Xen processor support?

marer13 · August 8, 2009, 4:40pm

Hi,

I tried to use Xen on openSuSe 11.1 but it said no processor support (I’m running Intel Core 2 Duo T5800).

What processors from Intel Core range are supported?
Is it possible to run virtualization on T5800?

phil524 · August 8, 2009, 7:30pm

hi,

AFAIK this processor support Xen. But I think that this is controlled by a bios setting something like “Enable VT” and I have see that even for server this option is mostly deactivated. So look in all options of your bios

Good luck
Philippe

marer13 · August 9, 2009, 11:07pm

Any easy way to do it?
I don’t want to mess with BIOS…

baskitcaise · August 10, 2009, 1:21am

marer13 adjusted his/her AFDB on Sunday 09 Aug 2009 22:16 to write:

>
> Any easy way to do it?
> I don’t want to mess with BIOS…
>
>

The problem is that if you do not enable vt in your BIOS then you will not
be able to run it in hardware only software mode, now I am going on my
experience with Virtualbox and an AMD chip here, not 100% sure on the Intel
architecture or Xen.

But the AMD`s were the first to have a dedicated part of the CPU just for
the Hypervisor ( special bit for virtualisation ) and unless you have this
enabled you will only get software mode which is a lot slower than hardware.

If Xen will not run in software mode then you will have to enable it in the
BIOS you will notice any slow down in any other applications or any
detrimental effects from this at all.

Unless you are trying to do this on a Sony laptop which has been found out
that some do not have the option in the BIOS to enable it even though it is
there.

Ref.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/08/06/sony_vaio_virtualization_disabled/

So if you cannot or will not enable it and Xen will not run in software mode
then try virtual box ( in the repos ) or grab from their site and run in
software mode but expect a much slower virtual environment.

HTH

–
Mark
Caveat emptor
Nullus in verba
Nil illegitimi carborundum

marer13 · August 12, 2009, 2:01pm

That’s what I found regarding proccesor support on Xen website:

Intel(R)

See also - IntelVT

* Intel® 2 Core(TM) Duo Extreme processor X6800
* Intel® 2 Core(TM) Duo processor E6700
* Intel® 2 Core(TM) Duo processor E6600
* Intel® 2 Core(TM) Duo processor E6400
* Intel® 2 Core(TM) Duo processor E6300
* Intel® Core(TM) Duo processor T2600
* Intel® Core(TM) Duo processor T2500
* Intel® Core(TM) Duo processor T2400
* Intel® Core(TM) Duo processor L2300
* Intel® Pentium® processor Extreme Edition 965
* Intel® Pentium® processor Extreme Edition 955
* Intel® Pentium® D processor 960
* Intel® Pentium® D processor 950
* Intel® Pentium® D processor 940
* Intel® Pentium® D processor 930
* Intel® Pentium® D processor 920
* Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 672
* Intel® Pentium® 4 processor 662
* Intel® Xeon® processor 7041
* Intel® Xeon® processor 7040
* Intel® Xeon® processor 7030
* Intel® Xeon® processor 7020
* Intel® Xeon® processor 5080
* Intel® Xeon® processor 5063
* Intel® Xeon® processor 5060
* Intel® Xeon® processor 5050
* Intel® Xeon® processor 5030

No mention of my processor… so I assume it is not supported. Correct me if I’m wrong. I just don’t want to waste time on reinstalling everything just to find out that it does not work… I lost all weekend last time…

phil524 · August 12, 2009, 5:01pm

Hi
I checked on the Intel site and there I found that the core 2 duo t5800 has no VT. So Xen should not work

Regards
Philippe