Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

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whcox53
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Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

Post by whcox53 » Wed Dec 18, 2024 3:23 pm

My system was upgraded to Windows 11 24H2 a few days ago. This morning when I tried to to start my VMS x86 V9.2-3 VM on VirtualBox I get an error from the VMS Boot Manager claiming that my machine does not meet the requirements to boot VMS (specifically it says I do not have XSAVE instruction.)

I ran vmscheck.py and it says I definitely do have the XSAVE capability.

I checked and found HyperV enabled. Not sure if that happened during upgrade or if I turned it on earlier. I disabled that and restarted the windows host, but still no joy. I did find a lot of complaints of issues with VirtualBox and Winows 11 24H2, but they seemed to have more to do with VirtualBox disabling some capabilities. I was able to start the Linux VM on VirtualBox with no issues.

Has anyone else updated to 24H2 and seen issues.

Added in 21 minutes 34 seconds:
I noticed that the Oracle VM in VirtualBox had the "GreenTurtle", which indicated that HyperV is still active (even though I turned the feature off.) After tracing down that lead it turns out the fix was to disable the Windows feature "Virtual Machine Platform". With that turned off and the system rebooted I am able to boot VMS again.

I suspect that the Windows 11 24H2 update turned it on.
Last edited by whcox53 on Wed Dec 18, 2024 3:48 pm, edited 1 time in total.
bill
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mgdaniel
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Re: Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

Post by mgdaniel » Wed Dec 18, 2024 3:52 pm

Code: Select all

Edition        Windows 11 Pro
Version        24H2
Installed on   5/12/2024
OS build       26100.2605

Code: Select all

VirtualBox Graphical User Interface
Version 7.1.4r165100 (Qt6.5.3)
None.


amuir
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Re: Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

Post by amuir » Thu Dec 19, 2024 6:15 am

This is probably my biggest annoyance with Windows 11. I found the following article helpful.

https://communities.vmware.com/t5/VMwar ... -p/2989411

You may want to bookmark it, because I have to do this almost every time I apply Windows Updates.

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Re: Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

Post by dmjb » Thu Dec 19, 2024 7:47 am

I agree that this is most likely a Hyper-V issue.


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whcox53
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Re: Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

Post by whcox53 » Thu Dec 19, 2024 10:08 am

Thanks for the feedback.

At first glance I thought perhaps that mgdaniel didn't see the problem because they installed an earlier version 24H2 (May 2014), but the OS Build number is the same (26100.2605).

So I am not sure why I saw the problem and they didn't, but it is resolved now. And I did bookmark the rather lengthy post on disabling Hyper-V.
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Re: Can't start VirtualBox VM after upgrade to Win 24H2

Post by gdwnldsksc » Mon Jan 13, 2025 5:21 pm

Note that to use VMware Workstation and Virtualbox, there is a far more elegant solution - installing the Windows Hypervisor Platform optional feature. It is listed in that VMware link to be removed, but it should be considered the ONLY viable/real option. Doing so means any future updates/upgrades won't impact the functionality of any of the virtualization software - they will all continue to work. I have Hyper-V, VMware, and VB VMs running concurrently right now. I use Hyper-V primarily however, due to the performance benefits & vCPU density (plus local storage performance!) - dropping back to VMW or VB as required by specific/obscure OSes (Like NT3.1, OpenVMS ;) and such, or things delivered as VMware appliances, for example)

However, it must be noted that removing Hyper-V *greatly* decreases the security protections of the Windows OS. A *lot* of security functionality/exploit mitigation/etc is built off of the virtualization tech, and you create a far more vulnerable condition/state with it disabled.

Long story short: Don't disable Hyper-V, install the add-on requirements

And DON'T disable core isolation. Do install WHP/VMP.

Further note: that lengthy post is... well, quite lengthy and unnecessary, if hyper-v must truly be disabled, merely doing bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off is ALL you have to do, as all hyper-v reliant features/functions safely degrade or disable with the absence of the hypervisor.

I have been successfully running VMS in VMware Workstation with Hyper-V enabled on multiple devices since the original field test releases.
Last edited by gdwnldsksc on Mon Jan 13, 2025 5:27 pm, edited 4 times in total.

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