[CentOS] CentOS 6.5 VirtualBox

Fri Dec 6 00:19:32 UTC 2013
Fred Smith <fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us>

On Thu, Dec 05, 2013 at 05:59:36PM -0600, Les Mikesell wrote:
> On Thu, Dec 5, 2013 at 5:37 PM, Fred Smith
> <fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us> wrote:
> > >
> > Not arguing with you, but... I recall hearing probably only a couple
> > years ago that not all the contemporary Intel processors exposed that
> > option, so you couldn't use it on some processors. The writer of that
> > blurb reported no obvious rhyme or reason why one would have it but
> > another wouldn't.
> 
> Some laptop and desktop bios's disable it even if the CPU would
> otherwise support it.  Some have an option setting, some don't.
> 
> > And on the topic of VirtualBox, I can't get 4.3 to work right on my
> > system (AMD Phenom II X2) which DOES have the virtual extensions enabled
> > in the BIOS. It kept complaining that it wasn't enabled (or maybe did
> > not exist, I can't recall exactly). Apparently some motherboards and/or
> > chipsets work differently in re how they expose the feature, and
> > the newest VB couldn't see it.
> 
> Does 'cat /pro/cpuinfo' show vtx (or svm on AMD)?

yes.

	flags		: fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr
	pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx
	mmxext fxsr_opt pdpe1gb rdtscp lm 3dnowext 3dnow constant_tsc
	rep_good nonstop_tsc extd_apicid pni monitor cx16 popcnt
	lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm extapic cr8_legacy abm sse4a misalignsse
	3dnowprefetch osvw ibs skinit wdt npt lbrv svm_lock nrip_save

I'm running a Gigabyte MA770-UD3 motherboard, rev 1.0. Old enuff that
even if it is one of the boards VB doesn't like, I can't imagine Oracle
spending a nickle to fix the problem.

One of these days I'll get real ambitious and set up kvm on this box.

> > So I stayed with the 4.2 series which
> > more or less does work. (tho it still refuses to let me run a 64-bit
> > Linux on VB even though I'm running Centos 64-bit and a 64-bit VB.)
> > Go figure.
> 
> That means it is not using hardware virtualization - you can do 32-bit
> in software.

Yup.

Digging thru the VB forums, I see a lot of complaints from a few years
ago when an earlier version came out (3.2??? not sure) that it had
trouble recognizing the VT extensions on some systems, but it was
allegedly fixed.

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex at fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
  "And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father,
  Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government there will be no end. He 
 will reign on David's throne and over his kingdom, establishing and upholding
      it with justice and righteousness from that time on and forever."
------------------------------- Isaiah 9:7 (niv) ------------------------------