Anyway Virtual x64 without Vt-x?

[bester69]

Is there any way to virtualizace x64 without hardware Intel VT-x?
I cant understand why can virtualize a 32 bits with a 32bits, and cant do same for 64bits. Anyway, is there any way to bypass VT-x requirement, and do some kind of software virtualization emulation?. I heard about Xen not needing VT-x , but I dont want to use hypervisor, I wanna work with virtual machine within the guest like with virtualbox... Is there any virtual software can manage this..?

thanks.

[GarryRicketson]

Anyway Virtual x64 without Vt-x?

[pylkko]

The answer depends on other facts. For example, is the 32-bit host OS running on a processor that is 64-bit capable or not? If the OS is 32-bit on a 64-bit machine, then I believe you can use many of the traditional platforms out of the box, because the needed instructions exist on the host CPU (haven't tried though).

You can, however, run virtual machines of foreign architecture emulated with qemu for example. I have run ARM virtual machines on amd64 Debian this way. Of course the performance will not be as good as when using hardware-assisted technologies like VT-x. qemu can also perform CPU emulation for a user space program (non-operating system).

[bester69]

The answer depends on other facts. For example, is the 32-bit host OS running on a processor that is 64-bit capable or not? If the OS is 32-bit on a 64-bit machine, then I believe you can use many of the traditional platforms out of the box, because the needed instructions exist on the host CPU (haven't tried though).

You can, however, run virtual machines of foreign architecture emulated with qemu for example. I have run ARM virtual machines on amd64 Debian this way. Of course the performance will not be as good as when using hardware-assisted technologies like VT-x. qemu can also perform CPU emulation for a user space program (non-operating system).

Thanks for help pylkko,
My computer (Extensa5230) is 64bits, and seems doesnt support hardware VT-x virtualization, I just would like to be able to virtualize am64 linux distros, VIrtualbox cant do it. Can i use qemu or other one, i really dont know very much out of virtualbox/vmware?? , I would like something easy if possible..

[pylkko]

I haven't done it so I can't claim that I know for sure. But you can in virt-manager pass through the host CPU as is, I believe. Normally it doesn't do this but analyzes the hardware and then uses a ideliazed abstract CPU description that is close to the capabilities of the host. I think this is done for portability, so that you can more easily move the virtual machine from one computer to another.

If you pass through the CPU to a Linux install it should see the computer as any other booted linux. Install virtmanager and try it. I think that in your case it will either work with no additional problems or it will work with some passthrough setting. I believe this should work without vt-x as qemu does not require hardware assistance when doing emulation only, although it can use it with KVM.

Emulation is much slower.

But why do you want to do this?

Are you sure you can't do with multiarch
https://askubuntu.com/questions/513260/ ... it-machine

[bester69]

I haven't done it so I can't claim that I know for sure. But you can in virt-manager pass through the host CPU as is, I believe. Normally it doesn't do this but analyzes the hardware and then uses a ideliazed abstract CPU description that is close to the capabilities of the host. I think this is done for portability, so that you can more easily move the virtual machine from one computer to another.

If you pass through the CPU to a Linux install it should see the computer as any other booted linux. Install virtmanager and try it. I think that in your case it will either work with no additional problems or it will work with some passthrough setting. I believe this should work without vt-x as qemu does not require hardware assistance when doing emulation only, although it can use it with KVM.

Emulation is much slower.

But why do you want to do this?

Are you sure you can't do with multiarch
https://askubuntu.com/questions/513260/ ... it-machine

pylkko, Ive seen qemu can run x64 systems, but it was vey slow. I think without vt-x cant do it (emulation very slow) or i might be mistaken...If that is the case, How can i expose/passthrought CPU host to guest, is that possible with kvm or qemu?

[pylkko]

it's going to be slow.

But what are you trying to do?

You could install 64 bit kernel and run multiarch, so that you can run 32 bit and 64? or maybe even stop using 32bit?