Linux 5.18 virtualization issues

For the past couple of months, I’ve been unable to launch VMs on my Manjaro host while running the 5.18 kernel. VirtualBox just hangs on “starting virtual machine.” I had no such problem on the 5.17, 5.16, or 5.15 kernels. Continuing to use 5.15 solves the issue, so this isn’t anything urgent, but I want to understand the problem.

Back in early June, it appeared that VirtualBox 6.1.34 was the problem, with a fix promised for VirtualBox 6.1.35+. So with the arrival of VirtualBox 6.1.36 in this latest stable update, I decided to try the Linux 5.18 kernel again. The problem persists.

So I thought that I should get away from VirtualBox and try one of the many other native hypervisor options. I uninstalled VirtualBox and installed qemu and libvirt and tried virt-manager, cockpit, and gnome-boxes. This is when I realized that VirtualBox isn’t the problem. I can import my old VMs and create new ones in various ways, and they launch fine while running 5.15, but they still hang while running 5.18.

With all that said, I don’t know how to troubleshoot next. Do we have any ideas?

System:
  Kernel: 5.15.57-2-MANJARO arch: x86_64 bits: 64 compiler: gcc v: 12.1.0
    parameters: BOOT_IMAGE=/boot/vmlinuz-5.15-x86_64
    root=UUID=36d7cb4b-12ae-4ab1-b453-5b8db2a538dd rw apparmor=1
    security=apparmor udev.log_priority=3 nvme.noacpi=1
  Desktop: Xfce v: 4.16.0 tk: Gtk v: 3.24.29 info: xfce4-panel wm: xfwm
    v: 4.16.1 vt: 7 dm: LightDM v: 1.30.0 Distro: Manjaro Linux base: Arch Linux
Machine:
  Type: Laptop System: Framework product: Laptop v: A6
    serial: <superuser required>
  Mobo: Framework model: FRANBMCP06 v: A6 serial: <superuser required>
    UEFI: INSYDE v: 03.10 date: 07/19/2022
Battery:
  ID-1: BAT1 charge: 29.7 Wh (58.9%) condition: 50.4/55.0 Wh (91.6%)
    volts: 15.4 min: 15.4 model: NVT Framewo type: Li-ion serial: <filter>
    status: discharging cycles: 162
Memory:
  RAM: total: 31.14 GiB used: 2.31 GiB (7.4%)
  RAM Report: permissions: Unable to run dmidecode. Root privileges
    required.
CPU:
  Info: model: 11th Gen Intel Core i7-1165G7 bits: 64 type: MT MCP
    arch: Tiger Lake gen: core 11 built: 2020 process: Intel 10nm family: 6
    model-id: 0x8C (140) stepping: 1 microcode: 0xA4
  Topology: cpus: 1x cores: 4 tpc: 2 threads: 8 smt: enabled cache:
    L1: 320 KiB desc: d-4x48 KiB; i-4x32 KiB L2: 5 MiB desc: 4x1.2 MiB
    L3: 12 MiB desc: 1x12 MiB
  Speed (MHz): avg: 698 high: 1053 min/max: 400/4700 scaling:
    driver: intel_pstate governor: powersave cores: 1: 461 2: 967 3: 604 4: 446
    5: 839 6: 1053 7: 748 8: 472 bogomips: 44864
  Flags: 3dnowprefetch abm acpi adx aes aperfmperf apic arat
    arch_capabilities arch_perfmon art avx avx2 avx512_bitalg avx512_vbmi2
    avx512_vnni avx512_vp2intersect avx512_vpopcntdq avx512bw avx512cd
    avx512dq avx512f avx512ifma avx512vbmi avx512vl bmi1 bmi2 bts cat_l2
    cdp_l2 clflush clflushopt clwb cmov constant_tsc cpuid cpuid_fault cx16
    cx8 de ds_cpl dtes64 dtherm dts epb ept ept_ad erms est f16c flexpriority
    flush_l1d fma fpu fsgsbase fsrm fxsr gfni ht hwp hwp_act_window hwp_epp
    hwp_notify hwp_pkg_req ibpb ibrs ibrs_enhanced ida intel_pt invpcid
    invpcid_single lahf_lm lm mca mce md_clear mmx monitor movbe movdir64b
    movdiri msr mtrr nonstop_tsc nopl nx ospke pae pat pbe pcid pclmulqdq pdcm
    pdpe1gb pebs pge pku pln pni popcnt pse pse36 pts rdpid rdrand rdseed
    rdt_a rdtscp rep_good sdbg sep sha_ni smap smep split_lock_detect ss ssbd
    sse sse2 sse4_1 sse4_2 ssse3 stibp syscall tm tm2 tpr_shadow tsc
    tsc_adjust tsc_deadline_timer tsc_known_freq umip vaes vme vmx vnmi
    vpclmulqdq vpid x2apic xgetbv1 xsave xsavec xsaveopt xsaves xtopology xtpr
  Vulnerabilities:
  Type: itlb_multihit status: Not affected
  Type: l1tf status: Not affected
  Type: mds status: Not affected
  Type: meltdown status: Not affected
  Type: mmio_stale_data status: Not affected
  Type: retbleed status: Not affected
  Type: spec_store_bypass mitigation: Speculative Store Bypass disabled via
    prctl and seccomp
  Type: spectre_v1 mitigation: usercopy/swapgs barriers and __user pointer
    sanitization
  Type: spectre_v2 status: Vulnerable: eIBRS with unprivileged eBPF
  Type: srbds status: Not affected
  Type: tsx_async_abort status: Not affected
Graphics:
  Device-1: Intel TigerLake-LP GT2 [Iris Xe Graphics] driver: i915 v: kernel
    arch: Gen-12.1 process: Intel 10nm built: 2020-21 ports: active: eDP-1
    empty: DP-1, DP-2, DP-3, DP-4 bus-ID: 00:02.0 chip-ID: 8086:9a49
    class-ID: 0300
  Display: x11 server: X.Org v: 21.1.4 compositor: xfwm v: 4.16.1 driver: X:
    loaded: modesetting alternate: fbdev,vesa gpu: i915 display-ID: :0.0
    screens: 1
  Screen-1: 0 s-res: 2256x1504 s-dpi: 96 s-size: 596x397mm (23.46x15.63")
    s-diag: 716mm (28.19")
  Monitor-1: eDP-1 model: BOE Display 0x095f built: 2019 res: 2256x1504
    hz: 60 dpi: 201 gamma: 1.2 size: 285x190mm (11.22x7.48") diag: 343mm (13.5")
    ratio: 3:2 modes: 2256x1504
  Message: Unable to show GL data. Required tool glxinfo missing.
Audio:
  Device-1: Intel Tiger Lake-LP Smart Sound Audio driver: snd_hda_intel
    v: kernel alternate: snd_sof_pci_intel_tgl bus-ID: 00:1f.3
    chip-ID: 8086:a0c8 class-ID: 0403
  Sound Server-1: ALSA v: k5.15.57-2-MANJARO running: yes
  Sound Server-2: JACK v: 1.9.21 running: no
  Sound Server-3: PulseAudio v: 16.1 running: no
  Sound Server-4: PipeWire v: 0.3.56 running: yes
Network:
  Device-1: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX210/AX211/AX411 160MHz driver: iwlwifi v: kernel
    pcie: gen: 2 speed: 5 GT/s lanes: 1 bus-ID: aa:00.0 chip-ID: 8086:2725
    class-ID: 0280
  IF: wlp170s0 state: up mac: <filter>
  IP v4: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
    broadcast: <filter>
  IP v6: <filter> type: dynamic noprefixroute scope: global
  IP v6: <filter> type: noprefixroute scope: link
  WAN IP: <filter>
Bluetooth:
  Device-1: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: USB driver: btusb v: 0.8
    bus-ID: 3-10:3 chip-ID: 8087:0032 class-ID: e001
  Report: rfkill ID: hci0 rfk-id: 1 state: down bt-service: enabled,running
    rfk-block: hardware: no software: yes address: see --recommends
Logical:
  Message: No logical block device data found.
RAID:
  Message: No RAID data found.
Drives:
  Local Storage: total: 931.51 GiB used: 369.85 GiB (39.7%)
  SMART Message: Required tool smartctl not installed. Check --recommends
  ID-1: /dev/nvme0n1 maj-min: 259:0 vendor: Western Digital
    model: WDS100T3X0C-00SJG0 size: 931.51 GiB block-size: physical: 512 B
    logical: 512 B speed: 31.6 Gb/s lanes: 4 type: SSD serial: <filter>
    rev: 111130WD temp: 30.9 C scheme: GPT
  Message: No optical or floppy data found.
Partition:
  ID-1: / raw-size: 931.22 GiB size: 915.53 GiB (98.32%) used: 369.81 GiB
    (40.4%) fs: ext4 dev: /dev/nvme0n1p2 maj-min: 259:2 label: N/A
    uuid: 36d7cb4b-12ae-4ab1-b453-5b8db2a538dd
  ID-2: /boot/efi raw-size: 300 MiB size: 299.4 MiB (99.80%) used: 34.4 MiB
    (11.5%) fs: vfat dev: /dev/nvme0n1p1 maj-min: 259:1 label: NO_LABEL
    uuid: 37D5-068B
Swap:
  Alert: No swap data was found.
Unmounted:
  Message: No unmounted partitions found.
USB:
  Hub-1: 1-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 1 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-2: 2-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
  Hub-3: 3-0:1 info: Hi-speed hub with single TT ports: 12 rev: 2.0
    speed: 480 Mb/s chip-ID: 1d6b:0002 class-ID: 0900
  Device-1: 3-9:2 info: Shenzhen Goodix USB2.0 MISC type: <vendor specific>
    driver: N/A interfaces: 1 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA
    chip-ID: 27c6:609c class-ID: ef00 serial: <filter>
  Device-2: 3-10:3 info: Intel AX210 Bluetooth type: Bluetooth driver: btusb
    interfaces: 2 rev: 2.0 speed: 12 Mb/s power: 100mA chip-ID: 8087:0032
    class-ID: e001
  Hub-4: 4-0:1 info: Super-speed hub ports: 4 rev: 3.1 speed: 10 Gb/s
    chip-ID: 1d6b:0003 class-ID: 0900
Sensors:
  System Temperatures: cpu: 27.0 C mobo: N/A
  Fan Speeds (RPM): N/A
Info:
  Processes: 253 Uptime: 1h 2m wakeups: 6232 Init: systemd v: 251
  default: graphical tool: systemctl Compilers: gcc: 12.1.0 clang: 14.0.6
  Packages: pacman: 1204 lib: 352 flatpak: 0 Shell: Bash v: 5.1.16
  running-in: xfce4-terminal inxi: 3.3.20

Cannot say what your issue is.

I am using virtualbox on a daily base - no issues since the 6.1.34 incident.

~ $ uname -r
5.18.15-1-MANJARO
~ $ vboxmanage --version
6.1.36r152435

I knew this issue. You need to add ibt=off in /etc/default/grub when using 11th Intel CPU and Linux kernel 5.18.
Then run sudo update-grub

3 Likes

Perfect! That was exactly it.

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