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I am trying to create a new 64-bit Windows 7 virtual machine inside a 64-bit Debian 7.3.0 instance running in VirtualBox. I am allowed to run 32-bit machines, but I can not create 64-bit machines, as shown in the picture. Why is this? I have hardware virtualization enabled on the host.enter image description here

hmijail
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user1049697
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  • Maybe because it's not turtles all the way down. – Daniel R Hicks Sep 23 '14 at 23:03
  • The linked-as-duplicate question is not a duplicate, since that one was about Bochs (pure software) over *any* VM, and this question is specifically about VirtualBox on VirtualBox. Fortunately there are some useful answers there. Summary: it just has not been implemented (yet?): see https://www.virtualbox.org/ticket/4032. FWIW, VMWare does support nested VMs. – hmijail Nov 04 '16 at 11:26

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I read this... "You must enable hardware virtualization for the particular VM for which you want 64-bit support; software virtualization is not supported for 64-bit VMs"

I am guessing since virtualbox is software, it will not support a 64-bit OS running from a 64-bit OS VM. That is my theory, maybe post system specs and what exactly is happening when you go to create another VM inside your VM.

Snickerz
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Let me get this straight. You have a host PC running VB. You then run 64bit Debian as a virtual machine. You then try to run a Windows VM inside the Debian VM?

Odd.

Well, @Snickerz is right, you need VM processor and BIOS support to run a 64bit VM, the Debian VM doesn't give you that. I suspect that the VB developers never thought it would be needed :)

Julian Knight
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  • It's true that it is a bit of an odd setup. :) But I need to run some Linux software that again needs a virtual machine to work with, hence the machines inside the machines. – user1049697 Feb 07 '14 at 16:31
  • Fair enough - thought it might be something like that. You will have to live with 32bit and rubbish performance though I'm afraid. – Julian Knight Feb 07 '14 at 16:41
  • @user1049697 "run some Linux software that again needs a virtual machine to work with" You realize VB can have more than 1 virtual machine on the host, even at the same time. – Robin Hood Sep 23 '14 at 22:34
  • as Robin mentioned i would also use to vm's in the same host rather than a vm inside a vm. - the performance of the vm inside the vm earlier or later will drive you crazy – konqui Sep 24 '14 at 05:59
  • Not such an odd set-up, we are using VMs to get around not having super user privileges on University machines. – Matt Stevens Apr 19 '17 at 02:51
  • @MattStevens Perhaps if you raise a question describing what you are trying to achieve, someone might come up with a less odd solution. I can think of several but it depends on what you are trying to do with that double-embedded VM. – Julian Knight Apr 19 '17 at 09:52