virtualbox.org

I have a Dell Inspiron 17(50) 64-bit system with Slackware 13.0 64-bit as the only operating system; i.e., Vista was completely wiped off the system after being powered up about twice. VirtualBox 3.1.2 AMD64 is installed running 32-bit XP. I'd like to install either Vista 64 or Win7 64 (Win7 is an upgrade disk that may or may not be installable without Vista already present) but neither will install yammering about a non-64-bit system. The VirtualBox System display tells me that VT-x/AMD-V is enabled (but only one processor). The processor is a Pentium Dual-core CPU, T4300 (and the blasted thing worked with the delivered Vista installation).

I've fiddled with everything I can find in the BIOS -- there is no way I can see to set or unset VT-x/AMD-V so I can power then thing down, remove the battery and try that. Is there some magic key sequence to get into the BIOS on one of these boxes so you can fiddle with those settings or any other hints about doing this (I have read the FAQ but can't figure out how to do what it suggests) or do I have to dual-boot the critter?

The problem is that you do not have hardware-v in the bios and the CPU does support 64 bit but not hardware-v.
Without this function you will not be able to run 64 bit guests in VirtualBox.
http://ark.intel.com/Product.aspx?id=37253

Well, ain't that a fine how-dee-doo -- no wonder the thing didn't cost an arm, leg and three toes from the other foot, eh. Looks like dual-boot is the only option, alas.

Thanks for the info.

Hi folks,
New to this forum and VBox, which from what I have seen in the 4 hours since I installed it seems to be fine (and better than the VMware I tried a while back).

The point made by the OP is what I would like to address.

I have a machine with dual Xeon processors, at present 2GB RAM, the rest is irrelvant at the moment.

When I first got this machine I installed Windows 7 64 bit without and problem. Was able to boot and connect to our domain - no probs. I then put Ubuntu Karmic Koala 64 bit as dual boot. Again no problem. Thinking about the configuration I was unhappy. Under my desk at the moment is one machine running Vista, one running XP joined via a KVM switch. Also I have a stand alone Ubuntu workstation, and btw our WIndows 2003 server. (not much room for the feet tho'). I don't really want to lose the ability to switch beteen my Ubuntu and windows workstations as I have at the moment so dual boot is not really the way I want to go.

Hence VirtualBox.

New disk in the machine. Built it with 64 bit Ubuntu 9.10. Downloaded Vbox 64 bit Debian version. Installed no problem. Tried to load Win 7 64 bit and the install failed with message saying this machine could not run 64 bit software. I have successfully installed Windows XP 32 bit. I tried installing Fedora 8 64 bit but it failed although I was able to install the 32 bit version. As an aside I did try to install FreeNAS just to see what would happen. It got it's underwear twisted and failed.

Hence searching this forum.

I have read the reply to the OP and am intrigued by this hardware-v so any information would be useful. I will Google for it later but in the meantime....

I was a bit disappointed by the OP's response to the reply. It is not as if he has paid out multi dollars for the product.

Many thanks in anticipation

You need to go into your bios and make sure that hardware-v is turned on.
The next thing that you should do is see about installing the right VBox for your version.
For Ubuntu this is the one you want http://download.virtualbox.org/virtualb ... c_i386.deb
The Debian will probably work but there are some tuning issues between versions.

Thanks PerryG,
I think I have got the correct version of VBox.
I will check bios tomorrow when I can get to the machine again. As this machine if a 2005 HP box I am not feeling good about it. I will report back once I know.

PerryG,
Thanks for your earlier contribution.
The machine I am trying to use is an old HP workstation with an HP BIOS chip. I had a look today - there is no option anywhere in the BIOS for this hardware-v setting. I tried to update the BIOS from 2.05 to 2.10 but without wiping the disk, installing XP or Vista or RedHat as base OS (and I have Ubuntu or Win 7 at the moment) I have no upgrade path. Even if I were lucky the latest BIOS release is 2006 so I am not hopeful.
I have looked for motherboards with hardware-v listed as a feature and I have googled for it but come up blank. I have found some boards with AMD-V and something similar for Intel chips and I assume these are the same thing.
Can you give some clue what I should be looking for if I get a completely new machine for this job?
Many thanks if you can.

You need a mother board that supports VT-x/AMD-v plus a CPU that supports 64 bit & hardware virtualization.
Then the bios should have a place to turn on the hardware virtualization.
AMD will be a little cheaper, Intel will be a little faster.

Perryg

Many thanks

Steve