VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED with Win10 10.0.18362 (#18536)

[socratis]

A couple of notes...

1. That definitely buys the developers some more time, even a couple more VirtualBox updates until the next Win10 release. What's it going to be 1905?
2. The developers have been notified about this Insider build behavior. Not sure if they were aware of it...

[Jacob Klein]

It will still be Version 1903, per the article, because the baseline build was compiled in March 2019.

[Stanzilla]

I have the same problem and I think it might be because they recently enabled Retpoline by default.

Code: Select all

00:00:05.503108 VM: fHMEnabled=true  (configured) fRecompileUser=false fRecompileSupervisor=false
00:00:05.503110 VM: fRawRing1Enabled=false CSAM=true  PATM=true 
00:00:05.503494 HM: HMR3Init: Attempting fall back to NEM: VT-x is not available
00:00:05.542048 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeHypervisorPresent is TRUE, so this might work...
00:00:05.542062 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeExtendedVmExits      = 0x0000000000000007
00:00:05.542070 NEM:                       fExtendedMsrExit: 1
00:00:05.542076 NEM:                     fExtendedCpuIdExit: 1
00:00:05.542082 NEM:                      fExtendedXcptExit: 1
00:00:05.542089 NEM: Warning! Unknown feature definitions: 0x1f
00:00:05.542100 NEM: Supported exception exit bitmap: 0x1
00:00:05.542112 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeProcessorVendor      = 1 - Intel
00:00:05.542125 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeProcessorFeatures    = 0x0081704041f7019f
00:00:05.542156 NEM:                            Sse3Support: 1
00:00:05.542165 NEM:                        LahfSahfSupport: 1
00:00:05.542172 NEM:                           Ssse3Support: 1
00:00:05.542178 NEM:                          Sse4_1Support: 1
00:00:05.542185 NEM:                          Sse4_2Support: 1
00:00:05.542192 NEM:                           Sse4aSupport: 0
00:00:05.542198 NEM:                             XopSupport: 0
00:00:05.542204 NEM:                          PopCntSupport: 1
00:00:05.542211 NEM:                      Cmpxchg16bSupport: 1
00:00:05.542217 NEM:                       Altmovcr8Support: 0
00:00:05.542223 NEM:                           LzcntSupport: 0
00:00:05.542229 NEM:                     MisAlignSseSupport: 0
00:00:05.542235 NEM:                          MmxExtSupport: 0
00:00:05.542241 NEM:                        Amd3DNowSupport: 0
00:00:05.542247 NEM:                ExtendedAmd3DNowSupport: 0
00:00:05.542253 NEM:                         Page1GbSupport: 0
00:00:05.542259 NEM:                             AesSupport: 1
00:00:05.542265 NEM:                       PclmulqdqSupport: 1
00:00:05.542270 NEM:                            PcidSupport: 1
00:00:05.542277 NEM:                            Fma4Support: 0
00:00:05.542284 NEM:                            F16CSupport: 1
00:00:05.542290 NEM:                          RdRandSupport: 1
00:00:05.542296 NEM:                        RdWrFsGsSupport: 1
00:00:05.542302 NEM:                            SmepSupport: 1
00:00:05.542309 NEM:              EnhancedFastStringSupport: 1
00:00:05.542316 NEM:                            Bmi1Support: 0
00:00:05.542322 NEM:                            Bmi2Support: 0
00:00:05.542328 NEM:                           MovbeSupport: 0
00:00:05.542334 NEM:                          Npiep1Support: 1
00:00:05.542341 NEM:                   DepX87FPUSaveSupport: 0
00:00:05.542346 NEM:                          RdSeedSupport: 0
00:00:05.542353 NEM:                             AdxSupport: 0
00:00:05.542415 NEM:                   IntelPrefetchSupport: 0
00:00:05.542427 NEM:                            SmapSupport: 0
00:00:05.542433 NEM:                             HleSupport: 0
00:00:05.542439 NEM:                             RtmSupport: 0
00:00:05.542444 NEM:                          RdtscpSupport: 1
00:00:05.542451 NEM:                      ClflushoptSupport: 0
00:00:05.542457 NEM:                            ClwbSupport: 0
00:00:05.542465 NEM:                             ShaSupport: 0
00:00:05.542473 NEM:                X87PointersSavedSupport: 0
00:00:05.542482 NEM: Warning! Unknown CPU features: 0x81704041f7019f
00:00:05.542505 NEM: WHvCapabilityCodeProcessorClFlushSize = 2^8
00:00:05.543328 NEM: Warning! Unknown capability 0x1003 returning: 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00:00:05.544912 NEM: VidGetHvPartitionId            -> fun:0x2210a7 in:0x0 out:0x8
00:00:05.544935 NEM: VidStartVirtualProcessor       -> fun:0x221174 in:0x4 out:0x0
00:00:05.544944 NEM: VidStopVirtualProcessor        -> fun:0x221180 in:0x4 out:0x0
00:00:05.544967 NEM: VidMessageSlotHandleAndGetNext -> fun:0x2210df in:0x8 out:0x0
00:00:05.545370 NEM: Created partition 00000000011826a0.
00:00:05.545651 NEM: NEMR3Init: Active.
00:00:05.545816 MM: cbHyperHeap=0x140000 (1310720)
00:00:05.546964 CPUM: No hardware-virtualization capability detected
00:00:05.548281 CPUM: fXStateHostMask=0x7; initial: 0x7; host XCR0=0x7
00:00:05.552217 CPUM: Matched host CPU INTEL 0x6/0x3a/0x9 Intel_Core7_IvyBridge with CPU DB entry 'Intel Core i5-3570' (INTEL 0x6/0x3a/0x9 Intel_Core7_IvyBridge)
00:00:05.552482 CPUM: MXCSR_MASK=0xffff (host: 0xffff)
00:00:05.552584 CPUM: Microcode revision 0x00000020
00:00:05.552663 CPUM: MSR/CPUID reconciliation insert: 0x0000010b IA32_FLUSH_CMD
00:00:05.552742 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled PAE
00:00:05.552776 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled SYSENTER/EXIT
00:00:05.552785 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled SYSCALL/RET
00:00:05.552792 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled PAE
00:00:05.552798 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled LONG MODE
00:00:05.552804 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled LAHF/SAHF
00:00:05.552811 CPUM: SetGuestCpuIdFeature: Enabled NX
00:00:05.554463 VMSetError: F:\tinderbox\win-6.0\src\VBox\VMM\VMMR3\NEMR3Native-win.cpp(1463) int __cdecl nemR3NativeInitAfterCPUM(struct VM *); rc=VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED
00:00:05.554818 VMSetError: Call to WHvSetupPartition failed: ERROR_SUCCESS (Last=0xc000000d/87)
00:00:05.554898 NEM: Destroying partition 00000000011826a0 with its 0 VCpus...
00:00:05.710343 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_FAIL (0x80004005) aIID={872da645-4a9b-1727-bee2-5585105b9eed} aComponent={ConsoleWrap} aText={Call to WHvSetupPartition failed: ERROR_SUCCESS (Last=0xc000000d/87) (VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED)}, preserve=false aResultDetail=-6805
00:00:05.711031 Console: Machine state changed to 'PoweredOff'
00:00:05.730884 Power up failed (vrc=VERR_NEM_VM_CREATE_FAILED, rc=E_FAIL (0X80004005))
00:00:06.230907 GUI: UIMachineViewNormal::resendSizeHint: Restoring guest size-hint for screen 0 to 1400x1050
00:00:06.230961 ERROR [COM]: aRC=E_ACCESSDENIED (0x80070005) aIID={ab4164db-c13e-4dab-842d-61ee3f0c1e87} aComponent={DisplayWrap} aText={The console is not powered up}, preserve=false aResultDetail=0
00:00:06.231185 GUI: Aborting startup due to power up progress issue detected...

[socratis]

because they recently enabled Retpoline by default

What's "Retpoline"? According to a quick search, it's a response to a yet another Spectre issue:

Microsoft rolls out Google's Retpoline Spectre mitigation to Windows 10 users
KB4482887, released today, enables Google's Retpoline mitigation in the Windows 10 kernel (only for v1809 users).

If that was the case, then everybody and their cousin that runs 1809 would be affected, which is not the case.

But, @Stanzilla, let's start from the basics; are you running the latest insider build? Partial logs are not that helpful I'm afraid. Please ZIP and attach the full log. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.

[Jacob Klein]

In case it helps anyone with testing ...
Here's info I have stored, on how to manually enable (and disable I think?) retpoline in Windows 10.
I do not have the time to test enabling/disabling retpoline right now.

=======================================================================================================================================

https://techcommunity.microsoft.com/t5/ ... a-p/295618

While the phased rollout is in progress, customers who would like to manually enable Retpoline on their machines can do so with the following registry configuration updates:

On Client SKUs:
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0x400
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 0x400
Reboot

On Server SKUs:
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverride /t REG_DWORD /d 0x400
reg add "HKLM\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Session Manager\Memory Management" /v FeatureSettingsOverrideMask /t REG_DWORD /d 0x401
Reboot

Get-SpeculationControlSettings PowerShell cmdlet can be used to verify Retpoline status.
Since Retpoline is a performance optimization for Spectre Variant 2, it requires that hardware and OS support for branch target injection to be present and enabled. Skylake and later generations of Intel processors are not compatible with Retpoline, so only Import Optimization will be enabled on these processors.

=======================================================================================================================================

https://github.com/Microsoft/SpeculationControl

Install-Module -Name SpeculationControl
Set-ExecutionPolicy RemoteSigned
Get-SpeculationControlSettings

=======================================================================================================================================

Old support article:
https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/hel ... ilities-in

[Stanzilla]

@Stanzilla, let's start from the basics; are you running the latest insider build? Partial logs are not that helpful I'm afraid. Please ZIP and attach the full log. See the "Upload attachment" tab below the reply form.

It's a Spectre Mitigation, and with almost everything Microsoft rolls out, it is enabled in stages for users, so not everyone has it. I'm on the RTM version of Win10 1903 (18362.53). Logs are attached.

[socratis]

It's a Spectre Mitigation, and with almost everything Microsoft rolls out, it is enabled in stages for users, so not everyone has it

In that case can you follow Jacob's instructions and see if that fixes it?

I'm on the RTM version of Win10 1903 (18362.53)

Did VirtualBox work in previous versions?

[Stanzilla]

Those instructions are to ENABLE not to disable it, haven't figured out what the default values of those reg keys are yet. And yeah, it worked on previous versions.

[socratis]

00:00:04.885135 VirtualBox VM 6.0.4 r128413 win.amd64 (Jan 25 2019 18:13:23) release log

If you want to use the latest version for your host/guests, you should also consider doing the same for VirtualBox. If that doesn't work you should try the latest test builds. Can you please try the latest test builds?

[Jacob Klein]

I'm on the RTM version of Win10 1903 (18362.53). Logs are attached.

v1903 has not gone RTM. It is still only available to Insiders, and is being patched up before public release.

[Jacob Klein]

I spent some time trying to test whether retpoline is a causal factor, but ... got stuck.

I need help figuring out exactly how the
- FeatureSettings (I get the impression we should NOT be modifying this one at all!)
- FeatureSettingsOverride
- FeatureSettingsOverrideMask
registry keys work.

Specifically, I think I need to learn:
- What does it mean if a bit is on/off in each registry key?
- Does "FeatureSettingsOverrideMask" set to "On" for a bit, mean "I control this bit's setting, so use my FeatureSettingsOverride value for this bit's setting!" ?
- What functionality is being controlled by bit flag position: 0x800 ?
- What functionality is being controlled by bit flag position: 0x400 ?

Microsoft has done a terrible job at documenting this

If anyone has answers for my questions (My goal is to be able to turn retpoline off and on, at will)
... then I'd be very thankful, and able to complete my retpoline testing.

[Stanzilla]

v1903 has not gone RTM. It is still only available to Insiders, and is being patched up before public release.

That is incorrect

[socratis]

Stanzilla, don't throw out an "That is incorrect" and leave us hanging, please do explain yourself...

[Stanzilla]

Stanzilla, don't throw out an "That is incorrect" and leave us hanging, please do explain yourself...

Oh, sorry. It is generally available through the Media Creation Tool already, which means RTM

[Jacob Klein]

Stanzilla, don't throw out an "That is incorrect" and leave us hanging, please do explain yourself...

Oh, sorry. It is generally available through the Media Creation Tool already, which means RTM

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/softwar ... /windows10
is the download location for the Media Creation Tool.

For me, that page says "Windows 10 October 2018 Update now available" (v1809)
"Download tool now" offers "MediaCreationTool1809.exe" (v1809)
and has file properties indicating "10.0.17763.1"
Are you seeing something different?