Slow on Mini?

M

MattBrink

Bit poster
I have the cheapie Intell Mac Mini (1.5GHz Core Solo) and Workstation seems pretty pokey to me at the moment - is this because of it running in software virtualization mode instead of hardware?
 
It could be memory issue as well. If you have 512M in your Mac mini - it is better not assign to guest VM more than 256M.

I tried Parallels on Mac Mini with 1G RAM and it worked pretty fast even in software virtualization mode. Though dual iMac in VT mode is faster anyway :)
 
Not memory then.

1. Which guest OS works slow?
2. Can you check virtualization mode in About window for running VM - is it "Software mode 0" or "Software mode 2".

PS: Anyway it was said here that VT-x disabled in Mini unintentionally due to bug and probably it will be fixed in upcoming firmware updates.
 
anshar said:
Not memory then.

1. Which guest OS works slow?
2. Can you check virtualization mode in About window for running VM - is it "Software mode 0" or "Software mode 2".

PS: Anyway it was said here that VT-x disabled in Mini unintentionally due to bug and probably it will be fixed in upcoming firmware updates.
Click to expand...

Actually, the Core Solo (in the cheapie Mini) as NO VT tech. It was not disabled by the firmware upgrade since it never had it in the first place.
 
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MattBrink said:
1. I have XP SP2 installed at the moment with the addons installed.

2. It says "Software Mode 2".
Click to expand...

No idea - it should be reasonobly fast in this case. Not a real PC ofcourse - but responsive.
 
I have a mini core duo and it has the "Enable Intel VT-x" support enabled (checked).

If by the "About" box, you mean "Parallels Workstation" menu -> "About Parallels Workstation" while it's running the XP VM, I don't see any software mode info, just "Virtualization Mode: Intel VT-x".

I have a core duo with 10.4.6 and the 4/6/2006 firmware update. So I guess there is a difference between the core solo and the core duo for virtualization.
 
MattBrink said:
I have 2 gig in my Mini with 384M allocated to the VM.
Click to expand...

Maybe the problem is with 'Overall Memory' option (Edit->Preferences->Memory) ?
This one defines a total memory limit for all running VM's.
It should be at least +20% to the size of guest memory for all running guests.
 
Mine is set to a gig on that so I don't think that's it. I have discontinued testing of the product because of the nasty kernel panic issue with wired ethernet access in the VM so I will have to pick it up whenever that bug is fixed.
 
Core Solo VT-x

So I asked this question as well, people are uncertain, but it seems the Core Solo supports VT-x as does the Core Duo, but both have some weird firmware bug that makes it a pain to get it working fully (as of the current firmware/beta Parr.Workstation release).

http://forum.parallels.com/thread85-7.html
(down at the bottom)
 
MattBrink said:
I have the cheapie Intell Mac Mini (1.5GHz Core Solo) and Workstation seems pretty pokey to me at the moment - is this because of it running in software virtualization mode instead of hardware?
Click to expand...

"pokey" to me would mean it's fast, as in "it's got some poke".
I guess this must be a new American usage of the word that I was previously unaware of.
 
jla0 said:
Actually, the Core Solo (in the cheapie Mini) as NO VT tech. It was not disabled by the firmware upgrade since it never had it in the first place.
Click to expand...
Actually you're wrong. I have a Core Solo 1.5Ghz mini currently running Parallels Beta 3 with VT-x virtualization enabled.
 
Matt,

I am running XP Home on my single core and it's fast! Even when it was running software mode - it was still much faster than VIrtual PC. See this thread:

http://forum.parallels.com/thread577.html

It took a while but I got VT ON for my Core Solo. Others are incorrect, the core solo does support VT and XP runs very, very fast.

You shouldn't allocate more memory to XP than you have. Try half or quarter of real physical memory.
 
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