Xen users - Jul 2007 - GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0 motherboard HVM support

I have the GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0 and do not see in the bios a option
to enable virtualization.
When i run  xm dmesg i get the following message.
(XEN) AMD SVM Extension is disabled in BIOS.

I see the "svm" flag  in /proc/cpuinfo

I have the  FA bios installed, does anyone know if its available on the FB
bios or a way to enable it?

Kind Regards

Allix Davis


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Hi Allix,

Allix Davis schrieb:
> I have the GIGABYTE GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0 and do not see in the bios a
> option to enable virtualization.
I had this problem myself and first of all you should try to contact 
Gigabyte Tech-Support, regarding your problem, though I guess you''ll
get
the same answer as me: We do not support Virtualization :-/
> I have the  FA bios installed, does anyone know if its available on the 
> FB bios or a way to enable it?
I found a solution myself, but I can''t tell you if it works for you
too.
I used a tool to modify the binary bios-file and found out that the 
virtualization option is hidden and disabled. With this tool I reenabled 
the Virtualization feature and the flash procedure went fine. So, now 
I''m able to run HVM machines under Xen.

I need to say that this method is very dirty and if anything goes wrong 
you can''t held me responsible for anything. But I am willing to help if
you decide to take the risk. For me and a friend of mine everything went 
fine.

I will check your bios-file within the hour and will come back to you 
with an answer regading if it''s possible or not.

Greetz Age_M

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Hi Allix,

it''s me again.

Age_M wrote:
> I will check your bios-file within the hour and will come back to you 
> with an answer regading if it''s possible or not.
I just cecked the FB-Version of your bios, and as the FA-Version, the 
Virtualization option is disabled and hidden too, so just updating the 
bios won''t change anything.
If you''re willing to take the risk, I can send you the modified 
FB-Version biosfile I created a few minutes ago, but again I need to 
say, you can''t held me responsible if anything goes wrong.
But I can say that the modification went fine, as it did with my bios, 
and therefore I think it''s worth a try. Let me know if you
wan''t to give
it a shot.

Greetz Age_M

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The modified bios worked , thanks very much.


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Hi Allix,

Allix Davis schrieb:
> The modified bios worked , thanks very much.
I''m glad this mod worked out for you too :-D
Thanks for your reply.
There''s one favour I have to ask for:
I guess you didn''t submit a request to Gigabytes Tech-Support yet!?
Can you please do this, though your desired feature is now available!
The reason I ask you for this is: If Gigabyte doesen''t see that there
is
a real request for this feature in the community, they won''t change
anything and many others will have the same problem as we had.
So, the more people request this feature, the bigger is the chance they
will think about enabling Virtualization in the bios by default. Thanks 
for this!

Greetz Age_M


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I asked the non-technical if they are going to provide a virtualization bios
, i have not heard yet.
I sent it to the non-technical as i feel amd  processors are sold with
support for virtualization written on the box.
Had the motherboard stated clearly that it does not support virtualization,
i would feel somewhat different.
Of course no company would do that, its like a car advertised with air
conditioning bought at a different showroom missing a it.

If i get no positive reply , i will send something to the technical  side.
I feel the sales can be more understanding.

If anyone happens to have direct email to Gigabyte, i am more than willing
to send a email.

Kind regards

Allix Davis





>i''m glad this mod worked out for you too :-D
>Thanks for your reply.
>There''s one favour I have to ask for:
>I guess you didn''t submit a request to Gigabytes Tech-Support yet!?
>Can you please do this, though your desired feature is now available!
>The reason I ask you for this is: If Gigabyte doesen''t see that
there is
>a real request for this feature in the community, they won''t change
>anything and many others will have the same problem as we had.
>So, the more people request this feature, the bigger is the chance they
>will think about enabling Virtualization in the bios by default. Thanks
>for this!
>Greetz Age_M

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Age_M wrote:
> 
> But I can say that the modification went fine, as it did with my bios, 
> and therefore I think it''s worth a try. Let me know if you
wan''t to give
> it a shot.
> 
I would like to give this a shot. Could you post directions on how you
changed the bios? What tools do you use to find hidden options?

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HyeGeek wrote:
> 
> What tools do you use to find hidden options?
> 
OK. After 6 different version of modbin, I have finally managed to find one
that could both see the options and save the changes. Turning on
virtualization has me up and running win win2k in an hvm machine.
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I got a reply from Gigabyte.
"The latest beta and formal release bios does not support this function,
this function will be enable on future release bios."


Lets hope  this happens on all their boards.


kind regards

Allix Davis


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Hi there,

HyeGeek schrieb:
> I have finally managed to find one that could both see the options and save
the changes. Turning on
> virtualization has me up and running win win2k in an hvm machine.
That''s great. Can you please post which motherboard you have?
And please ask Gigabyte Tech-Support for enabling this function. The 
more ask for it, the better...

Greetz Age_M

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Age_M wrote:
> 
> That''s great. Can you please post which motherboard you have?
> And please ask Gigabyte Tech-Support for enabling this function. The 
> more ask for it, the better...
> 
The one in the subject, GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0.

I plan on bugging Gigabyte sometime this week.
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HyeGeek wrote:
> 
> I plan on bugging Gigabyte sometime this week.
> 
I thought I would give an update with Gigabyte''s response. Their very
brief
first response was "Unfortunately this feature is not available for this
motherboard." I have been going back and forth with them a bit and all of
their terse (borderline rude) answers have been along the lines of where did
you see it was supported etc.

My last response (sent a few minutes ago) was to point out that listed
supported CPUs that have virtualization without specifying that they are not
FULLY supported could be seen as a problem. But for now, I would suggest
avoiding Gigabyte if you want to do HVM as they have a rude unhelpful
attitude and a large number of motherboards that support virtualization
capable CPUs without supporting virtualization.

I will update again if they decide to response with anything more useful.

On the plus side, they did respond and much quicker than many other
companies I have had to deal with.
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What determines how domU''s are handled when dom0 is shutdown?

It looks like they are saved (when I issue the shutdown command, for
example), when actually, I just want to shut them down.

If I save them, they are saved in /var/lib/xen/save, but since I have a
smallish
dom0, that could be a problem as far as running out of space.

Liam

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Liam Kirsher wrote:
> What determines how domU''s are handled when dom0 is shutdown?
>
> It looks like they are saved (when I issue the shutdown command, for
> example), when actually, I just want to shut them down.
>
> If I save them, they are saved in /var/lib/xen/save, but since I have a
> smallish
> dom0, that could be a problem as far as running out of space.
>
> Liam
>   
Under RHEL/CentOS, there are various init scripts in /etc/init.d. Review 
the contents of those scripts to see how they''re saved.

The contents in /var/lib/xen/save are typically not very large: they''re
current state, not the full image.

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Quoting HyeGeek <hyegeek@gmail.com>:
>
>
> HyeGeek wrote:
>>
>> I plan on bugging Gigabyte sometime this week.
>>
> I thought I would give an update with Gigabyte''s response. Their
very brief
> first response was "Unfortunately this feature is not available for
this
> motherboard." I have been going back and forth with them a bit and all
of
> their terse (borderline rude) answers have been along the lines of where
did
> you see it was supported etc.
>
Definitely keep us posted, I was a Gigabyte fan until I started using  
Xen. Now I won''t buy their products until they have support for HV.

Jon




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jonr wrote:
> 
> Definitely keep us posted, I was a Gigabyte fan until I started using  
> Xen. Now I won''t buy their products until they have support for
HV.
> 
I got another response yesterday saying they would ask engineering if that
board can support virtualization. I''m now eagerly awaiting the response
from
the engineers.
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HyeGeek wrote:
> 
> 
> jonr wrote:
>> Definitely keep us posted, I was a Gigabyte fan until I started using  
>> Xen. Now I won''t buy their products until they have support
for HV.
>>
> I got another response yesterday saying they would ask engineering if that
> board can support virtualization. I''m now eagerly awaiting the
response from
> the engineers.
Not very impressive from them though... they''ve gone out of their way
to
avoid ''supporting'' virtualisation.  The CPU supports it by
default -
they''ve actively switched it off.

Sounds like a marketing trick to charge a premium to put the support 
back in.  Same board, HVM switched on... $50 extra.

Tony


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Hello List,

there is a new BIOS-Version ''FDA'' for the GIGABYTE
GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0!
The release notes say there is an improvement in "HT bus
overclocking".

If anyone needs this bios SVM-modified, just let me know.

Greetz Age_M

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Hello,
I was wondering if you can help me with virtualization with the GIGABYTE
GA-M56S-S3 I have tried modbin but can''t find a bin file for the bios
Thanks
Daniel West

Age_M wrote:
> 
> Hello List,
> 
> there is a new BIOS-Version ''FDA'' for the GIGABYTE
GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0!
> The release notes say there is an improvement in "HT bus
overclocking".
> 
> If anyone needs this bios SVM-modified, just let me know.
> 
> Greetz Age_M
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Xen-users mailing list
> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> 
> 
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HyeGeek wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> HyeGeek wrote:
>> 
>> What tools do you use to find hidden options?
>> 
> OK. After 6 different version of modbin, I have finally managed to find
> one that could both see the options and save the changes. Turning on
> virtualization has me up and running win win2k in an hvm machine.
> 

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bcorada wrote:
> 
> 
> Hi, I have de GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0 too, I changed to the latest firmware
> FDb but don''t enable the virtualization yet, could you say us what
is the
> necessary change in the bios to enable it? And somebody know if Linuxbios
> enable the virtualization?
> 
I used a windows program modbin. I had to try several version before I got
one that would work. I don''t remember which I ended up using, but it
was a
later one after they changed some of their formats.

No idea on the Linux bios, it is something I would like to try, but I have
not had time  yet.
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HyeGeek wrote:
> 
> 
> 
> HyeGeek wrote:
>> 
>> What tools do you use to find hidden options?
>> 
> OK. After 6 different version of modbin, I have finally managed to find
> one that could both see the options and save the changes. Turning on
> virtualization has me up and running win win2k in an hvm machine.
> 
Hi, I have de GA-M57SLI-S4 rev 2.0 too, I changed to the latest firmware FDb
but don''t enable the virtualization yet, could you say us what is the
necessary change in the bios to enable it? And somebody know if Linuxbios
enable the virtualization?

Best regards
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Tony Hoyle wrote:
> 
> 
> Not very impressive from them though... they''ve gone out of their
way to
> avoid ''supporting'' virtualisation.  The CPU supports it
by default -
> they''ve actively switched it off.
> 
> Sounds like a marketing trick to charge a premium to put the support 
> back in.  Same board, HVM switched on... $50 extra.
> 
> Tony
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
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> Xen-users@lists.xensource.com
> http://lists.xensource.com/xen-users
> 
> 
After a very long time of hearing nothing from Gigabyte, I thought I check
to see if there was a new bios. Turns out there are several since I asked
them about this and the after installing the latest, I have an option in the
bios to turn on virtualization. Sure would have been nice if they told me
they did this.
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