BSOD on Vista host (VT-x init failure -> vmxon #GP -> fixed in SVN)

[wraithdu]

I got a BSOD a few seconds after starting my VM (not after starting VirtualBox). I don't really have any other info besides that. The stop error was all zeroes, and no driver was listed.

This usually only happens the first time I try running the VM after a reboot. If I'm successful in starting the VM, then I can usually do whatever for the rest of my Windows session without any problems.

Here's 2 minidumps (also attached) -

​http://mihd.net/mupflh ​http://mihd.net/awmb83

[wraithdu]

Minidump from 2/14

[wraithdu]

Minidump from 2/15

[Technologov]

This bug looks like a duplicate of bug #595

-Technologov

[Sander van Leeuwen]

This seems to be a VT-x issue on your machine. Can you attach the VBox log of a successful session? Or start a VM and close it immediately.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Both of the mini dumps show exactly the same problem. Does your BIOS have a setting to enable VT-x?

[wraithdu]

I'll have to check my BIOS - I have a HP Pavillion dv8000t laptop, Core 2 Duo.

I think someone suggested turning off the hardware virtualization, and I did. I haven't used VBox enough since then to say that the problems are gone, but my next session did not crash. I had figured that VBox would not try to use (and crash) VT-x if it was not supported on my machine. I had left the option enabled because I wasn't sure.

I'll check my BIOS and try to submit a successful log later tonight when I get back to my laptop.

[wraithdu]

2/27/08 VBox Log

[wraithdu]

So it seems I was a little ignorant about VT-x. It was not enabled in my BIOS. So tonight I enabled it in the BIOS and in VBox 1.5.6 (just updated) and ran several sessions, with host reboots in between. No crashes.

I attached the log from one of my successful runs as requested.

I'm guessing the crash occurs on a system that supports VT-x, but has it DISabled in the BIOS and ENabled in VBox. So is VBox not seeing that VT-x is disabled and trying to initialize it anyway? The option seems to state that VBox will use VT-x if it is supported, and not use it if it isn't supported. Maybe supported and enabled are being confused.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

It's definitely an issue with VT-x initialization. Is there a newer BIOS for your laptop?

[Sander van Leeuwen]

I've changed VT-x initialization in our development branch. Presumably the BIOS didn't really disable it, but just didn't enable it. Our previous init code didn't enable VT-x on all cores.