VirtualBox fails to start on newest CPU's with 6.3.6 Kernel - How to fix until Oracle finds a fix

English Virtualization
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It appears that itb is now enabled in 6.3.6 kernel in Tumbleweed.
If you have a gen 10 or earlier Intel CPU - there is not issue.
If you have a gen 11 or newer Intel CPU that has ibt instructions - VirtualBox will not start as it has not told itb that it is using the virtualization instructions.

Per the Oracle VirtualBox Forum - the workaround is to tell the kernel not to enable itb

like this:

So it’s totally IBT.

Add to the line GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT= after the resume= part of the line “ibt=off” in ‘/etc/default/grub’ to disable IBT

then tell the grub menus to remember it with

sudo grub2-mkconfig -o /boot/grub2/grub.cfg

reboot and VirtualBox should work now.

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@larryr I’m assuming this is a bug upstream will fix? Seems counter productive disabling a kernel security feature?

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@larryr I’m guessing it’s this one: https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/21435

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Yes, it is the VirtualBox ticket - I went looking after all the trouble tickets appeared in bugzilla.

Even Oracle does not have a cure yet. It only affects kernels that have ibt enabled. It is ignored on older CPU’s.

7.0.9 does not fix the issue, 7.0.10 is usually 7.0.9 without all the debug code so 7.0.11 might be the 1st with ibt code if Oracle can figure out what is required to support ibt for virtualbox-kmp-default.

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So, is this edit done to the GRUB of my PC, or is it done on the GRUB of each of the VMs that I cannot start? I am guessing it is on the PC side.

Since the latest kernel update on Tumbleweed, my working VMs no longer start. It took me a bit to track it down to the kernel module for VirtualBox failing to start. A reboot takes about 8 to 9 minutes for everything to timeout and restart the PC.

At least my VMs are just for testing and such, so no harm, no foul. I can easily wait till they update the kernel module. For others, that might be a much more critical issue.

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I did it on mine to test and it does work. All my VMs function normally again. This is temporary and will need to be undone after Oracle pushes out a new kernel module that fixes the issue.

For those who might not know how to do this at the command line, or feel uncomfortable doing it that way, I will show you in YAST.

Open “YAST”
In the System section, Open “Boot Loader”.
Click the “Kernel Parameter” tab of the window.
In the “Optional Kernel Command Line Parameters” box, paste in (make sure there is a space before it)
ibt=off
click “OK”
Reboot

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This has to be done on the Tumbleweed host and probably any Tumbleweed guest. I suspect any guest with a 6.3.X kernel with ibt turned on will have this issue.

Thank you Wilson Phillips for showing another way to fix the issue.

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