LHC@home

Tried an older VB version, no joy.

Maybe all these problems are caused by switching from classic BIOS boot to UEFI .... ??

IBM called it Microchannel in the past,
Microsoft call it TPM (since five Year all Mainboard manufactories produce it so).

Maybe all these problems are caused by switching from classic BIOS boot to UEFI .... ??

No, I haven't changed that. I think two of them (the xeons) are on classic BIOS, the others are on UEFI. I've checked the computer labelled Xeon 1 in task manager, command prompt system info, and the Intel Processor Identification Utility, and they all say everything to do with virtualisation is enabled. There's something up with LHC's tasks not detecting I have virtualisation enabled.

Boinc is detecting it: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10772266 Virtualization Virtualbox (6.1.32) installed, CPU has hardware virtualization support and it is enabled

But the task is not: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=345616156 VBoxManage.exe: error: VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes (VERR_VMX_MSR_ALL_VMX_DISABLED)

There's something up with LHC's tasks not detecting I have virtualisation enabled.

I can't imagine that there is something wrong with the tasks.
The vboxwrapper and vdi-image files aren't changed recently.
It seems that only Windows user are affected and not Linux using VBox.
Could someone with this problem try 1 Rosetta VBox task or a VBox-task from another project?

I fixed it!!! Windows was fucking me about with yet another bug - it must have come in with an update, or with Windows 11. HyperV was invisibly running despite it being switched off!

Follow the instructions here: https://www.wintips.org/fix-virtualbox-error-vt-x-is-not-available-in-windows-10/
People say it was the command line that does the job (I turned HyperV on, then off, then did the command line, with a reboot each time - I'm about to try just the command line on another computer and will report back shortly). The command line is

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off

followed by a reboot. Perhaps something should be posted somewhere for what is presumably going to affect all Windows users.

Perhaps something should be posted somewhere for what is presumably going to affect all Windows users.

We always request to completely disable Hyper-V following the advice given in the VirtualBox forum which also requests to completely disable Hyper-V.
And it's already posted "somewhere".
Google currently has 27000 hits.
We won't add another one.

Perhaps something should be posted somewhere for what is presumably going to affect all Windows users.

We always request to completely disable Hyper-V following the advice given in the VirtualBox forum which also requests to completely disable Hyper-V.
And it's already posted "somewhere".
Google currently has 27000 hits.
We won't add another one.

Hyper-V WAS disabled. There is a new bug in Windows, you have to turn it on then reboot then off then reboot then enter the command then reboot. This happened suddenly on 5 of my 7 machines, it must be a Windows update that did it. This is going to happen to a lot of people, and I can already see many in this thread. I have never used Hyper V and it has never been ticked as enabled in the options.

ARGH! This fixed it on half of them. There's something else going on here. I'm still getting the error in my tasks on a couple of computers, eg. https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=345645078 :

VBoxManage.exe: error: VT-x is disabled in the BIOS for all CPU modes (VERR_VMX_MSR_ALL_VMX_DISABLED)

This is simply not true, VT-X is on, HyperV has been switched on, rebooted, switched off, rebooted, the command "bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype off" entered, rebooted, and still it can't see the VT-X. This is ridiculous. Maybe you should give up on the bug-ridden Oracle and switch to HyperV or native WUs?

This computer reports 7.86 GB total RAM, 4 CPUs and 2 cores.
Beside that all LHC VMs require hardware virtualization to be enabled.
The (ATLAS) VM is configured to allocate 6.6 GB RAM and 4 processors.

The VirtualBox FAQs request to leave at least 1 core free (= not allocated for a VM).

Hence, on this computer ATLAS should be run using a 2-CPU setup.

Processor online count: 4
Processor count: 4
Processor online core count: 2
Processor core count: 2
Processor supports HW virtualization: no
Memory size: 7862 MByte
Memory available: 5177 MByte

Not sure if Windows disables HW virtualization if it doesn't have enough resources.

I have a much better machine which doesn't work, almost identical to one which does work. What's the difference between these two machines?

This one works: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10772266

This one fails: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10772267
With eg. this task https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/result.php?resultid=345647929

What's the difference

Virtualbox (5.2.44) vs. Virtualbox (6.1.32)

On the not working computer you may try Virtualbox 6.1.30 first.
If it still fails you may try Virtualbox 5.2.44

Always ensure to run all tests with fresh VMs.
Never downgrade while a VM is just suspended => they will crash and may leave garbage.

This one works with 6.1.32: https://lhcathome.cern.ch/lhcathome/show_host_detail.php?hostid=10772275

I'll try the older versions on the busted Xeon.... I take it by "fresh VM" you mean one that hasn't been started yet - a downloaded and unstarted one is ok?

Failed, the broken xeon will not run LHC with any of those three versions of VB. However the one I fixed is now happy on Rosettas aswell as LHC. I'm going to try turning HyperV on and off again.

Sorted. Follow the instructions on https://www.wintips.org/fix-virtualbox-error-vt-x-is-not-available-in-windows-10/ to turn on and off and disable hyperv. If this fails, just do it all again. Windows sometimes has to be told twice!

Woo Hoo. Also sorted.
Peter's fix didn't help as I have a Home edition of Windows which supposedly doesn't have Hyper-V so no amount of trying to disable it was of any benefit.
So something was still not allowing VBox to see that Virtualisation was Available and Activated.
Downgrading to VBox 6.1.30 didn't help either, nor did uninstalling a couple of Windows updates.
Further Googling found the problem reported elsewhere as well and eventually I found that an Avast Antivirus update had given it a new feature in
Menu - Settings - Troubleshooting called Enable hardware-assisted virtualisation which is checked by default but needs to be UNCHECKED
One host happy again with LHC & -dev and I'm sure the other will be, too once it finishes a couple of Rosettas and a Yoyo.

  (\_/)
 (=^.^=)
 (")_(")

Woo Hoo. Also sorted.
Peter's fix didn't help as I have a Home edition of Windows which supposedly doesn't have Hyper-V so no amount of trying to disable it was of any benefit.
So something was still not allowing VBox to see that Virtualisation was Available and Activated.
Downgrading to VBox 6.1.30 didn't help either, nor did uninstalling a couple of Windows updates.
Further Googling found the problem reported elsewhere as well and eventually I found that an Avast Antivirus update had given it a new feature in
Menu - Settings - Troubleshooting called Enable hardware-assisted virtualisation which is checked by default but needs to be UNCHECKED
One host happy again with LHC & -dev and I'm sure the other will be, too once it finishes a couple of Rosettas and a Yoyo.

  (\_/)
 (=^.^=)
 (")_(")o

I changed all mine from Home to Pro, they're already Pro with bits disabled, you just need to switch them on :-)

Aha! My AVG (same company) has the same setting, and I have 3 of 7 computers that still won't LHC after my above fix, and 4 of 7 that won't Rosetta (odd that one does LHC only). I will now try your suggestion....

Your rabbit is anatomically incorrect.

You need to reboot after unchecking that box to get the setting to "stick". Hoping it fixes those machines for you, as it did mine.
I removed the Happy Bunny's "tail" typo 8¬)

You need to reboot after unchecking that box to get the setting to "stick". Hoping it fixes those machines for you, as it did mine.
I removed the Happy Bunny's "tail" typo 8¬)

I didn't mean the tail, that does look like a tail, I meant the absence of a thing rabbits use a lot.

It fixed 2 of 3 LHC.
And 0 of 4 Rosetta. But judging by the complaints over there, it's their programming errors.

Thanks - progress made, now LHC works on 6/7 of my machines. VB is very fussy. If the virus checker is blocking something, why didn't it inform us? Very bad programming indeed. And AVG expect me to buy such rubbish. It stays on the free version until such time as they make things actually work. You'd be excused for thinking Microsoft made it.