Enable Hardware Virtualization On Mac Pro 8 Core April 2007

Question

Enable Hardware Virtualization On Mac Pro 8 Core April 2007

VMWare won't let you use a 64bit os as a guest.

Mac Pro Dual Quad 3.0GHz 8GB - iMac 24" 2.4GHZ 4GB - Macbook Black 2.4GHz 4GB, Mac OS X (10.5.4)

Posted on Jul 10, 2009 2:06 PM

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Answer 1

direwolf8

Level 4

1,280 points

Jul 13, 2009 2:20 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

It ought to. Are you using one of the OS's supported as a 64 bit guest? Your 8 core Mac Pro should permit it.

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Answer 2

Jul 13, 2009 2:28 PM in response to direwolf8

Yep, Microsoft Server 2007 64 & OSX Server 64.

Macpro dual quad core (8 core) 3.0GHz 8GB ram (April 2007 model)

They run fine on my macbook pro unibody late 2008 model.

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Answer 3

Jul 13, 2009 2:31 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

Back a couple of months ago I also tried Vista and it didn't want to work either, something about VTX not enabled or supported or something like that.

Back then I did as much research as I could and barely found anything, whatever little I found had to do with the EFI 32 vs 64 and something firmware that was never delivered by apple. But no one seems to have a reasonable explanation for this.

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Answer 4

Jul 13, 2009 10:05 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

Interesting:

http://discussions.apple.com/thread.jspa?threadID=1506616

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1177543

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Answer 5

Jul 14, 2009 4:50 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

So I found this and downloaded MacCPUID here:

http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/download-maccpuid/

And according to the tool everything checks out so what's the deal?

EM64t
SSE
SSE2
SSE3
SSSE3
VMX

ARGGGG!

Help

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Answer 6

Jul 15, 2009 8:34 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

Keeping the thread alive just in case someone wants to chime in or someone else having the same issues finds help on this.

Apparently I have a mix and match of microcode on the processors and also I have a firmware which I can not find on the apple site.

http://communities.vmware.com/thread/221087;jsessionid=F7A3CB50614CC1D5C4717C90D CAA440A?start=0&tstart=0

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Answer 7

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Jul 16, 2009 8:35 AM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

Interestng about firmware. Sounds odd to have cpu from different batches.

link to the thread w/o the session ID.
http://communities.vmware.com/thread/221087

One security expert uses a Mac Pro and runs multiple VMs was interviewed and up on Tom's Hardware - there have been changes since 2006 (1st gen Mac Pro) compared to even 2008. Probably nothing to help but VT -d and other stuff was news to me.
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/joanna-rutkowska-rootkit,2356-4.html

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Answer 8

Jul 16, 2009 9:28 AM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

I use 4 vmware virts for dev purposes at all times (linux). I ran into the same issues you have and became very frustrated at the answer. Had to run a dell hack until the nehalems came along. Now with a 2009, no probs at all. I believe it had something to do with the kernel running in 32-bit mode. You might try snow leo on that box and see how it does.

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Answer 9

Jul 16, 2009 9:37 AM in response to tbartoncv

Did try SL to no avail. Even though SL runs at 64 still no dice with VM's at 64

The critical problem here and in my opinion a FACTORY DEFECT on their process is the mismatch in processors.....

.... This put simply SHOULD NOT HAPPEN from a quality management perspective.

Hopefully the engineering department at apple will agree with me and get my issue resolved.

This is a flaw.

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Answer 10

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Jul 16, 2009 10:43 AM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

1st gen Mac Pro has that EFI 1.x which is only EFI32.
Apple doesn't official support Windows 64-bit as a result.

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Answer 11

Jul 16, 2009 1:01 PM in response to The hatter

Not really, April 2007 was a newer macpro and the xeons inside "are" 64-bit

Most everyone I know running the same model and configuration are not having this issue. In fact it runs Snow Leopard fine and Vista in 64 bit, the issue here is that due to the disparity in my CPU's I have no way of enabling other means of virtualization at 64 bit like everyone else.

Hence why they actually have a KB article in regards to the Processor Microcode to support this "EFI 1.2"

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS2744

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Answer 12

Jul 16, 2009 1:50 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X86virtualization#Virtualization_Technology_forIA-32

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Answer 13

The hatter

Level 9

60,990 points

Jul 16, 2009 2:08 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

I know Xeon (5100/5300) were 64-bit, I was only pointing to the EFI firmware not being UEFI 2.x (aka EFI64).

Microsoft, Intel, Apple adoption of UEFI only went official with EFI Group - for us - with 2008 Mac Pro.

It may not matter; but installing Vista SP1 and later 64-bit is different; Apple never really supplied 64-bit Bootcamp on retail 10.5.0 DVD and with 10.5.6 it wouldn't install either (not supported). Windows 7 RC 64-bit results in a "Select..." boot menu (native booting) if it doesn't see UEFI 2.x / EFI64.

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Answer 14

Jul 16, 2009 3:00 PM in response to The hatter

Got a call back from Apple, it is now in the hands of their engineering department.

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Answer 15

Jul 17, 2009 7:13 PM in response to Tomas Chinchilla

Not the same hardware platform but the same issue, so apparently on the windows/pc camp is nothing a microcode fix thru a BIOS update can't fix.

Apparently mine is a rare case and not everyone suffers from it.

http://communities.vmware.com/message/1074205#1074205

Message was edited by: Tomas Chinchilla

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