virtualbox.org

Hi

My laptop is a 64bit Windows Vista, IBM Thinkpad T500, with 4G memory.
I downloaded both VirtualBox_-_Mandriva.Free.2010.Alpha.2.x84.64bit_VDI-[VirtualBoxImages.com] and VirtualBox_-_Mandriva-Free-2009.1-KDE-Beta1. The result is same. The error message says:
This kernel requires the following features not present on the CPU:pae
Unable to boot – please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU.

I run "BCDEdit /set PAE forceenable", but still the error exists. Some posts say that PAE doesn't apply to 64 bits.

I just want to have a simple Linux on my laptop.

Thanks
Jirong

In VirtualBox settings for the guest.
System/processor tick enable pae.

You may also want to check that your bios supports hardware-v (VT-x/AMD-v) and that it is turned on.
A lot of laptops do not have this and a lot of laptop vendors will not turn it on.
If it does not have the hardware-v you will need to install the 32 bit version of the OS that you are trying to install.

Anyway you should be able to run a 32-bit linux even if you don't have vt-x.
And as you only have 4GB memory you don't really need a 64-bit linux.