VERR_VMX_MSR_VMXON_DISABLED when starting an image

Question

I'm getting this error while loading a Puppet image from a Oracle virtual box. How can I fix it?

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine learn-puppet-centos-6.4-pe-3.1.0.

VT-x is disabled in the BIOS. (VERR_VMX_MSR_VMXON_DISABLED).

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: Console
Interface: IConsole {8ab7c520-2442-4b66-8d74-4ff1e195d2b6}

In addition, I see that the acellerate-tab in Virtual Box is disabled.

Answer 1

There is an option in the Virtual Box itself. If you look in the Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager. Select the Virtual Box you want to start. Go to System, the second from above item in the right pane. In System go to the third tab called acceleration. In that tab the first check box is called something like: 'VT-x/AMD-V' (I have the Dutch version, so I don't know the exact string) UNCHECK And then start. That worked for me.

I also got this problem after an upgrade. And I did not have the problem before. But I fail to see the exact connection between the update and the check/unchecking of that option.

By the way, I have no idea where the hell that 'virtualization tab' should be in my 'BIOS'. Maybe I was looking in my PC's BIOS not the System page here which is the BIOS of the VM Machine maybe and that is what you meant Veer7? If it was, it was pretty unclear you meant this. Maybe it's because I have OVM in Dutch not English. But there was nothing called BIOS in the Oracle VM Virtual Box Manager I could find.

Answer 2

I had the same problem. I enabled vtx in bios and it didn't worked. After a doublecheck in the bios I recogniced that the bios said that you have to poweroff (and realy power off) the computer. After that it worked. Heavy Pitfall :)

Answer 3

That's pretty simple problem to fix as you can see in the error message

You don't have to go with the previous version of virtual box, rather try this

go to your BIOS setting...

inside the virtualization tab enable the virtualiation techniuqe

restart your PC and you will have your Virtual Box up and running.

Answer 4

If you start a 64 bit virtual machine on a 32 bit host machine you will get this error.

Answer 5

I upgraded to Windows 10 x64 (from Windows 7 x64), had a VirtualBox Windows 10 x64 VM, but got the VT-x error. My BIOS was enabled, settings - everything in this post was addressed, but still got the VT-x error.

What fixed it for me was to go to Lenovo and install the latest BIOS for my W550s ThinkPad. Once the upgrade was installed, VirtualBox gave me the x64 options again with no more VT-x errors.

If you are running a W550s, the BIOS version I installed was from September 2015, "BIOS Update Utility" n11uj05w.exe, version 1.10 from the Lenovo website.

Answer 6

I believe VirtualBox is throwing this error for a number of reasons. Very annoying that it's one error for so many things but, I guess it's the same requirement it's just that the root cause is different.

Potential gotchas:

1. You haven't enabled VT-x in VirtualBox and it's required for the VM.
   • To enable: open vbox, click the VM, click Settings..., System->Acceleration->VT-x check box.
2. You haven't enabled VT-x in BIOS and it's required.
   • Check your motherboard manual but you basically want to enter your BIOS just after the machine turns on (usually DEL key, F2, F12 etc) and find "Advanced" tag, enter "CPU configuration", then enable "Intel Virtualization Technology".
3. Your processor doesn't support VT-x (eg a Core i3).
   • In this case your BIOS and VirtualBox shouldn't allow you to try and enable VT-x (but if they do, you'll likely get a crash in the VM).
4. Your trying to install or boot a 64 bit guest OS.
   • I think 64 bit OS requires true CPU pass-through which requires VT-x. (A VM expert can comment on this point).
5. You are trying to allocate >3GB of RAM to the VM.
   • Similar to the previous point, this requires: (a) a 64 bit host system; and (b) true hardware pass-through ie VT-x.

So for my little mess around machine that I'm resurrecting that has 8GB RAM but only a ye-olde Core i3, I'm having success if I install: 32 bit version of linux, allocating 2.5GB RAM.

Oh, and wherever I say "VT-x" above, that obviously applies equally to AMD's "AMD-V" virtualization tech.

I hope that helps.