virtualbox.org

Im running a fresh Arch x86_64 install. When i fire up my vm's with VT-x enabled the pc locks up. It looks like a kernal panic as everything is unresponsive. There is nothing in the logs to suggest what it was. My CPU is a 2ghz Core2Duo (laptop cpu)
It supports VT-x as it used to work on earlyer versions of arch/VB (but i updated both my kernal and VB a few months back and that broke everything so im not sure where the issue lies) (also i know i have enabled Virtualization in my Bios)
Here is egrep "'(vmx|svm)' /proc/cpuinfo |grep" vmx from my pc. (The result is actually x2)

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm tpr_shadow

It does this with ANY os as the guest. Infact all i see is the "bios screen" and then it freezes. Any help would be awesome.

Yet another edit. VBOX doesnt even get to write a log. or it does an it gets lost to the fact i cant shut down the pc and have to hard power cycle it. Oh and i found my CPU description even better in the VB logs.. (from a running VM that has VT-x Disabled) Hope it helps :S

00:00:01.980 Name: GenuineIntel
00:00:01.980 Supports: 0-2
00:00:01.980 Family: 6 Extended: 0 Effective: 6
00:00:01.980 Model: 15 Extended: 0 Effective: 15
00:00:01.980 Stepping: 6
00:00:01.980 APIC ID: 0x00
00:00:01.980 Logical CPUs: 0
00:00:01.980 CLFLUSH Size: 8
00:00:01.980 Brand ID: 0x00
00:00:01.980 Mnemonic - Description = guest (host)
00:00:01.980 FPU - x87 FPU on Chip = 1 (1)
00:00:01.980 VME - Virtual 8086 Mode Enhancements = 1 (1)
00:00:01.980 DE - Debugging extensions = 1 (1)
00:00:01.980 PSE - Page Size Extension = 1 (1)
00:00:01.980 TSC - Time Stamp Counter = 1 (1)
00:00:01.980 MSR - Model Specific Registers = 1 (1)
00:00:01.980 PAE - Physical Address Extension = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 MCE - Machine Check Exception = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 CX8 - CMPXCHG8B instruction = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 APIC - APIC On-Chip = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 Reserved = 0 (0)
00:00:01.981 SEP - SYSENTER and SYSEXIT = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 MTRR - Memory Type Range Registers = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 PGE - PTE Global Bit = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 MCA - Machine Check Architecture = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 CMOV - Conditional Move Instructions = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 PAT - Page Attribute Table = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 PSE-36 - 36-bit Page Size Extention = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 PSN - Processor Serial Number = 0 (0)
00:00:01.981 CLFSH - CLFLUSH Instruction. = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 Reserved = 0 (0)
00:00:01.981 DS - Debug Store = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 ACPI - Thermal Mon. & Soft. Clock Ctrl.= 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 MMX - Intel MMX Technology = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 FXSR - FXSAVE and FXRSTOR Instructions = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 SSE - SSE Support = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 SSE2 - SSE2 Support = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 SS - Self Snoop = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 HTT - Hyper-Threading Technolog = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 TM - Thermal Monitor = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 30 - Reserved = 0 (0)
00:00:01.981 PBE - Pending Break Enable = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 Supports SSE3 or not = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 Reserved = 0 (2)
00:00:01.981 Supports MONITOR/MWAIT = 1 (1)
00:00:01.981 CPL-DS - CPL Qualified Debug Store = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 VMX - Virtual Machine Technology = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 Reserved = 0 (0)
00:00:01.981 Enhanced SpeedStep Technology = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 Terminal Monitor 2 = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 Supports Supplemental SSE3 or not = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 L1 Context ID = 0 (0)
00:00:01.981 Reserved = 0x0 (0x0)
00:00:01.981 CMPXCHG16B = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 xTPR Update Control = 0 (1)
00:00:01.981 Reserved = 0x0 (0x1)

Vt-x on laptops is usually not supported by the BIOS, you MUST enable it via the BIOS, if not it won't work (properly).

vbox4me2 wrote:Vt-x on laptops is usually not supported by the BIOS, you MUST enable it via the BIOS, if not it won't work (properly).

insanemal wrote:(also i know i have enabled Virtualization in my Bios)

Yep.. been there done that.. Thanks for the reply, sorry my orginal post isn't the neatest but i usually cover off on all the gear that would be documented in a manual or faq

There is a vt.iso you can boot with to determine/examine if vt-x is actually working.

Yeah the cd from VMware?
yeah Both cores come back with VT-x enabled
Something else to note it was doing this under the 32bit kernel, I recently upgraded to the 64bit Kernel and it's still happening. Also Like I said.. it was working.. then it just stopped.

So does anybody have any idea?

I use my VM every day (outlook and some other random Windows only App.. that i almost got working in wine...almost)
And having it running at 100% with all the help it can get would be tops.

Thanks again in advance for any ideas anybody comes up with.

One last bump of desperaton.

Come on guys.. there has to be somebody who knows?

The only thing that I can add to this is suggesting that you update your bios if you can . Something is either keeping VB from seeing the VT-x, or your guest can not deal with the virtualization process for what ever reason. You can try to regress your VBox and see if it recovers. Maybe something got hosed during that upgrade. Try to install a new 64 bit guest and see if it will work is also something that I would do to see if I could figure out what happened.

Thanks man. I have actually tracked the issue to the kernel. But again ive hit a dead end.
I tried Modprobe kvm-intel and it crashes exactly the same way

so yeah im going to flash my bios and see where i end up.