Guest PAE not supported/Mac OSX won't install/Ubuntu Server fails to boot after install -> fixed in 1.6.0

[tolmi]

Host: Ubuntu Edgy on Intel Core 2 Duo
Guest: CentOS 5 beta 1 (RedHat EL5 clone)

Log follows:

---

Log created: 2007-03-20T00:08:15.453613000Z
Executable: /opt/VirtualBox-1.3.8/VirtualBox
Arg[0]: /opt/VirtualBox-1.3.8/VirtualBox
Arg[1]: -startvm
Arg[2]: 711f8661-079e-4892-9b48-d5aea94c1ab3

!!Assertion Failed!!
Expression: <NULL>
Location : /home/vbox/vbox-1.3/src/VBox/VMM/VMMAll/PGMAllGst.h(502) int pgmR3GstPAEMonitorCR3(VM*, RTGCPHYS)

[Sander van Leeuwen]

It's a known restriction: guest PAE is not supported. We will implement this in the future.

[Frank Mehnert]

Try to use a different guest kernel.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Same with OpenSUSE 10.3 beta apparently.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

See duplicate defect 656,

[Technologov]

Good news: openSUSE 10.3 final installs "default" kernel, instead of PAE kernel, so this bug will NOT affect openSUSE 10.3 guests.

-Technologov

[snearch]

Ubuntu Server 7.10 on VirtualBox 1.5.2 on Windows XP Prof. SP2 gives

"PANIC: CPU too old for this kernel."

a few seconds after rebooting.

[Jared Sutton]

anyone have an update on when this might be fixed?

[RavenMokel]

Since i want to use VirtualBox to try out some Ubuntu Server variants (or other distributions using kernels which require PAE), i'm also very interested in an ETA of when this might be fixed.

-David

[RavenMokel]

Oh, and all Debian/Ubuntu Xen-enabled kernels also require PAE. A Xen system was also something i wanted to try out using VirtualBox... looks like i either have to wait, compile my own xen kernel (without PAE) or try something completely different to try out xen.

[lsof]

This isn't a VirtualBox bug.

Ubuntu is booting from a non-PAE kernel, then installing a PAE kernel on a box without testing it. The Ubuntu (and other) installers are at fault, not VirtualBox.

[Jared Sutton]

All Intel CPUs from the Pentium Pro onward (or the K6-2 and onward in the case of AMD) support PAE. Is it so unreasonable that the Ubuntu installer assumes that it is supported?

I'm not quite sure why implementing PAE support is such a problem. I wouldn't mind trying to implement it myself, if someone would point me in the right direction.

[Frank Mehnert]

A program should respect the features which the CPUID instruction delivers. As VBox guests don't see the PAE feature even on PAE CPUs they should not assume that PAE is available.

Apart from this nobody said that implementing the PAE mode is very difficult. The problem is that there are a plenty of features and bugs which are not difficult to implement or to fix respectively. We will implement this mode but we cannot promise any ETA.

[furiousangel]

In ubuntu.

I was able to install a working kernel by booting from the server install CD, launching a recovery shell, and running

apt-get install linux-generic

When booting, press ESC to enter the GRUB boot menu and select the -generic kernel

if you want you can edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and make this the default kernel.

you can also compile the kernel without PAE. good luck.

[Sander van Leeuwen]

Supported in SVN and the upcoming 1.6.

[Gurjeet Singh]

This bug seems to have resurfaced!!! I am using version 1.6.4, and Ubuntu from ubuntu-8.04.1-server-i386.iso CD image.

I have created this VM to use only 64MB of RAM.

The exact message is:

Starting up ...

This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU:

0:6

Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

Let me know if I can provide any more info.

Going to try the alternative approach mentioned above.

[Frank Mehnert]

Please could you

• check with 1.6.6 and
• attach the VBox.log file of that session?

[Gurjeet Singh]

I am sorry... I just noticed on anther website (​http://tombuntu.com/index.php/2007/09/05/making-ubuntu-server-work-in-virtualbox/) that the PAE support is "experimental" and then remembered having seen such an option somewhere in the GUI! (I have been a VBox user for a LoooNG time)

So I restarted the VM with the PAE/NX in General>Advanced tab. And it is working now.

Thanks for a quick response, and thumbs up for a great work you guys are doing.

Best regards, Gurjeet Singh