VirtualBox with more then one CPU Core

[wewa]

Hello everybody,

I am running Debian 7.1 (32bit) with Oracle VirtualBox 4.2.18 on a Windows 7 (64bit) host PC. It works fine, but I would need a higher performance for the virtual machine. Therefore I tried to assign more than one CPU core to the virtual machine. But if I assign more than one core to the virtual machine, I can't start it anymore. It crashes with following fault.

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A new session could not be started for the virtual machine Debian Cross Compiler.

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

Errorcode:E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component:Console
Interface:IConsole {db7ab4ca-2a3f-4183-9243-c1208da92392}

Any ideas how I could assign more than one CPU core? Or is this a bug of the current version of VirtualBox?

Best regards
wewa

[mpack]

Adding extra cores doesn't necessarily make make anything go faster.

It would help if you were explicit about which aspect of performance concerned you. In many similiar discussions it turns out that it was only the graphics which appeared slow, which is fixed by installing the guest additions.

The error message btw means that VT-x is either not enabled in your host BIOS, or something else (e.g. Hyper-v) is already using it. If VT-x is not available then there are a number of VirtualBox features you can't access.

If you want to continue this discussion then please provide basic diagnostics, including a VM log file. See Minimum information needed for assistance.

[wewa]

Hello,

guest additions is installed.

Virtual Box Version: 4.2.18 r88780
Host: Windows 7 (64 bit)
Guest: debian-7.1.0-i386

This are the guest settings:

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C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>VBoxManage showvminfo "Debian Cross Compiler" --details
Name:            Debian Cross Compiler
Groups:          /
Guest OS:        Debian
UUID:            1d64e06f-9454-457b-8fe7-00aee83a9c78
Config file:     C:\Users\user\VirtualBox VMs\Debian Cross Compiler\Debian
Cross Compiler.vbox
Snapshot folder: F:\VirtualBox\Sicherungen
Log folder:      C:\Users\user\VirtualBox VMs\Debian Cross Compiler\Logs
Hardware UUID:   1d64e06f-9454-457b-8fe7-00aee83a9c78
Memory size:     1024MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       60MB
CPU exec cap:    100%
HPET:            off
Chipset:         piix3
Firmware:        BIOS
Number of CPUs:  1
Synthetic Cpu:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             on
Time offset:     0ms
RTC:             UTC
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: off
Nested Paging:   on
Large Pages:     on
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           powered off (since 2013-09-13T16:04:46.000000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: on
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Tracing Enabled: off
Allow Tracing to Access VM: off
Tracing Configuration:
Autostart Enabled: off
Autostart Delay: 0
Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE
Storage Controller Type (0):            PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      2
Storage Controller Bootable (0):        on
Storage Controller Name (1):            SATA
Storage Controller Type (1):            IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  30
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      1
Storage Controller Bootable (1):        on
IDE (1, 0): Empty
SATA (0, 0): F:\VirtualBox\Debian Cross Compiler.vdi (UUID: bf97bc25-a9d1-4a3b-8
720-c6f33cf96348)
NIC 1:           MAC: 080027AD52B7, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace:
 off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Prom
isc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, re
ceive: 64)
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
LPT 1:           disabled
LPT 2:           disabled
Audio:           enabled (Driver: DSOUND, Controller: AC97)
Clipboard Mode:  disabled
Drag'n'drop Mode:  disabled
VRDE:            disabled
USB:             enabled
EHCI:            disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Bandwidth groups:  <none>

Shared folders:  <none>

VRDE Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     0

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB

And the log file is attached.

Is this enough information, or do you need more?

Best regards

[Perryg]

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

Enable hardware virtualization in your bios. If it is already enabled I would make sure something else is not using it preventing VirtualBox from using it, like Hyper-V.

[wewa]

Thank you. Enabling hardware virtualization in BIOS helped, now I can start the Virtual Machine with more than one Core.

But why does the guest system only see one core, if e.g. 4 cores are enabled?

[Perryg]

No idea. You would need to post some diagnostic information for anyone to tell.
What does the following say in the guests terminal:

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cat /proc/cpuinfo

[wewa]

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user@debian:~$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor	: 0
vendor_id	: GenuineIntel
cpu family	: 6
model		: 30
model name	: Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU       Q 720  @ 1.60GHz
stepping	: 5
cpu MHz		: 1581.034
cache size	: 6144 KB
fdiv_bug	: no
hlt_bug		: no
f00f_bug	: no
coma_bug	: no
fpu		: yes
fpu_exception	: yes
cpuid level	: 5
wp		: yes
flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx rdtscp lm constant_tsc pni ssse3 lahf_lm
bogomips	: 3162.06
clflush size	: 64
cache_alignment	: 64
address sizes	: 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

[Perryg]

OK now lets see the following
From the hosts terminal/command window type VBoxManage showvminfo <VM Name> --details and post here. Replace <VM Name> with the actual name of the VM. Use " " if the name has a space in it.

Note if the host is Windows you need to be in the directory that has VBoxManage.exe for the command to work.

Also run uname -a in the guest terminal and post the results.

[wewa]

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C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox>vboxmanage showvminfo "Debian Cross Compiler"
 --details
Name:            Debian Cross Compiler
Groups:          /
Guest OS:        Debian
UUID:            96872106-6433-4355-8cc6-fee0b6ab2ec4
Config file:     C:\Users\user\VirtualBox VMs\Debian Cross Compiler\Debian
Cross Compiler.vbox
Snapshot folder: C:\Users\user\VirtualBox VMs\Debian Cross Compiler\Snapsho
ts
Log folder:      C:\Users\user\VirtualBox VMs\Debian Cross Compiler\Logs
Hardware UUID:   96872106-6433-4355-8cc6-fee0b6ab2ec4
Memory size:     512MB
Page Fusion:     off
VRAM size:       12MB
CPU exec cap:    100%
HPET:            off
Chipset:         piix3
Firmware:        BIOS
Number of CPUs:  4
Synthetic Cpu:   off
CPUID overrides: None
Boot menu mode:  message and menu
Boot Device (1): Floppy
Boot Device (2): DVD
Boot Device (3): HardDisk
Boot Device (4): Not Assigned
ACPI:            on
IOAPIC:          on
PAE:             off
Time offset:     0ms
RTC:             UTC
Hardw. virt.ext: on
Hardw. virt.ext exclusive: off
Nested Paging:   on
Large Pages:     on
VT-x VPID:       on
State:           running (since 2013-09-19T19:55:32.827000000)
Monitor count:   1
3D Acceleration: off
2D Video Acceleration: off
Teleporter Enabled: off
Teleporter Port: 0
Teleporter Address:
Teleporter Password:
Tracing Enabled: off
Allow Tracing to Access VM: off
Tracing Configuration:
Autostart Enabled: off
Autostart Delay: 0
Storage Controller Name (0):            IDE
Storage Controller Type (0):            PIIX4
Storage Controller Instance Number (0): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (0):  2
Storage Controller Port Count (0):      2
Storage Controller Bootable (0):        on
Storage Controller Name (1):            SATA
Storage Controller Type (1):            IntelAhci
Storage Controller Instance Number (1): 0
Storage Controller Max Port Count (1):  30
Storage Controller Port Count (1):      1
Storage Controller Bootable (1):        on
IDE (1, 0): Empty
SATA (0, 0): F:\virtualbox\Debian Cross compiler1.vdi (UUID: d5e946e2-238b-4a72-
a1d2-40e9c241d191)
NIC 1:           MAC: 0800276E6DBE, Attachment: NAT, Cable connected: on, Trace:
 off (file: none), Type: 82540EM, Reported speed: 0 Mbps, Boot priority: 0, Prom
isc Policy: deny, Bandwidth group: none
NIC 1 Settings:  MTU: 0, Socket (send: 64, receive: 64), TCP Window (send:64, re
ceive: 64)
NIC 2:           disabled
NIC 3:           disabled
NIC 4:           disabled
NIC 5:           disabled
NIC 6:           disabled
NIC 7:           disabled
NIC 8:           disabled
Pointing Device: USB Tablet
Keyboard Device: PS/2 Keyboard
UART 1:          disabled
UART 2:          disabled
LPT 1:           disabled
LPT 2:           disabled
Audio:           disabled
Clipboard Mode:  disabled
Drag'n'drop Mode:  disabled
Video mode:      1366x768x32
VRDE:            disabled
USB:             enabled
EHCI:            disabled

USB Device Filters:

<none>

Available remote USB devices:

<none>

Currently Attached USB Devices:

<none>

Bandwidth groups:  <none>

Shared folders:  <none>

VRDE Connection:    not active
Clients so far:     0

Guest:

Configured memory balloon size:      0 MB
OS type:                             Linux26
Additions run level:                 2
Additions version:                   4.2.18 r88780


Guest Facilities:

Facility "VirtualBox Base Driver": active/running (last update: 2013/09/19 19:55
:49 UTC)
Facility "VirtualBox System Service": active/running (last update: 2013/09/19 19
:56:09 UTC)
Facility "Seamless Mode": not active (last update: 2013/09/19 19:55:49 UTC)
Facility "Graphics Mode": active/running (last update: 2013/09/19 19:55:49 UTC)

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user@debian ~ $ uname -a
Linux debian 3.2.0-4-486 #1 Debian 3.2.46-1+deb7u1 i686 GNU/Linux

[Perryg]

http://packages.debian.org/wheezy/linux ... .2.0-4-486

Looks like the kernel you have does not support SMP. I would update to one that does.

[wewa]

Thank you, I could fix the problem with your help.