Vmware

This should be a collection of Vmware knowledge base.

Host SMBus controller not enabled

OS: Ubuntu 12.04-18.04 LTS, Vmware Workstation 10.0.x

Not working in U18.04 VmWorkstation 10

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. Follow steps below to fix it.

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