64 bit host, 64 bit guests?

[memilanuk]

Hello,

I just got started w/ Virtual Box last night after watching a couple reviews from Jupiter Broadcasting over on youtube.com. Very cool!

So... I downloaded the x86/amd64 PUEL version of 3.0.0 for a Windows host, installed it on my HP Pavillion (Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33ghz) running Windows Vista SP1... and had a few hiccups.

First tried downloading the boot-only iso for FreeBSD 7.2, for the AMD64 architecture. It booted and ran, but hung up with an error message "CPU doesn't support long mode". Wasn't sure what to make of that. I downloaded a copy of FreeNAS 0.7RC1 that I wanted to try, and ran that. Booted up, installed, runs like a champ. Had to change the network adapter from 'NAT' to 'Host Interface', but after that, it runs great - was able to access the web interface on the FreeNAS box from Vista using Firefox no problem.

Then I finished downloading Ubuntu Linux (desktop) 9.04, also the amd64 flavor and tried installing it. Didn't get very far before it coughed up the following error message: "This kernel requires an x86-64 cpu but only detected an i686 cpu. Unable to boot, please use a kernel appropriate for your cpu."

I've been looking into the virtualization thing... hardware vs. software, etc. and apparently I'm not looking in the right places or something. When I read the Fine Manual it talks about enabling the hardware virtualization in the bios (which I cannot find *any* option for in my BIOS menus). It also mentions V-Tx (intel hardware optimization), which VirtualBox did turn on by default for each of the virtual machines created. I tried searching here, but apparently the forum software pitches search terms that are too short and/or common - like '64 bit', '64-bit', etc. so was left using other search terms that netted me *hundreds* of pages of results - far too many to dig through with the Mk1Mod0 eyeball.

All in all... I'm a bit confused. I have 64-bit hardware, with a 64 bit host OS installed. I got the 64 bit version of Virtualbox, and created virtual machines for my guest OSs and they all have hardware virtualization enabled. I downloaded the 64 bit version of two different operating systems - FreeBSD and Ubuntu Linux - and neither one will install. The only one that did install - FreeNAS - is based off of FreeBSD, but I rather doubt its optimized for x64 yet.

What am I missing?

Thanks,

Monte

[fixedwheel]

VT-x, sorry but ...

(Intel Core 2 Quad Q8200 @ 2.33ghz)

has not. The Q9... and the Q6... have - but not Q8...

[memilanuk]

I'm sorry... but has not what? Hardware virtualization?

So... why does VirtualBox enable VT-X by default? Is there someway to disable it and see if that works? Or am I just stuck using non-x64 versions on my *BRAND NEW* computer?

Thanks,

Monte

[Perryg]

Unfortunately not all computers even new ones support Hardware-v. If you looked in the bios and do not find it you do not have it. VBox may show the check mark but if you look it should be grayed to indicate that it is not available. You should contact the computer manufacture if you believe that you should have this feature, but from almost everyone I have told this they have found out that the manufacture had turned it off on purpose and will not turn it on. One other thing that you can check is to see if you just need a bios update. Maybe if you are really lucky that will do the trick.

You may want to read this as well. It appears that your CPU does not include Hyper-v http://ark.intel.com/ProductCollection. ... lyID=28398

[memilanuk]

Well... nuts.

The VT-X options were checked, but greyed out as you described. I had presumed that meant that it was 'fixed' once the VM was created, not that the option wasn't available. That's disappointing, to say the least.

So... what are my options now? I presume the hobbled chipset is capable of *running* 64 bit OSs since it is running 64 bit Vista (just checking so if someday I want to wipe the HDD and install something else on it I don't get another nasty surprise) currently? Given that FreeNAS installed and runs just fine, I presume that if I download the non-64-bit x86 install iso images for Linux and FreeBSD, I should be good to go? Realistically... I don't have any burning need for 64 bit guest operating systems... although it would have been nice.

Hopefully at some point VirtualBox will be able to support software virtualization of 64-bit guests on 64-bit hosts that don't have hardware virtualization support... probably asking a lot, but one can always hope

Thanks,

Monte

[Perryg]

Sorry but I have asked this myself as my bios does not support VT-x/AMC-v, and was told that it was not on their to-do list. Since as they put it all systems for the last 3 years have VT-x/AMD-v they do not want to regress. My system is only a year old but I can live without it. The VBox program works for me just fine and if it were any faster I could not keep up with it anyway. I know the companies that I support don't have Hardware-V on most of their systems either and the way the economy is I doubt any of them will be updating their computers for the next (3) years unless they just die and need to replace them. So I don't know what I am going to tell them either, but that is my problem.

[James Bond 007]

Well... nuts.

The VT-X options were checked, but greyed out as you described. I had presumed that meant that it was 'fixed' once the VM was created, not that the option wasn't available. That's disappointing, to say the least.

So... what are my options now? I presume the hobbled chipset is capable of *running* 64 bit OSs since it is running 64 bit Vista (just checking so if someday I want to wipe the HDD and install something else on it I don't get another nasty surprise) currently? Given that FreeNAS installed and runs just fine, I presume that if I download the non-64-bit x86 install iso images for Linux and FreeBSD, I should be good to go? Realistically... I don't have any burning need for 64 bit guest operating systems... although it would have been nice.

Hopefully at some point VirtualBox will be able to support software virtualization of 64-bit guests on 64-bit hosts that don't have hardware virtualization support... probably asking a lot, but one can always hope

Thanks,

Monte

If your motherboard is capable of supporting the Q8200, then I believe it should be able to support 64 bit operating systems (what I mean is not just the ability to run them, but the ability to, say, use 4GB or more of RAM under the 64 bit OS, which is basically the most important reason why you choose to run a 64 bit OS). Do you know what chipset your motherboard uses? You can check your Device Manager in Vista to be sure.

The Q8200 does not have Intel VT (hardware virtualization), so you will not be able to run 64 bit guests in Virtualbox even though you run a 64 bit host.

But you can definitely run 32 bit guests, so for example you can download the 32 bit version of Ubuntu and run it as a guest inside Virtualbox.

[mpapis]

So reading the Chapter3 I found this phrase:

On 64-bit hosts (which typically come with hardware virtualization support), 64-bit guest operating systems are always supported regardless of settings, so you can simply install a 64-bit operating system in the guest.

My laptop is one year old and does not have VT-x - I was upgrading my OS to 64bit to be able use 64bit guests - based on the note above.

IMHO it should be changed to do not give false hope to people without VT-x.

[seanpual]

The VT-X options were checked, but greyed out as you described. I had presumed that meant that it was 'fixed' once the VM was created, not that the option wasn't available. That's disappointing, to say the least.