Unable to run a guest with VT-x activated.

[mastermkl]

Hello Everyone,

I use VirtualBox 4.1.2 to boot my company environment on a raw disk which is a Windows Seven Enterprise Service pack 1 32 bits with McAfee end point encryption.

It work like a charm without VT-x activated, a little slow.
I really would like it to work with VT-x to increase speed but no way to boot after first McAfee login screen.

It seems the boot code of McAfee do not like VT-x mode.
Of course others OSs boot in 32 or 64 bits mode with VT-x.

Any ideas/links how to use console debugging to understand why?
(Nothing interesting in Vbox.logs…)

Host : Ubuntu 11.04 64 bits on a EliteBook 2540p
uname -a
Linux ####### 2.6.38-11-generic #48-Ubuntu SMP Fri Jul 29 19:02:55 UTC 2011 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux
cat /proc/cpuinfo
…
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU L 640 @ 2.13GHz
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 rdtscp lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good nopl xtopology nonstop_tsc aperfmperf pni pclmulqdq dtes64 monitor ds_cpl vmx smx est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm sse4_1 sse4_2 popcnt aes lahf_lm ida arat dts tpr_shadow vnmi flexpriority ept vpid
bogomips : 4255.98
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
…

Thanks in advance for support.

[Sasquatch]

Well, you just gave the answer. Other VMs work, so it's isolated to that single RAW disk VM. Something is preventing proper boot, and as you said, it starts to error once McAfee loads. I know from past experience and several user posts on other sites that McAfee can be a pain in the neck, even on normal systems. Get rid of it and then see if you can boot properly with VT-x.

[mastermkl]

Hello and thanks for your answer.

But you may have missed my point.

Yes, I well details the behavior that lead to your quick answer. (The answer is on the question... Thanks for that...)
I did not ask for advices like getting rid of... I cannot if you understand the context...

I asked this : "Any ideas/links how to use console debugging to understand why?" to find out :
Why VT-x did not make it boot? As without VT-x and so using recompiler mode it work and that sound weird for me.

Thanks in advance for debug advices.
Best Regards.
mkl.

[Sasquatch]

McAfee probably gets something from the CPU when VT-x is enabled that it doesn't like. So if you remove McAfee and boot into normal mode, and the VM can boot properly, then you know that it is causing problems. Then you have two choices: disable VT-x and keep McAfee or enable VT-x and replace McAfee for software that does work with VT-x properly.

[mastermkl]

I would say there is the third choice to debug and understand the root cause...
As it seems I can not get support for that purpose I will do as usual and forget about it...
That is the new developper way to work, the futur looks great...

[Sasquatch]

For support you can direct to the Bugtracker (separate account needed) and McAfee Support Center. I'm just a mod, not involved in the development of VB in any way.

[mastermkl]

Thanks.

[mastermkl]

After trials, just to add that it work with Xen (latest stable and unstable with kernel 2.6.38,39,3.0.4) and also with KVM. (QEMU emulator version 0.14.0 (qemu-kvm-0.14.0) so I have switch to KVM.

[Sasquatch]

VB can't be compared to those two, because VB is a type-2 hypervisor and KVM/Xen are a type-1. Sorry to see you leave VB, but you will probably gain some performance increase. Take care and enjoy the benefits of virtualisation.