Enabling Virtual Machine support

[Thomas Charron]

On Sun, Sep 27, 2009 at 7:36 PM, Michael ODonnell
<michael.odonnell at comcast.net> wrote:
> Not certain I understand what you're saying but processors in this family
> come out of their power-on Reset state in their simplest, least capable
> mode - interrupts disabled, MMU disabled, 20bit Real Mode addressing,
> etc - and each increase in capability requires a deliberate action on the
> part of the system code (typically the BIOS at first, then later the OS).
> Virtual Machine mode is like Virtual 8086 mode in that it's a capability
> that must be explicitly enabled once the OS has rigged itself to manage
> it; this as opposed to somehow being a permanent, static feature of the
> platform or CPU.  And also, AFAIK, no external HW support is required
> of the platform for VM capabilities to be utilized - if the OS is coded
> to support it and the CPU provides it, that's all you (should!)  need.

  Intel's VT-x extensions *MUST* be enabled and supported by BIOS.
I'm not sure why, I read it someplace after I bought my laptop and was
trying to find a way around it.   Not sure about VT-d.

-- 
-- Thomas