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    Thinkpad BIOS Update to Enable Intel Virtualization

    Discussion in 'Lenovo' started by sapibobo, Jun 7, 2007.

  1. sapibobo

    sapibobo Notebook Evangelist

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    Lenovo have updated its Thinkpad BIOS program that can enable Intel Virtualization Technology in Intel based system.

    http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/document.do?sitestyle=lenovo&lndocid=MIGR-64409

    That address is for ThinkPad Z61e, Z61m, Z61p, Z61t only. I believe other series is supported as well.

    I want to ask, is it worth it to have Intel VT enabled in Thinkpad? I never use any guest OS, never need it anyway.

    I just thought maybe it can make the core duo processor work faster?
     
    sapibobo, Jun 7, 2007
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  2. dietcokefiend

    dietcokefiend DietGreenTeaFiend

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    You could upgrade if you want, but the bios is one of those things that are better left unchanged if the system already works. VT doesnt add performance.
     
    dietcokefiend, Jun 7, 2007
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  3. null84

    null84 Notebook Evangelist

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    umm the enable VT option is the reason why i sold my vaio and purchase thinkpad.
     
    null84, Jun 7, 2007
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  4. Fidicinal

    Fidicinal Notebook Enthusiast

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    What sort of implications does this have, for the layman? Does this mean that I can run XP better under Linux now? I seem to remember that there was a VMware type program that required this technology, but I'm afraid I wasn't technically savvy enough to understand it. Can anyone explain this to an, as it were, linux n00b?
     
    Fidicinal, Jun 7, 2007
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  5. stankso

    stankso Notebook Enthusiast

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    If you are not running guest OSes then enabling virtualization in your bios is a BAD idea. It actually opens up security holes.

    So the short answer is if you are not running a virutalization product (VMWare or MS Virtual Server products) you do NOT CARE about this update AND YOU WOULD NOT WANT TO DOWNLOAD AND ENABLE VIRTUALIZATION.

    If on the other hand you do run a virtualization product then my guess is you have been anxiously awaiting the update and know that it will give you a nice performance boost on your guest OS.
     
    stankso, Jun 7, 2007
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  6. Fidicinal

    Fidicinal Notebook Enthusiast

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    Ok, No, I'm not running any guest OS's currently, but would this update give a compelling reason to do so? What I'm asking is: If I wanted to give Ubuntu a try while retaining Windows functionality, does this update make it a better option to single boot Ubuntu and virtualize XP? Or is dual-boot still the way to go?
     
    Fidicinal, Jun 7, 2007
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  7. stankso

    stankso Notebook Enthusiast

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    Okay. The answer is you will always get the best performance running an os native against the hardware.

    That said I personally got the t61 as a platform to run guest operating systems and am excited that the bios updates supporting the intel extensions are being released.
     
    stankso, Jun 7, 2007
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  8. ewhac

    ewhac Notebook Guru

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    Geez. I just updated to 2.17 a couple weeks ago.

    I don't plan on playing with virtualization, as I have no impulse to run Windoze within Linux. (On the other hand, if MacOS will run in a virtual machine, then I might be interested in messing around with it...)

    Schwab
     
    ewhac, Jun 7, 2007
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