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I am trying to launch a VM with QEMU KVM on a Linux system but I am unable to actually make it work. It just doesn't start. But I figured out that I need to enable virtualization from BIOS settings to actually achieve hardware level virtualization.

I don't want to make this BIOS level change. Is there any possible way to launch a VM without making that change? I am looking to setup a GPU enabled VM with Ubuntu as the distro.

If there is any better way to virtualize or may be containerize then I am willing to explore that too.

Thanks!

user3271961
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    Why don't you want to do what is necessary? – Michael Hampton Feb 01 '21 at 17:41
  • Presumably you have x86 architecture hardware? Please share the processor or server family. As for example POWER is compiled, booted, and virtualized differently than x86. – John Mahowald Feb 01 '21 at 19:03
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    @MichaelHampton because not all innovation happens by doing what's necessary. We sometimes need to think beyond what's possible to make a new way of doing things! – user3271961 Feb 02 '21 at 13:19
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    @JohnMahowald I am running two systems. One is on i9 10980XE and the other on AMD Ryzen 7 3700X. – user3271961 Feb 02 '21 at 13:21

1 Answers1

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It is possible to run a virtual machine without hardware virtualization support by using QEMU x86 emulation.

However, that will emulate all hardware, and will be nowhere near native performance. GPU emulation will also be very slow.

Tero Kilkanen
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  • Ohk. So technically no solution possible on hardware virtualization without bios setting change? I don't want to compromise on performance – user3271961 Feb 01 '21 at 18:43
  • No, you need to enable virtualization in BIOS so that proper processor flag is enabled during system startup. – Tero Kilkanen Feb 01 '21 at 19:09