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agrypa1
Apprentice
Joined: 31 Mar 2005
Posts: 244
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 Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 2:27 am Post subject: Is my AMD Athlon64 capable of Xen, unmodified guests? |
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Hi,
I heard that the athlons 64 and opterons are capable of running unmodified guest OSs if they support Pacifica extension. How does it show in /proc/cpu?
Mine looks like this:
| Code: |
cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 31
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 Processor 3000+
stepping : 0
cpu MHz : 1001.316
cache size : 512 KB
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow lahf_lm
bogomips : 2007.24
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp
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Do I have it?
Agryppa
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nklb
n00b
Joined: 27 Jun 2002
Posts: 42
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| Posted: Sat Aug 05, 2006 3:06 am Post subject: |
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As far as I know that's currently only with socket AM2 processors, so if you have one of those then you are set, but if not you are out of luck
Someone correct me if I am wrong |
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thesnowman
Guru
Joined: 08 May 2003
Posts: 365
Location: Sydney, Australia
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| Posted: Sun Aug 06, 2006 1:50 am Post subject: Re: Is my AMD Athlon64 capable of Xen, unmodified guests? |
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| agrypa1 wrote: | Hi,
I heard that the athlons 64 and opterons are capable of running unmodified guest OSs if they support Pacifica extension. How does it show in /proc/cpu?
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svm (Secure Virtual Machine) is the flag you are looking for. Unfortunately your CPU doesn't support it.
| Code: | | # cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep svm |
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torne
n00b
Joined: 22 Jan 2004
Posts: 65
Location: Cambridge, UK
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| Posted: Tue Aug 08, 2006 4:38 pm Post subject: |
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| Note that this is only really of interest if you intend to run Windows under Xen - if you are going to run one of the OSes that already supports being a Xen guest, performance is better if you compile the OS to run as a Xen guest. VT/Pacifica is a workaround - an efficient one, but still slower than properly porting the OS to run directly under Xen. |
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tgh
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 222
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| Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 5:47 pm Post subject: |
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Hmm, I don't think kernel 2.6.15-gentoo-r5 from the AMD64 2006.0 install CD has support for the "svm" flag. (Hinted at by various locations.) For instance, booting my AM2 Athon64 X2 4200+ CPU shows:
| Code: | livecd ~ # cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 75
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2210.087
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy
bogomips : 4424.79
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc
processor : 1
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
cpu family : 15
model : 75
model name : AMD Athlon(tm) 64 X2 Dual Core Processor 4200+
stepping : 2
cpu MHz : 2210.087
cache size : 512 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 1
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy
bogomips : 4427.91
TLB size : 1024 4K pages
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 40 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management: ts fid vid ttp tm stc |
links:
http://lists.xensource.com/archives/html/xen-users/2006-08/msg00368.html
| Quote: | Yes, it should be under "flags" ("svm" in the AMD case, it's called "vme" in
the Intel case). You do need a recent kernel for this to work, but I know
2.6.16.13 is good enough [probably several older ones too]. |
Oddly enough, I see a "vme" flag up there in my listing, but not the "svm" flag.
http://www.broermann.com/howto_amd_hvm.html
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies-archive.cfm/568521.html
...
I'll have to re-examine my cpuinfo once I have a 2.6.16 or later kernel installed. |
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r3pek
Retired Dev
Joined: 17 Sep 2003
Posts: 568
Location: Lisbon - Portugal
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| Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 7:11 pm Post subject: |
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if you scroll down this page (http://www.broermann.com/howto_amd_hvm.html) you'll see this note:
| Quote: | | on AMD Pacifica CPUs you must look for the svm flag not vmx. I could only see the "svm" flag when I start the XEN kernel. |
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tgh
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 222
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| Posted: Fri Aug 25, 2006 11:23 pm Post subject: |
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| Thanks, what Gentoo kernel revision do we need? (Kind of a moot point since Xen has it's own kernel sources I guess... Still nice to be able to say for sure whether you can check for the "svm" flag using the 2006.0 boot CD.) |
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tgh
Apprentice
Joined: 05 Oct 2005
Posts: 222
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| Posted: Sat Aug 26, 2006 11:13 am Post subject: |
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Had time to answer my own question (somewhat). Once I installed gentoo-sources with kernel version 2.6.17-gentoo-r4, I can now see the "svm" flag in /proc/cpuinfo.
| Quote: | | flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush mmx fxsr sse sse2 ht syscall nx mmxext fxsr_opt lm 3dnowext 3dnow pni cx16 lahf_lm cmp_legacy svm cr8_legacy |
So you have to be running 2.6.17 (possibly 2.6.16) in order to see the "svm" flag. |
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Gentoo on AMD64
