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Ubuntu 12.04 on Virtualbox pae error – “Unable to boot – please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU”

Posted on by Manohar Bhattarai — 36 Comments ↓

Hi all,

My last post was about the release of Ubuntu 12.04 LTS. I wanted to install it in the VirtualBox. But I got an error. So this post is about how to remove the error and move forward with the installation.

If you are installing the new Ubuntu 12.04 Precise Pangolin 32bit ISO on Virtualbox you are going to get this error :

“This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU: pae Unable to boot – please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU”.

Precise Pangolin LTS [Running] - VirtualBox OSE

Precise Pangolin LTS [Running] – VirtualBox OSE pae error

To fix this error, you have to enable PAE/NX for the virtual machine.

To enable, you have to select the virtual machine and then click “Settings” and under System –> Processor, check the “Enable PAE/NX” box:

Precise Pangolin LTS - Settings

Precise Pangolin LTS – Settings

This occurs because Ubuntu 12.04 uses the PAE kernel by default for 32bit.
Hope this helps you all and saves you day.
Enjoy Ubuntu 12.04.
And if you want to enable ssh access to guest Ubuntu from host, here is the howto.

Thank you.

–

About

I am Manohar Bhattarai, a vivid java programmer. I am a keen Linux user. I currently boot Ubuntu Linux. I am a Free/Libre Open Source Software enthusiast.

Posted in Linux, Precise Pangolin, Ubuntu, Ubuntu 12.04 LTS, Virtualbox Tagged with: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
36 comments on “Ubuntu 12.04 on Virtualbox pae error – “Unable to boot – please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU””
  1. Oleg says:
    May 11, 2012 at 12:40 pm

    thx a lot, man )

    Reply
  2. Blub says:
    May 16, 2012 at 8:26 pm

    Very helpful indeed!

    Reply
  3. Akula says:
    May 28, 2012 at 2:53 pm

    Hi, I am not using a virtualbox. I am trying to use it as a bootable USB for the laptop and I am getting this error. Could you please help

    Reply
  4. Diogo says:
    June 2, 2012 at 9:52 pm

    Ty brow

    Reply
  5. njorl says:
    June 24, 2012 at 9:20 pm

    Manohar, As you’ve taken the trouble to publish this piece of help, I want to go to the (lesser) trouble of thanking you.

    Reply
  6. timm says:
    June 29, 2012 at 7:31 pm

    STILL IT DOESNT WORK

    Reply
  7. pranee says:
    July 2, 2012 at 12:28 am

    thanks a lot

    Reply
  8. Jordan Trudgett says:
    July 7, 2012 at 12:04 am

    Thanks for this 🙂

    Reply
  9. Gopal says:
    August 3, 2012 at 6:29 pm

    Thank you very much ! It works !!!

    Reply
  10. Alvamga says:
    August 19, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    I would probably found this in the end, but you’ve saved me the time, effort and grief! Thanks! 🙂

    Reply
  11. Vikas V says:
    August 21, 2012 at 11:38 am

    Thanks for sharing the tip. It did save my day.

    Reply
  12. GaganSidhu says:
    August 24, 2012 at 7:41 pm

    pae error is solved but when i started to install ubuntu windows7 suddenly shut downs with no warning ………………how to fix it

    Reply
  13. Luca Innocenti says:
    September 10, 2012 at 3:12 pm

    Thank you

    Reply
  14. HtmlGifted says:
    September 16, 2012 at 8:09 am

    worked for me perfect thanks

    Reply
  15. Thanks says:
    September 16, 2012 at 8:35 am

    Thank you kind sir. I was about to give up!

    Reply
  16. keziahh says:
    September 18, 2012 at 5:31 am

    This is the same problem that I’ve had, but I can’t check the box because it’s blanked out. Any ideas? 🙂

    Reply
    • Lou says:
      March 16, 2013 at 2:29 am

      Make sure you don’t have an instance running, because you can’t click/choose it if the VM is already running. Quit it and try again.

      Reply
  17. silverwing says:
    September 27, 2012 at 4:52 pm

    Much Love, Ty bro!

    Reply
  18. Ries says:
    October 1, 2012 at 9:06 pm

    You just saved me from wasting hours of my life! Thank you!

    Reply
  19. Natalia Potapova says:
    October 5, 2012 at 5:46 pm

    Thank you!

    Reply
  20. uday says:
    October 6, 2012 at 11:15 am

    Thanks. That saved my day 🙂

    Reply
  21. satish says:
    October 16, 2012 at 4:11 pm

    just enable PAE/NX for the vm guest. this should solve the issue.

    Reply
  22. alexe says:
    November 14, 2012 at 4:33 pm

    А как включить этот PAE/NX из коммандной строки?

    Reply
  23. Pedro M.- says:
    December 2, 2012 at 7:59 pm

    Thank you XD

    Reply
  24. Anthony says:
    February 15, 2013 at 4:12 pm

    Thanks a lot !

    Reply
  25. celsotecnicolso says:
    February 20, 2013 at 9:52 pm

    Thank you!

    Reply
  26. valsaraj says:
    March 16, 2013 at 10:29 pm

    I got the same error when I tried to install CentOS. Later it is fixed when I changed Linux type from ‘Linux’ to ‘Redhat’.

    Thanks!

    Reply
  27. Monica Infit says:
    March 18, 2013 at 7:45 am

    Muchas gracias por el dato!

    Reply
  28. Antonio says:
    January 28, 2014 at 5:57 pm

    Thanks a bunch, mate! You saved my day.

    Reply
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    May 18, 2012 at 8:13 am

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