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Jul 13, 2006, 05:54 PM
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monoclast
Junior Member
Join: May 2006
Posts: 24 |
How To Enable VT (aka VTX or VT-x) with rEFIt and vmx-var-set.efi
I've seen a bunch of instructions here for doing this; but all of them seemed to leave out one or two crucial details. So I'll try to provide those who need it a more complete list of steps to get this done, as well as some background about why one might want to do this to begin with:
The chips Apple uses in the Intel Macintosh computers have VT built into them. VT stands for Virtualization Technology — it allows the chip to run multiple operating systems and applications in independent partitions on the chip, resulting in reletively large speed increases for the end user. Basically, you will see fairly dramatic speed increases running Parallels with VT enabled compared to running Parallels without VT enabled. For detailed information about VT, see http://www.intel.com/technology/computing/vptech/.
Unfortunately for us Mac users, VT is not turned on in all current Intel Macintosh computers, for whatever reason. As a result, Parallels users have experienced intermittant success with Parallels ability to enable VT on its own. These instructions show you how to use the EFI firmware in Intel Macs to enable VT in the processor permanently, so that it lasts through restarts of the computer.
- If firmware update is available for your Intel Mac, install it before continuing. (NOTE: There was a firmware update for the Intel Mac mini when this procedure was written: http://www.apple.com/support/downloads/macminiearly2006firmwareupdate101.html).
- Download rEFIt disk image from: http://prdownloads.sourceforge.net/refit/rEFIt-0.5.dmg?download
- Download vmx-var-set.efi zip archive from: http://i30www.ira.uka.de/~joshua/vmx.zip
- Mount rEFIt disk image.
- Decompress vmx zip archive.
- Copy rEFIt "efi" folder to root of startup volume.
- Copy "vmx" folder into "efi" folder at root of startup volume.
- Open Terminal.
- In Terminal, enter command: cd /efi/refit
- Enter command: ./enable.sh
- At prompt, enter your user account password.
- Restart computer, holding down Option/Alt key on keyboard until you see boot device selection menu.
- Select rEFIt boot device to enter rEFIt menu.
- In rEFIt menu, select Console.
- At console prompt, enter volume command: fs0:
- Enter command: ls
- If root of startup volume is not listed:
- Increment volume number (for example, "fs1")
- Re-enter volume command (for example, fs1: )
- Go back to step 16.
- If root of startup volume is listed (NOTE: you should see items such as: Users, Volumes, etc, mach, private, var, usr), enter command: cd efi
- Enter command: cd vmx
- Enter command: vmx-var-set.efi
- If an error message was displayed, here or at any point prior to this, it's possible some files are not in the right place, or you missed a step. Try the steps again from the start, and if they still don't work, seek help online!
- If no error message was displayed, enter command: exit
- From rEFIt menu, boot into Mac OS X (usually the first menu item).
- Remove "efi" folder from root of startup volume.
- Open Apple menu > System Preferences > Startup Disk.
- Select your normal Mac OS X startup disk.
- Close System Preferences.
- Shut down.
- Leave computer completely off for 10 seconds.
- Turn computer back on and boot up normally (no keys held down).
- Run Parallels.
- In Parallels, open and start a virtual machine. (NOTE: The About Parallels dialog box does not show Intel VT-x unless a virtual machine is currently loaded and running!)
- From Parallels menu bar, select Parallels > About Parallels Desktop.
- In About Parallels Desktop dialog box, click More Info button.
- About dialog box should now show Virtualization Mode: Intel VT-x.
Hope this helps!
-mono
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