Vmware

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Host SMBus controller not enabled

OS: Ubuntu 12.04-18.04 LTS, Vmware Workstation 10.0.x Ubuntu guest instances in VMware sometimes come up with the boot error message:

piix4_smbus 0000:00:007.3: Host SMBus controller not enabled!

Check logs

$ journalctl --dmesg --priority=err  #short options -k kernel, -p
-- Logs begin at Mon 2018-08-27 07:57:57 BST, end at Sun 2018-09-09 00:04:20 BST. --
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: piix4_smbus 0000:00:07.3: SMBus Host Controller not enabled!
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: sd 32:0:0:0: [sda] Assuming drive cache: write through
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0
Sep 08 23:54:15 u18 kernel: print_req_error: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0

This error is being caused because VMware doesn’t actually provide that level interface for CPU access, but Ubuntu try to load the kernel module anyway.

sudo vi /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf
#add line
blacklist i2c-piix4
#for older versions use blacklist i2c_piix4 (underscore) instead
sudo reboot