virtualbox.org

Hi all. I picked up an older PC running an Intel i5 650 processor. The processor does support VT-x, and I checked in BIOS several times to make sure it was enabled (see attached camera image). When I try to start a VM I transferred from one of my other systems, the Vbox user interface tells me "VT-x is disabled in the BIOS" (see attached screenshot for more). Does anyone know how to resolve this?

Check to see if anything else is using it: I have a 64bit host, but can't install 64bit guests. Those are guidelines, you have to use your judgement...

This is on a newly installed Linux Mint 18.3 box with only an assortment of Vbox packages added. Is there some command or ??? to tell me if it's in use by another process? Or do I just eyeball it?

The latter I'm afraid... It can be a real pain, I know, but there's no pre-made solution, just ideas left and right. And collective past experience.

Did you completely power off / cold start your system after VT-x was activated in BIOS?
(also VT-d is not needed/used on a Llinux notebook and can create problems with some graphics drivers, so it could be disabled)

Martin wrote:VT-d is not needed/used on a Llinux notebook and can create problems with some graphics drivers

Really? Do you have any specific GPU examples? That would be good to know...

Ah, that could be it. I did restarts, but not a power-off. Thanks for the tips. I will document the results here.

Martin wrote:Did you completely power off / cold start your system after VT-x was activated in BIOS?
(also VT-d is not needed/used on a Llinux notebook and can create problems with some graphics drivers, so it could be disabled)

The BIOS is supposed to know which settings require a power cycle, and force one if any of those settings changes. Some BIOSes (especially older ones) don't do that, which confuses the heck out of users. You end up in a situation where the BIOS is telling you one thing but the actual CPU state is different.

I seem to remember that in the past it was sometimes necessary to actually remove the battery from a laptop to force a BIOS settings change on some systems.