After Mac OS Montery(12.0.1) update, my VirtualBox will not start and give NS_ERROR_FAILURE

Question

Error: 
 The virtual machine 'BASE' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1). 

Result Code: 
NS_ERROR_FAILURE (0x80004005)
Component: 
MachineWrap
Interface: 
IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}

I updated my mac to Monterey last night. After that, my VM will not start. I have tried several things after looking at various other blogs but none seem to solve the issue.

1. Updating VirtualBox to latest release i.e. 6.1.28
2. Downloading extension for VirtualBox from https://www.virtualbox.org/wiki/Downloads
3. Uninstalling VirtualBox and executing VirtualBox.pkg and then allowing "Oracle America" in Security and Privacy setting this link
4. Enable/Disable SIP in Recovery mode. csrutil status , csrutil enable/disable this link
5. The 'Discard' button is greyed.
6. I also checked the read/write access of the VM folders but they are fine.

Here is the OS details.

Process:               VirtualBoxVM [1046]
Path:                  /Applications/VirtualBox.app/Contents/Resources/VirtualBoxVM.app/Contents/MacOS/VirtualBoxVM
Identifier:            org.virtualbox.app.VirtualBoxVM
Version:               6.1.28 (6.1.28)
Code Type:             X86-64 (Native)
Parent Process:        launchd [1]
Responsible:           VirtualBox [925]
User ID:               501

Date/Time:             2021-11-01 11:53:21.3160 +0530
OS Version:            macOS 12.0.1 (21A559)
Report Version:        12
Bridge OS Version:     6.0 (19P548)
Anonymous UUID:        07F57096-5B7A-630E-C7CC-7CDCCC491403


Time Awake Since Boot: 88 seconds

System Integrity Protection: enabled

Crashed Thread:        0  Dispatch queue: com.apple.main-thread

Exception Type:        EXC_CRASH (SIGABRT)
Exception Codes:       0x0000000000000000, 0x0000000000000000
Exception Note:        EXC_CORPSE_NOTIFY

Application Specific Information:
crashed on child side of fork pre-exec

Answer 1

In the "for what it's worth" category. I had the same problem, Monterey, Virtualbox session wouldn't restart with same error.

I followed the Uninstall/Reinstall (worried I'd lose all configuration--I didn't). Same symptoms.

I "cloned" the session (without understanding what I was doing), but saw nothing in the GUI suggesting it actually did anything--spoiler alert: it did) Randomly, from the Tools tab, I clicked the "Add" session button (thinking to create a new session), and saw the clone in the select file dialog. Selected it, and the clone session started up, but then hung on a black screen (windows 10). So I "powered down" the session, and started it again. Following lengthy delay, I had my old system back

Ideas (based on, what?...) "PowerDown" your sessions before upgrading Virtualbox or OS X. I don't think the Uninstall/Reinstall fixed it, but rather the "Clone" then "Add".

I'd like those hours spent back. Maybe this'll save you a similar expenditure. This post is only, "I did this, and it worked". It is a recounting of post hoc, propter hoc.