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Last active January 29, 2023 16:45
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VirtualBox piix4_smbus Error during VM boot
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piix4_smbus.md

Problem

During VM boot we see an error from piix4_smbus and in dmesg something like:

piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.3: Host SMBus controller not enabled!

This error is caused by VM having no smbus but Ubuntu always trying to load the module. It doesn’t affect anything but is a bit annoying. Originally this error was reported on VirtualBox and Ubuntu 10.10, but I still see it in Ubuntu 13.10. It also exist on VMware Fusion.

Solution

  1. Check module is being loaded:
    lsmod | grep i2c_piix4
  1. If so, blacklist it in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, by adding the following to the end of the file:
    blacklist i2c_piix4
  1. Update the initramfs
   update-initramfs -u -k all

Reported on

  • VirtualBox 3.2.10 and Ubuntu 10.10 (original post)
  • VirtualBox 4.x and Ubuntu 12.04
  • VMware Fusion 6.0.3 and Ubuntu 13.10

Credit

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