no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

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gnomed
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no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by gnomed »

Hi,

First posting here, hope this works because this problem is really frustrating me. I am sure it is more simple than it seems to me too. Anyway, to begin from the start, I have been having some trouble with some programs on my guest OS lately and have tracked them to possible issues with VT-x technology. I went to check my VT-x settings and found that no such settings even existed. This is baffling me because the online documentation I can find about virtualbox seems to mention this "acceleration" tab which appears under the settings menu for "system." according to this documentation:
http://www.virtualbox.org/manual/ch03.html#hwvirt

When I go to my system settings menu, I only have the "motherboard" tab and "processor" tab and that is all. The documentation mentions that virtualization has to be enabled on the BIOS to be able to set it, but I figured the tab would at least still appear. The funny thing is I remember seeing it before... Anyway, I also went to check my BIOS settings in case this was the issue, but I cant even find any settings that mention "virtualization" or "VT-x" so I am pretty much lost there.

Anyone know what I am doing wrong?

Using ubuntu 10.04, latest verstion of virtualbox downloaded from the site. Absolute latest BIOS on Gigabyte ultra-durable III series.
Sasquatch
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by Sasquatch »

Check the specifications of your motherboard. I tried to look it up, and I came up with some sites reviewing it back in 2008. This could be a problem, as hardware assisted virtualisation wasn't in every motherboard back then. This also explains why you don't have it on your motherboard. Your CPU might not have it either, so check that too.

As for the performance, don't expect any major improvements. I have two systems, a PC without hardware assist and a laptop that does have assisted virtualisation and I don't see much difference.
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gnomed
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by gnomed »

I have tried to check the specifications on my motherboard. But as I already mentioned I do not know exactly what I am looking for, and I definitely dont know where to look. I am looking at the box and user manual now and cannot find anything useful in it, what am I looking for though?

While you may have found a review from 2008, is it possible they updated the motherboard and kept the same name on later models? I bought this motherboard as a replacement only 3 months ago, and it was brand new with far more features than the one I replaced, so I would be a little disappointed if I got something out of date for my fair chunk of change. Also, I have this acceleration tab working on my laptop, and its 4 years old(no exaggeration)!! So again, I would be heavily disappointed if I managed to buy a brand new and more powerful computer that does not have this virtualization feature.

I would love a way to definitively know whether my motherboard has this or not. Unfortunately it looks mostly that it does not, but I dont plan on resting until I find solid proof. Can anyone help????

And just FYI, I am trying to get ITunes working, it has nothing to do with "performance" of the machine. It is a matter of whether a program runs or does not run. I have tested it on my laptop(which I dont use often or ever) and itunes works fine when VT-x is enabled, but it crashes without VT-x. So I NEED VT-x because ITunes is the only reason I have a VM.
Sasquatch
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by Sasquatch »

iTunes is a piece of junk anyway. But as I have an iPhone, I'm forced to use it every once in a while too :(. That said, I do not have any problems starting iTunes on my VM hosted on a system without hardware assisted virtualisation. I would look at the problem elsewhere, like Windows itself. Create a new VM and install Windows on it (if you have Vista or newer, you don't have to enter a key or activate the OS) then get iTunes on it. See if that works and if it does, you know there is something wrong with the VM itself.

As for the motherboard: any company that makes a new version of an old product with added features and new technologies is a bad one if they give it the same name. Of course, this is for IT only, it's done with cars all the time, but the appearance is different too. So either you got a new model with a slightly different name, or Gigabyte is just a bad company.
What you can look for, is the processor that you have and run a Google query on it. If it's Intel, you can find it's specs on processorfinder.intel.com. For the motherboard, check which chipset is on it and Google for it. You should get hits with supported features by that chipset, including hardware assisted virtualisation (either VT-x or AMD-V).
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gnomed
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by gnomed »

The problem is definitely the VT-x enabling when it comes to itunes. As I mentioned before I tested it on both my laptop and desktop and it worked on my laptop. And to be more specific, I copied the exact VDI file between the computers, so there would be no other difference. So I do not need to make another machine, although I also have a windows xp machine and it also shows the same symptoms.

This still leaves me with the question of, "why is there no acceleration tab?"

Possible answers so far are that my motherboard does not support it. I wish I knew for sure that this would result in no tab at all. I would think they would want to at least show it with the disabled features so that I can have the feedback that support was not detected. But I guess not.

As for my exact motherboard type, it is a gigabyte ultradurable 3 series, but the exact model is: EP43-UD3L (rev 1.1) So perhaps that is more informative, but either way I have decided just to email Gigabyte and ask them since they have an easy enough inquiry form and I reckon its a simple enough question. I will investigate my processor pending their reply.

Other than my processor or motherboard there seems to be no other explanation for why there is no tab though, is there?
fixedwheel
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by fixedwheel »

gnomed wrote: As for my exact motherboard type, it is a gigabyte ultradurable 3 series, but the exact model is: EP43-UD3L (rev 1.1)
LOL, they made a lot of different boards labeled "UD3" ...

why not read the boards manual, the EP43-UD3L rev 1.0 i just found at their support page says
2-5 Advanced BIOS Features
...
Vitualisation Technology(Note)
... (Default: Enabled)

(Note) This item is present only if you install a CPU that supports this feature. (...)
gnomed wrote:I will investigate my processor pending their reply.
do it now ;)
gnomed
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by gnomed »

Well there we go, I was even able to find it in my instruction manual now that I knew where to look.

Looks like the wild hunt continues on to my processor now. Thanks for the help fixedwheel.

Checked processor, only took about 3 seconds with that website listed above... my CPU disappears when I filter by virtualization technology... so I guess thats that.... lame :(. For the record: Intel core 2 duo E7300.
Sasquatch
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Re: no "acceleration" tab for system settings?

Post by Sasquatch »

gnomed wrote:The problem is definitely the VT-x enabling when it comes to itunes. As I mentioned before I tested it on both my laptop and desktop and it worked on my laptop. And to be more specific, I copied the exact VDI file between the computers, so there would be no other difference. So I do not need to make another machine, although I also have a windows xp machine and it also shows the same symptoms.
And I just told you that VT-x is not needed at all for iTunes. I know Apple is actually Crapple, but they aren't that bad to demand VT-x for their lousy player (yes, I don't like Apple, so what? :P). I have a perfect socket 939 AMD system here that doesn't even know what AMD-V is and the VMs don't mind running iTunes when I tell them to. I can even boot the VM on my VT-x capable laptop, start iTunes while the settings have VT-x on, shut down the VM, disable VT-x or even swap host and start iTunes again.
For the record, I have iTunes 9.0.2something, so it's not the latest version. But that shouldn't matter.
gnomed wrote:Well there we go, I was even able to find it in my instruction manual now that I knew where to look.

Looks like the wild hunt continues on to my processor now. Thanks for the help fixedwheel.

Checked processor, only took about 3 seconds with that website listed above... my CPU disappears when I filter by virtualization technology... so I guess thats that.... lame :(. For the record: Intel core 2 duo E7300.
Yup, confirmed by http://processorfinder.intel.com/detail ... Spec=SLAPB, it doesn't have VT-x. Sucks.
Read the Forum Posting Guide before opening a topic.
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