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Unable to start the Virtual Device

  • Updated

1. You are running Genymotion Desktop in a virtual machine

Genymotion Desktop has been designed to run in a physical environment, not in a virtual machine. For this reason, Genymotion Desktop will not work if run in a Windows, Linux or macOS VM.

For more details, please refer to Can Genymotion Desktop run in a virtual machine?

2. Linux

a. Distribution

Make sure to use one of our supported distributions:

  • Ubuntu 20.04.1LTS (Focal Fossa) (64 bit)
  • Debian 9 (Stretch) (64 bit)
  • Fedora 30 (64 bit) or above

Other distributions and versions have not be tested and may not provide the required libraries or VirtualBox version.

b. VirtualBox

VirtualBox may not be properly installed. Please refer to this article for possible solutions.

3. macOS

a. macOS 12.0.1 Monterey

If you recently upgraded to macOS Monterey, please refer to Genymotion Desktop does not work since I upgraded to macOs Monterey 12.0.1

b. mac M1 series

Genymotion Desktop is not compatible with the new mac M1 series. For more details, please refer to Does Genymotion Desktop work on Mac M1?

c. VirtualBox

VirtualBox may not be installed properly. Please refer to this article for possible solutions.

4. Windows 7 and Windows server

Genymotion Desktop does not support Windows 7 and Windows server systems.

Please use a supported Windows system. For more details, see Genymotion Desktop user guide.

5. The Hardware virtualization feature (VT) is disabled

If you get the error message "Your CPU is incompatible with virtualization technologies" in the error message box, make sure that the Intel VT-X, AMD-V or SVM virtualization feature is enabled in your BIOS.

Please refer to "Your CPU is incompatible with virtualization technologies" error for more details.

6. Windows 8-10 specific issues

Step 1: Reboot Windows

VirtualBox 6.1 may require a reboot after installation. Try to reboot your computer first.

Step 2: Fix possible VirtualBox issues

Every time Genymotion Desktop is run, it calls VirtualBox to verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter. If none is available, it tries to create a new one. Unfortunately, this operation fails on some Windows 10 configurations. To fix this, try the following solutions:

a. Solution 1

  1. Open Windows Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options
  2. Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  3. Select Disable
  4. Right-click on the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter again and Select Enable

Fix_Host_only_interface.gif

b. Solution 2

  1. Open Settings > Network & Internet > Change adapter options
  2. Right-click on VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  3. Click on Properties and then Configure
  4. Click on the Driver tab
  5. Click on Update Driver
  6. Select Browse my computer for drivers. Now choose Let me pick from a list of available drivers on my computer
  7. Select VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter from the list and click on Next
  8. Click Close to finish the update

c. Solution 3

  1. Open VirtualBox
  2. Go to File > Host Network Manager...
  3. Remove all the VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter

Remove-host-only.gif

d. Solution 4

Try to remove and re-install VirtualBox:

  1. Remove VirtualBox
  2. Download VirtualBox 6.1.14 for Windows hosts here
  3. Right-click on the installer and select Run As Administrator, even if your account has admin rights.
  4. Reboot your PC

e. Solution 5

Warning

VirtualBox 6.0.24 is no longer maintained by Oracle. This solution should only be used as a last resort.

On some configurations, VirtualBox 6.1 does not operate correctly. You may need to uninstall VirtualBox and downgrade to a lower version:

  1. Remove VirtualBox
  2. Download VirtualBox 6.0.24 for Windows hosts from here
  3. Right-click on the installer and select Run As Administrator, even if your account has admin rights
  4. Reboot your PC

Step 3: Windows Defender

The Memory Integrity Core Isolation feature of Windows Defender is known to cause this type of errors. You may need to disable it before using Genymotion Desktop. For more information, please refer to How to disable Memory integrity in Windows 10?

Step 4: Windows security settings

Every time Genymotion Desktop is started, it calls VirtualBox to perform several operations:

  • verify the availability of at least one VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter
  • create a VirtualBox Host-Only Ethernet Adapter if the above fails
  • list all the deployed virtual devices

These operations require administrator rights to be performed successfully. If your Windows user account has too tight security settings, they may fail.

To avoid this, make sure that:

  1. your Windows user account has Administrator rights (i.e. it is a member of the Administrators group)
  2. your Windows security settings are not too tight

Note

If you get many User Account Control (UAC) pop-ups prompting for Administrator permission, you may also consider turning them off. For instructions, please refer to this article: Enable or Disable User Account Control (UAC) in Windows

7. The Virtual Device initial state was not "Powered off"

The virtual device may not have been shutdown correctly:

  1. Close Genymotion, and open VirtualBox.
  2. Verify the virtual device state. If it is not Power Off, right-click on the device and select Close > Power Off:

VBox_power_off.gif

8. Firewalls and VPN

Firewalls and VPN can interfere and block Genymotion player communication with VirtualBox. For details and instructions, please refer to these articles:

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