UTM: UTM with HVF on Intel causes BSOD in Windows guests (IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL)

When running a VM with -accel hvf, a Windows guest will reproducibly crash with a blue screen error IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL. This issue duplicates #2303.

In the case of a Windows 7 and 8.1 guest, the BSOD is confirmed to occur during the first phase of setup.

In the case of a Windows 10 guest, the BSOD occurs repeatably during the first phase of setup or, if the OS is already installed, at least once after the OOBE.

Configuration

UTM Version: latest 2.0.23 from GitHub
OS Version: macOS Big Sur 11.2.2
Intel or Apple Silicon? Intel

Workaround: before installing Windows in the VM, in UTM Preferences, enable “Force slower emulation even when hypervisor is available”. Then start the VM and install Windows (it will take about twice as long as expected). After Windows is installed, shut down the VM and disable “Force slower emulation even when hypervisor is available”.

About this issue

Original URL
State: closed
Created 3 years ago
Reactions: 6
Comments: 23 (21 by maintainers)

Commits related to this issue

system: oops fixed regression on BSOD regression The fix for #2368 was reverted... — committed to utmapp/UTM by osy 2 years ago

Most upvoted comments

Hi! I’ve been running QEMU directly from the CLI without using UTM and have been getting this issue regularly, as well.

I narrowed it down to -cpu flag I was using, and it turns out that using -cpu host was causing my issues. I switched to -cpu Cascadelake-Server (according to the recommendation to use the CPU matching your host CPU’s generation) while keeping -accel hvf, and it works without any BSOD.

Does UTM default to -cpu host behavior? If it does, could you try switching it to some pre-defined QEMU CPU and see if the crashes still occur?

nicholasngai on Sep 20, 2021

I have made a discovery: the BSOD IRQL_NOT_LESS_OR_EQUAL seems to coincide with the VM losing cursor focus. Just now, I moved my mouse out of the VM window and it BSOD’d. Not sure if it’s a coincidence or a cause of the crash, but I tried reinstalling Windows while not moving my cursor out of the Window and it didn’t crash.

Update: I can reproduce this reliably now. @osy any ideas why this might be happening or is this qemu/hvf territory?

Update 2: it seems like it also crashes if the mouse focused in the VM and not moved for a while.

Update 3: it just crashed while I was interacting with it, so no, this mouse movement and focus behavior is purely coincidental.

conath on Jun 17, 2021