[Fixed] 5.1.x Guru Meditation: VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED

[socratis]

Summary
With VirtualBox 5.1.x, a lot of VMs on OSX hosts can crash with a Guru Meditation. VMs that used to work, VMs that can work, but suddenly they go into Guru Meditation. This is a known regression of VBox 5.1.x, when the developers switched to a new instruction interpreter on Mac OS X. Some instructions defined in the Intel 80/86 instruction set are not implemented in VirtualBox.

This Guru is not triggered on more recent Mac OS X hosts. The interpreter is used under certain conditions so it may happen that such a Guru is never triggered. Some users have reported that disabling Nested Paging might work around the issue or by reducing the vCPUs to 1. VBox 5.1.x depends a bit more on the Nested Paging feature, at least on Mac OS X.

According to the developers, a fix is in the queue, but there is no ETA.


Solution
This has been fixed with 5.1.24. If it doesn't work for you, please post a zipped VBox.log from a failed session.


Not all Guru Meditation errors are because of this bug
If you want to know that your crash is due to this, open the "VBox.log" for the affected VM and search for the string "VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED". Here's an excerpt of a log. Note that right after the guru error message you can see the offending instruction that has not been implemented yet:

00:00:09.936143 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
00:00:09.936144 !!
00:00:09.936144 !!         VCPU0: Guru Meditation -5300 (VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED)
00:00:09.936170 !!
00:00:09.936202 Guest CPUM (VCPU 0) state: 
...
00:00:09.967655 
00:00:09.967656 CPUM: 0020:ffffffff80f73410 0f ae 3f                clflush byte [rdi]
00:00:09.967657

Related tickets
There were several tickets that are open because of this. Next to each ticket, I've noted the VirtualBox version used, the instruction responsible for the crash, and the host hardware/guest OS used. Your mileage may vary:

• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15693
  5.1.2, movq xmm, Macmini4,1/Win10_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15790
  5.1.2, clflush, MacBookPro11,2/BSD (FreeNAS)
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15801
  5.1.2, stmxcsr, MacBookPro7,1/Win7_64, MacBookPro5,2/Win7_64, MacBookAir6,2/RedHat_64, MacBookPro12,1/Win10_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/15969
  5.1.4, stmxcsr, MacBookPro7,1/Win7_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16171
  5.1.8, stmxcsr, MacBookPro7,1/Win7_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16274
  5.1.10, movq xmm, MacBookPro9,1/Linux2.6 (Knoppix 7.7)
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16418
  5.1.14, stmxcsr, MacBookPro8,2/Win7_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16556
  5.1.16, movss xmm, MacBookPro12,1/Win10_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16569
  5.1.16, clflush, MacBookAir6,2/FreeBSD_64 (GhostBSD)
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16657
  5.1.18, movq xmm, MacBookPro7,1/Win10_64
• https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16663
  5.1.18, movups xmm, MacBookAir6,2/FreeBSD_64
• In this thread:
  5.1.22, vmovdqa oword, iMac17,1/ArchLinux_64

[corrosion]

Hi,
Still this is happening to me, I am using OS X Sierra and when trying to start my FreeBSD 11 guest into X11 it keeps crashing. I am using Virtualbox 5.1.22 which it is supposedly solved.
Regards

[michaln]

Still this is happening to me

No it's not, unless you can provide a VBox.log showing that it is

[corrosion]

Hi,

Here is the log:

https://pastebin.com/sKmCh40u

Best regards

[michaln]

Indeed you are correct, lucky you. 5.1.22 was meant to fix problems with Windows and Linux guests, so this particular problem (movups instruction emulation) will get fixed later, possibly soon.

[zlatkig]

Guess I am lucky too, running into the same showstopper.

I'd post my log file but this forum isn't making it easy. Log file is too large to attach and I am not allowed to post URLs.

[erdeslawe]

It's very easy - You 'zip' the log and use the "Upload attachment" tab at the bottom of the edit screen in your reply.

[zlatkig]

Ok, here it is. It seems to be exactly the same reason as mentioned above - movups instruction.

[socratis]

@zlatkig, @corrosion
It seems that both you have a case of https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/16663 that affects FreeBSD_64 clients. I'll update the 1st post to make a note of it.

[zlatkig]

@socratis thanks for your effort. Which bug report should we follow? Those I could find have been closed either as duplicates or with "fixed in 5.1.22". But this particular issue is not fixed yet.

[socratis]

@zlatkig
Thank you for this. Indeed the issue is not the same, that's why I reopened ticket 16663. Please follow that one.

[frank]

All users which affected by the VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED Guru Meditation should test the most recent 5.1.x test builds (>= 115260). More SSE instructions were implemented (among them movups xmm) and should fix the remaining problems.

[zlatkig]

Thanks. I confirm that the issue in my setup has been resolved with test-build 115786.

[socratis]

@zlatkig
Thanks for reporting back. And to ticket 16663 as well.

[Thomazella]

Hi, I'm trying to find the proper place to report this.

I'm on 5.1.22 getting an VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED when trying to start the Liri wayland desktop just after SDDM. Crash to Guru Meditation.
host is MacOs 10.12.5
guest is Archlinux

snip from error

Code: Select all

....
00:00:49.660553 VGA Sequencer (3C5): SR index 3C4:00
00:00:49.660556  SR00:03 SR01:01 SR02:0F SR03:00 SR04:0A
00:00:49.660581 !!
00:00:49.660581 !! {vgatext}
00:00:49.660582 !!
00:00:49.660584 Not in text mode!
00:00:49.660585 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
00:00:49.660634 emR3Debug: rc=VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED
00:01:15.389854 GUI: User request to power VM off on Guru Meditation.
...

relevant files attached.

thanks for any input.

Edit: will test latest test builds and report back.