Fedora 11 host - HV (VTx) not being used, only translation (BT) - why? cpu has it?

[planetf1a]

I'm running Windows XP SP3 in an unsupported host environment - Fedora 11 x86 with vmware 6.5.2 build-156735.

kernel is 2.6.29.4-167.fc11.i686.PAE

The HW (Thinkpad T60p, Core duo 2.16Ghz) supports Intel VT instructions.

My VM definition was set to auto, is not set to VT, but it appears translation is being used:

I am able to run the same vm (after vmdk->qcow2 disk conversion, and driver updates) on the same hw system under kvm, which is also using the VT instructions:

Why would this be?

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| Resuming virtual machine from /vmware/WinXP/Windows XP Professional.vmss with 1024 MB of memory.

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| hostCpuFeatures = 0x404001f8

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| hostNumPerfCounters = 2

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| CPU0: PMC: unused

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| CPU1: PMC: unused

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| MONITOR MODE: allowed modes : BT

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| MONITOR MODE: user requested modes : HV

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| MONITOR MODE: guestOS preferred modes: BT HWMMU HV

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| Msg_Hint: msg.cpuid.HVUnsupported (sent)

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| This host does not support all of the hardware virtualization features required by VMware Workstation. Using software virtualization instead.

Jun 01 16:40:31.898: vmx| -

---

Jun 01 16:40:31.900: vmx| MONITOR MODE: filtered list : BT

Jun 01 16:40:31.900: vmx| HV Settings: virtual exec = 'software'; virtual mmu = 'software'

Jun 01 16:40:31.997: vmx| Host: Disabling thread priority boosting to work around Linux SMP bug.

cpuinfo is

$ cat /proc/cpuinfo

processor : 0

vendor_id : GenuineIntel

cpu family : 6

model : 14

model name : Genuine Intel(R) CPU T2600 @ 2.16GHz

stepping : 8

cpu MHz : 1000.000

cache size : 2048 KB

physical id : 0

siblings : 2

core id : 0

cpu cores : 2

apicid : 0

initial apicid : 0

fdiv_bug : no

hlt_bug : no

f00f_bug : no

coma_bug : no

fpu : yes

fpu_exception : yes

cpuid level : 10

wp : yes

flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe nx constant_tsc arch_perfmon bts pni monitor vmx est tm2 xtpr pdcm

bogomips : 4322.44

clflush size : 64

power management:

.. repeats for secondary core

[admin]

VMware Workstation 6.5.x only supports VT-x on 64-bit processors.

[planetf1a]

Oh ok. I'd missed that. Having said that some reading around the subjects suggests the vmware BT in some cases beats the early VTx support in any case.

From a quick attempt yesterday a kvm based VM felt as if it took slightly less CPU, but I did not measure it's performance. Graphically there was no competition. vmware won easily. Not that relevant for a linux vm -- for which I'll likely use kvm in future, but for a windows/desktop vm vmware is the way to go IMO.

[ckloiber]

Am I missing something? You have 6.5.2 working on a Fedora 11 Host? I

have been trying for weeks with the RC without success, the modules

would not build on my x86_64 platform.

[planetf1a]

Hi there.

See http://communities.vmware.com/message/1218802 -- info on the patch I used to build the vmware modules on Fedora 11 against the 2.6.29.* kernel

Note though -- I'm running on x86 not x86_64. My laptop doesn't have EMT64

[ckloiber]

Thank You ever so much!