If you’re trying to run VirtualBox on a Linux host with an AMD CPU and you get this error:

VirtualBox can't enable the AMD-V extension. Please disable the KVM kernel extension, recompile your kernel and reboot (VERR_SVM_IN_USE).

The problem is that KVM has claimed the AMD-V virtualization extension, and VirtualBox can’t use it at the same time.

Worse on Newer Kernels (6.12+)

This issue has become more common with Linux kernel 6.12 and later. The KVM modules are now loaded more aggressively at boot, even if you’re not using KVM. If you recently updated your kernel (e.g., to 6.14+ on Arch Linux) and VirtualBox stopped working, this is likely the cause.

Solution

You don’t need to recompile anything. Just unload the KVM modules:

sudo modprobe -r kvm_amd
sudo modprobe -r kvm

Then start your VirtualBox VM — it should work.

Making It Persistent

If you want KVM to never load automatically (so VirtualBox always works), blacklist the modules:

echo "blacklist kvm_amd" | sudo tee /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-kvm.conf
echo "blacklist kvm" | sudo tee -a /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist-kvm.conf

Going Back to KVM

If you need KVM again (e.g., for QEMU), simply reload the modules:

sudo modprobe kvm
sudo modprobe kvm_amd

You can only use one hypervisor at a time — VirtualBox or KVM, not both simultaneously. That’s a hardware limitation of AMD-V/SVM.