Heads up re VM's & Intel 64bit Processors

[NoOp]

Thought it might be worth sending out a 'heads-up' regarding 64bit Intel
processors & VM's (VirtualBox & VMWare).

A short while back my wife got me a 64bit laptop (HP G60-530US) as I was
always complaining that my 'recycled' systems are all 32bit & I didn't
have anything to test Ubuntu 64bit on. For the most part I've been happy
as a clam with the laptop with the exception of not being able to get
9.10 (or 10.04) to play sound only through the headphones instead of
both the headphones & speakers.

Yesterday I had a need to set up the system to test 64bit SeaMonkey
2.0.4 (Ubuntu) builds in 9.10 (installed), and 8.04 & 10.04. I thought
"cool" I'll just set up VirtualBox to add a new machine (I already had
Win2KPro setup) to include a 10.04 64bit VM. No such luck. All I got
when I tried to install the VM was:
"This kernel requires an x86-64 CPU, but only detected an i686 CPU.
Unable to boot - please use a kernel appropriate for your CPU."

I thought, "huh"? How can this be... it's a 64bit machine, has a
Pentium(R) Dual-Core CPU T4300  @ 2.10GHz processor, runs Win7 (64bit) &
Unbuntu 9.10 64bit w/o issues. So, I figured it was a VirtualBox issue;
but hunting around in the docs etc., I find that VB can indeed run a
64bit guest if the system has VT-x. So I look in BIOS & can't find an
option for VT-x (virtualization).

Next stop; download VMWare (large downloads). Find it doesn't work
either. I finally stumble across a VMWare post that has an .iso for
testing if the processor can run VT-x - nope.

Next stop; ark.intel.com & what do I find... the T4300 is indeed a 64bit
processor, *but* it doesn't support VT-x or Hyperthreading!

I've ended up repartitioning the hard drive so that I can multiple boot
Win7, 8.04, 9.10, and 10.04. It's a PITA, but it's a lesson learned.

So 'heads-up' dear Ubuntu readers; if you are in the market for a new
64bit Intel based laptop/machine & plan to run VM/KVM's on it, you'd be
wise to *first* check to see if the processor supports VT-x.