WSL was working, but stopped and I can't enabled virtualization

Question

Docker and WSL were working on my computer for many years. Last night there was a short power outage, and this morning when try to activate WSL, I am getting the error:

$ wsl
Please enable the Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature and ensure virtualization is enabled in the BIOS.
For information please visit https://aka.ms/wsl2-install

In the bios, the Intel VT-D option is disabled, and I can't enable it, as I can't select the row (it appears in black color, and the selector just skips it and goes to next row).

As far as I can understand my CPU (Intel Core i3-2100) does support virtualization:

But Intel® Processor Identification Utility shows that it doesn't:

This is CPU-z data:

Is there something to fix it?

Answer 1

Practical side:

1. I would make a backup copy of WSL with all docker files, mostly to .tar.gz
2. Enable the feature that the WSL requests, restart computer
3. Try to run WSL then
4. If it does not help - reinstallation of WSL should help with moving backup of docker back again

Why?

1. Virtual Machine Platform Windows feature may have turned off by herself somehow, so need to turn it back on
2. If it is WSL version 1 (not WSL2 - separate VM) there is not much to change than installing the same OS packages and configuration (/etc folder)
3. The above does not comply to WSL2, as I am unsure if you have WSL1 or WSL2
4. The last thing - if it is WSL2 - you may have corrupted virtual disk image, which you should fsck, and if that does not help - reinstall whole WSL2

Answer 2

Docker and WSL were working on my computer for many years. Last night there was a short power outage, and this morning when try to activate WSL, I am getting the error:

In the bios, the Intel VT-D option is disabled, and I can't enable it, as I can't select the row (it appears in black color, and the selector just skips it and goes to next row).

Intel® Virtualization Technology for Directed I/O (VT-d) is a separate feature than Intel® Virtualization Technology (VT-x), VT-X is required to be enabled to run WSL, VT-d isn’t required for WSL. Your CPU does NOT actually support VT-d which is the reason you are unable to enable it.

As for the reason hardware virtualization is now unavailable for WSL, and is showing as disabled in the Intel utility, that’s likely connected to the fact you have software installed that is already using it.

Is there something to fix it?

The first thing you should try is disabling then enable Intel Virtualization Technology (VT-x). If that doesn’t work I would attempt to determine which software other than WSL is using VT-X since only one piece of software at a time can use it. The second thing you should do, if enabling and disabling, doesn’t solve the problem is to uninstall Docker and WSL and reinstall WSL from the Windows Store.

Answer 3

I see serveral reports on the internet of this issue being fixed by removing and reinstalling the CMOS battery. This should clear out any corruption in your bios config and hopefully re-enable this issue.

Keep in mind this will factory reset your bios, so keep this in mind if you have any custom configuration.

Sources:

https://h30434.www3.hp.com/t5/Business-PCs-Workstations-and-Point-of-Sale-Systems/VT-X-and-VT-P-options-greyed-out-unselectable-in-BIOS-on/td-p/6719338

https://forums.tomshardware.com/threads/intel-virtualization-tech-ami-bios-option-become-greyed-out.1691204/

Answer 4

Fortunately for me, the issue was far more trivial, so I didn't need to reinstall anything. For some reason the Hyper-V feature got disabled without any notice.

After reenabling it, everything was ok again.