Problems with DELL STUDIO 1536 and Virtualization.
I too have an AMD based DELL Studio 1536 Laptop. that is experiencing similar issues.
The host OS is Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) [as updated, Kernel 2.6.28.13].
Guest OSs act strangely. Some times they will install fine, other times they will freeze mid way though installation. Some times the guest OS can run for hours or just a few minuets before locking . Most notably Sol10 and XPPro. I have confirmed that the the VM is enabled in my bios and my bios is at version A05.
I see from another poster that they are also experiencing he same issue. I did an IM session with dell hardware support and they were a waste of an hour of time (Shades of Monty Pythons dead parrot skit).
So lets trouble shoot this, or Kepner-Trego this for DELL or SUN (Does SUN Monitor this sight?)
What is the specific device with this issue?
Dell Studio 1536 Laptop.
What similar systems could have the issue but do not?
I have an IBM T60p work laptop that runs Ubuntu 9.04,(32) xppro, 2000 server, RHEL 4.6(32) with out issue. I have a desktop (Athalon 64 w/o AMD-V) that runs Vbox with XP Pro, and Sol10 guests fine. I have a work Dell 755 using Intel-VT that runs gues OSs correctly (in vmware and vbox)
What is the specific issue?
Guest OSs do not shut down properly, Do not install properly, will freeze the HOST OS and/or GUI.
Do the laptops exhibit any other issues?
No. If you do not use Virtual box or VMWare the laptops perform flawlessly.
Are the laptops close in proximity?
No. They are separated by a double blind amount of distance.
Are there any other owners of the Delll Studio 1536 that are reporting this issue?
Only two to date.
Could others with this laptop not be experiencing this issue?
Yes, unreported.
What is the issue on the object.
When the AMD hardware virtualization is disabled in the bios, the problem does not happen.
I will skip the when and extent questions as they are unanswerable in this context.
NON KT trouble shooting:
Since two different HOST OSs have experienced this issue (Vista 64 pro and Ubuntu 9.04 64) it is not likely to be an OS issue. (DO YOU HEAR ME DELL!)
Evidence that points to BIOS:
I do not get the misbehavior with guest OSs when the AMD-v is disabled in the bios. Two independent people are reporting that DELL Studio 1536 Laptops Using AMD Turon X2 dual core processors with the AMD-v enabled in the bios is giving non-expected behavior with respect to VBox. This gives a strong indication that the CPU is not the issue with the deviation. Though it does not rule it out 100%. If the problem does not manifest when the AMD-v is disabled in the bios, then this strongly points to the BIOS.
Evidence that points away from the bios:
Using VMWare 2.0.1, I can run XPPro with out issue for quite some time, however the "support VMI paravirtualization" is not checked in this VM, which may indicate why it is stable. I will check on enabling this later.
So the question(s) come down to:
1) Who else has this model of laptop that is also experiencing this issue?
2) Are there people who are not experiencing issues when using VBox with the AMD-v enabled in the bios.
3) Are there older versions of the bios that do not have issues with VBox and the AMD-v?
4) Can SUN/OSE program around the issues with the broken bios on these DELL systems?
NOTE: I do not hold out hope that DELL will fix this BIOS. This model of laptop is being replaced by INTEL based ones with the same model number. So owners of this DELL may be SOL.
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