The final word on OpenSolaris advanced options?

[loomy]

ACPI (default = on)
IO APIC
VT-x/AMD-V
PAE-NX
PIIX3/4 IDE controller

What is the final word on current OpenSolaris compatibility with these options? I ask because some of them are known to break operating systems if their value is changed, and I think that may have happened to one of my VMs. I'd like to know what to use from now on, for good.

Thanks.

[PGHammer]

ACPI (default = on)
IO APIC
VT-x/AMD-V
PAE-NX
PIIX3/4 IDE controller

What is the final word on current OpenSolaris compatibility with these options? I ask because some of them are known to break operating systems if their value is changed, and I think that may have happened to one of my VMs. I'd like to know what to use from now on, for good.

Thanks.

No ACPI support in OpenSolaris (not news, as Solaris itself has long lacked ACPI suppoort); however, the PIIX4 controller *does* work (it should, as it has worked natively sonce Solaris 9, as it was included as a patch for . The PCNet III Ethernet support is there (this is the new default, replacing the PCnet II, which is now an option as it the Intel PRO/1000MT); amazingly, wqhile the earlier RCs required a patch, the 5/08 release of OpenSolaris detects this adapter directly (oddly enough, it does *not* detect the PRO/1000MT; this is odd because the native version of this controller, and the PRO/1000CT, have been supported directly since Solaris 8, and originally appeared as a patch for Solaris 7).
Given the lack of ACPI support, I would also expect APIC support to be a non-starter as well. AMD-V and VT-x support should be present (as well as PAE/NX support) but mostly due to the use of Intel Xeon and Core processors (and the even longer use of AMD Opteron processors) in Sun's own servers.

What has me mystified is that while there is no native support for either version of the VB audio support by OpenSolaris, when the ICH support is used by the OpenSound driver for Solaris, it nukes the Ethernet support. (The lack of support for the SB16 emulation is real surprising, as this has been present in every version of Solaris since V.5; any idea if this was deliberately deprecated, as OpenSound's driver doesn't support it either.)

[pedlo]

From my experience, I'd say:
ACPI : on, it doesn't hurt if not supported, however it works with OpenSolaris 2008.5
IO APIC : off, because it only slows down the virtual machine.
VT-x/AMD-V : off for now; it still can lead to system unstability
PAE-NX : off, it's still experimental.
PIIX3/4 IDE controller : basically you won't notice any difference between the two. I stick with the good old PIIX3.

[trisk]

ACPI (default = on)
IO APIC
VT-x/AMD-V
PAE-NX
PIIX3/4 IDE controller

What is the final word on current OpenSolaris compatibility with these options? I ask because some of them are known to break operating systems if their value is changed, and I think that may have happened to one of my VMs. I'd like to know what to use from now on, for good.

Thanks.

No ACPI support in OpenSolaris (not news, as Solaris itself has long lacked ACPI suppoort);

This is incorrect. ACPI is a requirement for device configuration and SMP on modern x86 systems, and Solaris has supported ACPI since at least Solaris 9. Solaris 10 has some features which require ACPI, and OpenSolaris has more complete power management. It is preferable to enable ACPI.

however, the PIIX4 controller *does* work (it should, as it has worked natively sonce Solaris 9, as it was included as a patch for . The PCNet III Ethernet support is there (this is the new default, replacing the PCnet II, which is now an option as it the Intel PRO/1000MT); amazingly, wqhile the earlier RCs required a patch, the 5/08 release of OpenSolaris detects this adapter directly (oddly enough, it does *not* detect the PRO/1000MT; this is odd because the native version of this controller, and the PRO/1000CT, have been supported directly since Solaris 8, and originally appeared as a patch for Solaris 7).

There has been some testing on VirtualBox between OpenSolaris developer releases, and a few problems were corrected. In addition to the PIIX4 ATA, the new SATA controller emulation (Intel AHCI) should work fine for OpenSolaris. I don't know why the Intel network card does not function, since the correct driver is available; perhaps the PCI ID needs to be added.

Given the lack of ACPI support, I would also expect APIC support to be a non-starter as well. AMD-V and VT-x support should be present (as well as PAE/NX support) but mostly due to the use of Intel Xeon and Core processors (and the even longer use of AMD Opteron processors) in Sun's own servers.

Again, you want ACPI. ACPI and APIC are not directly related.

Using APIC increases the emulation overhead, and it is questionable whether there is any benefit (there is a small probability using legacy PIC when the guest is using multiple CPUs (cores) can cause problems).

The AMD-V/VT support matters for the host that is running VirtualBox, not the guest (except in cases where a guest crashes VirtualBox when it is used). The guest should not be aware of those CPU extensions. Using them should produce somewhat better performance, but stability can vary.

PAE may slightly educe guest performance (penalty for page table lookups), so don't enable it unless the guest requires it (OpenSolaris does not).

What has me mystified is that while there is no native support for either version of the VB audio support by OpenSolaris, when the ICH support is used by the OpenSound driver for Solaris, it nukes the Ethernet support. (The lack of support for the SB16 emulation is real surprising, as this has been present in every version of Solaris since V.5; any idea if this was deliberately deprecated, as OpenSound's driver doesn't support it either.)

Drivers that couldn't be freely redistributed were not included in the OpenSolaris release. The closed-source sbpro was one of them (you can still get the driver from Solaris 10 or Express if needed). OSS probably dropped its SB 16 driver many years ago due to disuse, although it might be worth bringing it back when OSS is integrated into OpenSolaris.

The problem with sound conflicting with the network controller sounds like a bug in VirtualBox.

In summary:
IO APIC - Don't use, unless you have problems with devices on a multicore system
VT-x/AMD-V - Try it if available
PAE-NX - Don't use
PIIX3/4 IDE controller - As PGHammer mentioned, works fine. The AHCI SATA should also be good.

Don't be too afraid to change things, you should not be able to "break" the guest permanently - in the worse case with VT you can crash the host, but the guest should be fine.

[jhowk]

There has been some testing on VirtualBox between OpenSolaris developer releases, and a few problems were corrected. In addition to the PIIX4 ATA, the new SATA controller emulation (Intel AHCI) should work fine for OpenSolaris. I don't know why the Intel network card does not function, since the correct driver is available; perhaps the PCI ID needs to be added.

When I attempted to install 2008.05 using a .vdi that was mapped to a true (non-emulated port 0-3) sata port, the installation would work, but upon reboot, the guest would not come up. I would immediately boot to the maintenance mode prompt and freeze. The only way I was able to get it to work was to uncheck SATA and use IDE only. I'm trying different combinations to see what works and what doesn't so we'll see what else I can get to puke out.

[wbkang]

VT-x/AMD-V - Try it if available

At least for me, I had to enable VT-x support to make the system usable. Using OpenSoalris without VT-x on my laptop (Vista 32bit, Core 2 duo T7300) will lock up OpenSolaris as well as my host Windows.