Tyan S2915-E & Hardware Virtualization (AMD-V)...

[allbread]

I currently have Ubuntu 10.10 64bit running on the following hardware:

Tyan Thunder S2915-E
2 x Opteron 2378 / 32GB DDR667-RE
EVGA GeForce 275 GTX / Tuniq 1000W PSU
Crucial 256GB M225 SSD (boot)
ARC-1120 PCI-X / 3 x 2TB Hitachi 7200 RAID5 (data)

The Opterons (Shanghai, 45nm) support AMD-V hardware virtualization but I cannot seem to find an option in the BIOS to enable it. I am running a VM of WinXP (for the purposes of streaming Netflix) on the box so I would like to enable this feature if possible...

Is there any way to activate this feature - or is it enabled by default?

If the BIOS does not support it is there any kind of hack that I can do to turn it on?

[Kano]

Are you sure it is disabled? Check

grep -o svm /proc/cpuinfo

[allbread]

Are you sure it is disabled? Check

grep -o svm /proc/cpuinfo

I guess I assumed it was disabled since I had not enabled it in the BIOS (was not able to find an option for it) - I will check this and let you know.

How can I tell if virtualization is enabled based on grep'ing the cpuinfo... will svm be listed as a flag (and should I see it listed individually for each core)?

I'm worried since it's not an option in the BIOS (that I've been able to locate yet); it seems odd for a workstation board such as the S2915-E to not support this (at least, I could not find it listed on the specs for the board although I'm not sure if it would be considered a feature the processor itself and not detailed specifically with the board)... however it is an older board and I'm not sure if AMD-V came out after the board was released.

[droidhacker]

I guess I assumed it was disabled since I had not enabled it in the BIOS (was not able to find an option for it) - I will check this and let you know.

How can I tell if virtualization is enabled based on grep'ing the cpuinfo... will svm be listed as a flag (and should I see it listed individually for each core)?

I'm worried since it's not an option in the BIOS (that I've been able to locate yet); it seems odd for a workstation board such as the S2915-E to not support this (at least, I could not find it listed on the specs for the board although I'm not sure if it would be considered a feature the processor itself and not detailed specifically with the board)... however it is an older board and I'm not sure if AMD-V came out after the board was released.

I've NEVER seen it listed as a bios option on ANY AMD board. In addition, it would make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE AT ALL to ever have it disabled. There is nothing to gain by disabling it. If you want to disable it, disable it at the software level, i.e. VIRTUALBOX (and presumably anything similar) has a config option for EACH INDIVIDUAL VM to use or not use it.

Note that if the option is available, you have full support for it. If it is grayed out, you don't have it.

[allbread]

I've NEVER seen it listed as a bios option on ANY AMD board. In addition, it would make ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE AT ALL to ever have it disabled. There is nothing to gain by disabling it. If you want to disable it, disable it at the software level, i.e. VIRTUALBOX (and presumably anything similar) has a config option for EACH INDIVIDUAL VM to use or not use it.

Note that if the option is available, you have full support for it. If it is grayed out, you don't have it.

I LIKE CAPS ALSO, AND COMMAS, VERY, VERY, MUCH, THANK YOU



Sarcasm aside, here is the response I received from Tyan support (for anyone else with the same problem with the sense to come to Phoronix for an answer) after asking the same question:

"This is an automatic option. If the AMD model supports Virtualization, then it will be enabled automatically without any need to enable it in the bios. The Bios, CPU and motherboard chipset all work in concert that way."

Cheers!

[devius]

I've NEVER seen it listed as a bios option on ANY AMD board.

You never used an Asus board obviously. Unless you're talking only about workstation/server boards. This option does exist on some boards, but it's not always clearly labeled. In the case of Asus boards it seems to be called "Secure virtual machine mode".

[droidhacker]

You never used an Asus board obviously. Unless you're talking only about workstation/server boards. This option does exist on some boards, but it's not always clearly labeled. In the case of Asus boards it seems to be called "Secure virtual machine mode".

AMD board. Never seen an asus with that option. Maybe you are looking at INTEL boards?

[devius]

AMD board. Never seen an asus with that option. Maybe you are looking at INTEL boards?

I'm looking at my own M4A785TD-M board. Maybe Asus boards for the USA are different and lack that option, but I've seen other posts in several forums referring to that option I mentioned.