Celejar <cele...@gmail.com> writes: > On Wed, 09 Dec 2009 21:50:22 -0500 > "Jeremy T. Bouse" <jeremy.bo...@undergrid.net> wrote: > > ... > >> The SVM and VMX flags are only important if you are needing to do >> hardware virtualization. Running virtual machines has been available >> long before these extensions to the CPU came about. The only instance >> where you really *have* to have them (and you can't have them both >> anyway) is usually for running Windows under virtualization hypervisors >> like Xen. VMware can run Windows without it and I'm not certain about >> KVM as I haven't used it myself. In the few times I've tried running >> under hardware virtualization it seriously sucked in performance anyway. >> I'd be more concerned about get a CPU that supported 64-bit so I could >> run the host in 64-bit mode and have the option to run virtuals in 32- >> or 64-bit. > > Disclaimer: I have never done virtualization, so take everything I say > with a grain of salt. > > I understand that some virtualization technologies don't require HW > support, but others do. Since the OP stated that he wanted to do > virtualization, he should probably purchase a system with HW support, > to give himself the most flexibility, unless he's already certain which > technology he plans on using. > > kvm requires CPU support. My understanding is that the performance of > qemu is much better when enhanced with kvm. virtualbox can run without > HW support, but will / can utilize it if it's available.
I use VirtualBox (VB) for running FreeBSD without HW support, and it runs fairly well. However, VB requires HW support for virtualizing 64-bit operating systems. Unfortunately, I have an early model Athlon-64 that doesn't have the HW support, so I am limited to running 32 bit operating sytems. My understanding is that all mainline AMD 64-bit processors now have HW support, but many low and medium cost models of Intel processors do not have the HW support. -- Carl Johnson ca...@peak.org -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org
