VirtualBox - 64 bit guests on 32 bit hosts - still need hardware virtualisation

February 6, 2009 · 1 min read

Just a clarification of my comment on a recent release of VirtualBox supporting 64 bit guests on 32 bit hosts. This is NOT a solution for a system which is not already a 64 bit CPU with hardware virtualisation.  The relevant section from the VirtualBox 2.1.2 User Guide is section 1.6, as shown below.

1.6 64-bit guests

Starting with Version 2.0, VirtualBox also supports 64-bit guest operating systems.

Starting with Version 2.1, you can even run 64-bit guests on a 32-bit host operating system, so long as you have sufficient hardware.

In detail, 64-bit guests are supported under the following conditions:

  1. You need a 64-bit processor with hardware virtualization support (see chapter
      1.2, Software vs. hardware virtualization (VT-x and AMD-V), page 10).

  2. You must enable hardware virtualization for the particular VM for which you
      want 64-bit support; software virtualization is not supported for 64-bit VMs.
      Note: On most systems, the hardware virtualization features first need to be
      enabled in the BIOS before VirtualBox can use them.

  3. If you want to use 64-bit guest support on a 32-bit host operating system, you
      must also select a 64-bit operating system for the particular VM. Since supporting
      64 bits on 32-bit hosts incurs additional overhead, VirtualBox only enables this
      support upon explicit request.

On 64-bit hosts, 64-bit guest support is always enabled, so you can simply install a 64-bit operating system in the guest.

This article is part of the GWB Archives. Original Author: Liam Westley

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