Hi everyone,
I’m trying to install Debian on VirtualBox (version 7.2.20) on my new Lenovo laptop, but I’m stuck on a black screen when I start the virtual machine. I haven’t been able to reach the Debian installer.
My hardware and software:
- Laptop: Lenovo 15Q8X10
- CPU: Qualcomm Snapdragon X Plus (ARM64)
- RAM: 16 GB
- Host OS: Windows 11 Home
- VirtualBox version: 7.2.20
- Guest OS: Debian ARM64

What I’ve tried so far:
- Using a Debian ARM64 installation image.
- Increasing video memory to 128 MB.
- Changing the virtual machine’s display settings.
- Adjusting the number of virtual CPUs and other VM settings.
- Checking the basic VM configuration, including memory and processor settings.

Despite these attempts, I still get a black screen when starting the VM.
I know that VirtualBox on Windows ARM has limitations, but I’d really like to get Debian running in VirtualBox if possible. I need it for my BTS SIO SLAM studies, and I want to avoid switching to a completely different virtualization solution unless necessary.

My questions:

1. Has anyone successfully installed and run Debian ARM64 in VirtualBox on a Lenovo laptop with a Snapdragon X Plus and Windows 11 Home?
2. Is there a specific VirtualBox version or configuration that works on this hardware?
3. Could the graphics controller be responsible? Has anyone successfully used QemuRamFB or another controller to fix a similar black-screen issue?
4. Are there any other settings I should check, such as EFI, CPU configuration, or virtualization-related options?
5. I’d appreciate any help or advice. If you’ve managed to get this working on similar hardware, please share your configuration and the exact steps you followed.
6. Thanks!

I've used VBox on linux for a long time before, stopped because it was buggy as hell, is it any better nowadays?

A lot of the installation guides I've seen point to messing with permissions, but I think I've stumbled upon a workaround by accident? I've had the "The chosen installation directory is invalid, as it does not meet the security requirements" and the "The installer has insufficient privileges to access this directory" errors back to back, and the following worked to bypass both

• 1. In the installation setup, click the "Change" button for the Installation Location to open the "Change current destination folder" section
• 2. In the "Look In" drop down menu, select the root drive itself
• 3. Type in your VirtualBox folder name of choice after the "C:\" in the folder name input box at the bottom of the window (it should end up looking like `C:\samplefolder` if you choose `samplefolder` as the name). Click OK to finish and return to the "Custom Setup" section.
• NOTE: you are not supposed to have `C:\samplefolder` as an already existing folder. Delete it if you've previously made one to serve as the installation directory in previous attempts
• Double check to make sure that the Installation Location has the new location (`C:\samplefolder`). During the installation process the wizard should create the folder without you having to mess with permissions.

Link to an image guide I made: /img/fdamzsptd4vh1.jpeg
My theory is that "Create new folder" and "mkdir" don't create folders with the proper permissions, but the installer knows how to do so, just that it won't do it in Program Files because of its permissions as a parent directory, and it probably wouldn't be wise to modify those Program Files permissions.

At least you don't have to enter any `takeown` or `icacls` commands or disable permission inheritance?? Apparently this folder will lack "some of the deep security protections Windows applies to its default program directories".

I have been getting "IP not found" errors when running "ip" or "ip a" commands in TinyCore Linux VM. Host machine is CachyOS (Linux). Version of virtualbox is 7.2.20. I have the host extension installed (version 7.2.20) but cannot figure out how to get guest additions installed for TinyCore Linux VM. This happened both on NAT Networks and Host Only adapter with their respective networks, not sure if it works on other modes.

I am doing this for a school assignment so I do need to make this work on those two modes plus bridge.

I have tried:

- setting up networks and attempting to enable DCHP in the Virtualbox networks manager, and DCHP does not seem to be working and I have no clue how to get it working

- allowing all IP ranges manually in networks.conf

- manually editing the IP to match what the IPv4 prefix is in the network I made within tinycore (no success)

- tried selecting auto assign DCHP for host only adapter network and allowed DCHP server but still am getting "bad address" and "IP not found".

Errors I'm getting: failed to aquire virtualbox parameter (upon startup, appeared after I made the conf file), "bad address" when trying to ping "google.com" (also after conf), ping never pinged successfully prior to the conf just kept going.

I'm basically at my wits end and I am very lost in the sauce with all these errors. If there is any more information I can provide to help troubleshoot this please let me know.

I'm trying to play Operation Krabby Patty, but the audio is awful, and the game is crazy laggy.

Emulated operating system: Windows XP 64-bit

My operating system: Windows 11 64-bit

Guest additions installed: Yes, host extensions no

VirtualBox version: 7.2.20

I've tried looking for 3D acceleration and swapping my audio device to Intel HD Audio, but I haven't been able to find either of those settings.

Hi everyone,

I'm struggling with an extremely slow internet download speed inside my **Windows 10 VM running on VirtualBox**. It's been 3 days, and I've tried multiple fixes without success.

**Speed test results inside the VM:**

- Ping: 9 ms

- Download: 0.41 Mbps

- Upload: 29.50 Mbps

**What I've tried so far:**

- Switching network adapter types, including Intel PRO/1000 MT Desktop and Server.

- Resetting the Windows network stack through Command Prompt.

- Performing a shallow Git clone.

- Increasing Git's `http.postBuffer` size.

- Several other troubleshooting steps that I can no longer remember.

Despite everything, downloads remain painfully slow, while uploads are relatively fast.

I'd really appreciate any suggestions for diagnosing and fixing this. I'm exhausted from troubleshooting and would be grateful for a solution.

Thanks in advance!

Fix for very slow downloads in VirtualBox on Windows: disabling RSC on Wi-Fi

I finally found a fix for extremely slow downloads in my UmbrelOS virtual machine running on VirtualBox on Windows.

I had already experienced this problem before, and the same Windows-side fix worked again.

My setup:

• Host OS: Windows
• VirtualBox: 7.2.x
• VM: UmbrelOS
• Network mode: Bridged Adapter
• Wi-Fi adapter: Intel Wi-Fi 6 AX201 160MHz

The fix: Disable Receive Segment Coalescing (RSC) on the Windows Wi-Fi adapter.

1. Open PowerShell as Administrator.
2. Run:

​

Disable-NetAdapterRsc -Name "Wi-Fi" -IPv4 -IPv6

1. Verify the setting:

​

Get-NetAdapterRsc -Name "Wi-Fi" |
    Format-List Name, IPv4Enabled, IPv6Enabled

Both IPv4Enabled and IPv6Enabled should show False.

This fixed the problem in my setup. I've now had the same positive result twice, without downgrading VirtualBox.

Important: This is a troubleshooting tip, not a universal fix. Results may vary depending on the Windows version, network adapter, and VirtualBox configuration. Disabling RSC changes how Windows processes received network packets, so test it on your own system.

To re-enable RSC later, run:

Enable-NetAdapterRsc -Name "Wi-Fi" -IPv4 -IPv6

I hope this helps someone else who is struggling with slow downloads in a VirtualBox VM on Windows.

Has anyone else experienced this issue with bridged networking and an Intel Wi-Fi adapter?

i have my android vm and it doesnt let me put my mouse in it, when i do it teleports my mouse out. how do i make it so i can use my mouse. it also randomly broke btw it was working before. (using windows, virtualbox version 7.2.18 and i dont have host extensions or guest additions)

Hi, I have a problem with my Linux Mint Cinnamon VM: sometimes it freezes except the panels. I can open and close programs from there, but nothing works from window and desktop. I tried reinstalling or updating Guest Additions, but it doesn't solve the problem. I also tried disabling 3D acceleration and that solved for a while, but then the problem returned so I re-enabled it again.

Here's a video, so you can understand better: https://youtu.be/8hDa3-Q1hO0. You'll see that I have a custom theme and animations: that's not the issue, the problem happened even without those.

VirtualBox version: 7.2.18 r175117 (Qt6.8.0 on windows)

Host OS: Windows 10 pro 22H2

Guest OS: Linux Mint 22.3 - Cinnamon 64-bit

Thanks for any help!

I found a couple pretty good discs for 95 games, and I want to try them out, even if it's just for the graphics.

I got really close to starting an old game collection called "TILT!" which I wanted to try out myself.

however, it seems to somehow want me to use a DOS shortcut INSIDE of win95!!

Can anyone tell me which VB setup, or emulator could help me play it?

The cd still reads fine, it's the software that I need to figure out.

I go through the usual steps, but I can't find where the CD-ROM drive is mounted so I can run VBoxLinuxAdditions.run. I looked under /cdrom, /media, and /mnt. I didn't see anything under those.

VirtualBox Version: 7.2.8r173730 Guest Operating System: Ubuntu 24.04.5 LTS Host Operating System: Linux Mint 22.2

Apologies in advance if this is a trivial question; I am new to this. I am encountering an error while setting up an Ubuntu server: login consistently fails, even though I am entering the correct details. I have tried deleting and recreating it, but that hasn't worked either. It is not a keyboard issue, so I might be making a mistake elsewhere. I am using VirtualBox version 7.2.20 and Ubuntu Live Server 18.04.6.

I ran into a reproducible BSOD on a new Windows 11 PC with an ASUS TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI.

Hardware / software involved:

• ASUS TUF Gaming B850-PLUS WIFI
• Realtek RTL8922AE WiFi 7 PCI-E NIC
• Realtek driver rtwlane711.sys
• Driver version 6102.24.145.100
• VirtualBox 7.2.20
• Windows 11

The BSOD is:

KERNEL_SECURITY_CHECK_FAILURE (0x139)

with parameter 1 = 0x2.

I initially suspected RAM/EXPO or another recently installed application, but the behavior turned out to be very reproducible:

• Normal boot with WiFi available → BSOD around login / when WiFi connects
• WiFi disabled at the router → Windows boots and remains completely stable
• Windows Safe Mode → completely stable
• WiFi enabled + VirtualBox NDIS6 Bridged Networking Driver disabled on the WiFi adapter → completely stable
• Re-enabling the VirtualBox bridge/filter on the WiFi NIC reproduces the problem

The minidumps also show both the Realtek WiFi driver (rtwlane711.sys) and the VirtualBox networking components (VBoxNetLwf.sys, etc.) being loaded.

So this looks like an interaction between the VirtualBox NDIS bridge/filter driver and the Realtek RTL8922AE WiFi driver, rather than a general hardware/RAM stability issue.

Workaround:

Disable VirtualBox NDIS6 Bridged Networking Driver in the properties of the WiFi adapter (ncpa.cpl). VirtualBox NAT/Host-Only networking can still be used. In my case I'll use Ethernet for bridged networking instead.

Would be interesting to know if anyone else with an RTL8922AE can reproduce this, especially on recent VirtualBox 7.2.x versions.

Hey, I’m trying to play an old childhood game of mine called Horse Museum (SSO) again, and I’m trying to get it running in a VM on Windows 11. I’ve never really used virtual machines before, so I’m a bit lost. So far I’ve installed VirtualBox, I have an AMD Ryzen 7, and I had to enable SVM Mode in my BIOS because virtualization was disabled. It’s enabled now and shows as enabled in Task Manager. I also started creating a new VM in VirtualBox and selected Windows 10 (64-bit), but I don’t actually have a Windows 10 ISO yet. I’m not sure which Windows version I should use for Horse Museum or where to go from here with setting up the VM. Could someone please explain to me what I need to do step by step? I’d really appreciate the help, I just want to be able to play this old childhood game again, if u want to help a girl out add me on dc: subpupeater or just comment

Hello I have 7.2.0 r 170228 (Qt 6.8.0 on windows) Virtual box. One of my machines (rest are working well) is sudenly unable to open giving me this error communicate : Failed to load the NVRAM store from the file (VERR_VFS_UNSUPPORTED_FORMAT). Have done a copy of this VM folder, I have money there so I can't affor myself to lose it. Got any ideas how to run it? Found that solution saying that I should replace NVRAM file : https://forum.manjaro.org/t/win11-guest-created-with-6-x-virtualbox-no-longer-booting-on-7-x/131563/9 but cannot follow it, when I created new machine there's no NVRAM file in file explorer there so I can't just copy and replace it. Im very novice in VBOX and computer terms so every help will be very appreciated :) Tried repair it with chat gpt but it just wasted my time..

Hi. Appreciate the help.

Windows 10 64-bit free version.

VirtualBox 7.2.0, Extension Pack 7.2.0, no Guest additions.

Host version, 64-bit, 16GB RAM w/ 16-core AMD CPU

At present, don't have any logs; folder VirtualBox VMs is empty. Deleted them during my attempts at troubleshooting.

Couple .ova files (870MB and 18.7GB, Metasploit and Kali Linux respectively) needed to be unzipped. Instructor's tutorial (NGT, private property so I cannot link it here) basically has me download the 4 files (Oracle VirtualBox and Extension, both 7.2.0 version), install those 2 first, then unpack the .ova.

Metasploit unzipped fine. The Kali Linux one doesn't; error message basically is not enough disk space. Internet and AI-assisted search states 18.7GB .ova needs around 80GB, far more than my small C drive (43GB max available) can accommodate. I attempted unpacking the Kali Linux from an external hard drive, error message is VERR_ACCESS_DENIED; same happened when tried doing it from my older D drive (over 300GB free). Installing Oracle VB to my D drive (C and D are SSD and HDD) works but still get error messages (https://imgur.com/a/7RZcIdW).

Used default settings for VM during installation. Instructor's .ova files are already preconfigured.

I've already tried uninstalling and reinstalling VirtualBox via Control Panel, as well as fresh copies of all downloads, no effect. Feel out of my depth here--there are simple YT tutorials how to remove VirtualBox completely, but unclear if that's my next step, and forgive me, the UserManual has TMI for my autism, so need specifics, not info overload.

Need this fixed because cybersecurity studies and graduating depend on this VMware working. If unable to get it working on desktop, suppose good backup plan is use older laptop (6GB RAM, weaker i3) after verifying it has plenty of disk space.

Edit; Third host OS reboot fixed it. Would love to know why that's so unreliable.

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Is mount USB drive in VM broken for everyone or just me today?

Started getting this today and can't resolve it. Tried so far;

1. Rebooted guest VM (win server 25).
2. Rebooted host computer (win11 25H2).
3. There are no windows event 225 indicating drive is locked.
4. I can eject the USB drive from the host PC with no complaints.
5. Powertoys File Locksmith says nothing is locked on the drive.
6. Updated virtualbox to 7.2.18 r175117 (Qt6.8.0 on windows)
7. Updated guest additions in guest VM

USB drive in question is a NVME SSD enclosure I've used many times before in that VM. It has some portableapps.com stuff on it. I do not have those open on the host PC per points 4 & 5 above.

Drive in question is listed three times in VirtualBox, that doesn't seem normal. First two just have the hardware manufacturer, third time has same name in a much longer form. All have the same [0214] after them indicating the same hardware. Doesn't matter which I select, none will mount in the VM.

Now what?

Failed to attach the USB device JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp. [0214] to the virtual machine ServerEval 7/21/2026.

USB device 'JMicron Technology Corp. / JMicron USA Technology Corp.' with UUID {e858df26-fd92-43ec-9bc9-4081cf02cd48} is busy with a previous request. Please try again later.

Result Code:

E_INVALIDARG (0x80070057)

Component:

HostUSBDeviceWrap

Interface:

IHostUSBDevice {c19073dd-cc7b-431b-98b2-951fda8eab89}

Callee:

IConsole {6ac83d89-6ee7-4e33-8ae6-b257b2e81be8}

https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Changelog-7.2

So I boot up Windows Whistler, and it's just stuck on that screen. I changed the time with msdos 6.22 on a floppy, but the system would blue screen, and it's just broken forever. Then I booted on iso than it didn't blue screen, but it didn't fix the broken screen. Is there a fix? Whistler Version: any version post-Neptune VBox Ver.: 7.2.16

Ubuntu 26.04 VM freezing on black screen in VirtualBox — Intel i5-6200U, 8GB RAM

VirtualBox version: 7.2.18 r175117 (Qt6.8.0 on windows)
Host OS: Windows 10 Pro 64-bit
Guest OS: Ubuntu 26.04 (desktop-amd64)
VT-x enabled / Hyper-V disabled: both disabled
Guest Additions installed: No, haven't installed these yet

Trying to learn Linux by running Ubuntu 26.04 in a VM. Here's what I've done and where it's stuck:

• Created VM with 2GB RAM, 1 CPU, 25GB disk (host has 8GB RAM total)
• First boot: vmwgfx error, "running on an unsupported hypervisor"
• Switched to "Ubuntu (safe graphics)" — got past that, but now it boots to the splash screen, shows scrolling text, then goes fully black and freezes (sometimes for hours)
• Bumped Video Memory 16MB → 64MB — no change
• Graphics Controller already set to VMSVGA, 3D Acceleration unchecked
• Haven't installed Guest Additions yet since I can't get to a desktop to install them

Wondering if my hardware is just too old for 26.04. Would switching to Ubuntu 22.04 LTS fix this, or is there something else I should try first?

Hello!
I’m trying to set up a VM pc running windows 11 for a homelab project. I’m new to this and am trying to get some technical things to add to my resume, I have my A+ and my N+ certifications. ChatGPT has helped me through a lot of this, but there’s been a few things here and there that it wasn’t exactly on top of and I had to try and troubleshoot myself (which has been fun when I got it working).
To cut to the crux, I had to disable UEFI to change the boot order to optical first then hard disk to get the iso image to boot into windows setup at all, otherwise I was just getting a black screen. Then, going through the setup process, I was told the system was incompatible because it needs TPM 2.0 and secure boot to function. Turning UEFI back on prevents windows from booting at all, and still only brings me to a black screen. ChatGPT isn’t helping much at this point. Does anyone have any tips or direction?
Thank you in advance!

I’m using virtualbox version 7.2.18 r175117 (Qt6.8.0 on windows)
I’m using windows 11 myself that is fully updated, and I downloaded the windows 11 25h2 x64 v2 iso from the Microsoft website.

Basically as per the title, I was informed via this post (https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualbox/comments/f89yfc/widescreen_resolution_options_not_available/) that installing the guest addons would make widescreen modes possible.

Installed it and clicked the amd64 guest additions program, installed it and rebooted, and still only got the 4:3 resolutions. What to do? Am running vbox 7.0.16_Ubuntu r162802 on linux mint to emulate windows. Also the guest editions iso version is 7.2.14.iso.

Additional: I did see also a post saying the guest additions version must match the virtualbox version but this isnt possible as the 7.0.16 download is corrupted and gives an error when trying to run the EXE about integrity.

RE: bot questions

• Whether you have enabled VT-x/AMD-V (applicable to all hosts running 6.1 and above) and disabled HyperV (applicable to Windows 10 Hosts) - No idea what this is or where to find it, the setting will have been left default.
• Whether you have installed Guest Additions and/or Host Extensions (this solves 90% of the problems we see) - Trying to install it!

Solved: for details see https://www.reddit.com/r/virtualbox/s/j52jxRlQil

………………………..

Hi all,

I’m experiencing an internet connectivity issue with a Windows 11 virtual machine running on two different MacBooks.

This week, I updated both MacBooks, and since the update, the Windows 11 virtual machine on both machines no longer has an internet connection. The macOS hosts themselves have normal internet connectivity.

System information:

• VirtualBox version: 7.2.12 r174389
• Host OS: macOS 27.0
• Guest OS: Windows 11 Pro 25H2
• Mac model:  MacBook Pro M3
• Guest Additions: 7.2.12
• VirtualBox Extension Pack: 7.2.18r175117
• VT-x/AMD-V: Not applicable — Apple Silicon (M3)
• Hyper-V: Not applicable — macOS host

Problem:
Before the macOS update, the Windows 11 VM had a working internet connection. After updating macOS, the VM no longer has internet access.

I have tried:

• Restarting both the Mac and the Windows VM
• Reinstall Virtual Box
• Restarting the Windows network adapter
• Checking the Virtual Box Network Adapter Settings
• [Checking the VirtualBox network adapter settings

The macOS host has a normal internet connection, but Windows 11 inside VirtualBox does not.

The VM itself starts normally, and there are no other obvious problems. The main issue is that the guest OS cannot access the internet.

Has anyone experienced this after a macOS update? Any suggestions for troubleshooting or fixing the VirtualBox network connection would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you!

Setting up a homelab (Server 2025 + eventual Win11 client) and hit a networking issue that I can't seem to resovle

Setup:

• Host: Linux Mint, VirtualBox
• Guest: Windows Server 2025 Standard Eval (Server Core)
• Custom NAT Network ("HomeLab"), 10.0.3.0/24, DHCP enabled on the network itself
• Goal: static IP on the server (10.0.3.3/24, gw 10.0.3.1) before promoting it to a DC

The issue:
Static IP looks like it's set correctly every time, but the adapter keeps assing an extra APIPA address (169.254.x.x) alongside it, sometimes replacing it entirely. This happens even after confirming DHCP is disabled on the interface.

What I've tried (all failed the same way):

• Classic "TCP/IPv4 Properties" dialog — static IP saved fine, ipconfig still showed only APIPA
• Get-NetIPConfiguration showed two IPv4 addresses on one interface - the correct static one AND an APIPA one, at the same time
• Confirmed via Get-NetIPInterface | fl that Dhcp : Disabled - so it's not a rogue DHCP client, in theory
• Manually removed the APIPA address with Remove-NetIPAddress - it comes back on its own within a minute or two, unprompted
• Checked Device Manager for a hidden/ghost duplicate NIC - nothing, just the one real adapter + the normal Microsoft Kernel Debug Network Adapter
• Full clean reset: disabled/re-enabled the adapter in VirtualBox settings, rebooted, reapplied static IP purely through PowerShell (no GUI at all) — same APIPA reappearance

Question: is this a known NAT Network quirk (vs Bridged/Host-only), or is there a more correct way to set a static IP on a NAT Network that I'm missing? Starting to wonder if NAT Network is just the wrong choice for something that needs a dead-stable IP like a DC?

Guest Additions is installed.
VB Version 7.2.6