virtualbox 6.1.50 fails to start any VM on Linux host, kernel 6.1.90

[tkrypton]

Hi,

after the latest debian security update from 6.1.0-20 to 6.1.0-21, virtualbox fails to start any VM with (longer log attached, but the limit for attachments is set too low to attach the full log):
...
00:00:00.755184 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'GURU_MEDITATION'
00:00:00.755188 Console: Machine state changed to 'GuruMeditation'
00:00:00.755370 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
00:00:00.755370 !!
00:00:00.755370 !! VCPU0: Guru Meditation -2708 (VERR_VMM_SET_JMP_ABORTED_RESUME)
00:00:00.755376 !!
00:00:00.755383 !! ACTIVE TRAP=0e ERRCD=10 CR2=00000000000fe05b PC=000000000000e05b Type=0 cbInstr=ff fIcebp=false (Guest!)
00:00:00.755386 !!
00:00:00.755386 !! CallRing3JmpBuf:
00:00:00.755386 !!
00:00:00.755386 SavedEsp=ffffb16f4a9ef748 SavedEbp=ffffb16f4a9ef750 SpResume=ffffb16f4a9ef720 SpCheck=ffffb16f4a9efb00
....

This is with kernel: "Linux kkcli1583 6.1.0-21-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Debian 6.1.90-1 (2024-05-03) x86_64 GNU/Linux"
As I need nested virtualisation to work in my VMs, virtualbox 7.x is not a viable option, as every 7.x version I tried crashed as soon as the VM (KVM in this case) inside starts up (on Linux - this seems to work better on windows).

This seems to be a generic error so I can only guess what went wrong here. The previous kernel version was 6.1.85 and that's still working OK, but without the security fixes I'm feeling...unsafe...

[badkirk]

I had the exact same issue on Debian Bookworm after running updates on 5/17. Upgrading to VirtualBox 7.x fixed the issue for me (after nothing else worked). My VM is now booting! Probably unrelated, but I noticed my virtualbox software repo in /etc/apt/sources.list.d was still pointing to bullseye so I updated that too.

[badkirk]

Sorry! Just noticed that you said 7.x was NOT an option for you.
-bk

[tkrypton]

Hi,

no, while 7.x on Linux still crashes with nested virtualization, it's not an option...