Laptops and hardware virtualization

[gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org (Jerry Feldman)]

As I mentioned the Acer Aspire has an AMD X2 (64bit Athalon dual core)
that certainly has the svm (AMD_V technology) flag on the chip, but it
is not supported in the BIOS and VirtualBox will not let you install as
64-bit guest. The Intel VT flag is 'vmx'. AFAIK, all AMD 64-bit chips
have the flag, not all Intel chips do.

I do know that some Dell systems have the supporting chipsets, but you
need to run a script to enable the virtualization.


On 02/13/2010 03:04 PM, Edward Ned Harvey wrote:
>> Most of the CPU chips out in the field today support hardware
>> virtualization (some low-end Intel chips do not).  But, many consumer
>> laptops  do not have the chipset or BIOS support. Without the BIOS
>> support there is no way to enable the hardware virtualization
>> acceleration. Certainly you can run VWWare, Virtualbox and QEMU withou=
t
>> vhardware support, but it poses some limitations. For instance in
>> Virtualbox, you can't run 64-bit guests unless the hardware
>> virtualization is enabled.
>> I was just wondering what laptops might have support for
>> virtualization.
>> I know that the Toshiba Satellite and Acer Aspire do not have BIOS
>> support (or the chipset) to support hardware virtualization. However, =
I
>> do know that some business laptops do have virtualization support.
>>    =20
> Just like long mode (aka LM, aka 64bit), the extra functionality for VM=
 or
> LM inside the CPU costs extra to manufacture or purchase, so I'm going =
to
> make a disputable claim that laptop manufacturers won't put VM or LM en=
abled
> CPU's into their laptops, unless they're going to build the rest of the=

> components in the laptop to support it too.
>
> There are lots of laptops and netbooks out there that do not have these=

> options.
>
> I think if you don't have the VM option in BIOS, it's either enabled by=

> default, or it's not in the CPU either.  For example, I know my macbook=
 pro
> supports vmx, and I don't think there's any way to disable it.
>
> You can prove me wrong if you wish.  Look in BIOS and see that there is=
 no
> VM enabling option ... Then boot from some linux system, and cat
> /proc/cpuinfo.  Look for the "AMD-v" or "vmx" flag.  Optionally, you ca=
n
> also look for the "lm" flag.  If you find it present in the CPU ... and=
 not
> present in BIOS ... I contend that it's enabled and you can't disable i=
t.
>
> That being said ... I know I use Dell Latitude, Dell Precision, Lenovo =
T500,
> and Apple Macbook Pro.  These all support 64bit and virtualization.
>
>
>  =20


--=20
Jerry Feldman <gaf-mNDKBlG2WHs at public.gmane.org>
Boston Linux and Unix
PGP key id: 537C5846
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