[Win] Oracle VirtualBox: Workaround For Initialization Issue Pt. II

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Find our previously released workaround for initialization issues here.

CPU VT-X/AMD-V Issue

After configuring a dual core virtual machine and trying to start you may encounter a message box indicating:

  • Hyper-V launch failed; Either VMX not present or not enabled in BIOS.
  • Hyper-V launch failed; at least one of the processors in the system does not appear to provide a virtualization platform supported by Hyper-V.

This issue may occur no matter which host operating system you’re using. The reason for this might be:

  • you’re not using a CPU that supports hardware virtualization
  • your BIOS does not support hardware virtualization properly
  • hardware virtualization is disabled in your BIOS settings (check it!)
  • there is a bug in your current BIOS version
  • the trusted execution flag prevents booting properly

Known Workarounds

Try these settings in your BIOS:

  • Enable Execute Disable bit (depending on the motherboard manufacturer this can be called: XD-Bit, EDB, NX-Bit, AMD EVP)
  • Enable Virtualization bit (depending on the mobo manuf. this can be called: VT, IVT, AMD-V)
  • Enable VT for Direct I/O Access (depending on the mobo manuf. this can be called: VT-d based I/O)
  • Disable Trusted Execution Technology (depending on the mobo manuf. this can be called: Intel TXT, TET)

Of course, upgrading your BIOS to the latest version can also be of help, but flashing the BIOS is always a little risky.

Final Words

As we’re currently using VirtualBox only on the Windows XP platform we categorized this article under Win, anyway it is very likely that the same issue also occurs under Linux or Mac OS, as VirtualBox on all platforms derives from the same source code.

The above settings apply for example for installing MacOS SnowLeopard in a VM under Windows 7 on Gigabyte EP35-DS3 or Dell Optiplex 745/755.

[MacOS] Save Energy by Using Deep Sleep aka Hibernation

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Looking at the situation in Japan at these days, it seems overdue to begin worrying about all our energy consuming devices.

As a MacOS user we are used to some quite convenient features. Like just clicking sleep and the system goes to sleep.

What most of us don’t realize at this point is, that sleep mode logically requires energy as it will immediately wake up when I hit the keyboard.

So for me this began causing me a bad conscious – until I found the way to hibernate MacOS also on desktops

How to Hibernate aka Deep Sleep

  1. Download Axonic Labs’ Deep Sleep Widget for Snow Leopard 10.6 here.
  2. Unpack by double clicking
  3. Install to
    /Library/Widgets
  4. open terminal and
  5. enter in terminal:
    sudo pmset -a hibernatemode 3

Step 5. because Hibernation Safe Sleep is disabled by default on desktop systems like iMac, Mac Mini, or Mac Pro’s.

By the way: first tests show that this Deep Sleep Widget is at least compatible to Chameleon EFI RC4 :-))

[MacOS] Codeweavers’ Crossover Now With Civilization 5 Support

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Wine based Crossover 9.2 now brings Civilization 5 support to the Mac and Linux. Crossover runs flawlessly with Civilization under Snow Leopard and with some minor flaws under Leopard.

Prices

  • Crossover Standard (incl. updates for 6mths): 37€
  • Crossover Professional (incl. updates for 12 mths and incl. Crossover Games) : 64€

Aspyr will release a native Mac version of Civilization 5 before Chrismas. We would not wonder if the Crossover emulated Windows version is more performant than the native Mac version, but let’s see ;-)

[Pre] Palm Pre 2 Coming to France on October 22

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German Heise.de and american Precentral.net report today, that HP finished upgrading their smartphone flagship Palm Pre. Interestingly the Palm Pre 2 will be first released to the french market on october 22 on SFR‘s network. Sadly there is no reliable information about when it will hit other markets like the US, Germany or Canada.

The Palm Pre 2 will feature:

  • 1 GHz CPU
  • 5 megapixel camera
  • 3.1″ screen size with 320×480 HVGA display
  • Glass screen
  • 16 GB memory
  • Touchstone backcover included
  • HP webOS 2.0

It is rumored the price will be about 100€ on contract and about 450€ sans contract. HP rebranded Palm’s webOS to HP webOS. The Pre 2 will be shipped with webOS 2.0 preloaded.

Adobe Flash in webOS 2 (video is courtesy of Precentral.net)

Boot time and multitasking in webOS 2 (video is courtesy of Precentral.net)

webOS 2 vs. webOS 1.45 – incl. overclocked (video is courtesy of Precentral.net)

[WTF] Did Stuxnet Sabotage Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?

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Newspapers are full of speculations and details about this unique piece of software code, that obviously is a work by a government.Stuxnet used 4-zero-day exploits to infect computer networks running with Microsoft Windows. It was compatible to Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

The Register writes:

(..) the Stuxnet worm was programmed to probe the hosts it infected for extremely specific settings. Unless it identified the hardware fingerprint it was looking for in industrial software systems made by Siemens, it remained largely dormant.

Experts say the quality of code is very sophisticated, there are nearly no side effects. It is estimated that the costs of the development of a virus of that quality goes into the millions of dollars. It also shows a very detailed knowledge of the attacked facilities.

There are some indications that Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz were the target of that virus.

The downside is we suspect this is the beginning of large scale cyber attacks. I don’t think that western Nulear Facilities are safe from such attacks. Let’s all hope the best. This virus is simply a nightmare.

Links

Update

A short overview on the articles published show, that almost all of them cite german security specialists Frank Rieger (member of Chaos Computer Club) or Ralph Langner (Founder of Langner.com).