VirtualBox fails with “AMD-V in use (VERR_SVM_IN_USE)” while Android Emulator requires KVM on Fedora 42

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1

I’m running Fedora 42 (Workstation) on a Ryzen 7 5800H laptop and I’m facing a virtualization conflict between VirtualBox and the Android Emulator.

System info

  • OS: Fedora Linux 42

  • Kernel: 6.17.8-200.fc42.x86_64

  • CPU: AMD Ryzen 7 5800H

  • VirtualBox Version: 7.1.12

  • Android Studio Emulator: Narwhal 3 Feature Drop | 2025.1.3
    Build #AI-251.26094.121.2513.14007798 (Aug 28, 2025)
    Runtime: OpenJDK 21 (JetBrains

  • GPU: NVIDIA RTX 3050 Mobile + AMD Vega iGPU

Issue

VirtualBox throws the following error when I try to start a Kali VM:

VirtualBox can't enable the AMD-V extension. Please disable the KVM kernel extension,
recompile your kernel and reboot (VERR_SVM_IN_USE).
Result Code: NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: ConsoleWrap
Interface: IConsole

I can make VirtualBox work only by unloading KVM:

sudo rmmod kvm_amd // what I usually do before starting VMs

…but then the Android Emulator fails with:

/dev/kvm is empty – AMD-V is required

What I tried

  • Switched Android emulator acceleration from automatic to software – no effect

  • Set kali vm acceleration none to KVM manually – still fails

…Same issue persists

Goal

I want VirtualBox VMs and the Android Studio emulator to coexist on Fedora 42 without breaking AMD-V for one of them. ( I used to genymotion but failing to get root access make me migrate to android studio).

Question

Is there a known workaround or correct configuration for Fedora 42 that allows VirtualBox and KVM to run together on AMD CPUs?
Or should I migrate to another hypervisor setup?
(gpt generated and I checked it.)

2

Not exactly what you want but you could run Kali in KVM//QEMU (using virt-manager or Boxes) and at the same time run kvm based android emulator.
With kernel kvm hypervisor and QEMU you get near-native speeds. It’s the right solution for for the combination of GNU Linux host and GNU Linux guest.

You can import/convert your virtual hard disk to QEMU native format.

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3

I am currently trying your method but virt-manager has different type of bridge than virtualbox has that kind of confusing. thanks for advice

4

That’s right. Here are the steps: How to make a Virtual Machine present itself to my home network as if it were another physical computer - #7 by vgaetera

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