SMBus/ BIOS error while booting Ubuntu in VirtualBox

Solution 1:

Turn off the option "Enable Nested Paging" in the VirtualBox configuration under Settings->System->Acceleration.

This allowed me to get Ubuntu running with the desktop.

Solution 2:

This answer is copied from Blog of Finster » VirtualBox piix4_smbus Error, slightly modified:

SMBus base address uninitialized - upgrade bios or use force_addr=0xaddr

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.

1. Check module is being loaded

   lsmod | grep i2c_piix4
   

2. If so, blacklist it in the file /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf, by adding the following to the end of the file:

   blacklist i2c_piix4
   

3. Update the initramfs

   sudo update-initramfs -u -k all
   

You might want to optionally remove unneeded kernel images before updating the initramfs to cut down on how long that part takes.

Solution 3:

We can safely ignore the warning

SMBus base address uninitialized 

This indicates that we run without a System Management Bus, which is to expected on a virtual machine.

Your boot failure does have a different reason. Anything from incompatible settings of your virtual machine to incompatibilites with your Windows kernel or drivers.

Try to boot the virtual machine while pressing and holding the left Shift key to boot a root shell for further investigation, to upgrade your guest OS, or to install the guest additions.

Solution 4:

The "SMBus base address uninitialized" message is an issue with VirtualBox. It's purely a cosmetic issue, and will not affect or hinder the operation of the virtual machine.

This is FIXED in VirtualBox 5.1.4. (change logs) Upgrade to the latest version of VirtualBox to eliminate the error message.

Disabling Nested Paging, as suggested in some answers, will not eliminate the "SMBus base address uninitialized" message. In addition, it will likely make your guest OS slower.

The fact that your machine won't boot is a different problem. You'll need to find a way to check the virtual machine's boot log.

Solution 5:

The error message is not related to the problem of Ubuntu not booting. I have had the same problem. After displaying the error message the colors became crazy and the system seems to halt, however moving the mouse resulted in some pixel garbage.

Disabling "Nested Paging" in Setting->System->Acceleration allows to start the system.

Tested using VirtualBox 4.3.20 (64bit on Windows 7) with Kubuntu 14.10. After changing the setting, I was able to boot and install Kubuntu, however the error message appears on every boot.