VirtualBox 7.2.0 Beta 1: VMs failed to start on Windows ARM host => fixed in SVN/next 7.2.x maintenance

[driver1998]

Host: Windows 11 24H2 26100.4061, Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2
Guest: Debian 12 ARM64

The VM failed to start with a Guru Meditation, with the following logs:

VBox.zip

[rbqvq]

8cx gen3 will BSoD SYSTEM_SERVICE_EXCEPTION after start VM

Environment: Win11 Pro 23H2, SecureBoot: ON
Device: Windows Dev Kit 2023

I tried remove HyperV also BSoD.

[mibosshard]

Version 7.2.0_BETA1 r169020
host: Windows 11 IoT Enterprise LTSC 24H2 26100.4061, Snapdragon X X126100
guest: debian-12.11.0-arm64-netinst.iso
guest: Win11_24H2_German_Arm64.iso

unable to boot installation iso, VM hangs (black screen)

[AlexanderEichner]

VirtualBox uses Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor exclusively on ARM hosts. To our knowledge build 26100 doesn't have the necessary Hyper-V APIs required available. You need to be at least on the Beta channel.

[driver1998]

You need to be at least on the Beta channel.

I tried both the latest Beta and Dev channel build, they both failed with the same error. Upgrading to Canary to see how it works there.

[driver1998]

Since the error mentions WHvSetVirtualProcessorRegisters I am guessing the Snapdragon 8cx Gen 2 lacks some registers and/or instructions. I can provide more info if you guys can give some pointers about where to look.

A snippet from above:

00:00:03.745653 Console: Machine state changed to 'Running'
00:00:03.746606 AssertLogRel D:\tinderbox\win-rel\src\VBox\VMM\VMMR3\NEMR3Native-win-armv8.cpp(1508) int __cdecl nemHCWinCopyStateToHyperV(struct VM *,struct VMCPU *): <NULL>
00:00:03.746633 WHvSetVirtualProcessorRegisters(00000289a46ff9b0, 0,,119,) -> ERROR_HV_ACCESS_DENIED (Last=0xc0000100/0)
00:00:03.746793 Changing the VM state from 'RUNNING' to 'GURU_MEDITATION'
00:00:03.746820 Console: Machine state changed to 'Stuck'

[driver1998]

It still fails on latest Canary 27871.1000
VBox.log

[AlexanderEichner]

I just tried running the official VirtualBox 7.2.0_BETA1 build on my Microsoft 2023 DevKit (Snapdragon 8cx Gen 3) locally using Windows 11 27881.1000 and it just works here.

[AlexanderEichner]

Unfortunately I don't have access to an 8cx Gen 2 btw. which makes it kinda impossible to debug.

[sanderjo]

VirtualBox uses Microsoft's Hyper-V hypervisor exclusively on ARM hosts. To our knowledge build 26100 doesn't have the necessary Hyper-V APIs required available. You need to be at least on the Beta channel.

If so, wouldn't it be useful if VirtualBox checks for that and gives a warning (instead of failing without clear message)?

I tried VirtualBox 7.2.0 Beta 2 on my Lenovo 10w (Snapdragon 7c) with Windows 11 (plain), and both Debian and Alpine Linux fail without message: a small black screen for a few seconds, and then nothing.

[driver1998]

7.2.0 RC1 still fails with the same error.

BTW: QEMU ARM64 WHPX accelerator (currently at https://github.com/mediouni-m/qemu/releases/tag/whpx-v3, upstreaming in progress) works on my 8cx Gen2. Virtualbox might be using something that older SoCs does not support.

[AlexanderEichner]

We won't get this fixed for 7.2.0 due to the lack of hardware. However the release will contain some additional logging to hopefully show exactly where Hyper-V is unhappy. So please try the 7.2.0 release and upload the VBox.log files from the failing runs, so we have a chance of fixing it for the first maintenance release.

[driver1998]

VBox.log of 7.2.0 RC1 on Canary Build 27909:
testvm-2025-08-13-23-06-08.log

[driver1998]

VBox.log of 7.2.0 Release on Canary Build 27919:

VBox.log

[AlexanderEichner]

Thanks, looks like the older CPUs don't support the PAC feature, should be easy to fix.