testdrive assumes that virtualbox will support a 64 bit guest.

I had this issue also, the script currently assumes that if you are running on a 64bit host your are able to run 64bit guests with vt-x support. As a temporary work around I modified the select ISO script to present the i386 options if your are running on a 64bit host, this will allow you to download and run i386 images (I have attached it to this bug for now)

I am working on a better solution that will automatically detect if your processor has vt-x support and if it does only provide you with the 64bit options. Hopefully I will get that sorted over the weekend.

Paul, many thanks.

Hi Paul-

I'll be happy to take a patch that solves this.

Can you (or someone) paste /proc/cpuinfo on a system affected by this vt-x problem?

Thanks!

This bug was fixed in the package testdrive - 1.16-0ubuntu1

---------------
testdrive (1.16-0ubuntu1) lucid; urgency=low

  * testdrive, testdrive-select-iso: separate the img and iso in the
    cache directory
  * doc/testdrive.1, testdrive: respect xdg, LP: #501766
  * debian/control: depend on virtualbox >= 3.0.8 (Karmic), which currently
    seems to be the oldest successfully tested version of virtualbox to
    work with testdrive, LP: #499413
  * testdrive-select-iso: if the user doesn't have VT, then defaul to
    i386 images, LP: #497984
  * testdrive, testdrive.desktop: make sure error messages get shown to
    the user, if running from the desktop menu, LP: #497955

  [ Paul Rudkin and Dustin Kirkland ]
  * testdrive: support virtualbox 3.1, LP: #495178
 -- Dustin Kirkland <email address hidden> Sun, 13 Dec 2009 22:51:23 -0600

Dustin

Below is the output of /proc/cpuinfo from my system. I think the solution would be to search /proc/cpuinfo for 'vmx' or 'svm' and if these flags are present then go with KVM with VTx support.

Would you like me to go ahead and create a patch for this?

Paul

---------

processor : 0
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 0
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 0
initial apicid : 0
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
bogomips : 3324.71
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

processor : 1
vendor_id : GenuineIntel
cpu family : 6
model : 15
model name : Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T5450 @ 1.66GHz
stepping : 13
cpu MHz : 1000.000
cache size : 2048 KB
physical id : 0
siblings : 2
core id : 1
cpu cores : 2
apicid : 1
initial apicid : 1
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid level : 10
wp : yes
flags : fpu vme de pse tsc msr pae mce cx8 apic sep mtrr pge mca cmov pat pse36 clflush dts acpi mmx fxsr sse sse2 ss ht tm pbe syscall nx lm constant_tsc arch_perfmon pebs bts rep_good pni dtes64 monitor ds_cpl est tm2 ssse3 cx16 xtpr pdcm lahf_lm
bogomips : 3325.01
clflush size : 64
cache_alignment : 64
address sizes : 36 bits physical, 48 bits virtual
power management:

fixed for me with the latest version - many thanks.

I tried to test a 64bit image today (I am running 64bit Karmic) and got caught out with this problem.
I go the message about kvm not being supported and installed virtualbox. The 64bit Desktop image was no.1 in the list of options and since I am running it I thought it would be fine. But when virtualbox boots the image I get a warning about VT-x/AMD-V being enabled but not operational and then a message saying it's only detected a i686 cpu and is unable to boot.

I have attached the output from /proc/cpuinfo

Okay, I don't really use VirtualBox...

Can someone please definitively tell me under precisely what
circumstances VirtualBox can boot a 64-bit Ubuntu guest?