R4.0 Fails To Recognize VT-x Support on Lenovo Yoga 2 13

[linuxluser]

Qubes OS version: R4.0

Affected component(s):

installer

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Steps to reproduce the behavior:

Enable "Intel Virtual Technology" from the BIOS, boot into installer, and get error message that virtualization hasn't been enabled.

Expected behavior:

Install proceeds as usual.

Actual behavior:

Installer complains that virtualization hasn't been enable and Qubes OS probably won't work.

General notes:

I have verified that vmx does indeed show up on my current OS (Ubuntu 16.04; kernel 4.4.0-93-generic) in /proc/cpuinfo. However, when I boot into the Qubes R4.0 installer, /proc/cpuinfo does not show vmx in the kernel flags section. Oddly, it instead shows hypervisor, which is a cpuinfo flag I've never encountered before. uname -r while in the installer shows 4.13.16-100.fc25.x86_64.

Full /proc/cpuinfo from Ubuntu
Full /proc/cpuinfo from Qubes OS installer

Hardware: Lenovo Yoga 2 13 (model 20344)
CPU: Intel i5-4200U

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Related issues:

Screenshot:

[crat0z]

The i5-4200u is missing VT-d support unfortunately. Also, on my Qubes setup I don't have a vmx flag in /proc/cpuinfo, but I do have the hypervisor flag. I think using the command xl dmesg has more useful information than /proc/cpuinfo in this regard.

I've never tried to install Qubes 4.0 on a computer without VT-x support, but my guess is that VT-x would be listed in the second line of the screenshot.

[crat0z]

The i5-4200u is missing VT-d support unfortunately. Also, on my Qubes setup I don't have a vmx flag in /proc/cpuinfo, but I do have the hypervisor flag. I think using the command xl dmesg has more useful information than /proc/cpuinfo in this regard.

I've never tried to install Qubes 4.0 on a computer without VT-x support, but my guess is that VT-x would be listed in the second line of the screenshot.

[marmarek]

I have verified that vmx does indeed show up on my current OS (Ubuntu 16.04; kernel 4.4.0-93-generic) in /proc/cpuinfo. However, when I boot into the Qubes R4.0 installer, /proc/cpuinfo does not show vmx in the kernel flags section. Oddly, it instead shows hypervisor, which is a cpuinfo flag I've never encountered before.

This is expected. vmx extension isn't available to Linux (running in dom0 in this case), because it is already used by Xen. As @crat0z says, xl info is more reliable way to check VT-x presence. Or even better: qubes-hcl-report

[marmarek]

I have verified that vmx does indeed show up on my current OS (Ubuntu 16.04; kernel 4.4.0-93-generic) in /proc/cpuinfo. However, when I boot into the Qubes R4.0 installer, /proc/cpuinfo does not show vmx in the kernel flags section. Oddly, it instead shows hypervisor, which is a cpuinfo flag I've never encountered before.

This is expected. vmx extension isn't available to Linux (running in dom0 in this case), because it is already used by Xen. As @crat0z says, xl info is more reliable way to check VT-x presence. Or even better: qubes-hcl-report

[marmarek]

There is no bug here, your hardware doesn't support VT-d, which installer correctly reported.

[marmarek]

There is no bug here, your hardware doesn't support VT-d, which installer correctly reported.

[linuxluser]

Thanks, everyone. It appears I was confused. vtx seems to simply indicate general VT support, not VT-d support.

I was able to successfully install R3.2, which did not give me the aforementioned warning. Would it be safe to install R4.0 instead and ignore the warning then? I'm wondering if R4.0 introduces new requirements or if it is simply smarter about throwing up the warning.

[linuxluser]

Thanks, everyone. It appears I was confused. vtx seems to simply indicate general VT support, not VT-d support.

I was able to successfully install R3.2, which did not give me the aforementioned warning. Would it be safe to install R4.0 instead and ignore the warning then? I'm wondering if R4.0 introduces new requirements or if it is simply smarter about throwing up the warning.

[linuxluser]

Digging in the docs further, the answer to my question is "yes", there's a requirement change in R4.0 that means that VT-d is required whereas it was not a requirement in R3.2. So it looks like I'll keep R3.2 installed until I can find a better laptop. :)

[linuxluser]

Digging in the docs further, the answer to my question is "yes", there's a requirement change in R4.0 that means that VT-d is required whereas it was not a requirement in R3.2. So it looks like I'll keep R3.2 installed until I can find a better laptop. :)