X60 - CPU vmx extension crippled in BIOS (linux xen)

[aravind]

Hi,

I use a X60 at work and would like to run virtual machines (using XEN) with full virtualization (hvm). Even though the cpu in the machine has the vmx extension, I found that the BIOS disables it and does not have an option to enable it.

From /proc/cpuinfo (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 constant_tsc pni monitor vmx est tm2 xtpr)

But when I run xen, I see this message

(XEN) VMX disabled by Feature Control MSR

After many hours with IBM tech support about this, their answer was that this is disabled on all thinkpads and that it is not supported. I am still waiting to for a final answer from their esclation group.

I was wondering if you guys had any luck enabling this (using a non standard BIOS if necessary)? I am pretty frustrated that IBM/Lenovo would chose to cripple the machine even though the CPU clearly supports it. Any pointers to help me resolve this are welcome.

Thank you,

Aravind.

[coolsilicon]

After many hours with IBM tech support about this, their answer was that this is disabled on all thinkpads and that it is not supported. I am still waiting to for a final answer from their esclation group.

To my best knowledge, this info is plainly wrong. On my T60, I can dis-/enable Virtualization in the BIOS (within the CPU section, IIRC).

I'm running VPC 2007 Beta under XP and Vista RC2. This program supports virtualization in hardware and tells me that this feature is in fact available on my machine. So it's not true, that this feature is disabled on /ALL/ TPs. Anyway, I have no idea how to enable it on a X60, if there is in fact no option for it in the BIOS.

[lev]

To my best knowledge, this info is plainly wrong. On my T60, I can dis-/enable Virtualization in the BIOS (within the CPU section, IIRC).

I'm running VPC 2007 Beta under XP and Vista RC2. This program supports virtualization in hardware and tells me that this feature is in fact available on my machine. So it's not true, that this feature is disabled on /ALL/ TPs. Anyway, I have no idea how to enable it on a X60, if there is in fact no option for it in the BIOS.

The BIOS simulator:
http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site. ... =TPAD-SIMS

Does in fact show that on the T60 there is that option in the BIOS, under CPU as you said, but that there is no such option on the X60.