectly fine if I go down to 3584MB.

Exact error message:

Code: Select all

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine Oracle Developer Days.

VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR. (VERR_VMX_MSR_LOCKED_OR_DISABLED).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {1968b7d3-e3bf-4ceb-99e0-cb7c913317bb}
Would be nice to have an accompanying guests log file (as an attachment) when this error happens. So far all that is known is you can not use more than 3584 but no reason shown.
gbw
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Joined: 28. Jun 2012, 15:33

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by gbw »

Attached log generated on failed startup.
Attachments
VBox.log
(61.53 KiB) Downloaded 133 times
Perryg
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by Perryg »

00:00:00.921 Host RAM: 8075MB RAM, available: 4272MB
00:00:00.998 RamSize <integer> = 0x0000000100000000 (4 294 967 296, 4 GB)
00:00:00.998 VRamSize <integer> = 0x0000000008000000 (134 217 728, 128 MB)
Add 100MB for the host process and you are out of memory.

The logs actually show the reason for this error. You have eliminated all memory from the host and the issue is the host processes can't work. Granted the error message is not totally correct but the failure that is being seen is because of the lack of memory.
gbw
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Joined: 28. Jun 2012, 15:33

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by gbw »

Ah ha! Well, thoughts on posting it to BugTracker to clarify the error thrown? Or is it effectively as-designed?
Perryg
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by Perryg »

You would just be wasting their time. Out of memory is out of memory. Like I said the error message is just the first reason that VirtualBox saw when trying to operate. I see this posted here all the time. Read the top of the log file your self and when you see the available memory drawing close to what you are assigning you know you are going to have issues.

Note: VirtualBox can not use swap memory it must be free memory.
gbw
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Joined: 28. Jun 2012, 15:33

Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by gbw »

Understood, but per mpack's first response, do you not think that the error thrown should be "Out of Memory" or something to that effect? It seems odd that what would seem like a basic virtualization issue such as allocated memory isn't trapped with an accurate error.

Whether intended or not, mpack's statement of "The error has nothing to do with the amount of memory allocated to the VM." is incorrect.
Perryg
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by Perryg »

You do what you think is right. I see this as normal given the circumstances.
mpack
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Re: VT-x features locked or unavailable in MSR

Post by mpack »

gbw wrote:Whether intended or not, mpack's statement of "The error has nothing to do with the amount of memory allocated to the VM." is incorrect.
Don't misquote (by quoting out of context). In its proper context the statement was that the "VT-x locked or unavailable" error cannot be solved by the explicit solution you offered, of halving the VM RAM allocation from 4GB to 2GB, and my statement is correct. However if you had revealed the crucial info that 4GB was more than your host had available, then I might have added that the exact point in time at which the startup runs out of memory is basically a crapshoot, and in that case the "or unavailable" part of the error message is the bit that applies.

The fact remains: telling people that halving the VM memory allocation is how you fix the OPs problem is flat out dead wrong.
Locked