Enable VT on the Mac Mini.
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Apr 13, 2006, 06:36 PM
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Joshua LeVasseur Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 6 |
Enable VT on the Mac Mini. We've been using VT (for our own experiments) on the Mac Mini for a while. It is simple to enable, and involves modifying the EFI Setup variable. Potentially this modification can be made via the kernel API used by the nvram utility under Mac OS X, but we use an EFI utility. The solution is to change byte 0xe7 of the Setup variable from 0 to 1. This causes the firmware to configure the ia32_feature_control MSR with value 5. After you change the variable, you must reboot via a hard reset (since the MSR is a write-once register). I had to unplug my machine from the power supply to clear the prior contents of my MSR. Here is our EFI utility. We build it under the GNU environment, and I load it using the rEFIt boot loader on a USB stick. From our experience, it doesn't interfere with the BootCamp firmware update. We observed that Parallels Workstation successfully detects VT on the Mini. **** Use at your own risk! ***** #include <efi.h> #include <efilib.h> EFI_BOOT_SERVICES *BS; EFI_RUNTIME_SERVICES *RS; EFI_HANDLE IMAGE; EFI_GUID guid_apple = // 4DFBBAAB-1392-4FDE-ABB8-C41CC5AD7D5D {0x4DFBBAAB, 0x1392, 0x4FDE, {0xAB, 0xB8, 0xC4, 0x1C, 0xC5, 0xAD, 0x7D, 0x5D}}; EFI_STATUS efi_main( EFI_HANDLE image, EFI_SYSTEM_TABLE *system_table ) { EFI_STATUS status; UINT32 attr = 0; unsigned char data[0xfe]; UINTN data_size = sizeof(data); BS = system_table->BootServices; RS = system_table->RuntimeServices; IMAGE = image; InitializeLib( image, system_table ); // Initialize the EFI library. status = RS->GetVariable( L"Setup", &guid_apple, &attr, &data_size, data ); if( status == EFI_SUCCESS ) { data[0xe7] = 1; status = RS->SetVariable( L"Setup", &guid_apple, attr, data_size, data ) ; if( status != EFI_SUCCESS ) Print( L"failure changing variable\n" ); } BS->Exit( image, status, 0, NULL ); return status; } -Joshua P.S. The Mac Mini is awesome. And EFI is so nice. |
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Apr 13, 2006, 11:17 PM
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mattham Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 9 |
what you said was mostly gibberish to me (sounded good tho!!) Im sure the guys here http://forum.parallels.com/thread85.html would love to hear about it. The thread has had neary 7000 hits!! Matt :-) |
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Apr 14, 2006, 08:39 AM
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Joshua LeVasseur Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 6 |
binaries Note that you should be able to build the EFI utilities under Windows and VC++ with Intel's EFI kit; you don't need to use the GNU environment. I've attached two binaries: vmx-var-set.efi - enables VT support. vmx-var-reset.efi - restores the firmware to its original condition I copy the binaries to my flash stick that has the rEFIt boot loader. I boot with the rEFIt boot loader, and execute vmx-var-set by dropping to the command line (which behaves like DOS). So just type 'vmx-var-set' at the command line to execute it. Alternatively, you may be able to execute it from rEFIt's boot menu. Use at your own risk!! http://i30www.ira.uka.de/~joshua/vmx.zip -Joshua |
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Apr 14, 2006, 10:00 AM
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daveschroeder Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 67 |
This still doesn't explain why some minis seem to spontaneously enable (or disable) VT...
__________________ Dave Schroeder University of Wisconsin - Madison das@doit.wisc.edu http://das.doit.wisc.edu |
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Apr 15, 2006, 01:42 PM
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dstranathan Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 1 |
Why cant I download your binaries? I have a registered forum account... |
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Apr 24, 2006, 02:58 AM
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dcrobinson1965 Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 1 |
Quote:
Your solution looks great, seems to make sense, and people are having a lot of success with it. Well done! I've owned my MacMini for 2 weeks, and I'm scared of breaking it! I've been a PC owner for a long time, and I don't know much about Macs and EFI. Is there any real possibility that I could completely break my Mac if this update goes wrong? Can any "issues" be corrected by reapplying the factory firmware off the CD-ROM? |
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Apr 27, 2006, 11:31 AM
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Joshua LeVasseur Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 6 |
dcrobinson, worst case is that you lose electricity sometime during the process, but since my update changes a single byte, it shouldn't be possible to make the configuration inconsistent. The other possible harm is that you misconfigure rEFIt. But I'm pretty sure that anything you do can be fixed by reapplying the factory firmware from the CDROM, and by performing a disk repair to make your system bootable again. -Josh |
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Apr 27, 2006, 12:03 PM
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Joshua LeVasseur Junior Member Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 6 |
Another download location These Parallels forums seem to have a bug regarding attachments. So here is an external location for the file: http://i30www.ira.uka.de/~joshua/vmx.zip -Josh |
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Apr 27, 2006, 12:11 PM
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 Andrew @ Parallels Parallels Team Join: Apr 2006 Posts: 1,557 |
Attachment is fixed - thanks for reporting!
__________________ Best Regards, Andrew @ Parallels |
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Jun 2, 2006, 10:57 AM
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jamiefiedler Junior Member Join: May 2006 Posts: 1 |
i can confirm the vmx-var-set.efi procedure was successful on my core duo mini. not sure if it made a difference, but after running the restart, console, vmx-ser-var.efi, exit procedure, i booted into os x and put the mini to sleep for 60 seconds. woke it up, and then ran parallels. i now show "Virtualization Mode: Intel VT-x" as intended. screenshot: http://www.auralogic.com/osx/img/mini_parallels.png Hardware Overview: Machine Name: Mac mini Machine Model: Macmini1,1 CPU Type: Intel Core Duo Number Of Cores: 2 CPU Speed: 1.66 GHz L2 Cache (shared): 2 MB Memory: 1 GB Bus Speed: 667 MHz Boot ROM Version: MM11.004B.B00 Serial Number: G86177HEU39 SMC Version: 1.3f4 |
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